188-1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



805 



HOW DO BEES GET THE POLL.EN TO THETIl POL- 

 LEN-BASKETS? 



This has also been much wondered at, and I can 

 now give a little more information. Last sijriiig-I 

 fed my bees on meal, and I used to frequently watch 

 them at work, and found they would handle their 

 flrst pair of feet in connection with their mandi- 

 bles, in picking- up and moistening- the meal; then 

 with the flrst pair of feet they would move the meal 

 back and paste or pad it to the under side of their 

 thorax, or what I mig-ht call their breast; then with 

 their second pair of feet they can easily reach it 

 there, and with them move it back to their hind 

 legs to what is called their pollen-baskets. I saw 

 this done so many times that I am not mistaken. I 

 do not know that they always manipulate the pol- 

 len in this same way, but T know they did the meal. 

 A. A. Fkadenburo. 



Port Washing-ton, O., Nov. 10, 1884. 



THIS SEASON'S EXPERIENCES IN IN- 

 TRODUCING QUEENS. 



fp"! HIS season has been one of advancement in 

 bi this part of our business; and while I have 

 > little to add to what has already been pub- 

 ^ lished, a statement of actual experience may 

 be of value to some. 



UNFERTILE QUEENS. 



Mr. Alley, in his work on "Queen-Rearing-," p. 2'>, 

 says that unfertile queens can be Introduced by let- 

 ting the colony or nucleus remain quecnless at least 

 three days, and using- tobacco smoke. I followed 

 his directions closely during the season of 18S3, los- 

 ing- about IQ per cent. This season we abandoned 

 the use of tobacco smoke, using common smoke in- 

 stead, with fully as good results. I am not satisfied 

 that smoke of any kind is necessary; but I do not 

 know that it isn't. 



Mr. Alley gave us the fact that nuclei, after being 

 queenless at least three days, would usually accept 

 unfertile queens; but to Mr. Doolittle are we in- 

 debted for the reasons why {see p. 40", current vol- 

 ume of A.B. J.). He says that colonies having ttealed 

 queen-cells will usually accept .young queens, and 

 this fact gives us more latitude in our work than if 

 we were closely confined to Mr. Alley's instructions. 

 My experience covers the introduction of nearly 200 

 Unfertile queens; and while the loss has been a lit- 

 tle less than 10 per cent of those introduced on the 

 third-day of queenlessness, I do not know of the loss 

 of a single one when the introduction was deferred 

 until we knew by examination that sealed cells 

 were present. This rule applies only to the intro- 

 duction of unfertile queens into weak nuclei. When 

 we undertake to introduce such queens into very 

 strong nuclei, or to full colonies, the failures have 

 been so many as to make such work unprofitable, 

 and we think It pays better to use fertile queens in 

 such colonies. 



My wife always helps me when introducing our 

 queens, and we proceed as follows: We always do 

 this work in the evening, about sundown, using 

 tjueens of any age, from Just hatched to 6 or 8 days 

 old. We first pufl" a little smoke in the entrance, to 

 cause the bees to set up a roar, when we immedi- 

 ately let the queen run in at the entrance.-. Wife 

 then gives the nucleus a severe smoking, while I am 

 J!1»W»? t^« proper \-W9Ti\. \ ^9 UQt feyo-w tbat this 



severe smoking is necessary, but my wife thinks it 

 is, and, of course, I let her have her own way. 



EEKTILE QUEENS. 



All experienced bee-keepers know the impoi-tance 

 of promptly replacing all old or failing queens. To 

 do this we have to introduce young fertile queens to 

 large populous colonies, and I must admit that this 

 has heretofore been the most dreaded of any apia- 

 ry work we have had to do; but this season's expe- 

 riences have very largely dissipated that dread. 



Some of us have been very near the right track in 

 this matter, we having last year used nearly the 

 correct method, (juite successfully too; but to Mr. 

 Simmins, an English bee-keeper, are we indebted 

 for the complete method. 



The ojieration is simi)ly this: We always use stan- 

 dard frames in our nucleus hives for queen-i'caring, 

 and we go to one of these that has a laying queen, 

 lift the frame on which the queen happens to be, 

 with adhering bees and all into a carrying box; 

 then go to the hive from which we wish to take the 

 old (lueen, find and kill her, and immediately insert 

 the frame from the box,— bees, queen, and all; close 

 up the hive, and the thing is done. 



Among the advantages of this method are: Fair 

 success, a saving of labor over other methods, and 

 no interval of non-egg-laying in the hive. 



Mr. Simmins' article (p. 456, A. B. J.) is very prac- 

 tical and correct, so far as I have tested its teach- 

 ings; but he makes one decided mistake in claiming 

 the method to be invariably successful. I don't be- 

 lieve there is any known method of introducing 

 strange queens to full colonies that is certain of 

 success every time, and this method follows the gen- 

 eral rule. Mr. Simmins gives us no idea of the ex- 

 tent of his experience, so we can not know how val- 

 uable his statement of his success is. My own ex- 

 perience covers the introduction of 28 queens, the 

 flrst 19 of which were accepted. Had I stopped here 

 I could have truthfully said that the method had 

 been a perfect success; but of the last 7, two were 

 killed, thus resulting in an average loss of one in 13, 

 which is more satisfactory to me than any other 

 method I have tried, taking into account all the ad- 

 vantages over other methods. I presume all the in- 

 troductions would have been successful had I used 

 the ordinary precaution of feeding during a dearth 

 of the honey-flow, as was the case during the last 

 half of the experiments; but this precaution was 

 purposely omitted for experimental purposes. 



O. O. POPPLETON. 



Williamson, Chicka. Co., la., Sept. 37, 1884. 



Thanks for the facts you furnish, friend 

 P. The Simmins process, to which you al- 

 hule, is not bv any means new. We gave 

 j quite a lengtliy extract from Mr. Simmins' 

 bool< on introUuciiiu- (luccns. on ]>atje 130, 

 Gle.vnincjs for Marcli, \SHH. Please notice 

 my remarks at the end of said extracts. It 

 seems to me the success of all of these plans 

 hinges greatly on the fact that seems to be 

 so little known— in a great majority of cases 

 the queen may be let loose among the bees, 

 without ^nv caging or introduction. IIow- 

 1 ever, I am satislied it is quite an advantage 

 j to introduce a queen on one of her own 

 frames, covered bv her own bees. If the 

 colony accept the strange bees thus brought 

 in. they as a rule acce])t the (jueen also, and 

 almost auv colony will rejoice over a nice 

 comb heavy with honey, lilled with brood 

 and poUew. TJieve is »o need of fighting the. 



