1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



613 



gard to chaff hives and outdoor wintering, 

 and also in regard to fumigating comb hon- 

 ey ; but I think the reason why we are not 

 troubled with moth worms as we were years 

 ago is because we use Italian bees ; and I 

 think this thing alone, if there were no oth- 

 er reason why we should keep Italians in- 

 stead of blacks, would be a sufficient one. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



TWO QUEENS IN A HIVE. 



1^ AN you tell me how there happened to be two 

 iy queens in a nucleus of four frames? About 

 l^ a month ago I divided a strong colony of Ital- 

 ^^ ians which had queen-cells sealed, and raised 

 a queen in every nucleus. I went through all 

 the nuclei twice every week, and saw that every 

 one had a laying queen. I left them alone for a 

 week, without looking after them; and last Sunday, 

 the first of July, I looked over this nucleus I write 

 of, and found eggs and brood sealed, and saw the 

 queen. She was a fine large one, walking over the 

 combs. So I let them go until Sunday, the 8th, and 

 found my queen lying at the bottom of the hive on 

 her back. I looked over the frames, and found an- 

 other queen, which seemed to be a young one, walk- 

 ing over the frames, (.an you tell me how or where 

 that young queen came from? The old queen was 

 not quite dead yet, but she died in an hour after I 

 found her. Fkank Walter. 



Scranton, Pa., July 9, 1888. 



In the circumstances you relate, we are of 

 the opinion that a young queen from the other 

 nuclei, after accomplishing the object of her 

 wedding-trip, got into the wrong nucleus. 

 The bees, as they will do sometimes, gave 

 preference to their new mother, and finally 

 destroyed the old one. It is not an uncom- 

 mon thing, where queen-rearing is going on 

 to any extent, for young queens to get into 

 the wrong hives, especially if those hives are 

 similarly situated. We ha\'e had the cir- 

 cumstance you mention— or, at least, similar 

 ones, occur several times in our apiary. 



RAPE— SOWING IT AMONG CORN. 



Please let me know what you would think of sow- 

 ing rape in the corn, at tlie last plowing, for bees. 

 Would it be advisable? How late would it do to 

 BOW? Have you the seed on band? I have about 9 

 acres in corn that I thought it might pay to sow. 



Enfield, 111., June »'7, 1888. G. A. Willis. 



Friend W., I do not see any objection, 

 unless the rape needs more sun to germinate 

 and take a start than it would get among 

 the corn. Turnips sometimes do quite well 

 when sown in this way. I do not believe, 

 however, that, as a rule, you can get a good 

 crop in this manner. As rape sometimes 

 blossoms within four weeks after sowing, I 

 think it might give a good crop of bloom, if 

 sown among the com at almost any time 

 during the month of August. Its liabits 

 are very much like tliose of the turnip. 

 Where turnips will succeed, the rape would 

 probably also succeed. 



YOUNG BEES WITH DEFECTIVE WINGS; THE CAUSE. 



Friend Root:— The swarm that I put the queen into 

 that I received from you seems to act odd. I will 

 explain. The bees are carrying out young bees of 

 all ages. This morning I found four queens that 

 had wings, but could not fly, but were walking 

 around, apparently healthy and strong; and queens 

 that were younger, having no wings, and were dead. 

 I haven't looked at the combs. I thought this might 

 be foul brood, but the ABC doesn't describe it so 

 as to show me just what it is. W. A. Knowlton. 



Rockford, 111., July 13, 1888. 



Friend K., in your case those bees with 

 defective wings when in the brood form 

 might have been subjected to too great ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold. If the entrance be 

 closed on a hot day it will injure and kill a 

 good many bees, besides injuring and killing 

 a good deal of brood. Beginners sometimes 

 close the entrance entirely to prevent robber 

 bees from entering, and the result is the car- 

 rying-out of brood and bees with defective 

 wings some days afterward. At all events, 

 you did not have foul brood. 



THE MAYWEED IN ALSIKE NOT A NOXIOUS WEED. 



As the seeds of the plants that you will find in- 

 closed in this letter came from your place, I take 

 the liberty to ask you to name them, and ask your 

 farmers whom you get alsike seed from not to mix 

 it, but send it separate. Let us who buy, mix to suit 

 ourselves. I sowed a bushel of clover seed. It took 

 me two days to pull up that weed. It looks like 

 dog-fennel. Don't understand that I blame you, 

 for I don't. I am satisfied you know nothing about 

 it; but if you knew that such seed was mixed you 

 might give the farmers a lecture. 



LeRoy, Mich., July 3, 1888. J. S. Johnson. 



The weed you send is the Anthemis cotu- 

 la, or what is commonly called the may- 

 weed. The same thing grows in our locali- 

 ty ; in fact, all over Northern United States. 

 We hardly think you got the seed from the 

 alsike purchased of us, because the seed of 

 the mayweed matures about a month after 

 the alsike is harvested. This weed is pretty 

 apt to come up almost anywhere on pasture 

 lands or with the alsike. All clover seed 

 we send out is carefully cleaned by steam 

 power by one of the best machines that can 

 be purchased for the purpose. We don't 

 regard the mayweed as a very bad plant 

 in our locality. We have weeds, however, 

 which resemble it very closely which we 

 consider bad ones. Accept our thanks for 

 the good opinion you hold of us. 



TO CHANGE FROM AN ODD SIZE TO A STANDARD ; 

 THE EXPENSE OP AN ODD-SIZE FRAME. 



I wish to ask your advice about what you think I 

 had better do. I am twenty years old, and have 

 twenty stands of bees in hives that take a frame 

 Viy^ in. by Id deep, and room for one honcy-box on 

 top, which would hold 3.5 lbs., or 18 one-pound 

 frames. I wish to carry on the bee-business right. 

 I have an extractor. Honey is 1.5 cts. per lb. here, 

 and not tnany l)ees in this part of the country. My 

 best stands put up 40 to .50 lbs. of surplus in comb 

 this summer, and that beats anybody else that I 

 have heard of around here. Last summer, bees did 

 only about half as well as they did this summer. 

 Do you suppose it would pay me to transfer my 



