1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



675 



A QUEEN MAY LIVE, EVEN AFTER HAVING BEEN 



STUNG. 



June 30 I had a second swarm of bees (the only 

 two from 14 stands this season); hived them as 

 usual; had queen; grave them a frame of brood; 

 in a few days I examined, and found them queen- 

 less; supposed she got lost when out meeting the 

 drones; gave more eggs and brood; hatched sev- 

 eral; killed all; gave more eggs; hatched more; 

 found them killing young queen. I then concluded 

 to try them with a fertile queen; went to D. A. 

 MeCord and got one. By his advice, lest fertile 

 workers were present I took a frame covei-ed with 

 bees from a strong colony, shook off all the bees, 

 and gave them another frame entire, bees and all; 

 closed them all in for pai't of a day, then releasing 

 them. This brings us up to August 13. I then gave 

 them the queen in cage between the frames; left 

 her 24 hours; took out frame with bees; released 

 and watched her until satisfied they would not in- 

 jure her, and in about 4 hours I examined again, 

 and found her balled; released and caged her again 

 for another ^4 hours; took out frame as before, and 

 released her; balled lier iinmediately; and, whilst 

 in my fingers, and before I could get her in the 

 cage, one of the little rascals stung her about the 

 first yellow band, leaving its sting. I then thoue;ht 

 she was " kilt entirely." I extracted the sting-, 

 however, and made a cage by pressing some wire 

 cloth over the mouth of a glass can, trimming it 

 around, leaving it about an inch deep; brushed off 

 the bees from a space on the frame containing 

 brood hatching out, and some honey; covered the 

 queen with cage, and pressed it down close. I now 

 left her lor two days; looked again, expecting to 

 find her dead; on first frame I found her released, 

 and she laid several eggs while I was watching her. 

 The bees burrowed cleiir uuder the cage and re- 

 leased her, and are since doing well. Now the 

 query comes up, Did you ever know a queen to be 

 stung and live, or is it a new experience? Friend 

 McCord says it is new to him, and told me to ask 

 you. 



Not much of a honey season— an average of only 

 about ;iO lbs. Cause, dry weather. Crops also short 

 from the same. John Coui/rEK, Su. 



Oxford, Ohio, Aug. ;;s, 1884. 



Eriend C, I liave seen queens recover 

 after being stung slightly ; and your inci- 

 dent is valuable, inasmuch as it bids us not 

 to be in haste in deciding that the que^n is 

 injured. 



WHERE UIU THE QUEEN COME FROM? 



One of my neighbors cut a bee-tree about five 

 weeks ago. No queen was found, although several 

 examinations were made, and no eggs were laid for 

 some time; but eight days ago I examined two 

 frames, and found the queen-cell capped ; did not 

 notice any brood or eggs, and to-day I made a long 

 and careful examination; found no queen, but 

 brood in all stages, from eggs in abundance, regu- 

 larly laid, capped brood, <]ueen-cells torn down, ex- 

 cept one with a hole ifi end. P^w, if they have had 

 a queen-cell all #lie time, why tla! cells? The brood 

 appeared to me to be worker brood, with eggs laid 

 regularly. We are puzzled; can you give us light? 

 D. D. Lester. 



Christiansburg, Va., S«pt. 11, 1884. 



I do not know how I can answei, friend L., 

 unless 1 suggest the queen came from some 



other hive, and got in there accidentally at 

 about the time you mention. I have known 

 queens to be present when queen-cells were 

 started, and when the queen began to lay, 

 the cells were destroyed. Such cases are not 

 very common, however. In your case, the 

 queen would have had to be much older than 

 the usually allotted time when she began to 

 lay. ' 



HOLY-LANDS AND COTTON HONEY. 



I see by Gleanings lor the last two years j'ou 

 have had several samples of honey— one of cotton 

 from South Carolina, which you did not like the 

 color or flavor of. I send you one sample of cotton 

 honey, in the comb; also one of sumac, by to-day's 

 express, in a bottle. The comb in the bottom of the 

 bottle is cotton honey, and likewise the loose honey 

 around the comb is cotton honey. The golden-col- 

 ored comb, top piece, is sumac honey. Now try it. 

 I think both kinds nice honey. You will notice one 

 or two cells of dark honey in this comb of cotton 

 honey, that is also cotton honey. So you see cotton 

 honey is both vei-y light and very dark, as it is made. 

 You have asked if cotton always produces honey. 

 Yes, but bees don't like to gather it, if they can get 

 any thing else to make honey from. I had a Holy- 

 Land queen mated to a black di'one, whose progeny 

 stored 30 lbs. of this cotton honey in sections for 

 me during July last, half of which is as light as the 

 sample sent you; the other half, as dark as those 

 darkest cells — both the light and the dark all mixed 

 along in the same sections. These Holy-Land black 

 hybrids are the only bees among my 30 stands that 

 stored any cotton honeJ^ or anj' other kind of hon- 

 ey, during July; among the 30 stands I had pure 

 Italians, Italian hybrids, and this one stand of Holj^- 

 Land black hybrids. Italians and hybrids stored 

 suri)lus from sumac dui-ing August quite freely. 

 Abbott L. Swinson, 17—39. 



(bjldsboro, N. ('., Sept. Ifi, 1884. 



Tliaid^ yoii, friend S. The sanqtle of cot- 

 ton honey you sent is very good. Tlie whole 

 family ate of it, and pronounced it good, 

 even to l)aby Iluber. The tart taste, after 

 one is a little accustomed to it, we do not 

 lind unpleasant. TIk^ sumac has a very tine 

 aromatic llavor. 1 am glad to liear that the 

 Holy-Lands, sometimes at least, show them- 

 selves better at honey-gathering than the 

 Italians. 



GETTING BEES OUT OF A CHIMNEY. 



Sept. 8, 1884, I discovered in the chimney of my 

 house (about two feet from where I hived a runa- 

 way swarm t)f bees June 3, 1884), a colony of bees, 

 with considerable comb and brood, and but little 

 honey. I inunediately jiut uj) a stove and started 

 smoke. The bees being nrar or even with the roof, 

 I took otr the top of the ehinniey and went to work 

 transferring, and sad work I made of it, as the comb 

 became so soft T lost all the brood, and, worse still, 

 the queen fell down tht^ chinuicy on a comb of 

 brood, and was killed. I left the hive as near the 

 chimney as possible, and bj' keei)ing up a smoke I 

 succeeded in kcei)ing them out of the chinuiey, and 

 the poor motherless things clustered in the hive at 

 last, like a ship at sea, without anchor or rudder. 

 But on the 17th I succeeded in gcjtting a queen, and 

 when I went to work to introduce her I examined 

 them for a fcM-tile worker, and found about 4 square 

 inches of comb filled with honey and bee-bread. I 



