508 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



hives until their eggs hatched and larvae were 

 well grown. Several times they would be a 

 long time in recovering, and I had a few. pi^r- 

 haps three or four, that died. One. at least, 

 that I returned to the hive never recovered. 



I think fear has a good deal to do with the 

 "cramps," as, in my experience, the queens 

 that are hard to catch are more liable to the 

 affliction than others. Queens that are picked 

 up quietly, and quickly placed in a cage, seldom 

 if ever show any sign of " cramps,'' while if a 

 queen is chased around, and frightened, then 

 held some time before caging, she is quite apt 

 to show more or less of the symptoms. 



As I have caged some 600 queens this spring, 

 with but one showing any sign of cramp, and 

 that was owing to my carelessness, as I was in 

 a great hurry, I will tell how I do. I open the 

 hive as quietly as I can, when I find the queen, 

 set the frame so I can pick her up, take the 

 cage in my left hand, and spring up the wire 

 cloth with the forefinger, then pick the queen 

 up by the wings, with th-umb and forefinger of 

 right hand, bringing the cage close to the 

 queen as I pick her up and drop her into the 

 cage quickly and gently. Viery simple, is it 

 not? But sometimes there is a hitch. Quite 

 often the frame has to be held with one hand 

 while the queen is caught, and then while the 

 other hand is getting the cage ready the queen 

 gets terribly frightened, and struggles franti- 

 cally to escape and goes off into a kind of fit. 

 Under these circumstances, as soon as I have 

 caught the queen by the wings with thumb and 

 forefinger I slide the second finger out under 

 the queen so she can stand on it. When every 

 thing is "lovely " she has solid bottom under 

 her, and seems to lose most of her fear at once. 

 I have carried queens around for some time 

 when held as above, and have never had one 

 show a sign of the cramps while caging. 



Queens fiy but little, and are seldom out of 

 the hive. In their normal condition they are 

 surrounded by a throng of friendly bees, in par- 

 tial or complete darkness. From this peaceful 

 state comes a rude awakening; her home trem- 

 bles as the hive top is wrenched off; smoke 

 pours in; the comb on which she was peace- 

 fully and no doubt happily employed is raised 

 out in the glare of the daylight; amid the con- 

 fusion she tries to hide, but is chased around, 

 rudely taken up by her wings, by a master she 

 has never seen. No wonder fear fills her heart, 

 as she feels all hope is gone, and "heart fail- 

 ure" results, or she "swoons," or gets the 

 "cramps." 



There are lots of bees handled in this or a 

 worse way. I wonder how many people would 

 die of " heart failure," or " swoon," or have 

 "cramps," if they were used as ruthlessly and 

 unnaturally. 



My daughter Edna, who assists me in the 

 apiary, aged 14, caged 2r> queens by half-past 

 ten, without assistance. Last night was very 



cool, so she could not commence until nearly 8 

 o'clock A. M. Only 10 queens were in hives 

 marked ready; the others had to be hunted up. 



8o far we are having the best season I have 

 known here. I took 200 gallons from 50 colonies 

 May 14 and 16, and now they are nearly full, and 

 ought to be extracted at once, and still are 

 hard at work. I am suffering from a bilious j 

 attack to-day, and have to keep out of the sun, 

 though we are pushed by our work. 



Port Orange, Fla., May 22. 



HOW TO PREVENT DRONE COMB BEING BUILT. 



Question.— In the production of comb honey, 

 where a first (or prime) swarm is hived on 

 comb-foundation starters, say two or three 

 inches in depth, and with sections on top filled 

 with full sheets of foundation, what is the best 

 method of preventing the building of drone 

 comb in the brood -chamber? 



Ansiver. — Under such circumstances as the 

 question describes, prime swarms are not very 

 apt to build drone comb, as drone comb is very 

 largely built the first season for store comb. In 

 other words, bees build very little drone comb 

 the first season after being hived, only as they 

 get in advance of the queen in comb-building. 

 If they build comb faster than the queen can 

 occupy it with eggs, then they keep on building 

 comb, the same as they would if she kept eggs 

 in the cells as fast as built ; but instead of 

 building worker comb they change the size of 

 the cells to those which are the most economi- 

 cal for storing honey, which are of the drone 

 size. These cells are filled with honey, so do 

 very little harm the first year; but the next 

 year, as the honey is consumed from them, the 

 queen lays in them, and from this comes a horde 

 of useless drones, or such bees as produce no 

 honey, but constantly consume it. The above 

 is applicable to a swarm of bees in box hives or 

 in trees, where they can do just as nature 

 prompts. But it will be seen that the question- 

 er has placed his swarm in a different state 

 than would be one in a hollow tree, in that he 

 has put on sections filled with foundation, 

 which foundation will be drawn into comb as 

 fast as the bees want room to store honey, as 

 well as to remove a large part of the bees from 

 the brood -chamber, and for this reason the bees 

 will very rarely build comb in the brood- 

 chamber faster than the queen will fill it with 

 eggs, if the queen is a good prolific layer, as 

 she should be; and the result is, sections filled 

 with honey, with very little, if any, drone comb 

 in the brood-chamber below ; and, as Bro. 

 Hutchinson and I believe, the brood -chamber 



