1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



put baclc. When a queen to be introduced is 

 confined, we feel quite sure Miat, at the proper 

 time, the bees would gnaw under and release 

 her without any attention on the part of the 

 apiarist. — En.] 



HOW TO KEEP QUEENS WHEN WE HAVE A 

 SURPLUS. 



AN EXCELLENT SUGGESTION. 



lifj Mrs. Jennie Atcliley. 



For the last two years I have not had a 

 chance to put in practice my plans; but I have 

 tried them suf'ticiently to know that it is an ex- 

 cellent way to keep queens that we have no im- 

 mediate use for, and at the same time we wish 

 to keep the nuclei at work raising queens as 

 fast as the young queens have laid two or three 

 combs of eggs. I used to keep them caged on a 

 table, ready to go at a moment's notice, when 

 an order came. Well, sometimes orders did not 

 come for several days, and my queens, of course, 

 were more or less injured if kept too long in 

 this way; and to make it profitable we can not 

 afford to let the nuclei keep their queens till or- 

 ders come to take them. To overcome this 

 trouble I went to work and constructed a lot of 

 small hives, just large enough to hold two sec- 

 tions 4I4 inches square by 1\ inches wide. All 

 these sections that we had unfinished we lay by 

 to go in our little nuclei. Now, we could take 

 from fifty to one hundred workers, or enough to 

 keep the queen in good shape. It is no trouble 

 to speak of, to prepare two or three hundred of 

 these little nuclei, something after the little 

 Alley nuclei. We may use little frames if we 

 choose. I use the sections, as they usually have 

 plenty of honey to last the queen and bees a 

 month or more, and the queen will go to laying, 

 and assume the same attitude of a large colo- 

 ny. Then the queen is never so filled with eggs 

 that it would be dangerous to cage and mail her 

 right off. I do not like to cage and mail a 

 queen that is in full laying plight without giv- 

 ing her time to unload herself of eggs. Well, 

 the little-nuclei plan has the queens in good 

 shape to be mailed at once without any danger 

 of being injured. 



To keep the queens and bees from swarming 

 out I use, over the entrance, one perforation of 

 queen-excluder zinc, and robber bees will never 

 enter through the zinc to amount to any thing. 

 These little hives can be placed on a shelf in 

 the shade, moderately close together. We 

 may make a record of where each queen was 

 taken from; and if we keep any of them long 

 enough they can be tested, and all the finest 

 ones selected to fill orders for select queens. 

 Robbers have never bothered ourlittle hives, as 

 we seldom have a surplus of queens till the 

 weather gets warm and honey is coming in so 

 there is no danger of robbers. I do not like the 

 idea of raising queens in little hives, as the 

 queen and bees are too likely toswarm out. as 



wo can not keep excluding zinc on till the queens 

 have mated, which gives them every chance to 

 leave. If the bees should take a notion to 

 swarm out of the little hives, where our laying 

 queens are, there will always be bees enough 

 return to be a good retinue for the queen. 

 Then these little nuclei are good to introduce 

 another queen to as soon as one is sold out. I 

 think I can raise a third more queens with a 

 given number of nuclei by this method. These 

 little hives can be made cheaply at the facto- 

 ries, as scraps will answer for them. If you do 

 not think this a good way to keep your surplus 

 queens, just try it. 

 Beeville, Texas, Jan. 27. 



[We are sure this method of keeping queens is 

 excellent, and may with profit be put in practice 

 by other queen-breeders who desire to send out 

 queens by return mail. These little nucleus 

 hives are similar to those used by E. L. Pratt, 

 then of Beverly, Mass.— Ed.] 



^ I — ^^- 



BEES AND FRUIT ON THE ISLANDS. 



A KEPLY TO PKOF. COOK. 



By Thaddeus Smith. 



As Prof. Cook, in Gleanings of March 1.5, 

 has called in question the correctness of my 

 statement in regard to bees and fruit fertiliza- 

 tion on the islands of Lake Erie, will you kind- 

 ly allow me, through the same medium, to 

 confirm my statement by the testimony of 

 others? As it was possible that I might be 

 in error in regard to some of the statements, I 

 sent a copy of Gleanings containing the dis- 

 cussion, to Mr. George M. High, of Middle Bass 

 Island, Ohio, and I asked him, if there were 

 any misstatements of facts, to correct them, 

 and to give me his experience in regard to the 

 matter. Mr. High has lived on the island for 

 26 years, and has been engaged in fruit culture 

 all the time. He is a very close observer of 

 every detail periaining to fruit culture— an in- 

 telligent and reliable gentleman. He writes 

 me as follows: 



Some fifteen years ago my nearest neighbor 

 kept a few stands of bees, and, of course, I no- 

 ticed them upon plants and trees during bloom- 

 ing-time. Since then no bees have been kept 

 here, yet I can see no difference in the fruit 

 production. For more than a dozen years I 

 don't recollect of seeing a honey-bee on the 

 island. We have a few bumble-bees, but in 

 such small numbers that they could not begin 

 to do the work of fertilization, if it were neces- 

 sary. I think, with you, that bees are not 

 required here to fertilize fruit. The immense 

 crops grown here last season, and the many 

 seasons before, would disprove the theory. I 

 have two Lombard plums that have set a good 

 crop of fruit every year since 188(). No, you 

 need take nothing back, for I believe that we 

 have grown as good fruit, and as plentiful, in 

 the past L"! years as when bees were kept on 

 the place next to ours. 



Middle Bass Island contains about 700 acres, 

 and most of it is under fruit culture. Mr. High 

 writes that he has nearly lOOO fruit-trees, and 



