330 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apk. 15. 



tides of the same, according to Prof. Cook; 

 and if nothing else is available, bees will col- 

 lect fine particles of wood, and use in place of 

 farina from flowers, as I have frequently seen 

 them doing from a pile of fine sawdust which 

 was taken from the shop where I used my plan- 

 er-saws. Eiisha Gallup told in the American 

 Bee Journal, years ago, how he hived a swarm 

 of bees so late in the season that they built only 

 three pieces of comb, about as large as the 

 hand, and, as an experiment, he fed them honey 

 all winter, and in early spring they commenced 

 brood-rearing before being taken from the cel- 

 lar, finally building up a fine colony and storing 

 considerable surplus honey that season. I have 

 had similar experiences, but find that the less 

 pollen there is in the hive the less brood will be 

 reared; and where there is scarcely any pollen, 

 or, as most people would say, none at all, there 

 would be but few cells of brood raised, and this 

 brood be scrimped in food, and appear weak 

 and sickly. Nothing incites brood-rearing like 

 plenty of pollen in the hive, with the necessary 

 honey; and with the advent of new pollen, 

 brood -rearing commences in earnest. I have 

 fed the bees meal and flour many years, think- 

 ing that it would take the i)lace of pollen from 

 the flowers; but after a careful watching I am 

 satisfied that such is not the case, and I doubt 

 its paying to feed bees in this way, aside from 

 the fun there is in seeing the bees work on the 

 flour, where pollen is to be had from the flowers 

 in from 40 to 50 days previous to the honey-har- 

 vest. 



ROYAL .TELLY FOR QUEEIN-CUPS. 



Question.— In order to raise queens out of the 

 swarming season, where do you obtain royal 

 jelly to put into cell-cups? 



Answer.— At any time when there is young 

 brood or bees in the larval form in the combs, 

 there is no trouble in obtaining royal jelly, or, 

 at least. I never found any. All you have to do 

 is to make a colony queenless having such lar- 

 val bees; and in from three to five days after 

 taking away the queen you will find cells en- 

 larged and the occupant swimming in royal 

 jelly, or at least to a sufficient extent so that 

 enough can be obtained to start from 13 to 24 

 cups sufficiently for rearing that many queens. 

 If you do not wish to make an extra- colony 

 queenless you can use Willie Atchley's plan of 

 lifting the cocoon out of the cell containing the 

 little larva you wish for a queen, and in this 

 way the larva is already supplied with suflicient 

 food to last till the bees put in the royal jelly to 

 change it to a queen. I say you can do this. 

 By so saying I mean if you are as successful as 

 Willie is; but I will also say that, if you are, 

 you can do better than I can. After several 

 trials I have gone back to the jelly olan, as I 

 fail in many instances in separating the cocoon 

 fiom the cell witiiout tearing it; and if I suc- 

 ceed in doing this the bees are not suited with 

 my " botch " work in placing them in the cups, 



so they pull them out and roll them out at the 

 entrance of the hive. I wonder how many 

 have made a success of this plan aside from 

 Willie Atchley. One reason for my not making 

 a success of it is, I presume, that I am becom- 

 ing a little shaky as I grow older, so that I can 

 not do fine work as I once did, owing to the 

 trembling of my hands. 



QUEENS NEVER TAKE A CLEANSING FLIGHT. 



Questvin.— Why is it that queens never take 

 a cleansing flight? Of course, clipped queens 

 can not. Can it be possible the bees take care 

 of her? 



Ansiver.—Ai>. nearly as I can find out, the 

 queen is a privileged person, so to speak; that 

 is,. they drop their excrement when and where 

 they please. Whether the bees clean this off 

 the combs or not. 1 can not say, or whether the 

 case is different with the queen inside of the 

 hive than it is when they are caged, I do not 

 know; but this I do know: I have repeatedly 

 seen queens void their feces in queen-cages, 

 while virgin queens kept in a queen-nursery do 

 this often in handling the nursery-cages. My 

 idea is, that, as there is only one queen in a hive, 

 and the amount of waste matter thrown off is 

 so little, it is not of enough importance to the 

 existence of the colony so the queen should go 

 out for a cleansing flight as do the drones and 

 workers. If any one has different views on the 

 matter from the above, I should be pleased to 

 hear from him; as, if I am not much in error, 

 this is a matter in bee-lore which has never been 

 touched on before. 



ENAMELED-CLOTH COVERING FOR BEES. 



Question. — Is it a good plan to use enameled 

 covering over the brood-frames in >,, inter? If 

 bees need water in summer, why do they not 

 need it in winter also? and with the enamel- 

 ed cloth over the frames, they have water in 

 winter as well as in summer. 



Answer.— This is quite Ingenious, to say the 

 least; and if I really believed that bees needed 

 water while in winter quarters I might be per- 

 suaded to try enameled cloth for that purpose, 

 as it would be much easier supplying water in 

 that way than by giving it them in a sponge at 

 the entrance, as has been recommended so many 

 times, where bees were in the ce lar. But bees 

 use water only when breeding rapidly; and as 

 winter breeding is poor economy, and some- 

 thing 1 do not wish, I do not care to supply that 

 which brings on what is a damage to me, for I 

 believe winter breeding to be a damage to any 

 bee-keeper residing at the North. I have tried 

 enameled cloth several times over the cluster of 

 bees during winter; and in every case where 

 tried, those colonies did not come ont nearly as 

 strong as did those with absorbents over them; 

 while many colonies, in proportion to those so 

 tried, died or were so weak as to be nearly 

 worthless. Some seem to like enameled cloth 

 over the bees in winter; but with me the mois- 



