764 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



Every thing about Mr. Hunt's place showed 

 ■evidence of skill, thrift, and enterprise; for 

 vi'hatever he undertakes, he is sure to do thor- 

 oughly. He has built up a fine foundation 

 business, besides a trade in bee-keepers' sup- 

 plies. He has a beautiful farm; and during 

 the short time I was there he gave me a look at 

 some of his fine crops. He began to explain the 

 different varieties of strawberries, raspberries, 

 etc., as if I knew all about it. I had to confess 

 that I knew little or nothing on the subject, 

 thatdepartmentof our journal being conducted 

 wholly by A. I. R. 



Mr. Hunt has secured some honey, but it was 

 a rather light crop after all. His apiary looked 

 very much as I had seen it some ten years be- 

 fore — neat and clean. He had no foul brood 

 that he knew of; but its general prevalence in 

 the neighborhood had caused him to give up 

 the business of selling bees, for fear that he 

 mig/it get it and give to his customers an un- 

 welcome legacy. 



In the afternoon Mr. Hunt kindly piloted me 

 out on my road to Flint, the home of VV. Z. 

 Hutchinson. For a mile or so out of Bel! 

 Branch the sand was simply awful to an Ohio 

 boy. Mr. H. has learned the art of riding 

 through it, however. Why, he simply had to. 

 He led off, and I trailed. It was rather humil- 

 iating to one who had ridden so many miles, to 

 find that another one who does not pretend to 

 do much on the bicycle could run away from 

 him, even if it was in the sand. First, the 

 wind blew my hat off; next I fell off. But Mr. 

 H. kept on pedaling right along through the 

 weeds and sand; but when we struck a hard 

 clay road I knew then I had things my own 

 way. Mr. H. rode far enough with me to start 

 me on the right road, and then I leaned over 

 and scorched. I arrived in Pontiac in good 

 season, and there I was told that the road to 

 Flint, some 40 miles — was all sand, and that the 

 wheelmen's road-book advised all wheelmen to 

 take the train. I had previously ridden some 

 40 odd miles, and concluded I had better take 

 good advice. I did so, and arrived at Flint on 

 the evening of the 17th. 



To be continued. 



SECUKING DRONE EGGS; HOW TO HAVE OUU 



QUEENS MATED TO HAND-PICKED 



DKONES. 



Question. — I wish to rear some queens nearly 

 every fall, but when I get ready to do so I find 

 I have no drones. Can I get a queen to lay 

 ■drone eggs by putting a frame of drone comb in 

 the middle of the brood-chamber of a strong 

 colony during the fall months? 



Answer. — The above subject is one which 

 has puzzled many a queen-breeder, and is one 

 on which I have spent much thought and con- 

 ducted many experiments, the result of which 

 has' proven that, in my case, the trying to rear 

 drones after the middle of August, in an aver- 

 age season, is an entire failure. Prof. Cook, 

 the Dadants, and others, say that drones can 

 be so reared, especially if the colony is fed 

 diluted sweets when honey is not coming in from 

 the fields; but in all my experiments in this line 

 I have failed almost entirely. Nature seems to 

 tell the bees that, as winter draws on apace, 

 drones are not needed, as swarming is over for 

 the season; and, feed as much as I would, 

 nothing but worker brood was the result, even 

 where the bees were confined wholly to drone 

 comb. This season I have had drone comb 

 after drone comb with worker bees hatching 

 out of them, to an extent greater than all I ever 

 had before in ail of my lifj years of apicultural 

 life; and so much so that I have almost come 

 to the conclusion that the presence of drone 

 comb in a hive gave no real assurance that I 

 would get any drones at all. With one colony, 

 such was the case at least. I gave them three 

 full frames of drone combs just before the bass- 

 wood-honey harvest commenced, as I wished 

 only drones from this queen for fall use; and 

 when 1 came to go after them I thought the 

 capped brood looked queer for drones, and so it 

 was; for I soon saw workers emerging from the 

 cells. I now uncapped several cells, finding 

 only worker-bees as occupants of these cells of 

 di'one size. The only sure way which 1 know 

 of to have drones during September and Octo- 

 ber is to mass what drone brood can be found 

 immediately after the basswood-honey flow 

 (the same being from the desired queen or 

 queens), in a large hive which will accommo- 

 date them, making the colony contained by this 

 hive queenless, so they will keep these drones 

 as long as you wish them, which they will do, 

 providing no queen is allowed to hatch in the 

 hive. Worker brood must be given every ten 

 days, in order to keep up the strength of the 

 colony, else they arc liable to be robbed when 

 an entire scarcity of honey occurs in the fall. 

 This hive must also contain a large amount of 

 honey, as a hive of drones consumes much hon- 

 ey, and, if not properly fed, drones are of no 

 value. As our bassvvood keeps in bloom till 

 nearly August, the drones which are in the egg 

 form, when the combs are massed, will not 

 wear out because of old age before the middle 

 of October, which is as late as queens can be 

 reared in this locality. After all other drones 

 are killed off, this hive of drones should be gone 

 over some day when it is cloudy, and the mer- 

 cury stands at about 50 to 55°, at which temper- 

 ature the drones are not likely to stampede off 

 the combs, and all the undersized and inferior 

 drones culled out and killed, after which we 

 can be almost sure that our queens will mate 



