1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOIJRNAl.. 



743 



last accounts the full sheets of foundation with which the 

 new hivo had been supplied were fast being drawn out, the 

 new queen was rearing a family, and prosperity promist to 

 reign in the realm. 



Now what I want to ask is, What kind of experience have 

 other folks had in this plan of transferring ? 



latel 



Queen's Leg Paralyzed. — I have an Italian queen, 

 iately bought, whose left hind leg is dead — cause unknown. 

 Can some weather prophet tell me if that misfortune is likely 

 to Injure her value as a prolific layer? 



Yellow Jackets Destroying Colonies. — The yellow 

 jackets during the latter part of summer have attackt and 

 completely " gutted " several weak colonies. They come in 

 swarms, and once they commence on a colony, never leave it 

 till every bee is slaughtered and devoured. I have lost thou- 

 sands of bees by them this summer, and had to close most of 

 the hives with wire-screens for days at a time to preserve 

 them from these cannibalistic pests. At one time I was much 

 discouraged, fearing they would go through the whole apiary 

 before stopping. I was not at home during the siege, but the 

 only partial remedy suggesting itself to those in charge was to 

 hang up a piece of raw meat, and when well covered with 

 "jackets," deluge them with a basiu of boiling water. In 

 this way many were killed, and their numbers and capacity 

 greatly diminisht. Can any one of experience and knowledge 

 give us any advice for future action ? 



"Nufl sed " for this time, so I'll make way for some one 

 else who knows more and perhaps says less. 



Santa Clara Co., Calif. 



Odd Experiences of the Past Season. 



BY C. W. M'KOWN. 



Drones in Queen-Cells. — I had about a score of drones 

 incubating in queen-cells in one hive this summer. In mak- 

 ing an examination to see why the colony was storing no sur- 

 plus, I found a large number of queen-cells; one of them got 

 torn open in handling; and on examining it I found it con- 

 tained a young drone almost ready to hatch ! I then took my 

 knife and split the other cells, one after another, and found 

 all contained drone-brood capt over a la queen. There were 

 no queens or young larvK In the hive, but a large number of 

 sealed and hatching drones in worker-comb. I could not tell 

 whether the brood was from eggs laid by an old, played-out 

 queen, or by worker bee or bees. The layer bad evidently 

 disappeared about ten days previously. I took all combs con- 

 taining brood from them, filled up again with worker-brood 

 combs from other hives, gave them a young queen, and all 

 went well. 



Bees Getting INTO A Shop. — For 15 years my shop win- 

 dows have been covered with wire-cloth extending up above 

 the windows about five Inches, and a little open at the top. 

 When carrying honey In I could let the top sash down, and 

 the bees that happened to get in would go out all right. But 

 this year, for the first time in all these years, the outside bees 

 found the way in ! They got to coming in by hundreds, so I 

 had to arrange other kind of bee-escapes. I consider the Por- 

 ter escape a complete success. 



Chickens Eating Worker-Bees — I raised several dozen 

 Barred Plymouth Rock chickens the past season. They had 

 full liberty in the apiary. No thought entered my head that 

 they would eat live bees ; but one day when I had a hive open 

 I noticed a half-grown chicken that seemed to be greatly in- 

 terested, and I thought he was picking up bees. To make 

 sure of It, I set a comb covered with bees down on the ground 

 and slept back a little. He walkt right up and commenced 

 picking bees off the comb. He thumpt them on the ground to 

 kill them at first, but soon got in such a hurry to fill up that 

 he would just give them a hard pinch and swallow them. I 

 let him alone, hoping and expecting he would get stung, but 

 after eating probably 20 or more he neglected the old bees 

 and began picking the larva out of the comb. I then inter- 

 fered and drove him away. That put me to watching, and I 

 soon discovered other chickens eating bees ! Some times they 

 would walk right up in front of a hive and pick bees right off 

 the allghting-board. If a bee would begin to buzz around the 

 chick's head it would ruu away, and may be go no more than 

 a rod, and commence the same feast at another hive. I be- 

 lieve I never read of chickens eating live bees. 



Not a Large Crop. — My crop of honey was not large this 

 year. Too dry. I had only six swarms from 40 colonies. 

 T/irce out of the six came out on the same day — Sunday at that. 



Laying Queens Fighting. — Prof. Newman happened 

 along one day while I was taking out some laying queens that 

 I desired to supersede. I gave him two of them in cages and 

 told him If he would turn them together under a glass dish he 

 would see a fight. He took them to his room and tried the ex- 

 periment. He afterward told me they associated on good 

 terms for 30 or 40 minutes, then took a sculUe, embracing 

 each other, then rolled and tumbled about for a spell, and 

 then separated and seemed peaceable for over an hour, when 

 they took another tussle, separating again In a few moments, 

 seemingly none the worse for their struggle. Then for about 

 two hours they were not watcht, but when he did again look 

 at them, both were dead .' Knox Co., 111. 



BEEDDM BDILED DOWN. 



Specialty versus bee-keeping as a side-issue, says the 

 Bee-Keepers' Review, is being discust again, and the Review 

 thinks it's waste time. Bee-keepers will take their own way 

 about it anyhow, and after all isn't there room enough for 

 both? Just so. 



Fall Introduction of queens the editor of Review 

 thinks not as difficult as some suppose. A Mr. Turner told 

 him he re-queened after breeding ceast, taking no special 

 pains, and never lost a queen. The editor thinks the bees 

 are then hopelessly queenless, and hopelessly queenless bees 

 never refuse a queen. 



Xliin Foundation without side-walls, made on the 

 machine for the construction of which the members of the 

 Michigan State Bee-Keepers' Association paid last winter, 

 was used to some extent the past season by Mr. Aspinwall. 

 The combs are about as delicate and fragile as natural combs, 

 but the foundation warps and curls terribly. — Review. 



Backward in Spots. — Strange that a journal so 

 up-to-date in general as Brasilianische Bienenpflege should be 

 so behind the times in spots. Its readers are advised to use 

 in section-holders sections of four pieces nailed ! From the 

 American Bee Journal are quoted replies given by Atchley 

 and Heddon ! That couldn't be from last week's journal, sure. 



Fxtra Price for Extra Quality.— J. W. Rouse 

 says in Progressive Bee-Keeper, " 1 am now getting 3 cents 

 per pound more for my extracted honey than some that I 

 know of are getting for theirs." Most likely his customers 

 get full value for that difference of 3 cents. If producers of 

 extracted honey would always produce a choice article, a 

 buoyancy in price would eventually follow. 



Amount of 'Winter Stores.— To carry through 

 an average colony from Oct. 1 to May 1, will require about 

 12 kilograms (2HJ-^ pounds). It may do with considerably 

 less, but It will be at the expense of its proper development 

 in the spring, andevery pound the miserly bee-keeper saves by 

 thus shortening the fall allowance, will cost him tenfold as 

 much the following summer. — Vienna Bienen-Vater. 



Distance Bees Forage. — As bearing on this ques- 

 tion. Editor Hutchinson says: "Forty acres of buckwheat 

 were once sowed early In the season, three miles from my lit- 

 tle apiary It bloomed two or three weeks before any 



other buckwheat, and my bees workt upon it and secured a 

 little more than enough for their immediate needs, but when 

 the buckwheat bloomed near home, the combs filled up with a 

 rush." 



Clipping Virgin Queens to control their flight 

 and thus secure their mating with drones from the home-yard, 

 Hutchinson thinks the most practical and feasible of anything 

 yet struck to control mating of queens. He saw a queen at 

 Mr. Aspinwall's which had S of an Inch taken off each side, 

 and she mated all right. "With black or hybrid bees all 

 around him, Mr. Aspinwall has kept the mismated down to 

 one in 12 with dipt queens, while the unclipt averaged one 

 in 4." 



