1)38 



GLEANINGS m BEE CULTUliE. 



Dec. 



thought, it is in lessening the hxbors of the 

 home. My wife, like Mrs. Cook, has always 

 had a preference for doing her own work ; 

 and I tell you, friends, we can afford to 

 spend quite a little money in the way of 

 making fuel, light, water, and air, conven- 

 ient in the kitchen rather thau to go to the 

 expense of hiring a girl to do the house- 

 work. In our own home we are now talk- 

 ing about making steam pump the water, 

 and warm it at the same time, by means of 

 one of the cheap injectors now in the mar- 

 ket. I tell you, there is no Christmas pres- 

 ent that can be studied up that will begin 

 to compare with household conveniences 

 that are real helps to the good wife, and not 

 a hindrance. 



QUEENS IN THAPS. 



HOW I^ONQ WILL, A QUEEN LIVE IN THE UPSTAIRS 

 PART OF^^HE ALLEY DRONE-TKAP? 



TTp FTER Ernest told ot his talk with me about 

 9J\'Pii queens of swarming colonies being- caught In 



jRw Alley's di-oue-traps, Mr. Alley wrote me that 

 ''^^ Ernest was in error as to the length of time 

 a queen would stay iu the trajj. I replied 

 that we had in mind a queen remaining and living 

 in the trap, and said, "A ciueen could hardly live 2 

 hours in the trap, if the hot sun were shining on it." 

 To this he leplied, "Allow me to say, friend M., 

 that you are giving j'our opinion about that you 

 know nothing about, when you say, "A queen could 

 hardly live 3 hours in the trap, if the hot sun were 

 shining on it.' I say, the queen will live several 

 weeks in the trap, sun or no sun." 



My first thought was, " Yes, I do know what I am 

 talking about, for haven't I had them die in the hot 

 sun ?" But, come to think of it, I don't know that 

 I ever did have one die in the sun, whei'e the bees 

 had access to her, but only under a glass tumbler, 

 which would be much hotter than in a trap where 

 the air would have free circulation. I presume Mr. 

 Alley knows what he is talking about, from actual 

 experience: and if so, it is quite important to know 

 the fact, for all that is necessary will be to shut the 

 little opening left for the queen to return to the 

 hive, and then the trap can be looked at once a 

 week. Is there any advantage in any case in hav- 

 ing the trap so arranged as to allow the return of 

 the queen into the hive y 



BALLING QUEENS. 



Referring to the discussion ou page 853, 1 may say 

 I have had considerable experience as to bees ball- 

 ing their own queen. In the spring I go through 

 all ray hives, and see whether queens are clipped; 

 and if any are not clipped, I clip them. If, after 

 clipping, a (jueen is accidentally dropi)ed ou the 

 top of the frames so as to fall on the bottom-board 

 at the entrance of the hive, she is very likely balled; 

 and if the hive is at once closed up she may be re- 

 leased, but is sometimes killed. If a (jueen is placed 

 on one of the combs, right among the bees, she Is 

 not likely to be molested. Sometimes, however, on 

 opening a hive the first I sec of a queen is to find 

 her balled befoi-e I have touched her. In such case, 

 if I close up the hive immediately, and do not open 

 it again for several hours, I am pretty sure to find 

 her all right. Is it not possible that, iu this case, 

 the bees Imll their quoon for the sake of protecting 

 her ? 



SPACING HIA'ES. 



You suggest, friend Root, that many queens are 

 lost because hives are exactly alike, and too close 

 together. The remedy in such case would bo to 

 move the hives further apart. Let me suggest, that 

 a better remedy is to put the hives neai-er together 

 —that is, move every alternate hive close to its 

 neighbor. Suppose, for example. hives stand in a 

 row, each hive IS inches in width, and a space ot 

 11 inches between each two hives. In such case 

 there is danger of bees getting into the wrong hive, 

 except the hive at each eiid, allowing that there are 

 no trees or other objects by which the location of 

 the hive may be marked. Now move the second 

 hive within two inches of .the 1st: the 4th within 

 two inches of the M; and the 6th within two inches 

 of the 5th, and you have the hives in pairs, with a 

 space of 30 inches between the i>airs. 



l: 



cm: 



I] □ 



I] l: 



In the above, the upper row shows the hives be- 

 fore moving, 11 inches apart. The lower row shows 

 them after each alternate hive has been moved 

 within 3 inches of its neighbor, leaving the differ- 

 ent pairs 30 inches apart. As before suggested, in 

 the upper row Nos. 1 and appear different from 

 all the others, and no bee of 1 or 6 is likely to get 

 into any other hive; neither is a bee of any other 

 hive likely to get into 1 or 6. But as betwecii the 

 other four hives, thei'e is nothing to distinguish the 

 one from the other, except the difference in dis- 

 tance from side to side; and a bee accustomed to 

 enter its hive at a certain spot will find another 

 spot of exactly the same appearance by going 3it 

 inches either to the right or the left. Generally 

 speaking, that 39 inches is sufficient, but I belies e 

 not always; and if a young queen, on the return 

 from her wedding-trip, were not able to identify her 

 own hive where the distance between the hives is 

 only 11 inches, the consequence might be disastrous. 

 But in the lower row there is no danger of a bee 

 mistaking the next hive for its own. A bee of No. 

 3, for instance, knows its hive as the left one of a 

 pair; and at whatever point it is accustomed to en- 

 ter its hive, it can find a point similar in appearance 

 only by going a distance of 58 inches to No. 1, or to 

 No. 5. An experience of yeai-s in thus placing 

 hives in pairs convinces me that it is important 

 and useful, allowing the hives to occu])y much less 

 ground without danger of bees entering wrong 

 hives. ('. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111., No\-., 1880. 



Our friend Mr. Alley has had a large ex- 

 perience with the trap bearing his name, 

 and I suppose he ought to know whereof he 

 speaks. I may l)e in error as to the length 

 of time a ([ueen will live confined in the up- 

 per part of the drone-trap. I stated in an- 

 swer to you, that I thought the "•queen would 

 live four or five iiours, possibly a day.'' As 

 I could not say from experience, I so stated 

 it. We liad oiie queen die in the '■" upstairs '' 

 part of the cage where she was unable to 

 make her escape. No one was on hand at 

 the time the swarm issued; but the fact re- 

 mains, that the queen was found dead in 

 the upper part of the trap. I can not say 

 just how long the queen was confined there 

 before she died, but it could not have been 



