548 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



nish about all the honey my home trade de- 

 mands, so that I do not want to increase my 

 number of colonies further than I now have. 



Answer. — The surest way is to give plenty of 

 comb room, and then extract closely. Probably 

 not one colony in twenty will offer to cast a 

 swarm treated in this way. In fact, very few 

 colonies will offer to swarm where tiered up for 

 extracted honey, and the extracting not done 

 till the end of the season, providing that empty 

 comb room is given as fast as needed. But 

 when working for comb honey the case is dif- 

 ferent, and the bees are almost sure to swarm, 

 no matter how much section room is given, or 

 whether these sections are filled with founda- 

 tion or not. My way of keeping my apiary at 

 the original number of colonies while working 

 for comb honey would be to unite the colonies 

 about three or four weeks before the honey 

 harvest, making one colony out of two, prepar- 

 ing for this in advance by keeping each colony 

 shut on only half of the combs contained in the 

 hives I used, and then let them divide by nat- 

 ural swarming to the original number, keeping 

 down all afler-swarming. Or you can let them 

 swarm without uniting before the honey har- 

 vest, and, after the honey season is over, unite 

 back to the original number. This accom- 

 plishes the same object as the former, only it 

 gives more mouths to feed after the honey har- 

 vest is over, without any real gain in an in- 

 creased crop of honey. Dr. C. C. Miller and 

 myself are waiting, and living in hopes, that 

 some bright bee-keeper will yet invent some- 

 thing which will entirely do away with the 

 swarming desire in bees, so that they will work 

 all the ■' livelong day," and all the days of the 

 season, with the vim manifested by a new 

 swarm, with no such thought as swarming. 

 What fun there would be then in having out- 

 apiaries, and piling up the honey — yes, and 

 home apiaries also ! 



VIRGIN QUEENS AND DRONE EGGS. 



Question. — Does a virgin queen ever lay any 

 but drone eggs'? Are the drones from these 

 eggs capable of fertilizing queens ? 



Ansiver. — To the first part of the question, 

 or, more properly, to the first question, I think 

 it would be perfectly safe to answer no, al- 

 though one or two cases have been reported 

 looking a little as if a virgin queen might have 

 produced a few eggs which matured into 

 workers; but I think that this can not be other 

 than a mistake. The second question is one 

 which has not been settled satisfactorily to all 

 minds. Some claim that such drones are just 

 as good as any; and among those claiming this 

 stand Prof. Cook. Dadant it Son, and others of 

 nearly equal atithority. On the other hand 

 come such men as Dr. G. L. Tinker. G. W. 

 Demaree, etc.. who say that such drones are 

 not capable of fertilizing queens. Mr. Demaree 

 citing instances where he has had plenty of 



such drones flying, but no queens would get to 

 laying till drones from a mated queen began to 

 fly, when they became fertile and made good 

 mothers. In my own case I have had no experi- 

 ence, but have always considered drones from a 

 virgin queen, when reared i n drone comb, as good 

 as any. Such drones, when reared in worker- 

 cells, may be virile, but I would not expect a 

 queen to prove of great value which had mated 

 a drone reared in a worker-cell. Mrs. Atchley 

 wrote me, a year or two ago, that, when she 

 moved to Bee County, she would try experi- 

 ments to settle these matters, on an island not 

 far away from Beeville, and yet far enough so 

 there could be no possible chance of mistake. 

 How is it, Jennie? are drones from a virgin 

 queen as good as any ? 



THE ANDERSON SWARM-HIVER. 



DIRECTIONS FOR USING IT. 



By Loids Anderson. 



In the spring, or before the swarming season, 

 prepare a hive-stand similar to the Heddon 

 stand, large enough to hold two Dovetailed 

 hives placed side by side, and two inches apart. 

 Place the colony of bees upon the left end of 

 the stand, and an empty hive upon the right 

 (the bee-keeper is supposed to be standing in 

 front of and facing the hives. 



As the swarming season approaches (say from 

 the first to the tenth of May), reverse the hives, 

 placing the empty hive on the left and the col- 

 ony on the right, taking care to have the front 

 of the hives on a line with each other, and 

 about two Inches apart; then set the swarm- 



ANDERSON S SWARM-HIVER. 



hiver upon the alighting-boards, and fasten 

 with a screw through the blocks on each end of 

 the hiver. and screw up tight. If the hives 

 stand upon a line there will now be no outlet 

 for the bees except through the hiver. Now 

 close the entrance to the empty hive by placing 



