402 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



quired Ions and tons of tin, imported from 

 ilie old country. In the matter of perforat- 

 ed z;nc, there' is sneh a difference of opin- 

 ion, aiid a difference in practical experi- 

 ments, that it seems to be a very hard 

 matter indeed to decide upon the best size 

 for the perforations. I really do not see any 

 other way at present than' to publish the 

 conclusions that different ones arrive at, 

 even though one man decides conclusively 

 that '•• t'other man" has made a big blunder. 

 Worse yet. some of the best of us frequently 

 reverse decisions that we had supposed set- 

 tledf _ _ 



DO BEES EVER SWARM WITHOUT A 

 QUEEN ? 



N June Gleanings, page 376, in your comments 

 at foot of page, you say, " At least some claim 

 they do," which leaves one to think you seem 

 to doubt the fact. Prior to last weelt, I would 

 have said the same thing; but a few' days ago 

 I was sent for, to come home; the beesweije swarm- 

 ing. On arriving I found two clusters under the 

 grape-arbor. As the clusters were small, and not 

 having hives to spare, I concluded to put both 

 clusters in one hive, and take chances as to the re- 

 sults. I used a tin pan, took down one cluster, put 

 th3m on a large paper in front of the hive, then 

 took down the other cluster, and put them on top 

 of those on the paper. The two together made 

 quite a respectable colony. As they entered the 

 hive I^ept a good lookout to get the two queens, 

 and give them the one I liked better; but, to my 

 astonishment, I found none. They were hardly 

 settled in the hive containing two frames of comb, 

 before they commenced coming out. Expecting 

 trouble, 1 took a frame of brood and honey out of 

 another hive, and put in. As soon as I put a cover 

 on, all bees immediately returncd'and entered the 

 hive. I then put them on the stand near the others, 

 not being satisfied about their having no queen. I 

 closed the entrance to hive, so that but three bees 

 could get in at a time; shook bees all off the frames 

 on a paper; put frames back in hive, put on cover, 

 opened entrance, and then watched them. As the 

 entrance was small it took them some time to get 

 back in the hive, giving good opportunity to find 

 the queen, if any, but saw none. The next day I 

 examined them again; found no queen, but cells 

 started, which I destroyed; again, two days from 

 that tiiHe, I destroyed cells started about 6 days 

 from the time I hived them. I gave them an Italian 

 queen. I introduced her by letting her run off my 

 finger on the comb among the bees. As soon as 

 they became aware of having a queen, they com- 

 menced singing that peculiar song expressing satis- 

 faction, etc. So much for bees swarming without 

 a queen. A. Loaveu. 



Griffin, Ga., June T, 1881. 



Friend L., if I understand the nuitter these 

 were some colonies that liad got a sort of 

 swarming mania ; and although you do not 

 say so, I should judge they had been going 

 out and clustering in that eccentric sort or 

 way, perhaps, before you saw them this 

 time. I have seen a demoralized colony so 

 that they would swarm almost every day, 

 3.nd would hang or separate bunclies .in sev- 



eral places for an hour or more. Sometimes 

 where a queen is clipped, the bees will clus- 

 ter and hang, perhaps for ten or fifteen min- 

 utes ; but they usually return in less time 

 than that, if no queen is in the cluster. 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT THE ZINC 

 HONEY-BOARDS. 



TELLING aV HER LOOKS WHICH HIVE A QUEEN 

 BELONGS TO. 



T NOTICE some of the bee-keepers, who have 

 ^F tried the perforated zinc honey-boards, write 

 *r they don't like them ; but with me they have been 

 ■^ a perfect success. I bought ten last year from 

 you, and found that they answered the purpose 

 splendidly— not a single queen getting into the up- 

 per story. I left the boards on several hives during 

 the winter, and this spring I found that one queen 

 in the ten had deposited eggs in the upper story. I 

 think she must have gone up before she began to 

 lay freely, and while she was not heavy with eggs, 

 as no more eggs have been found above since re- 

 placing her in lower story. It is a pleasure to ex- 

 tract from hives with these zinc boards. 



From one of my best colonies I have extracted 

 13q lbs. of honey in about fifteen days, and they are 

 ready to extract again; so the boards do not hinder 

 the free passage of the workers. 



I want to tell you how well my young relation, 

 Milton Scott, who also keeps bees, knows his queens. 

 He has twelve colonies, in Simplicity hives, with 

 zinc-honey boards; all worked for extracted honey. 

 As he has entire charge of his father's farm, of 

 some 000 acres, he did not want to increase his col- 

 onies this year; and when they swarmed he would 

 cut out queen-cells, extract the honey, and put 

 them back. Well, he had done this a time or two, 

 when, one day, four stands cast swarms at the 

 same time, and all togetheij making a cluster about 

 the size of a ten-gallon can. He shook them all on a 

 sheet, found all four of the queens, returned them 

 to their respective hives, and allowed the bees to 

 return at will. 



I think his acquaintance with his queens, in being 

 able to return each to her own hive, entitles him to 

 a front seat with our foremost apiarists. I will add, 

 that from his twelve colonies he has extracted 

 nearly 1000 lbs. of honey, from poplar-bloom. I 

 think this will do pretty well for Georgia. Don't 



yOUV F. N. WlLUEH. 



Forsyth, Ga., May 33, 1884. 



The above was writen at my dictation by my little 

 daughter, 13 years old; as you are always interest- 

 ed in children, I mention it. F. N. W. 



Thank you, friend W., for yoiu' good re- 

 nort. In regard to telling what hive a queen 

 belongs to by her looks, it would not be a very 

 difficult matter, if they all had some dis- 

 tinctive mark or characteristic. The color 

 and shape help us greatly to know them ; 

 but by a little careful observation, the man- 

 ner in which they move, the way in which 

 they carry their wings, a spot on their backs, 

 etc., will enable us to distinguish them 

 pretty surely.— I am glad of that concluding 

 note, and I "do not know but one reason why 

 your letter was given a place in Gleanings 

 .lust as soon as it came out of the mail was 

 because it was so plainly and nicely written. 

 We print it without changing a word, all of 



