674 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



by trying the turnip alone ; and then one ] 

 should be very careful to be sure that relief 

 did not come from some other cause. The 

 application of heat alone, or a hot poultice, 

 will often give relief to pain. 



CALIFORNIA — A SWARM OF BEES WEIGHING U 

 LBS. 



Our bees are mostly blacks, though we caught 

 several hybrid swarms, one of which threw off a 

 swarm that weighed 14 lbs.; and a few days after- 

 ward, another strong swarm, all three of which are 

 doing very well. Can you tell me how to find a 

 queen in a hive? I have worked among the bees a 

 great deal, and have seen only one queen so far. If 

 I wanted to introduce a good queen I should not be 

 able to And the old one. I send you a sample of our 

 best honey. 



A CRAZY SWARM. 



We have had what I call a crazy swarm around 

 hero lately. Thej- would not stay in any hive more 

 than 24: hours, and would always swarm out the 

 next day. One day they slept all night on the limb 

 of a tree, and built a lot of comb. We gave them a 

 frame of brood and houey, but they came out again. 

 Had they lost their queen? 



Alfred W. Hinde. 



Anaheim, Cal., Aug. 16, 1884. 



I believe that 14 lbs. is a heavier swarm 

 than I ever saw — that is, all from one hive, 

 friend H. The sample of houey you send is 

 not only beautiful in color, and nearly as 

 white as water, but it is so thick it will 

 hardly move when turned over, and yet the 

 flavor is exquisite. If honey like this' can be 

 sent to us at the price of clover and bass- 

 wood honey here, it seems to me we should 

 be able to use almost unlimited quantities. 

 The ABC book will tell you all about find- 

 ing queens. 



In regard to your crazy swarm, they have 

 a queen or they would not swarm out as they 

 do ; but I think they must have got demor- 

 alized by being starved out repeatedly. Some 

 years ago a swarm was found out in the 

 fields, between two broad fence-rails. They 

 had several pieces of comb and a little honey. 

 After being brought into our own apiary 

 they persisted in swarming out almost every 

 day, do what we could with them. They 

 would even swarm out when divided up and 

 put among other colonies. I was so much 

 annoyed by having people constantly telling 

 me my bees were swarming, that I began to 

 be sorry they were not left between the 

 fence-rails. It seems to be a sort of mania 

 that occasionally gets possession of a swarm 

 after they have swarmed out several times. 



NUCLEI AND YOUNG QUEENS. 



In such extensive apiaries as the " Home of the 

 Honey-Bees," how do you manage when honey 

 fails in the fields, and the bees are ravenous, search- 

 ing every nook and ci-anny for sweets, to keep your 

 nuclei from being robbed and broken up? How do 

 you manage to introduce your young queens to the 

 nuclei, and prevent them from being destroyed, or, 

 at least, a pretty large per cent of them? 



Highlands, N. C. E. E. Ewing. 



Friend "E., to avoid robbing in an apiary 

 of 400 or .500 colonies, we take pains that ev- 

 ery colony shall always be strong in bees and 

 stores, even though used for queen-rearing, 

 and also that the entrances shall be kept 



rather small. The alighting-boards we use 

 favor this arrangement. During the past 

 season, the honey-dew has kept the bees 

 busy most of the time ; and as they used the 

 greater part of it about as fast as it was 

 gathered, we don't apprehend much trouble 

 in wintering. I believe our boys usually let 

 the young queens, as they take them from 

 the nurseries, crawl in at the entrance of 

 the hive. AVe lose very few. 



fertilization in confinement. 

 Last fall I sold 4 stands of bees to one Mr. Stan- 

 ford. One of them was such nice Italians that he 

 concluded to raise a lot of queens from that queen, 

 and when the quticns were hatching he gave his 

 father a queen-cell. When the queen hatched out 

 he put it into a two-quart glass jar. When the 

 queen was two days old the old man took an Italian 

 drone and put it in the jar with the queen; and 

 when he put the drone in at the top of the jar the 

 drone began to fly, and the queen raised on her 

 wings, and they met together in the jar, and fell to 

 the bottom, and clinched togethei'. The queen 

 pulled away from the drone, and the drone was 

 dead in a little bit. 



SEVERAL EGGS IN A CELL. 



Does a queen ever lay more than one egg in a cell, 

 or does a fertile worker and a queen ever remain 

 in a hive together? I had a hive this season with a 

 good queen in it. Some cells had 3 and 4 eggs in 

 hem. I had 5 fertile workers this season. I got rid 

 of them by putting a new swarm in their place, and 

 shaking the bees off the frames, and letting them 

 go to the old stand. Jas. H. Brown. 



Cherokee, la.. Sept. 16, 1884. 



Friend B., I am aware that queens have 

 been several times fertilized in the manner 

 you mention, under a glass tumbler, or in 

 something about the size, or a little larger ; 

 but it is so seldom that circumstances are 

 exactly right, that it does not amount to any 

 thing practically.— I have several times ex- 

 plained that a queen when cramped for room 

 often lays several eggs in a cell, and this 

 often indicates that she is a very prolific 

 queen. She may be cramped for room by an 

 insufficient number of bees to care for the 

 cells, or the combs may be too much crowded 

 with honey, as often happens during a sudden 



and heavy yield. 



from 4 TO 40 in one season; see page 599. 



In regard to my report published in Gleanings 

 of Sept. 1, 1 have always thought that a good report 

 ought to be known, and the report I sent was for 

 the encouragement of others. In making that re- 

 port I was cool and collected, and have made no 

 mistake in figuring, I can assure you, as I can give 

 plenty of testimony to the facts in said report. I am 

 not given to blowing, but I generally tell things as 

 they are, and as I understand them. Our bees have 

 not done much since the first of July; but at pres- 

 ent, things are more hopeful. Illiuois is a great 

 State, and it goes to extremes in nearly every 

 thing. Gleanings is a welcome visitor. 



Berdan, 111., Sept. 16, 1884. W. R. Pinkerton. 



Friend P., I did not think of questioning 

 your veracity, but I wanted to be sure we 

 understood you correctly, as your statement 

 might be understood in another way. From 

 4 to 40 in a single season, for a beginner, is 

 certainly a little astonishing. 



