S4G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTITEE. 



July 



A " DRONELESS " COLONY. 



I have a hive of bees that are droneless. They 

 were a late swarm last year, but did nicely, and are 

 still growing-. They are g-ctting to be " immense." 

 Will you please inl'orra me as to the pi-obability of 

 their swarming without drones? I have looked the 

 ABC book through, but do not find any thing upon 

 that point. Can there be any thing done to en- 

 courage them in swarming? N. C. Arnold. 



Wilson, N. Y., June 14, 1880. 



Why, friend A., that is a new idea. We 

 liave heard of qucenlcss colonies quite often, 

 Imt I don't know that I ever before lieard of 

 droneless colonies. To be sure, they will 

 swarm, and it won't make a bit of difference 

 about their having no drones. If you will 

 examine the A B C book further you will no- 

 tice that a queen rarely if ever mates with 

 drones of her own. Nature has wisely ar- 

 ranged it so that she can not do it ; there- 

 fore your bees are all right without any 

 drones. If you had a whole apiary without 

 drones, it might be a little different ; but 

 this, I believe, never happens. 



WILL TRANSFERRING START SWARMING? OTHER 

 QUESTIONS BY A B C SCHOLARS. 



We began the season with eight strong colonies, 

 six in box hives and two in Simplicities. We have 

 transferred one, and have had four swarms up to 

 date. Just as we got through transferring we 

 looked up and saw a large swarm settled on a small 

 apple-tree, a short distance from where we were 

 transferring. We do not know whether the bees 

 came from the hive transferred or Irom some other 

 hive. We should like to know whether transferring 

 will cause immediate swarming or not; or would 

 they have swarmed anyhow in a short time? The 

 swarm is doing better than the transferred colony. 

 Our bees are all blacks, and we want to know if we 

 can not run them for honey while the honey season 

 lasts, and then get an Italian queen and Italianize 

 them all. We are members of the ABC class. 



We read Mr. Doolittle's article in regard to how to 

 get honey into the sections. Now, that is our diffi- 

 culty here. What would be the best plan to get 

 honey put in sections in the Simplicity hives? How 

 do you make dummies? I will also state that our 

 bees wintered well in the open air, both in the Sim- 

 plicity and in box hives, without any protection. 

 S. L. & I. E. Phillips. 



Fairburn, Ga., May 3, 1886. 



I do not think, friend P., that transferring 

 would be apt to induce swarming, but on 

 the contrary. It might, however, induce 

 the bees to abscond because they were dis- 

 pleased with so much changing and hand- 

 ling. I should suppose you could tell 

 whether the swarm you mention came from 

 your transferred hive or not, from the 

 amount of bees remaining. — We do not use 

 dummies. A chaff division - board would 

 probably answer the same with the Sim- 

 plicity hive. 



A SWARM CHASING A TWO-WHEELED "SHAY." 



A friend of the writer, while visiting in Maine, on 

 the Androscoggin River, saw a swarm of bees on 

 the wing, whose course seemed to be directly across 

 a bridge over the above river, and just ahead of 

 them was an old-style 3-wheeled " shay," containing- 

 an old gentleman and his wife. The vehicle was 

 wide, and the back open, and the occupants were 



sitting- so there was Quite a space between them. 

 My friend was quite interested to see if the bees 

 would turn out for the chaise, as their course 

 seemed to be directly for the open window, and 

 just then they went through the open space be- 

 tween the couple, and out in front over the horse, 

 and alig-hted on a tree near by. The lady was on 

 the ground in an instant, with the greatest bewil- 

 derment at what had happened; but no harm was 

 done, and the bees soon went into a hollow ti'ce 

 close at hand. 



HOW A BEE-MAN RECOVERED HIS WINTER LOSS 

 BY LETTINti HIS BEES " SLIDE." 



While visiting in my old home, Virden, III., about 

 a year ago, a friend where I stopped lost some 18 

 swarms the winter before, and had but five left 

 alive. We must call him a rather negligent bee- 

 keeper, for he left his hives of empty comb stand- 

 ing on their summer stands all the spring. At 

 swarming time, eight of those hives were occupied 

 by absconding swarms. He saw two swai-raS come 

 from a westerly direction and go into two of the 

 hives, without alighting. The other ten hives were 

 filled by his own bees, so he is sure none of the eight 

 were from them, but must have come from a dis- 

 tance. J. L. Peabody. 



13U School St., Lowell. Mass. 



Friend P., the facts you give us throw ad- 

 ditional light on this matter of decoy hives. 



IS IT advisable to sell bees at AUCTION? 



I now have C3 colonies, and they are doing- well. 

 I think I shall increase to about 80, and then stop. 

 My plan for strengthening weak colonics is the 

 same as yours. I built up about ten, some of 

 which were very weak. I go to a strong swarm and 

 hunt the queen, and set her and the frame back, 

 and theu lift out a frame full of bees and brood, 

 and give it to the weak colony. Jt works like a 

 charm. If tliey quarreled any, a little smoking: 

 made them agree. Most of the time they seem 

 glad to have company. 



I think I shall sell off all of my bees this fall. I 

 want to travel ne.vt summer for my health. Which 

 would you advise me to do— sell them at a public 

 sale, or try to sell them any way I can? I want to ' 

 sell out, not because they dou't pay, for they do 

 pay, and pay well. 



1 bought three settings of Pekin duck-eggs, and I 

 got 18 ducklings. They are four weeks old, and I 

 have all 18 of them yet. This spring I raised seven 

 young canaries. I tell you they are beauties. They 

 are cute. I have 140 young chickens and 116 old 

 ones. The two first hens I set, I gave them 30 eggs, 

 and they brought out 28 chickens. I do all of mj' 

 housework with the bees and ducks and birds and 

 chickens. Don't you think I have enough to do? 

 Mrs. Malinda A. Wilkins. 



Seneca, Kansas, June 8, 1886. 



As to whether you should sell your bees at 

 public sale or otherwise is a matter that 

 somebody in your immediate locality can an- 

 swer better than we can. I think perhaps if 

 you advertise them in your local paper you 

 might realize more from them than by pub- 

 lic sale. — I should think you had done ex- 

 tremely well with your poultry business, 

 with the other work you mention. We have 

 been greatly delighted with a brood of 

 Pekin ducks, but we have not succeeded as 

 well as you have in raising tliem all. 



