1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



47 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



"Gallup" Answers Questions. 



In answer to W. E. Freeman, page 187, Vol. 

 VIII., No. 8 ; first and foremost, bees at any time 

 when they cannot gather honey and are rearing 

 brood abundantly, are inclined to rob ; and to 

 prevent this, we at such times feed all such stocks 

 and feed abundantly, and always feed just at 

 night, and keep the entrances to all stocks prop- 

 erly contracted, and we never have any trouble 

 from robbers. At such times, if we handle our 

 bees, we open the hives always just at night. 

 With a very little observation, we soon learn to 

 distinguish the aggressor from the agrieved. But 

 if robbers have gotten possession and we wish to 

 know where they come from, we sprinkle 

 them with wheat flour and we can very soon 

 detect the hive that they got into. Robbers go 

 in empty and out loaded from the hive they are 

 robbing, and a very little observation will learn a 

 person to detect robbers at once. 



Your fourth question can be answered by this 

 experiment : — Use the Adair form of hive Gallup- 

 ized, and if it is not the most perfectly ventilated 

 hive for both winter and summer that I ever saw 

 then I am simply mistaken. It certainly is wrong 

 to be breaking the hive loose from the bottom 

 constantly. 



In answer to your sixth question, in a properly 

 constructed hive and with proper care iu hand- 

 ling, Italian bees can be handled several times 

 per day without interfering with their labor in 

 the least. In fact, the queen will keep on laying 

 right before your eyes with the comb she is on in 

 your hands, and it is a mistaken notion that bees 

 must be smothered with smoke before opening 

 the hive. Now step around back side of this 

 hive, carefully lift off the top (have your smoke 

 on hand in case of need). Raise the honey board 

 carefully and slowly by degrees and place it down 

 by the side of the hive, now loosen the comb you 

 wish to take out, and do it carefully without any 

 jar or sudden motion, raise it out carefully and 

 make your examination. Set it into an empty 

 hive or set it up by the side of the hive, and 

 examine another and replace all as carefwlly and 

 the bees have been at work out and in with their 

 accustomed regularity and we have used no 

 smoke whatever. But if through any carelessness 

 of handling we have aroused them, we have the 

 smoke on hand and use it. Is any body hurt ? 

 I guess not. 



The seventh question is a drive at us. We 

 positively have but very little patience with some 

 of the patent humbugs of the day, and again we 

 have but very little patience with parties who, as 

 soon as they have obtained their first stand of 

 bees, and do not yet know a queen from a drone, 

 get up a patent hive and then set themselves up 

 as authority on all matters appertaining to bee 

 culture. We sometimes sting such parties most 

 unmercifully. Yet if you do not believe that we 

 are one of the best natured and most genial fel- 

 lows you ever saw, come and see us and be satis- 

 fied. 



It appears that our friend Freeman has not 

 read the back volumes of the Journal, for if he 



had, he would have seen an article from Gallup 

 on extracting too late in the season. Mr. Hosmer's 

 article that follows his on same page is a sound, 

 sensible &rWc\e, positive fact ; every stock of bees 

 in this vicinity that were kept breeding late and 

 did not have their honey extracted too late in the 

 season, wintered without any dysentery and win- 

 tered just as well as they ever did in any season, 



E. Gallup. 

 Orchard, Mitchell Co., Iowa. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A Strange Freak. 



Mr. Editor : — I opened one of my nuclei some 

 time ago, and found the bees destroying the 

 brood. Thinking this a very strange freak I 

 examined them more closely and found them busy 

 in destroying brood and comb together. Some 

 of the brood when uncapped was a pale pink. — 

 Some had hatched but the young bees were 

 unable to get out of the cells. These I tried to 

 pull out, but they stuck to the cell as if they were 

 glued. As I have never seen a case of foul brood 

 I thought this was one. Can you or any of the 

 readers of the Journal tell why the bees were 

 cutting the brood out and why the young bees 

 were unable to get out of the cells ? 



The bees swarmed out twice and left this brood 

 some time before, but I returned them when they 

 began to cut it out as related above. 



Chas. E. Widener. 



Cumberland, Md., July 16, 1873. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



From Topeka, Kansas. 



Mr. Editor. — At our last Bee-Keeper's State 

 Meeting, Mr. Cameron, of La vrence, suggested 

 that the easiest way to insert queen cells was to 

 pick them off the comb and stick them in at 

 the top, between the frames. Thinking that a 

 good idea— one calculated to save a good deal 

 of trouble, I have tried it with success by cut- 

 ting out the cell, with very little comb attached, 

 and running a long pin through the comb just 

 above the cell ; then, by separating the frames 

 a very little, the cell can be let down to the pin, 

 and is held there until fastened by the bees. 

 The pin resting across the frames, saves the 

 frequent loss of a cell from the bees working it 

 down between the combs to the floor of the 

 hive. 



I am having good success in introducing 

 virgin Italian queens into black colonies, by 

 taking a common queen cage and fastening a 

 sealed queen-cell in at the top, with three or 

 four cells of honey in a bit of comb at the bot- 

 tom, putting a cork in each end to keep the 

 bees from eating out the queen; then hang the 

 cage between two frames, letting the ends of a 

 long pin rest on the top of the frames. As 

 soon as hatched — on the 13th or 14th day — open 

 and kill the black queen in twentjj-four to 

 thirty-six hours ; tie a bit of soft newspaper over 



