1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



771 



beautiful to look at, splendid for washing or 

 cooking, and the most delicious to the taste 

 of any when you once get used to it. 



NO MATURED BROOD WITHOUT POL- 

 LEN. 



FEEDING KVE MEAI. 



"HE FAl.I.. 



HAVE 13 colonics of bees. They have not rais- 

 ed any brood since the last of August to amount 

 |r to any thing-, on account of the drought that 

 as been on us ever since about the last of 

 June, which I believe is the cause. I have 

 been feeding sugar syrup all the time to keep up 

 brood-rearing, and it kept the queens laying all the 

 time, but the larvse perished as soon as hatched 

 from the eggs: but the queens kept the cells suji- 

 plied with eggs all the time, but of no avail, until 

 within the last few days, when I found out what 

 was the matter. They had no pollen, and could not 

 get any, so I gave them rye flour, and they are go- 

 ing for it like pigs, and raising brood all right. 1 

 should like to have your opinion or advice. Did I 

 do right in giving them the flour? and is there any 

 danger of feeding them too much rye flour in the 

 fall of the year? Woul'i you advise making rye- 

 flour candy and filling wired frames, and give each 

 colony one? Would it keep them raising brood all 

 winter, if well packed in chafl' hives oiit of doors? 

 Your advice on the above is very much desired. 



I will tell, also, some experience I had last spring 

 in introducing a queen, to keep the bees from ball- 

 ing her. The bees were Italians. Their queen 

 turned up missing late last fall, and they i-aised 

 one of their own, and it was too late for her to 

 get fertilized. They wintered well, and their 

 queen commenced laying early in the spring, 

 but her brood was all drone. I sent to 8. Valentine 

 & Son, and got an Albino queen; introduced her in- 

 to a Peet cage, and in 48 hours I released her. The 

 bees behaved all right to her; but accoi-ding to the 

 ABC book I looked after her in about 30 minutes, 

 and found her on the bottom of the hive, in a ball 

 of bees. I put them in a pan of water, and released 

 her; put her back, caged on the comb again. Next 

 day I let her out again, closed the hive for a few 

 minutes, and then looked for her again, and found 

 her balled. I caged her again, and this is what I 

 did to stop it: I took another Peet cage, and when 

 the bees would pile up over the cage the queen was 

 in, I would set this cage over them and slip on the 

 bottom, caging the bees that were aftei- the queen. 

 1 repeated this several times, closing the hive each 

 time; put the bees all in a large cage; then I let the 

 queen out, and there was no more balling from that 

 time on. I then took their own drone-laying queen 

 that T had in another cage, and put her with the 

 bees I had caged, and they killed her in no time. I 

 then burned them all up. It seemed that it was 

 only a certain number of bees that were after the 

 queen. If there is any thing in this, it may do some- 

 body else some good. I should like to have others 

 try it, and report in Gleanings. 



NiMSHI Nl'ZUM. 



Boothesvillc, W. Va., Oct. 11, 1884. 



Friend N., your experiment has turned 

 out just about as mine did wlien I tried to 

 raise brood witliout pollen. I have fed rye 

 meal and candy so as to keep bees rearing 

 brood clear up to Christmas, T^!*^ colony 



wintered nicely, but I don't think it neces- 

 sary, as a general thing, to go to this pains. 

 Of course, I would use a chaff hive so as to 

 keep them warm, that the brood may not be 

 chilled.— Tour discovery in regard to pre- 

 venting the balling of queens, I should think 

 might prove quite valuable. I have several 

 times thought it was only a limited number 

 of bees that so persecuted a queen ; and 

 since you speak of it. I feel quite certain 

 that if you can cage these few and get them 

 out of "the way, a great many queens could 

 be turned loose in the hive at once. I do 

 not believe I sliould recommend burning 

 them up, even if they did act as if they were 

 possessed. Your plan of catching and cag- 

 ing tliese mutinous bees is ingenious also, 

 and I wish others would try it and report. 

 I have sometimes caught a bee that seemed 

 determined to sting the queen, and killed 

 liiin, and after tliat the rest would behave 

 tolerablv well. 



THE HONEY CROP IN TEXAS. 



ALSO SOME SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO DOUBLING 

 UP AND UNITING COLONIES. 



MY honey crop is short this season. I com- 

 menced in spring with 160 swarms; increas- 

 ed 90 per cent by natural swarming, and 

 the building-up of nuclei into full swarms. 

 I have taken 3000 lbs. extracted, no comb. 

 From sale of bees and queens, and honey, I have 

 realized about $.500. In my locality I have never 

 had two good seasons in succession, but never an 

 entire failure. Lime and wild china yielded very 

 little honey this season. They yield well only every 

 other season. 



Bees have been gathering from goldenrod for 

 four weeks, and are gathering now verj' fast. I 

 shall extract some yet. I have been busy this fall, 

 doubling up. I have now 200. My mode is, killing 

 four or five queens one day, and next evening, just 

 before sunset, I take a queenless hive to the one I 

 want to winter it with, smoke both well, take a few 

 frames from stationary hive, fill up with queenless 

 one, put on upper stoi-ies, put in the rest of the 

 frames, sprinkle well with sugar-water, close up, 

 and I am ready for the next. I have had but one 

 swarm to do any quarreling, and that not to amount 

 to much. 



I have now in my honey-house two L. frames of 

 honey taken from one hive that weighs 27 lbs. (who 

 can beat it)? I took from one hive last season 7 

 frames that 1 extracted 59 lbs. from. 



It takes about 1.5 lbs. to winter each colony. My 

 hives will average now about 30 lbs. My plan is to 

 let them have all that, and extract what is left in 

 spring. Our bees stop working about the middle of 

 November, and commence the first of February, and 

 scarcely ever more than 4 or 5 days at a time that 

 they do not fly out. I have plenty of drones flying 



now. J. W. ECKMAN. 



Richmond, Texas, Nov. 1, 18-54. 



Friend E., wliy do you double up, if the 

 bees tlv every few days V It seems to me it 

 would hardly pav to double up for so small a 

 winter, and theii spread them out again so 

 shortly afterward. Here in the North we 

 are obliged to double up or have a great lot 

 of our weak colonies " peter out." It is a 

 pretty big job to double up 4()0 colonies domi 



