1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



649 



veil in the top of the hat. and wear it all the time. 

 In half a minute you are all ready for business. I 

 have seen them adjusted in two seconds. 



W. L. COGGSHALI-. 



West Groton, N. Y., July 2.5, 1888. 



STRONGLY IN FAVOK OF THE OPEN-SIDE SECTION ; 

 THE BEST PHOPOLIS-CT.EANER. 



Friend Root:— J have been reading- the article in 

 the July 1 No., in regard to open-side sections. 

 They are used here in preference to any others. 

 Seeinjf an article in Gleanings two years ago in 

 regard to them (I think by friend Doolittle), I be- 

 came so enthusiastic over the idea that 1 took the 

 pains to cut out the sides with my knife, and I was 

 much pleased with the result. The bees tilled the 

 sections more evenly, not extending the combs in- 

 to other sections and stopping the passageway 

 from one section to another. On the contrary, they 

 fastened the combs more solidly to the box. This 

 year I have purchased no others. My experience in 

 this matter has been the same as my neighbors' 

 who tried them last year; and I am satisfled that 

 those experimenting with them will have no other. 

 I think T see a serious objection to those with open 

 corners, both in regard to propolis and handling. 



I can see no use for separators. When one crate 

 is filled, raise it up and put an empty one under. 

 Of course, there will be some work done between 

 the frames and sections. 



I notice the question asked (No. (Jl), " What is the 

 best tool for removing propolis?" etc. Though late, 

 I will answer. Tf your wife should break your 

 i)utchei'-knife in cutting frozen steak, grind the 

 broken end square, and you will thank her a 

 thousand times for Ijreaking it. 



La Otto, Ind., July 9, 1888. E. S. Hanson. 



A queen whose progeny won't swarm, and 



GOOD WORKERS TOO. 



Friend Rout:— I w&nt your opinion on a stock of 

 bees. I have an Italian queen in an observatory 

 hive, that has never swarmed. She is three years 

 old; the hive is two-story, queen very prolific. In 

 June I was anxious for her to swarm. I wanted 

 cells from the hive, as the bees are the gentlest and 

 most uniform of any I have ever seen. I let the 

 hive get full of honey the first of June, and remain 

 so for three weeks. The bees increased so that they 

 could not all get in the hive by a peck, and even 

 then they would not swarm, nor would they start 

 cells; so when basswood opened 1 extracted the hon- 

 ey from them, 93 lbs., so every bee went to work 

 at once, and in 8 days the hive was full again, and 

 now the bees are crowded out again. The queen 

 has to-day seven frames in the lower story, full of 

 brood. 



Well, friend Root, this is not all concerning this 

 queen. I have two other queens raised from her 

 eggs, one year old this s})ring, and they refused to 

 swarm this spring. One I kept in a single-story 

 hive, in order to force swarming. They filled every 

 thing with honey, and just quit work right in the 

 midst of the finest How of poplar honey I ever saw. 

 I let them remain so until linn blossomed. I exam- 

 ined them, but no cells were started. I then put on 

 a top story with 28 lib. sections. All went to work 

 at once and filled them. 1 removed and placed the 

 same number on, and they are now ready to take 

 off again, filled with linn and sourwood. The third 

 I have extracted from four times. I know they 

 have never swarmed, for I have watched them 



closely. Have you ever had Italians do this way? 

 All the i-est of mine, 117, wanted to swarm too much. 

 Might it not be possible that they are a non-swarm- 

 ing set? If, in your judgment, you think these 

 bees depart from the regular order of Italians, and 

 are likely to always be so, you may make any sug- 

 gestions. 



I have come to believe they won't swarm with me 

 under any circumstances. I began to think last 

 year the old queen was peculiar in her notions about 

 staying at home, and this year I know she is, and 

 her daughters are both just like her. I will make a 

 full report of my year's work later. 



R. B. Williams. 



Winchester. Tenn., July 14, 1888. 



Friend W., if you have some ncm-swarm- 

 ing bees you liave certainly something that 

 is very desirable. A queen whose progeny 

 are good workers, and will not swarm, and 

 which can duplicate these characteristics in 

 her daughters, ought surely to be a valuable 

 one, and one that you would do well to breed 

 from. Why not advertise queens from her? 

 This notice may give you a little free adver- 

 tising, but we are glad to call the attention 

 of our readers to such a queen. 



WHY THE BEES DON'T GO TO WORK. 



My bees have not yet swarmed. I wonder why 

 they do not. They are in boxes about the size of 

 your hives. They have been " hanging out" on the 

 outside for the past six weeks. They seemed to be 

 suffering from want of ventilation, so about a 

 month ago I raised the hives about half an inch by 

 putting a little block under each corner. The moths 

 can't get in, for the bees are packed thick to the 

 bottom, so as to exclude any space. I put on some 

 surplus boxes with drj' comb in them to see if they 

 would store any honey. A few bees go in the boxes, 

 but they are not putting in any honey. 



About three weeks ago we had a few days of chilly 

 weather, and the bees killed off hundreds of drones, 

 and there have not been many drones flying since. 

 The queens are one year old, and are good layers, 

 judging from the way the bees thickened up. 



Gary, Dak., July 13, 1888. Mrs. A. C. Monaghan. 



My friend, your last paragraph contains 

 the secret of your bees not swarming. If 

 your bees are killing off the drones it indi- 

 cates pretty conclusively that there is no 

 honey coming in. Unless the inllow of nec- 

 tar is pretty brisk there will be little swarm- 

 ing. Your report is only one out of hun- 

 dreds of a similar import throughout the Unit- 

 ed States. See Honey Statistics in July 15th 

 issue of Gleanings. 



HOW THAT QUEEN FOUND THE HIVE— GLEANINGS. 

 1888, PAGE .530. 



How many apparently impossible and mysterious 

 things happen in this world, which are very simple 

 if people only knew how it was done I And what 

 misunderstandings and many times feelings arise, 

 because a person knows a thing and yet can not ex- 

 plain it: Taking the queen from the hive at midday 

 " on a good comb of bees," and placing them in a 

 strange hive excited them, and of course all the 

 bees which had ever flown started en masse for 

 home, and it was not only easy but very natural 

 tor the queen, if she was strong enough, to follow 

 the bodj' and return with them to the hive. 



Portland, Mich., July 9, 1888. S. C. Perry. 



