8li 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Dec. 



ishlj' already that I am not encourag-ed to try in- 

 troducing- another queen. Do you think they will 

 live through until spring, or had I better unite them 

 with some other colony? I have a small swarm in 

 a box hive; could I put this one with the queenless 

 one? Will they net g-o to killing: each other if 

 united? 



. The queenless colony has plenty of honey to 

 winter on. The bees that came with the queen that 

 I bought were very sprightly little fellows, but were 

 at least a third smaller than my common black bees. 



Is it natural lor bees to decrease in size when 

 caged for a few days? How do you account for this 

 colony of bees not building- queen-cells when their 

 queen was first lost, and then building a dozen 

 after all the young: bees had been hatched for over 

 a week? 



1 took out a few frames of honey from one of my 

 hives a few days since, that was of beautiful color, 

 but so bitter that it is not fit to eat. 1 don't know 

 whether to attribute it to the poison-oak vine, the 

 dog-fennel, the smartweed, or a coarse, branching 

 white-topped weed that grows luxuriantly here. I 

 send you some of the leaves and blooms of this 

 weed by this day's mail, and ask that you tell us 

 what it is. It grows from 3 to 4 feet high on poor 

 land, and from ;j to 7 feet on good land. It has gen- 

 ei-ally been considered a useless pest in pastures; 

 but my bees worked on it profusely for several 

 days, just before the small bud burst open. After 

 flowering, no bees are seen on it. In future I shall 

 anticipate its return in the fall with pleasure. 



Sparta, Miss., Sept. 28, 1884. L. Hall. 



Friend H., there is a little point unex- 

 plained, as you slate your trouble. You say 

 you noticed there were no young bees nor 

 eggs to be seen, and that you replaced the 

 comb, but that several days afterward you 

 found over a dozen queen-cells on dillerent 

 combs. IIow could there be queen-cells, if 

 they had no eggs nor larvte to rear them 

 from y Have you overlooked the fact that 

 bees can not start queen-cells until they have 

 brood over which to start them V It is true, 

 they do sometimes, in a fit of desperation, as 

 it were, start what seem to be queen-cells, 

 without any larva- ; but, of course, these are 

 only empty cells, and amount to nothing. Is 

 that wliat you mean ? A colony of bees will 

 sometimes refuse to accept alniast any queen 

 that can be given them, and that nniy be the 

 case with your colony ; but as you describe 

 their actions, I am inclined to think there 

 was a queen of some sort in the hive— possi- 

 bly one with disabled wings. When you 

 gave them a frame of brood, however, as you 

 did finally, the fact of their starting queen- 

 cells so promptly would seem to indicate the 

 queen with imperfect wings had got out of 

 the way by some means or other.— A good 

 strong colony can usually be wintered safely 

 without a queen ; but one should be given 

 them pretty early in tlie spring. I should 

 say, by all means unite the weak colonv in a 

 box hive to them. Wliy do you keep a colo- 

 ny in a box hive? Transfer' them at once to 

 movable combs, and then you can unite the 

 two without any trouble. If they act quar- 

 relsome, smoke them until thev l)ehave.— 

 Bees always get very small after a long ship- 

 ment—at least, wheie they go as they ought 

 to do, without getting "dysentery 'or any 

 thing that will distend tlieir bodies.— The 



plant you mention has not reached us, but 

 perhaps some of our readers may be able to 

 name it from the description you give. 



DO BEES EVER SWARM WITHOUT A 

 QUEENP 



SOMETIIINfi ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE OF THE 

 QUESTION. 



Tip S there has been so much said about swarms 

 ^^ without a queen, I thought I would have a 

 ^r' few words to say on the negative side of the 

 question, if they will be acceptable for pub- 

 lication. So far as the arguments go that 

 have already been published, almost any one who 

 had not studied the subject, and many who have, 

 would be impressed with the idea that bees do 

 sometimes naturally swarm without a queen. I say 

 " naturally," and mean by this, a swarm that is- 

 I sues by instinct, for the purpose of increasing the 

 j number of the species, as God intended them to do 

 ' at the time of their creation. 



[ Bees might swarm out without a queen if they 

 I had none, and also had nothing in the hive to sus- 

 tain life; or if the hive, or any of its surroundings 

 I were in a dirty and filthy condition. Even under 

 the above conditions, if there were a queen in the 

 I hive I can not understand why she should remain 

 j and " take in " all the smell to herself ; for that would 

 j be accusing Her Majesty of possessing a very 



small amount of brain. 

 j I do not believe that bees ever swarm natui-ally 

 j without a queen, in the meaning I have above 

 [given to the word; and if there is a queen in the 

 hive at the tin&e the swarm issues, I claim that she 

 I will go with them. I had a case like this the past 

 season. On coming home one afternoon my wife 

 informed me that the bees had swarmed in my ab- 

 sence; and as she was looking- for the queen in 

 ! front of the hive (I keep the wings of all my queens 

 1 clipped), "she came Hying down and alighted at the 

 \ entrance, and went in like a flash." She said the 

 I bees did not cluster long enough for her to hive 

 I them, but came back and went in the hive again at 

 the old stand. On examination I found an unfer- 

 I tile queen in addition to the old one. I took out the 

 old queen (a three-yeai-ling), and left the young one 

 ! to have full sweep, thinking at the time, " Now you 

 • won't swarm ; and if you do, you are little fools, 

 i when there is no honey." But they did swarm ear- 

 j ly next morning, and again in the afternoon, and, 

 j I think, three times next day. Each time the queen 

 j went out to meet a drone, the bees followed; and 

 I while she went right on about her own att'airs, the 

 I bees flew all about everywhere, sometimes cluster- 



ing for a short time, and then went back home. 

 With this queen and two combs full of bees I 

 formed a nucleus, and she was fertilized the next 

 day, and returned, just where I wanted her, to the 

 old stand. 



Again, two years ago a swi.rm issued with an uii' 

 fertile queen, and clustered. My folks at home put 

 them in a hive, and left them in a shady place un- 

 til I should return in the evening; but during the 

 afternoon they left the hive and returned to the old 

 stand, and on examination next day the queen was 

 missing. I found her and half a dozen or more bees 

 on the ground near the place where they had 

 clustered the day before. She was nearly dead, 

 and could not fly. She had been injured, no doubt, 



