1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



im 



WHAT AILS THE BEES? 



MOUE ABOUT THE COLONY THAT HEFUSED TO AC- 

 CEPT THE QUEENS. 



BN page 350, Gleanings for May 1, I gave an 

 account of some queer actions of a colony 

 that was supposed to be queenless. You, 

 friend Root, ask if there was any trouble in 

 their caring for their brood, feeding the lar- 

 V£e, etc., to which I answer, no. The frame of eggs 

 and larv* given them was properly cared for, but 

 no queen-cells were started, although the frame 

 remained until it was past being used for that pur- 

 pose. You say, friend Root, that you are still in- 

 clined to think they liad some sort of a bee in the 

 hive which they I'egarded as a queen. In my ex- 

 perience, where such a state of things exists the 

 bee that was accepted as a queen nearly always 

 lays eggs of some kind; and then, again, what be- 

 came of this bee? They had a fair chance to start 

 cells this spring, but refused to do it, but accepted 

 this queen, and have built up surprisingly; so at 

 this date. May 24, 8 frames are covered with bees, 

 and 6 of them fairly filled with brood; and, again, in 

 regard to the age of those bees I will say I have not 

 a colony in my yard out of 70 where the old bees 

 held out so well. Now, it would, in this case, seem 

 that it was not necessary to have young bees for 

 winter, and I have had several cases that pointed 

 that way, while I have always thought, reasoning 

 from the length of a bee's life, that young bees 

 must be best; but this, howevei-, goes in favor of 

 friend Heddon's theory of old bees for winter. 



I have another strange puzzle in bees. Although 

 I have kept bees in frame hives, and read the bee- 

 journals ever since the A. B. J. was horn, 1 have 

 never seen nor read of an account of a case like 

 the following: 



Saturday last I went to visit a bee keeping friend 

 who has a colony of bees in a log sawed off about 3 

 feet long, and set on a bottom-boai'd. All is neatly 

 painted, with surplus case on top, from which more 

 or less surplus has been taken for the last 7 yeai-s, 

 the colony always coming out in good condition. 

 There is plenty of sealed honey in the top of the log, 

 in sight, and there is, without doubt, 40 or 50 lbs. in 

 the log. This colony came out this spring, strong 

 in bees, and everj' thing looked prosperous until 7 

 days before I was there, when the owner thought 

 by appearances that some colony was robbing 

 them. They came out in large numbers, and seem- 

 ed to be trying to carry off some very small, inferi- 

 or bees that looked like some very old shiny rob- 

 bers, only that they appeared sick from that time 

 until I was there. For 7 days an average of a quart 

 a day, according to the judgment of the owner, 

 crawled out and died. I turned the log up and ex- 

 amined them, even breaking out some comb, and 

 found brood in all stages, from the egg to the 

 hatching bee, and in apparently a healthy state. I 

 reached clear down to the bottom, but these little 

 inferior black shiny bees, hardly looking like a 

 honey-bee, are all scattered through the hive in a 

 dying condition, as is also the larger part of the 

 bees, both old and young. They crawl over the 

 combs with a trembling and staggering appearance, 

 with their tongues run out. and helpless, so the 

 tongue will not move, and they keep crawling out 

 on to the front board, and roll over on their backs 

 and kick awhile and die. I have sent some of the 

 bees to Professor Cook, to see what state he finds 



them in. If any one has had any thing of the kind, 

 or can tell what is the matter with that colony of 

 bees, I should like to know it. J. B. Mason. 



Mechanic Falls, Maine, May 24, 1886. 



Friend M., from your description I think 

 that your bees have the nameless bee-dis- 

 ease whicli has been so much talked about 

 of late. Give them a new queen, and the 

 bees will be all right, unless I am mistaken. 



B00K-^EYiEW Department. 



HOW TO raise comb HONEY, AS PRACTICED Ht 

 OLIVER FOSTER. 



HENEVER we see any thing from the pert 

 of OliVel- Foster we naturally conclude 

 that he has something practical to present, 

 and something worth saying. We are not 

 disappointed upon reading his little work 

 upon " How to Raise Comb Honey." It is publish- 

 ed in pamphlet form, of only ifi pages, but there is 

 a good deal there. Among the first things he dis- 

 cusses is, " What Hive is Best ? " In answer to this 

 question he thinks the hive that has given the most 

 general satisfaction is the one given us by father 

 Langstroth, as well as the modified froms, includ- 

 ing the Simplicity. The style of hive he uses he 

 thinks is simpler than the Simplicity. The bevel- 

 ed edges between the cover and body of the latter 

 he regards as unnecessary for protection against 

 storms. His hive, accordingly, has the top and bot- 

 tom edges cut square. In other respects his hive is 

 essentially the same as the Simplicity, with the ex- 

 ception of a little device for holding down one end 

 of the frames, to facilitate the removal of the up- 

 per story. 



SECTIONS OPEN ON ALL SIDES. 



The writer, after giving his preference decidedly 

 in favor of the pound section, urges, as a great 

 improvement, that the sections be open or access- 

 ible to the bees from all sides. As he is probably 

 the first one to originate and put in practice this 

 idea, perhaps the arguments are best expressed in 

 his own words: 



In using section boxes, we think some important 

 points have been overlooked. Every available in- 

 ducement should be used to inspire prompt, con- 

 stant, and energetic work in the boxes until they 

 are finished. In fact, we should create a passion for 

 putting honey in boxes. This requires no magic. 

 To accomplish it there should be no separation be- 

 tween the sections, and as little as possible between 

 them and the brood. There should he free vommu- 

 nication between the sections in every direction. 

 They should have deep slots on all 8 edges. You 

 may not appreciate the importance of this until 

 you have tried them. When we take into consider- 

 ation that the object on the part of the bees in stor- 

 ing up honey in summer is to have it accessible for 

 winter consumption, and that in winter the bees 

 collect in a round ball, as nearly as possible in a 

 semi-torpid state with but little if any motion, ex- 

 cept that gradual moving of bees from the center 

 to the surface and from the surface to the center 

 of this ball, we may imagine how unwelcome it is to 

 them to be obliged to divide their stores between 

 four separate apartments, each of which is four 

 inches square and twelve inches long, with no com- 

 munication between these apartments. 



Another important object is secured by using 

 open-end sections. Bees are much more apt to build 

 the combs out solid to the end and bottom bars of 

 the sections, if there is comb attached just the oth- 

 er side, with no bee-space between, but with a wide 

 opening through. Honey will not ship safely, nor 

 sell well, unless thus built out. Also, these open- 



