82 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



covery of tallow or paraffine, which will float beau- 

 fully. We hope this will be of service to many. 



Chas. Dadant & Son. 

 Hamilton, 111.. Jan. 24. 188i. 



[ believe, friends D., you have hit upon 

 somethingf quite practicable. Of course, the 

 test is only for specific gravity ; but if the 

 wax chews" all right, tastes all right, and has 

 the right speci tic gravity, I think we are pretty 

 safe. I can always detect rosin by the taste, 

 very quickly ; ancl chewing will almost al- 

 ways tell the presence of either rosin or tal- 

 low, because it makes it form chewing-gum, 

 like grafting-wax. Now, you see if they 

 should put in rosin and tallow so as to bal- 

 ance each other, and thus bring the specitic 

 gravity right, we could readily get at it by 

 the taste. The worst swindle we ever got 

 Into was some wax that was adulterated 

 with sa,nd : and as it was put into the bin 

 with several other lots, we were at a loss to 

 know where to lix the swindle. When we 

 melted it, the sand went to the bottom of the 

 melting-tank, so it did not hurt the fdn. any. 

 But there was enough of it to make a pretty 

 sad pressure on our pocket-book. 



I101.Y-1.ANDS CROSSED WITH ITALIANS 



SOME VALUABLE FACTS FROM PRACTICAL EXPERI- 

 ENCE. 



^ajfflJCCH has been said for and against the Holj- 

 j^M Lands; but as mine are a cross between 



~ ' Holy-Lands and Italians, I will give you their 



good and bad qualities, as has been my experience 

 with them the past season. They build up better in 

 the spring, and with fewer liees, than the Italians; 

 they keep the combs well filled with brood at the 

 commencement of the honey season, which is very 

 important; they commence working in the sections 

 sooner than the Italians. This is probably due to 

 their having the combs tilled with brood to the top- 

 bar. They build nicer and straighter combs than 

 the Italians, and are not so particular about crowd- 

 ing every little space full of comb. This I hive es- 

 pecially noticed In sections, if they are not filled 

 full of foundation. They will often round off the 

 edges of the comb, and scarcely fasten them to the 

 sections at all, except at the top, especially when 

 honey is not coming in fast, thus making them un- 

 safe for rough handling; but by filling the sections 

 complete with fdn., this maybe overcome. They do 

 not bridge their combs together, and attach pieces 

 of comb between the lower and upper story, as do 

 the Italians. I have had colonies that put scarcely 

 any comb or glue between the lower and upper 

 frames, and you could lift them out as nicely as you 

 please; while some Italians would have them bridged 

 together so that you would have to pry loose every 

 frame. They can not be controlled so well in 

 swarming-time as the Italians, although I do not 

 think they are as liable to swarm as the Italians; 

 but it is next to impossible to cut out all the queen- 

 cells after they have swarmed, and the young 

 queens are so vigorous that it is unsafe to throw 

 these cells around carelessly; for if nearly ready to 

 hatch, they will often gnaw out and crawl into other 

 hives; and as these young queens are often accept- 

 ed, might not this be the way some strange " queen 

 cases " appear? I have thrown them on the grass, 

 and had them hatch and crawl into a hive. 



SEPARATORS, ETC. 



As there are still some who claim that wooden 

 separators are superior to tin, I will give my experi- 

 ence. I find that separators made of wood are not 

 what I want. First, they will warp and become 

 crooked, and can not be fastened as securely as tin. 

 Second, they are liable to split and break when 

 pried apart . Third, the bees will attach propolis and 

 comb to them when they will not to tin. I have used 

 both kinds on the same hive, and find they work 

 just as quickly in the tin as wooden ones. If you 

 have them where the mice can get at them, fhey 

 will gnaw them up badly. In regard to dispensing 

 with them entirely, I do not believe it is a success in 

 securing nice comb honey, unless in some different 

 way from the ordinary one in securing comb honey. 

 It might do not to use any, by having narrow sections 

 filled with foundation, and having the bees com- 

 mence in all of them at one time. Even then I do 

 ' not think they could be taken out as fast as filled, 

 [ and replaced with empty oues, so as to secure 

 straight combs; and by carrying some partly filled 

 I to colonies that refuse to start in the sections, you 

 I would almost be sure to get thick and thin combs. 



FERTILE WORKERS AMONG THE HOLY-LANDS. 



! If you happen to cut out all the queen-cells, and 

 ] leave them without material to rear one, you will in 

 a short time have fertile workers. I will tell you a 

 I case of this kind which occurred to me last summer: 

 I made it a rule last summer to cutout queen- 

 j cells, to prevent after-swarming; but one colony, 

 j in some way, was left without cells or material to 

 rear a queen. When it was time to examine those 

 colonies which had cast a swarm, to see if the young 

 queen was fertilized, I found eggs in several combs, 

 and queen-cells started, which contained eggs. 1 

 looked for the queen, but could not find any, yet I 

 was quite sure they had one, for there was nothing 

 unnatural, except those queen-cells; and as these 

 are of frequent occurrence during the swarming, I 

 was yet not sure that they were queenless, for there 

 were plenty of eg2S in the combs; and in due time 

 those queen-cells were capped over, and looked like 

 any other natural cells. But a queen failed to 

 hatch, and those eggs in the worker cells hatched 

 out nothing but drones. Then I was sure that fer- 

 tile workers did the mischief, and the next thing in 

 order was to get rid of these pests. I tried intro- 

 ducing queens, but it was of no use. I moved the 

 hive away, and let the bees return, but this would 

 not work. Finally robbers began their mischief on 

 this colony, and the best thing I could do was to 

 give them combs of brood and a queen from another 

 colony, and close the hive for a short time, to keep 

 out robbers. This ended the mischief, and in a 

 short time it was a prosperous colony. 



You say, in the ABC book, that the eggs of a 

 fertile worker are scattered around in the cells, 

 sometimes several in one cell, and that they some- 

 times build queen-cells over this drone larvte; but I 

 think this was an exception to the rule, for the eggs, 

 I think, were deposited in the queen-cells, although 

 some contained several eggs, and vrcre of ditferent 

 sizes; and the eggs which were deposited in the 

 workei--cells were not scattered around promiscuous- 

 ly, some in worker and some in drone cells, bu t were 

 deposited just about as a queen would. 



The IIoly-Lands crossed with Italians are some 

 Grosser than the pure Italians, depending qn the 

 amount of Holy-Land blood. H. J. Schrock. 



Goshen, Ind., Jan. 35,1884. 



