THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



293 



BEE NOTES. 



A virgin qneen may be removed 

 from a colony of bees and a fertile 

 queen introduced immediately, pro- 

 vided smoke is used in the opera- 

 tion. 



A virgin queen two days old 

 cannot be introduced to a colony 

 of bees unless the colony has been 

 queenless three or more days. 



A queen just hatched may be 

 given to a full colony which has a 

 fertile queen and she would in 

 some cases not be molested for 

 some few hours after being intro- 

 duced ; nevertheless her destruction 

 is certain by the time she is forty- 

 eieht hours old. 



A colony of bees will winter 

 better, build up and increase fast- 

 er and do better in every respect, 

 if but seven combs, Langstroth's 

 standard size, are used. Mr. Lang- 

 stroth made but one mistake in his 

 hive and that was in using too 

 many frames. 



No doubt had Mr. Langstroth 

 possessed good health he would 

 have discovered this one defect. 

 Nevertheless, no one has done so 

 much for beekeepers as has Mr. 

 L., in giving his invention to the 

 public. 



Hives during winter should be 

 placed, two feet at least, above the 

 ground. If placed only half that 

 distance from the ground a very 

 liglit snow will completely block 

 the entrance. Hence it will be seen 

 that much work can be dispensed 

 with, in the way of shovelling snow 

 during the winter. Then, again, it 

 is not quite as cold and damp sev- 

 eral feet above the ground as it is 

 directl}'^ on the ground or on the 

 snow. 



22 



One of the colonies we had used 

 in a small four-frame hive had 

 swarmed out. While " cleaning 

 up" such hives a few days ago, not 

 less than four striped snakes had 

 taken possession of one of the hives 

 and seemed to be housed snugly 

 for the winter. Of course they 

 were despatched. 



Do not expect a colony to go 

 through the winter in good condi- 

 tion tliat has been in a bad way 

 during the summer. The best thing 

 to do with such colonies is to brush 

 the bees from the combs and de- 

 stroy them. The combs will then 

 be in good condition for a new 

 swarm the next season. 



Colonies that had combs well 

 filled with brood the first day of 

 September will winter well even 

 though no eggs were laid by the 

 queen after that date. A queen 

 may be given such a colony at any 

 time in the fall and it is likely to 

 come out in good condition in the 

 spring. 



On another page, Mrs. Hills 

 gives her experience in introducing 

 queens by a plan Mr. Doolittle 

 recommends. We do not think 

 such a method is a reliable one. 

 Had tested such a way for intro- 

 ducing queens many years ago. In 

 some cases it was a success and in 

 others a failure. 



Other parties have written us 

 that they have tested this and other 

 methods for introducing, as given 

 in the ditferent bee journals, and 

 failed. Only one person has ever 

 reported that a failure had been 

 made by the " three-day method " 

 as given so often in the Api by the 

 manager. ]t is the only relial)le 

 plan ever practised in ^the Bay 

 iState Apiary. 



