280 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apii. 1. 



rim, and close the entrance to the hive bee- 

 tight, and you will need to take no other pre- 

 caution; for, let the bees be handled as roughly 

 as they may, consistent with not breaking down 

 the combs, there will then be no danger of the 

 melting of the combs, as the whole colony can 

 move off their combs into this rim and keep 

 cool through the ample ventilation provided by 

 the large surface of wire cloth covering them. 

 Some seem to think that the entrance to the 

 hive should also be covered with wire cloth; 

 but from the experience I have had in keeping 

 bees confined when moving them, and other- 

 wise, I think there is a less loss of individual 

 bees by having no light enter the hive save at 

 the top, where the bees can crawl up and clus- 

 ter. If the entrance is covered with wire cloth, 

 a certain number of bees seem to consider it 

 their duty to try to open that entrance, and so 

 iitruggle and bite away at the obstruction till 

 they wear themselves out, and die from ex- 

 haustion. 



SUPERSEDING QUEENS. 



Question.— In your book you speak of finding 

 a colony about to supersede their queen, and 

 then keeping them raising queens for you as 

 long as the queen, about to be superseded, liv- 

 ed. The question I should like to ask is this: 

 How do you know, or how can you tell, when a 

 colony is about to supersede its queen ? 



Ans^ver. — From an experience covering a pe- 

 riod of 25 years, I think I can safely say that 

 bees never build queen-cells to a state of per- 

 fection great enough to be supplied with eggs 

 or larvye unless they expect to swarm or super- 

 sede their queen. To be sure, they will start 

 embryo queen-cells, or " acorn-cups," as some 

 call them, all along during the season of the 

 year when they can fly from the hive, but none 

 of these are carried or built out further toward 

 perfect queen-cells, by way of lengthening out 

 and drawing the mouth of them down to the 

 size in which we find eggs and larviB in them, 

 unless the bees are either calculating to swarm 

 or to supersede their queen. So when you find 

 lengtheued-out queen-cells, you can rest assur- 

 ed you will find either eggs or larvae in them; 

 and when you find such out of the swarming 

 season you may know that the bees are about 

 to supersede their queen. Now, when 'finding 

 such lengthened-out cells containing eggs or 

 larvtB you may always know that such a colony 

 will save and rear all the larvaj (unless injured 

 in transferring) into tine queens you may give 

 them in prepared cells, as I have given in my 

 book, and all queens so reared will prove to be 

 the very best queens that you can possibly 

 raise under any condition, or by any of the 

 known plans. No matter whether the colony 

 intends to swarm or to supersede its queen. 

 There is this difference however: If the colo- 

 ny swarms, that puts a stop to its rearing queens 

 for you; but if it intends to supersede its queen 

 it will build queen-cells right along for you as 



long as the old queen lives. But you must not 

 let them hatch a queen, but keep the queen- 

 cells taken out, before any hatch, all the while; 

 for if a young queen is allowed to hatch, the 

 bees may let her kill the old queen or do it 

 themselves, when they will build no more cells. 



FOUL BIJOOD SPREADING. 



Question. — If a hive is attacked with foul 

 brood, how long a time will it require for the 

 combs to become one -half or more affected? 



Answer.— Thai depends very much upon the. 

 time of year, and upon how much foul-broody 

 honey was taken into the hive when the disease 

 was started. If one of my colonies was to rob 

 out a diseased colony, bringing from 10 to 15 

 pounds of honey from it during the month of 

 April, I should expect that said colony would 

 have cells of diseased and dead larvae through- 

 out all the brood by the middle of July, to the 

 amount of one-half or more of the cells con- 

 taining brood; but of course the dead and live 

 brood would be all mixed up to a greater or less 

 extent. If a few bee-loads of honey only were 

 taken, and this during September, I should not 

 expect the brood to present the above appear- 

 ance before the next August, and possibly not 

 till the spring of the second year. 



SECTIONS CARRYING FOUL BROOD. 



Question. — Would there be danger of commu- 

 nicating foul brood to a healthy colony by us- 

 ing over it the crates and sections which had 

 been used the previous season on a diseased 

 colony (the combs in them containing no hon- 

 ey), provided the crates and sections were scrap- 

 ed, and wiped with a dry cloth ? 



Answer. — This is something I never tried, 

 and. from all the experience had with foul brood 

 during the early seventies, and knowing wliat 

 foul brood in the apiary means, I would say 

 that I should not want to try such an experi- 

 ment, for the risk would be too great. However, 

 if I had many such crates of sections I think I 

 would do this: I would take one or two colonies 

 away from all other bees, three or four miles, 

 and use these crates on them, keeping the re- 

 maining craves where no bees could gather pro- 

 polis from them, and, after two years" test, if 

 no harm resulted to these colonies, I should con- 

 sider it safe to use the rest anywhere. 



FEEDING FLOUR TO BEES. 



In early spring, when the plant-world has not 

 yet commenced to furnish pollen, flour can be 

 given to the bees as a substitute. As flour as 

 well as pollen promotes the rearing of brood, 

 the use of it is to be commended to bee-keep- 

 ers; and especially should those bee-men use it 

 who live in regions where early spring is not the 

 rule. Last spring I made a new trial of feeding 

 flour in the open air, and it worked well. I fill- 

 ed a comb-box half full of flour, laid over it a 

 sieve having meshes of the right size to exclude 

 drones, and placed the same in tine vicinity of a 



