824 



GLEANIINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



queens. I don't know about that; but I know 

 eggs disappear sometimes when a colony be- 

 comes queenless. Don't think they do if queens 

 are being raised for swarming. 



A BEE-SPACE— what is it? 3g of an inch will 

 be answered; -^, 3i, and scant 3i. Perhaps a 

 better answer would be, that space in which 

 bees are least likely to put burr-combs or pro- 

 polis. It used to be considered %, but gradual- 

 ly it has become less, and now ^{ has the major- 

 ity, I think. [That's right.— Ed.] 



Last month I spent a night with a bee-keep- 

 er at Lawrence, 111., who made me feel uncom- 

 fortable. He keeps bees in old-fashioned ten- 

 frame Langstroths, fusses less with his bees 

 than I do, and I don't believe he knows more 

 about bees. But he gets more honey than I. 

 Low lands give him annually as much buck- 

 wheat as white honey, while I get none; but he 

 beats me on white honey. Is it the location, the 

 hives, or the management? 



Herk Reepen doesn't agree with the view 

 Gleanings takes of the raking motion of bees 

 — "dancing" the Germans call it. He says 

 German bee-keepers in general consider it a 

 mark of great prosperity, and readiness for 

 swarming. D. A. Jones held it as a sign of 

 swarming, I think within 24 or 48 hours, but I 

 think no one else confirmed it. I think I saw 

 only one or two colonies at it this year, and I 

 don't think they were in condition to swarm. 

 But my bees talk English, not German. [I have 

 seen weak colonies in our apiary going through 

 this washboard act. They were too weak to 

 swarm. — Ed.] 



DO BEES TRANSPORT EGGS 1 



evidence that they do. 



By E. France. 



At the time of the war I ordered an Italian 

 queen of Martin Metcalf. He sent me a notice 

 that he would send me the queen at a given 

 date. About a week before the time named, I 

 took the queen out of the hive that I intended 

 to introduce her to. In just two weeks after, I 

 received the queen. I put her into a wire cage, 

 and then put the cage with the queen into the 

 queenless colony. On the third day after, I 

 opened the hive with the intention of liberating 

 the queen. I looked the combs over again for 

 queen-cells. I discovered a cell just started, 

 with an egg in it. I made up my mind that 

 the egg came from the queen that was then in 

 the cage in the same hive. I took the queen 

 out of the hive, to see what would come from 

 that egg. It matured all right, and hatched 



out a good Italian queen. There could be no 

 mistake about it. That one queen was the 

 only Italian I had. Whether the bees put the 

 egg into an embryo cell, or had made the cell 

 around the egg, I can not say. The egg could 

 not have come from a fertile worker, as the 

 colony consisted of black bees, and the egg 

 hatched an Italian queen. 



fertile workers, and how I GOT RID 

 OF THEM. 



Last spring I had two queenless colonies. I 

 gave both of them cards of young brood and 

 eggs, expecting them to raise a queen for them- 

 selves. Neither of them did it; but the fertile 

 workers kept laying right along. I gave each 

 of them brood enough to make a good colony, 

 and still they were "no good." I finally got 

 mad, and concluded to kill or cure. Then I 

 loaded up my smoker with tobacco stems, early 

 in the morning, when all were at home, and 

 smoked them all drunk. Not a bee could fly. 

 Then I took out all the bees and combs, and 

 filled the hives up with another set of combs 

 from other hives— brood and honey— the same 

 as I would have done to make a new colony^ 

 but I did not give them any hatched bees. 

 Then I took all the bees that were in the hives, 

 or that had been in the hives, and carried them 

 away several rods, and scattered them over the 

 ground. As soon as they got over their drunk 

 they came home, and the next day I gave each 

 a virgin queen. These were accepted in all 

 cases. What became of the laying workers, I 

 don't know. I don't think they ever found 

 their way back, so I think those laying work- 

 ers are bees that don't go out, and perhaps 

 never did, and so don't know the way back. I 

 was pretty sure that that treatment would cure 

 them. But as I had been putting in good 

 brood from other hives, there were more or 

 less of young bees in the hives, that had never 

 been out, and, of course, they would not know 

 the way back home. So I tried to cure them 

 without, so as to save the young bees. But I 

 will never do it again. As soon as I find I have 

 a laying worker I will take the bees all out, 

 and carry them off several rods, and throw 

 them away. All the bees that have been flying 

 will come back; then give them a queen, or 

 brood from which to raise one; and if they are 

 not strong, give them brood to strengthen 

 them up; but if the colony is very weak, the 

 best way is to use up the combs in other col- 

 onies, unless, as in my case, we are short of 

 hives, and want to occupy that location; in 

 that case, treat them as I have described. All 

 that can be saved is the few worker-bees that 

 are present with the laying workers, and quite 

 likely these are few, and not worth much. 



SMOKER FUEL. 



After trying about all the different kinds rec- 

 ommended, we have settled down to straw and 

 tobacco-stems— about half of each. We get the 



