702 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Oct. 



ClilPPING QUEENS. 



Many of your correspondents are opposed to clip- 

 ping their queens' AVings. I keep mine all clipped, 

 and never have a lirst swarm go to the woods; and 

 I generally manage so that a second swarm never 

 issues; consequently, I never have a swarm go to 

 the woods under my present jefifirne. I scarcely ever 

 lose a queen; and if I did, I think it better than to 

 lose the swarm and queen too. Some friend, writ- 

 ing about a year ago, stated that he would clip no 

 more queens, because he had such a one, and it 

 swarmed; and when he looked for the queen he 

 couldn't find her, and he looked next day, and could 

 find no eggs. The absence of eggs when bees have 

 the swarming mania would not prove to me that 

 they had no queen. 



I have decided another thing from several years' 

 experience; viz., that queens have the power of 

 bringing their bodies under subjection. I noticed 

 many years ago, that when some queens swarmed 

 they left no eggs in the hive. I noticed, also, that 

 this was not an invariable rule; and I noticed that 

 there was much difference in the size of queens, 

 that some never get too large to fly, while others do. 

 1 opened a hive three years ago for the purpose of 

 clipping the queen ; as she was a little distance from 

 the others, I feared they might swarm, and that I 

 should lose them. When I found her, I told my 

 daughter, who was helping me, that there was no 

 use of clipping her, for she could not possibly fly, 

 for she was large to deformity. It was rather late 

 for swarming; but in a few weeks I found she had 

 lead off a swarm which nearly depopulated the hive. 

 This, with other observations, convinced me that a 

 large queen has the power to prepare herself for 

 swarming, and at that time is incapable of laying 

 eggs. I presume all experienced bee-keepers have 

 returned swarms, and the queen would not lay, be- 

 cause, as I think, she could not; and until she be- 

 comes reconciled to stay, she will not prepare her- 

 self for laying. This is why I say, th^.t at certain 

 times the absence of eggs is not unfailing evidence 

 that the hive is queenless. 



RAISING QUEENS UNDER THE SWARMING IMPUI.SE. 



Some queen-raisers state this fact in their ad- 

 vertisement, in order to induce men to buy from 

 them. There is an admitted principle pervading 

 all animated nature; that in the propagation of the 

 species, the offspring will be affected by the pecul- 

 iar circumstances surrounding the parent during 

 the period of gestation. Will any man dare say that 

 queens raised under the swarming impulse will not 

 transmit that principle to their posterity? I always 

 start ray cells in a strong colony, but not while they 

 have the swarming fever; and my bees show less 

 disposition to swarm than any within my knowl- 

 edge; and when they do swarm, I have very little 

 trouble in returning them if I wish, and have to use 

 but little argument to induce the queen to stay and 

 resume business. Yours for the truth. 



B. F. Cathev. 



Cabot, Lonoke Co., Ark., Aug. 27, 18f4. 



I believe, friend C, that others have de- 

 cided much as you have in regard to the 

 value of the hybrids as honey-gatherers, com- 

 pared with Italians.— If lam correct, several 

 tacts are brought forward by different par- 

 ties, saying that drones did actually crawl 

 out of the drone-cells often found near 

 queen-cells. I think your queen was fertil- 

 ized the fore part of April, from the drones 



belonging to some bee-tree, or some apiary 

 unknown to you. I like the point you make, 

 that we should be after truth and not victory. 

 I think it would be a good motto for us in 

 our political contests.— I, too, have remark- 

 ed, and I think commented on the fact, that 

 queens often cease laying just before leading 

 out a swarm, and sometimes they will not 

 begin again until a swarm has ha\l time to 

 build several sheets of comb.— I should want 

 some practical proof to convince me that 

 queens reared tinder the swarming impulse 

 are more likely to swarm ; although I can 

 readily admit, "that where artiticial swarm- 

 ing is practiced year after year in the same 

 apiary, the tendency to natural swarming 

 would be likely lessened, more or less. 



SOME EXPERIMENTS IN EXTRACTING 

 HONEY. 



IS IT POSSIBLE TO EXTRACT ALL THE HONEY 

 FROM THE COMBS? 



N last number of Gleanings, on page 658, James 

 McNeill, of Hudson, N. Y.. asks, " Are there ex- 

 tractors in use that will extract all the honey 

 late in the fall?" Although this may seem an 

 easy task at first, a short investigation will 

 show to the contrary. We will take, for example, a 

 brood f rame9 X 16 inches, which is one of the two sizes 

 that we use in our apiary; and as brood-combs are 

 built !'« of an inch tliick, we find that a comb of that 

 size has about 27 square feet of surface that, when 

 the comb is full of honey, is completely covered. 

 Now the question arises. Is there an extractor that 

 will wipe di-y all of this 27 square feet of surface, 

 and not, at the same time, injure the comb? We 

 think not. Mr. McNeill says that his combs, 

 when taken from the extractor, still contain an av- 

 erage of one pound of honey each. Now, there is 

 evidently a defect somewhei-e, and we should be in- 

 clined to lay it to the fact that the combs revolve in 

 too small a circle. 



After seeing the above article we thought best to 

 make acai'eful test and see how near we could come 

 to taking all the honey from the combs ; and for 

 that purpose my brother went to a hive of Italians 

 that had their combs all full and capped, clear down 

 to the bottom-bar, and took the two outside combs, 

 which must have been capped for at least six 

 weeks. After weighing them we removed the caps, 

 and extracted them with the following result: 

 Weight of the two combs, as taken from the 



hive, 11 lbs. 4 oz. 



Weight of the two combs as taken from the 



extractor, 1 lb. 12 oz. 



Weight after the bees had cleaned them in the 



open air, lib. Siioz. 



Thus it will be seen that the extractor took 9 lb. 8 

 oz., and the bees took onlj' 3'2 oz. 



Now as this small amount of honey was spread on 

 54 square feet of comb surface, one will readily see 

 that it was hardly enough to moisten the combs. If 

 the honey had been extracted during the honey 

 season, the amount remaining in the combs would 

 have been somewhat less. 



I think if friend McNeill will take the honey 

 from his combs as closely as the above test shows, 

 he will not have to carry over a great amount of 

 honey in them. The test was made in one of our 

 No. 3 automatic extractors, the combs revolvingin a 

 20-inch circle at a speed of 200 revolutions per min- 

 ute, or about 15 miles an hour. G. W. Stanley. 



Wyoming, N. Y., Oct. 4, 1884. 



