4(3 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



own small hive, and setting these on their for- 

 mer stands. After a few hundred of her own 

 workers have clustered around each, I close 

 the hive so that not a hee can leave, though I 

 give them sufficient ventilation and food. Small 

 as these nucleus hives are, so diminutive a 

 hody of hees could not he successfully wintered 

 in them. I therefor prepare some small boxes 

 ahout six inces long, broad and deep, which can 

 be conveniently set in the now empty honey 

 chamber in the top of my standard hives. 

 These are furnished with combs containing about 

 two pounds of honey, and in each of them is 

 placed a liberated queen with her adhering 

 cluster. When they have become settled, the 

 entrance is closed with wire gauze ; each box 

 is now set in the honey chamber of a populous 

 colony and packed in moss. The bees of the 

 standard hive are of course shut off from 

 the honey chamber, and a small hole is cut in 

 the front of the hive for the use, at the proper 

 time, of the bees in the box, but is kept closed 

 till needed. In February or March, according 

 to the season or the weather this hole is opened, 

 the wire gauze removed from the entrance of 

 the box, and the bees allow r ed to fly out occa- 

 sionally. 



If, in the early spring, I discover that one or 

 more of the colonies in my apiary has become 

 queenless, a remedy is at hand in the small box 

 hives, and the preserved queens are at once 

 used to set matters right. Should they not be 

 needed for this purpose, a nucleus can he for- 

 med early, by means of each surviving queen, 

 and kept in a dark cellar till the brood given to 

 it has emerged. As soon as spring fairly opens 

 and the bees can gather pollen and honey, this 

 nucleus may be brought out, set on its designed 

 stand, and either formed into a strong indepen- 

 dent colony by further additions of brood, or 

 kept in reserve for any emergency that may 

 arise. 



In this way the bee-keeper may preserve 

 these fertile queens, and start artificial colonies 

 much earlier than usual ; which, having a long 

 season before them, can hardly tail to thrive, 

 become populous, and secure stores enough for 

 winter, without subsequent aid. 



Those who visit Paris on the 15th of 

 (Napoleon's day) will be amazed to sec 

 mense quantities of cakes displayed 

 banks of the Seine, in Passy, at the B 

 Jena. On the rising ground, all the w 

 the Arc of Triumph, stand after stand 

 loaded with ginger cakes, honey cakes, 

 gar cakes, of all qualities and prices 

 dear, good, bad, and indifferent. 



August, 

 the im- 

 on the 

 ridge of 

 ay up to 

 is seen 

 and su- 

 -cheap, 



The Dahlia, it is said, possesses some narcotic 

 property which seems to paralyze bees when 

 they enter the flower for the purpose of collect- 

 ing the honey or the pollen. In the fall, when 

 the Dahlias are in full blossom, numbers of 

 bees may be found in them in a state of stupe- 

 fcation, which ends in death if they are not re- 

 moved from the fatal influence of these flowers. 



[From the Bicnenzeitung. 



Cure of Drone-Breeding Colonies. — In- 

 troducing Unfertilized Quoens.— 

 Artificial Swarming. 



The cure of a drone-producing colony having 

 a fertile worker is still regarded, by most bee- 

 keepers, as a difficult task, attended by many 

 annoyances, and always of doubtful issue. 

 And yet nothing is easier than to cure such a 

 colony — else infallibly doomed to destruction — 

 radically, in ten minutes. 



I made known the process at the Convention 

 of German Bee-Keepers at Hanover, in 18G0 ; 

 but it does not seem to have attracted the atten- 

 tion which it merits. It is simple and perfectly 

 reliable, whilst all other processes hitherto sug- 

 gested, troublesome and tedious as they are, 

 very seldom prove successful. All that is re- 

 quired is to stupify the colony by fumigating it 

 with puff-ball smoke, and at once introduce a 

 fertile queen among the bees before ihey revive. 

 This dune, the cure is effected. It is not even 

 necessary to make an examination next day, to 

 ascertain the result, for the process never fails. 

 Nothing can be more simple, and it is applicable 

 in every form of hive. 



I think I have also, on a former occasion, ex- 

 plained incidentally how I manage to induce 

 colonies, in movable comb hives, to accept un- 

 fertilized queens. But it may be useful to re- 

 state it here. One or more combs containing 

 suitable brood arc to be inserted in a queenless 

 colony, and in four or five days they are to he 

 examined to ascertain how many queen cells 

 have been started. If I find, say, twelve such 

 cells, I remove the queens from eight or ten of 

 my colonies. On the twelfth day, I remove the 

 combs containing the queen cells to the rear or 

 side of the hive, for more conveniently super- 

 vising them, that I may be sure to see the first 

 matured young queen issue from her cell. As 

 soon as she is out, I brush off all the bees and 

 the queen into the hive, destroy the now empty 

 queen cell to guard against mistake, and insert 

 the comb in one of the deprived colonics. I 

 now wait till another queen leaves her cell, and 

 then the same operation as before is repeated, 

 and the comb transferred to another of the 

 queenless colonics, in due order; and this is 

 continued until all the colonies are supplied, or 

 all the young queens are disposed of. 



Unremitting attention and watchfulness, and 

 care to examine the queen cells at least once 

 every hour, are indispensable for success. But 

 with them success is certain; and this watchful- 

 ness and care will save the bee keeper the vex- 

 ation, annoyance, disappointment, and loss of 

 precious time, which are inseparable from other 

 methods. The introduction of an unfertilized 

 queen in a colony accustomed to the presence 

 of a fertile one, is always attended with great 

 risk. A just emerged queen given to such a col- 

 ony is Avholly disregarded by the workers, audit 

 not at once attacked and destroyed, will com- 

 monly be allowed to starve. It is not till after 

 a queen is four or five days old, that the bees of 

 such a colony would begin to feed and cherish 



