690 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Skpt. 



in the same hive they came out of. but took out 

 from 2 to 4 frames of brood and started a nucleus. 

 Now, a.queen hatched in every nucleus; but out of 

 30 I have only .5 that have a queen left. This yard 

 of 50 colonies is in a place where there is not a tree 

 or bush. Do you think the queens failed to find 

 their own hive? I have another yard of 18 colo- 

 nics not over 200 feet away from the first, where I 

 have raised 10 nuclei, and every queen is all rig-ht 

 and laying-. This yard is full of pear-trees and 

 raspberry-bushes. All hives are 9 feet apart each 

 way. What do you think about it? 

 Newberry. Pa., July 16, 1888. F. W. Lighton. 



Friend L., we can hardly see why there 

 should have been such a loss of queens In 

 one case and not in the other. The ab- 

 sence of landmarks might account for it al- 

 together. When very many nuclei are 

 similarily situated, and have a similar ap- 

 pearance on a plain spot of ground without 

 a bush or other distinguishing features, some 

 of the queens are apt to be lost. Neighbor 

 H., our queen-breeder, allows weeds and 

 bushes to grow among his hives. His rea- 

 son for so doing is, that the bees may the 

 better recognize their home. 



RED-CLOVER HONEY. 



I have, at different times, heard a good deal about 

 certain strains of Italian bees that would work on 

 red clover; and in your foot-notes, in answer to 

 Mrs. Chaddock's long face, in Gleanings for Aug-. 

 15, you say your " bees are now working on red 

 clover with a vim." Now, I have kept bees more 

 or less for forty years, and have studied their hab- 

 its not a little, and I think I can safely say that 1 

 never saw to exceed twenty honey-bees working on 

 red clover, and I would willingly pay one dollar 

 for a one-pound section filled solid with red-clover 

 honey. I have in my apiary your strain of Italians, 

 and Alley's and Brush's, but they do not touch 

 red clover. P. L. Norton. 



Lanesboro, Pa., Aug. i, 1888. 



Friend N., don't get uncharitable toward 

 your brethren, even if you do not get red- 

 clover honey in your locality. Please re- 

 member that there are two things to be con- 

 sidered : First, it seems that red clover does 

 not furnisli honey in large quantities in all 

 localities ; second, it is only occasionally 

 that it furnishes a good yield in any locality. 

 I remember only one year when it gave a 

 surplus as large as white clover. But I do 

 not remember a season, however, when 1 

 could not take some one who was incredu- 

 lous, like yourself, into a field of red clover, 

 and find great numbers of Italians on the 

 heads, and this, too, when the common bees 

 were at the same time very busy on buck- 

 wheat. 



BEES STEALING EGGS. 



I bought, a few days ago, a colony of bees of a 

 neighbor that he had taken out of a tree. They 

 would not be satisfied with their new home. They 

 would swarm out from one to three times a day. 

 Last Saturday they came out again, aud he hived 

 them; and in less than an hour they were out again, 

 and the neighbor let them stay out, so they went 

 off and were gone a day and a night, and came back 

 and tried to enter another colony, but were driven 

 out. Finally they went back into their hive which 



they had left so often, and apparently went to work 

 in earnest. When I bought the bees they were 

 supposed to have no queen. I was wanting them 

 to put with a very weak colony I have, that ( had a 

 few days before bought an Italian queen for. When 

 I drove the bees out of the box I examined them 

 very closely, to be sure they had no queen, and 

 found none; but what surprised me most, they had 

 one piece of comb about as large as your hand, and 

 in that comb were four queen-cells with an egg in 

 each cell. Where did they get the eggs? Steal 

 them? They had no queen, I know. I took the 

 bees home and put them in with mv Italian queen, 

 and they are the best contented bees you ever saw. 

 Williamsburg, Ky., July 10, 1888. D. H. Webb. 



Friend Webb, from the facts you relate 

 it might be possible that the bees stole 

 their eggs with which to rear a queen. 

 Their queenless condition became desperate, 

 and their efforts were likewise desperate. 

 Reports of this kind have been given be- 

 fore ; and the decision was that one or more 

 of the bees actually entered other hives, se- 

 cured their prize, and returned home safely. 

 But when we find eggs in a colony which is 

 queenless we must not always jump at the 

 conclusion that the eggs are stolen. As a 

 general rule tliey may be accounted for by 

 the presence of fertile workers. It might 

 be that the eggs you saw were from feitile 

 workers. As the matter stands, there is as 

 much reason for believing that they were 

 from this source as from the other. 



TOO MUCH TINKERING WITH THE BEES. 



The selected queen ordered of you through J. M. 

 Jenkins a few days since, arrived safely, but was 

 lost in introducing. I had introduced seven other 

 queens (dollar queens) bought of Jenkins, and had 

 not lost one, although I put them in and removed 

 the old queen at one operation. I thought to be 

 specially sure with yours, and so removed the old 

 queen one evening, and put the new caged one in 

 next morning. At noon of that day I saw some 

 robbers trying that hive, and looking at the queen. 

 I found the outside bees in the hive had massed 

 themselves on the wire cloth till they had heated 

 the honey, over which the cage had been placed, till 

 it was sticky and running, and some of the escort 

 bees were dead. I thought the bees ought certain- 

 ly to receive the queen then, and so pryed the cage 

 up and liberated her, but they crowded around her 

 and bit and tore at her until I recaged her on an- 

 other part of the comb alone. Here she remained 

 safely all night. Next morning I looked and found 

 one or two bees had gnawed their way in to her, 

 and they seemed peaceable toward her; but still, to 

 make all sure, I thought best not to turn her loose 

 at once, but dug the comb away a little more, so 

 that the bees could very easily liberate her them- 

 selves. In the afternoon, when I examined again, 

 I found about .50 or 60 bees in the cage, and packed 

 down solidly against one side, all on top of the 

 queen. 1 took my smoker and got her out on the 

 comb. She looked pretty badly worried, though 

 she went at once to dipping into the honey-cells. 

 Still the bees would ball her, and I removed her en- 

 tirely, and put her in a tumbler with some candy, 

 but slie seemed to have been stung too badly, for 

 .she lived only a very few minutes. I thought that, 

 by destroying every queen-cell they build, and 



