540 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



ly decided that it would not answer for making 

 foundation, even tliougii only a small per cent 

 of cei't^sin be added to pui'e beeswax. When the 

 cont(Mits of the hive are subjected to the ex- 

 trenii' heat of summer, the combs melt, and the 

 contents go to the bottom of the hive in a heap. 

 The man wiio gets such foundation is damaged 

 far worse than if he received countei'l'eit 

 money.] 



1^ ■ ^ 



CHIPS FROM E. FRANCE. 



)IOW OLD MAY WOKKEIiS HE, AND STILL GATH- 

 ER HONEY AND BUILD COMBS? 



On page 421 Bro. Doolittle takes np tlie sub- 

 ject of old bees secreting wax. He thinks I 

 made some mistake about that colony spoken 

 of on page 31'.>, that built comb for six weeks. 

 He thinks that perhaps there were some frames 

 of brood put into the hives with the swarms. 

 No, sir; there was no mistake about the state- 

 ment at all. There was no brood put in with 

 the swarms. I don't know how long the bees 

 lived; but one thing I do know — the second 

 swarm, or the old bees in the second hive, lived 

 long enough to raise othei' bees to take their 

 places. They wintered outdoors, and came out 

 in good condition the next spring. I am going 

 to test this same thing again this summer. I 

 had a swarm on the Uth of June, and another 

 on the lOth. I gave them nothing but frames 

 with 13j-inch foundation starters. I intend to 

 keep those bees building combs, as long as they 

 will live, and not allow them to hatch a singh; 

 bee; then we shall see whether 45 days will 

 finish them. I don't think it will. 



I am now going to tell you anothi^r. I have 

 known bees in my home yard, that I knew to 

 be (51 days old. On the 1.3th day of April I was 

 looking over bees in the home yai'd. I found 

 two queenless colonies. At that time there was 

 not a particle of brood in either of them. No. 1 

 I marked down, *" No queen, no brood, no eggs." 

 This was a medium colony, not strong; had a 

 little honey. I thought the bees would keep 

 the combs clearof moths until I could use them, 

 so I let it stand just as it was. No. 2, queen- 

 less colony. April 13, were strong for that time 

 of yeai'. They, too. had no brood at all—had 

 more honey than they could use. They were 

 in a two-story L. hive, eight-frames in each 

 story. I took out live combs of honey to feed 

 other bees with, and left them in that way with 

 an empty space where the live combs were tak- 

 en out. To-day, June 13, just two months. No. 

 1 has about a pint of old bees — combs clear of 

 moths. No. 2 has over a quart of bees— old 

 shiny fellows. But they are at work gathering 

 houf'y. and are making more than a living. 

 How old those bees were befoi'e April 13, I don't 

 know. But it is my opinion that No. 1 at least 

 was queenless when they went into winter. 

 They both wintered out of doors. 



Now. friends, some of you who have plenty 

 of bees so you can spare a swarm, just hive a 

 good swarm and keep them building comb as 

 long as they will. Take away all brood before 

 any hatch but, and see if 45 days will use them 

 up. If the honey-flow gives out, feed them all 

 they can use. 



C. G. Looft, in May 15 (tleanings, page 219, 

 tells how to catch and clip queens. We clip as 

 many queens as most folks; but we can not 

 follow his directions. We have only two hands 

 to work with. His way requires one hand to 

 hold the comb, one to catch the queen, and an- 

 other to use the shears. When it comes right 

 down to business., we catch the queen as we can 

 — by the wings it we can. But we can not al- 

 ways do it. If we see one we catch her any 

 way we can. Most likely she is on a run, and 



we have to secure her before she is lost sight of. 

 If we can not get hold of the wing, just pick 

 her up as yon would a pig — not by the ears, but 

 any way you can get hold of her. Don't 

 squ(>eze her hard. Very often we find the 

 queen in the hive after all the combs are out. 

 There is not much danger of injuring a queen 

 after one gets used to handling them. 



Bees have gathered considerable honey- 

 dew — black strong stuff. They appear to be 

 working very strong now on clover. We must 

 get all the combs emptied now as soon as possi- 

 ble, to get rid of the dark dew honey. I left the 

 home yard and helped the boys clip queens in 

 the out-apiaries, commencing on the 9th. The 

 home yard began to swarm, and has been at it 

 every day since. Over 40 swai'ms have come 

 out. I hived 8 of them on empty combs. The 

 oth(;rs are returned, and have put on the third 

 stories. E. Fkance. 



Platteville, Wis., June 13. 



[Friend F., haven't circumstances something 

 to do with this matter of the age of worker- 

 bees? In introducing Italian queens it has 

 sometimes seemed that worker-bees did not 

 last moi'e than five or six weeks during the 

 gathering season. At other times they seem to 

 hold out about as long as you mention. Any 

 one who is acquainted with friend France 

 would probably know that, when he starts to 

 catch a queen, he usually gets her; but I con- 

 fess I always feel nei'vous when they begin to 

 squirm in my fingers, and twist around and 

 bite, and try to get away. A good many times 

 I am so afraid of pinching her highness that 

 she twists out of my fingers and flies away. 

 Then what an anxious time it is for the novice! 

 All he has to do, as a rule, is to sit down or lie 

 down and she will soon come back and alight 

 on the combs, or go in with the other bees into 

 the entrance.] 



BEE-ESCAPES. 



A SUCCESSFUL HEPOHT FROM J. A. GREEN. 



I tried a number of different devices last sea- 

 son. Almost all of them worked very satis- 

 factorily. The one we liked best, though, was 

 the Porter spring escape. It cleaned the supers 

 of bees about as rapidly and thoroughly as any, 

 and they Htnyed out. With some of the other 

 escapes the bees would sometimes find their 

 way back; but with the Porter escape they can 

 not do this. 



Having been the first one to call the atten- 

 tion of bee-keepers to the fact that they were 

 neglecting this valuable invention. I can say 

 that the bee-escai)e is no longi>r an experiment 

 with me, but an appliance of gr(>at pi'actical 

 value. By its use some of the most laborious 

 and disagreeable work of the apiary is almost 

 done away with. This reduction of labor makes 

 it invaluable in large apiaries; but even in the 

 smallest it will save time, stings, and annoy- 

 ance. The bee-keeping world owes a debt of 

 gratitude to Mr. Reese for giving his invention 

 so freely and generously to his fellow-men. 



CUTTING OUT QUEEN-CELLS TO PREVENT 

 SWARMING. 



I once believed, as many people do yet, that 

 keeping the queen-cells cut out would prevent 

 bees from swarming. That faith received a 

 rude shock when I found that bees often 

 swarmed before they had started queen-cells, 

 sometimes even not starting them for two or 

 three days afterward. This was with Italians. 

 It is possible that, with black bees, the method 

 could be made to succeed, although it is not at 

 all practical. The objections are, the great 



