1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



383 



SOME QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE HOLY-LAND 

 BEES. 



Will the Palestine bees build nearly all worker 

 comb after the queen is more than one year old? 



I am not aware tliat the IIoly-Land bees 

 are more disposed to build worker combs 

 than the Italians or common bees. 



Will they build all worker comb if they have a 

 young- queen (like the black bees), or will they 

 build part drone comb (like the Italians)? How 

 much drone comb do they usually build? 



We have not had experience enough to 

 say whether they build comb like Italians or 

 the blacks or hyl)rids. but I believe they are 

 a little more disposed to commence at the 

 top and build downward, as tlie blacks and 

 hybrids do. You know we use fdn. exclu- 

 sively. 



Will they Avork in the surplus arrangements above 

 the brood-chamber as readily as blacks and hybrids, 

 or are they inclined to stick to the brood-chamber 

 like the Italians? 



Will they work above through a small opening as 

 readilj- as the black bees, or must they have ample 

 openings to the sections like the Italians? 



Will they work above as readily as the Italians? 



I can not answer, as we do not raise comb 

 honey. Perhaps some of the other f ri ends 

 can. 



Can drones be raised from an untested Palestine 

 queen the first season? 



I think that, as a rule, you will find it dif- 

 ficult to get drones the first season from any 

 kind of queens. 



Could you furnish Palestine drones by the pound, 

 or sheets of Palestine drone brood nearly ready to 

 hatch, and at what price? 



Neighbor II. can furnish you drone brood 

 of any of the races. I suppose the price will 

 be about the same as for worker brood. 



Are the Palestines invulnerable against the attacks 

 of robber-bees, as some have claimed? 



These new races are splendid to defend 

 themselves against robbers. 



Are they very cross? Is it next to impossible to 

 remove the sections from the hives after they are 

 filled, and is smoke of no use in subduing them? 



You will find some difficulty in moving the 

 sections, unless you understand just how to 

 handle them. 'You can drive them with 

 smoke, if you work it right. 



Are the Palestine bees as long lived, and will they, 

 if given room so as not to swarm, maintain as strong- 

 swarms as the Italians? 



I should say they are longer lived, and 

 would maintain a heavier force of bees than 

 the Italians. 



How are the Cyprians in regard to the above ten 

 points, and what is the chief difference between 

 them and the Palestines? Harvey Backus. 



Slocum's Grove, Muskegon Co., Mich. 



The Cyprians are very much like the Holy- 

 Lands. 



A WORKER-HEE from a DHONE-LAYING queen. 



I reared a queen late last autumn, which became 

 a drone-layer. To-day I got a queen from P. L. 

 Viallon for that swarm; when I came to introduce 

 her I saw a worker-bee gnawingoff the capping-, and 

 a perfect worker-bee crawled out. I examined the 

 Other capped cells, but they contain all drones. Now, 



if the drone-laying queen is not the mother of that 

 bee, where did they get that egg? Was it stolen 

 from another hive? This I have seen with my own 

 eyes. I had some years ago something of the same 

 experience, but was at that time too much of a be- 

 ginner to report it. H. M. Moyer. 

 Hill Church, Berks Co., Pa., April 21, 1884. 



Friend ]M.. it is not very unusual for a 

 queen to produce nothing but drones for a 

 time, and then afterward go back to worker- 

 brood; and young queens^ when first ferti- 

 lized, often produce nothing but drones for 

 a wliile. and finally settle down to regular 

 worker-eggs. Your case is much like the 

 latter, only it was a longer while before the 

 queen got to laying regular worker-eggs. It 

 woidd seem that the spermatozoa must have 

 been in some way retaided. and did not 

 fulfill their office "of fertilizing the eggs as 

 they were laid. This whole subject is one 

 involving much mystery, and we have yet 

 much to learn about it. 



home-made perforated honey-boards. 



I have recently had made at the blacksmith shop, 

 an instrument to make perforations in sheets of tin, 

 to go between upper and lower frames of Simplicity 

 hive, which I think will supply a want among a 

 great many bee-keepers who, like myself, do not 

 care to pay Sf25.00 per hundred for zinc when some- 

 thing else will answer the same purpose at half the 

 price. This instrument is made from a common 

 gouge, bent and ground to 3-16 inch wide by i.j, inch 

 from heel to point, thus: ■■- The points are bent 

 down at right angles to U-''' your sheet of tin, 

 and rest on the top-bars '^'^^ of the lower frames, 

 thus allowing room over the frames for the bees to 

 look after the festive moth, and prevent sticking: 

 your separator tight with propolis, so that a screw- 

 driver is necessary to take it off, and a mallet and 

 block to straighten the kinks after it is once 

 wrenched from its place. For side storing, the Jones 

 separator would be excellent; but to go on top, any 

 thing- that will lie fiat on the frames is a nuisance— 

 at least, such is my experience. 



Robert Vance. 



Memphis, Tenn., April 19, ISSi. 



Your idea is tiptop, friend V.; but it^eems 

 to me it would be quite a little task to per- 

 forate your tin or zinc sheets after you get 

 them, will it not? Perhaps so many perfor- 

 ations would not be needed as in the sheet 

 metal we have for sale. Plain zinc sheets 

 will cost you about 10 cts. each, if I am 

 correct, and then you will liave lo cts. for 

 making the ])erforations. Perhaps light tin 

 will do equally well, but it is not so stiff, 

 and is more apt to gel rusty. We can fur- 

 nish sheets of tin large enough for the pur- 

 pose for 7 cts. Tlie idea of tliat point turned 

 down to supi)ort the metal just so far above 

 the frames, is (luite ingenious. It seems to 

 me your gouge will lieud the sheets of metal 

 out of shape, will it not, unless you have a 

 metal support underneath? 



SIMPLICITY, OR ONE-POUND HONEY-BOXES. 



We copy the following from the secretary's 

 report of the Central Michigan JJee-keepers' 

 Association: 



E. N. Wood represented the firm of W. B. Stone & 

 Co., of North Lansing-, manufactui-ers of sections , 



