1888 



GLEANINGS IK BEE CtJLTtjliE. 



.11 



the first 7 days. It then came warm again, and 

 brood-rearing progressed finely. My bees were set 

 from the cellar the 36th and 27tb of April, in fairly 

 good condition, and I hoped that the brood under 

 progress the first half of May would come to per- 

 fection without a setbacli; but just before young 

 bees began to batch to any extent it became cold, 

 with rain, wind, snow, and ice, holding them for 

 nearly ten days, during the first of the latter part 

 of the month. This caused a dwindling of some 

 colonics, such as I never saw before. Good colo- 

 nies, with brood in fine combs, so died that all about 

 the front of the hives the ground and alighting- 

 boards were literally covered with dead bees, the 

 most of which were those which had come througli 

 the winter, while the bottom-board and combs were 

 covered with dead and dying young bees which 

 seemed not to have vitality enough to exist with- 

 out their older sisters. Two fair colonies went 

 down so as to entirely die, and three or four good 

 ones became nearly worthless. Others, no better 

 than these, held right through, scarcely losing a 

 bee, and are to-day (June 16th) lively on the while 

 clover just opening along the roadsides. Now, who 

 can tell us why a part sutt'ered so under the cold, 

 and others did not, all being alike, as far as I could 

 see, two weeks previous? I confess that there are a 

 few things in bee-keeping that are entirely loo 

 high forme. Not a colony wintered out of doors 

 seemed to suffer in any such degree as did those 

 from the cellar. Apple-trees were in full bloom 

 about the first of June; but, owing to rain and 

 clouds, the bees got very little from them. During 

 the nights of the 1st, ~d, 3d, and 6th of June, ice 

 formed on the tin roofs of my bee-hive covers so as 

 to stand up like brass buttons, which again caused 

 brood-rearing to nearly cease; and colonies having 

 drones hatched felt so poor that they killed thorn 

 off except when a large supply of honey was in the 

 hive. It is now warm, but wet; and if the rainy 

 weather cease, there is still a chance for a good re- 

 port this fall. 



QUEEN-REARING. 



I had determined, if possible, to get to queen- 

 rearing earlier than usual this season, so as to fill 

 orders from parties desiring earl.v queens; but the 

 thing was Impossible; for during our cold weather I 

 could not get a cell started that was good for any 

 thing, much less queens hatched and fertilized. 

 When I saw this was to be the ease I determined to 

 keep a good quantity of nice drones I had in one 

 hive, by feeding, and send south for virgin queens 

 to be mated here. This I did, and, being quite suc- 

 cessful in introducing, T soon had queens to fill the 

 orders of those saying, " Send me a queen by re- 

 turn mail to save my queenless colony." I now 

 have nice cells of my own under headway, and 

 hope to be filling orders lively in the near future. 

 In order to overcome these unlooked-for circum- 

 stances, so as not to be censured, I worded my ad- 

 vertisement so as to read, " Queens in their sea- 

 son," for a few feel disposed to censure an adver- 

 tiser for not performing an utter imj.ossibility, as 

 the rearing of queens during the month of May 

 usually is here at the North. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



The old saying is, " All signs fail in a dry time; " 

 and so for myself I would say that all plans of in- 

 troducing queens are liable to fail now and then, 

 although I have not had a failure as yet with the 



caging of bees in a box without combs or brood, 

 and giving them a queen lo three or lour hours 

 when they bogged one, as 1 have given in back 

 volumes of Gt-eaninos. But as this is a process 

 not easily resorted to in early spring, and is too 

 laborious for only ordinary (lueens, I use quite 

 largely a pliiii ot introduction similar to the Peel- 

 cage plan, using a large open-sided wirc-elnili cage 

 to stick on one side of a comb in place of the Peet 

 cage. This I have described before in Gj-eaninos, 

 so I will not repeat it. The main feature about this 

 cage is the placing of it over hatching brood, and 

 allowing it to stay over the queen and young bees 

 till the queen fills the vacated cells with eggs, 

 after which she and her escort of young bees arc 

 liberated. Previous to this spring I had never 

 failed in this way; but during our bad weather I 

 had one queen killed and two others balled upon 

 letting out, after the queen had laid in every 

 available cell under the cage. 



GETTING QUEENS STUNG. 



I here wish to caution the readers a little about 

 queens that are balled. As all know, a queen is 

 rarely stung during the first few hours after she is 

 balled, and, as a rule, no fears need be had about a 

 queen being harmed in handling this ball of bees 

 in liberating her; but I have found to my sorrow, 

 that, after she is liberated, if a single bee of the 

 ball is allowed to get back to the queen it will sting 

 her. To illustrate: Without giving the particulars 

 of dispersing the bees in the ball, except to say 

 that it can be done by dropping the ball into water, 

 or by smoking, I will relate a little experience. A 

 valuable queen was balled; the ball was dropped 

 into a caldron kettle of water near the edge of the 

 kettle. The queen and bees crawled on the rim lo 

 the kettle, and, as I was about to pick up the 

 queen, a single bee caught her and stung her in an 

 instant. Again, a ball of bees was t-mokcd on a 

 comb, and, as the clinging bees let loose, the 

 queen, with two still-clinging bees, fell off the 

 comb to the ground, the bees letting go as they 

 struck the ground. One immediately ran up and 

 stung the queen. Once more: A liberated queen 

 in a weak swarm ran around on the back side of a 

 comb with a few bees on the back side of it; and, 

 before I had decided just what to do, a bee from the 

 ball I had smoked loose came around the other 

 edge of the comb, grabbed the queen, and both fell 

 to the bottom of the hive, she being stung before 

 she reached the bottom. This last named (though 

 happening first) was the most valuable queen I 

 ever had killed. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



I believe most of us, friend D., have had 

 a similar experience in trying to raise 

 queens in April and May." 1 have had 

 enough queens htiing just :is the ball was 

 made to disperse, either by smoke or by 

 throwing them into water, so I have become 

 somewiiat nervous about it. I always 

 watch the (lueen, and follow her after lib- 

 erating her from the ball ; and if any bee 

 shows the least disposition to sting, I give 

 him a punch tliat makes his bones crack, 

 usually before lie can harm her. I do not 

 always kill the little rebel, for a worker- 

 bee will stand considerable crushing and 

 get over it ; but I generally kill out the dis- 

 position to sting, for a time at least. 



