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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



If not out of place I wish to tell a bit of experi- 

 ence. 



The latter part of June, on a Saturday, I took 

 a queen away from a moderately strong colony 

 of peaceable Italian bees, and late that after- 

 noon a choice queen came to me in the mails, 

 quite unexpectedly. I thought, to put the cage 

 wire-cloth side down over this colony, and leave 

 her for safe keeping till Monday morning, was 

 the best thing I could do, as it was now nearly 

 dark. I did not notice that the wire cloth did 

 not go back clear over the candy-hole, which 

 was covered with thick manilla paper; so I 

 ignorantly started to introduce this queen just 

 exactly according to directions accompanying 

 the cages sent out by the editor of Gleaxings; 

 for when I went to look after the queen on 

 Monday I found that the bees had cut through 

 the paper, when there was just room for one 

 bee to get at the candy at a time at the back 

 end of the wire cloth, and that they had eaten 

 out the candy and liberated the queen. Well, 

 thought I, she will be all right, for this is the 

 common mode of introduction nowadays. Open- 

 ing the hive I soon came to a ball of hissing 

 bees, and I knew that my choice queen was in 

 peril. I liberated her from from the bees with 

 smoke, and caged her on hatching brood with 

 one of the large, open-mouthed wire-cloth 

 cages. I now left her four days, when I found 

 the cage balled with bees on opening the hive. 

 I now waited two days more, or eight days from 

 the time the queen was taken out. when I took 

 out every frame and shook off the bees and cut 

 the queen-cells, thus leaving thr^ colony hope- 

 lessly queenless, save the queen that was in the 

 cage, at which there were still a few bees 

 gnawing. I now had them in the condition in 

 which all authorities said they would take a 

 queen. Two days later I found plenty of eggs 

 in the cells under the cage, and the bcc^s quiet 

 all throngh the hi\ r and on the cage, while the 

 queen looked as large and plump as any laying 

 queen does. I said, "" Now I am all right;" so 

 I took off the cage and set' the frame with her 

 on it, walking around quietly in the hive. In 

 an hour I opened the hive, only to find the 

 queen balled again, with two of her legs badly 

 crippled, when I got her released. She was 

 caged again and left till she again laid under 

 the cage. I now took the frame out, removed 

 the cage, and watched her some minutes on the 

 comb, when I set it down on the outside of the 

 hive, took another frame out and stood it up 

 beside the first, so the queen was between them, 

 the same as she would be in the hive. I fre- 

 quently do this: and. if the queen is not molest- 

 ed, set the two in the hive together so the queen 

 is not frightened, and find it a good thing. In 

 a moment or two I parted the frames, and the 

 queen was all right. 



Just then I was called to the house a few 

 moments, when I returned to set the frames in 

 the hive. I thought 1 would peep in and see if 

 the queen was all right between the two combs, 

 when, to my surprise, and. I might add, disgust, 

 I saw a little ball of bees about the size of a 

 walnut, and my choice queen stung to death in 

 the center. I now take back all I have said, 

 that no queen need be lost if care and persever- 

 ance are used with this open-mouthed-cage 

 plan. I said, " Doolittle, you are a dunce; you 

 missed some cell, and they have hatched a 

 young queen;" so. to test the matter, I gave a 

 frame of larvie to them, when, lol I was not a 

 "dunce" after all, for I found plenty of queen- 

 cells in progress three days after. The next 

 day a swarm came out, and I thought to hive 

 it fight in with this queenless colony, and thus 

 secure a big yield of basswood honey, as bass- 

 wood was then at its best. I soon had all the 

 bees shaken off the combs from four to five feet 



from the entrance to the hive, combs put back, 

 excepting the one with queen-cells on it, a full 

 set of sections put on, and the swarm and the 

 bees shaken off their combs, entering their hive 

 together. By the way, this is the proper way 

 to hive a swarm in a hive already having a col- 

 ony in it, if we wish to prevent having a part 

 or all of the swarm killed. Now. thought I, 

 they have a queen, and are in good shape. The 

 next day they appeared to work as if all was 

 right; but on the early morning of the fourth 

 day after the swarm was hived I chanced by 

 this hive, when I saw a ball of bees at the en- 

 trance, and, upon examination, found my clip- 

 ped queen, which I hived with the swarm, all 

 scraped by the bees till she was hairless, but 

 otherwise unharmed, as she has since proved 

 by giving to another colony. 



After noon of this day I thought to try this 

 colony at cell- building by my plan: so at three 

 o'clock I gave them 23 eel I -cups, prepared in 

 the usual way. Yesterday I took away 20 nice 

 queen-cells nearly ready to hatch, and left one 

 to see if they would accept a queen hatched in 

 their own hive.* 



This story has spun out pretty long; but as 

 it is something different from any thing I have 

 ever experienced before, or ever read about, I 

 thought I might be paidoned for telling it. I 

 have also lost a queen by the caged-bees plan 

 this summer, which heretofore I had considered 

 sure, and one or two losses have been reported. 

 I now, instead of dropping the queen down into 

 the box of bees, after they have been caged 

 three or four hours, as I formerly did, put her 

 in a round wire-cloth cage having a hollow 

 stopper, which is filled with enough Good candy 

 so it will take the bees three or four hours to 

 eat it out. In this way I am successful; but 

 how long it will last I do not know. Giving a 

 queen to frames of hatching brood is safe if the 

 proper temperature is maintained and the hive 

 is made tight; but, alas! many fail here, as 

 many piivate letters tell me. Who will give us 

 an absolutely safe plan ? G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



[It has been our experience, that there is oc- 

 casionally some one particular colony that ab- 

 solutely refuses to accept a queen, no matter 

 what method of introduction we use. It is a 

 rule laid down in our apiaries, not to fuss witla 

 them very much, but to give them a cell in a 

 protector, at the same time keeping away all 

 unsealed larviB. If this fails we give them a 

 very little young larvte from a choice queen, 

 and allow them to follow their own sweet will 

 in rearing a mother from the start. 



We have also observed that, when a queen 

 has been once balled, she is more apt to be 

 balled again, even when given to strange bees. 

 There is a sort of odor from the anger of ball- 

 ing bees that still clings to the queen, we think; 

 and whenever she is released again, the bees 

 take the initiative and seem to think that, be- 

 cause the queen has been balled once, she is 

 therefore undesirable. 



You misunderstand our method of introduc- 

 ing queens, or, at least, do not correctly state it 

 above. We formerly used a mailing-cage, the 

 wire cloth of which did not quite cover the 

 candy-hole: but we found this faulty because 

 the bees would gnaw in to the queen too soon. 

 We now use a cage made on the same principle, 

 only it takes the bees from 4S to 60 hours to get 

 to the queen; and even then it takes her a con- 

 siderable length of time to discover how to get 

 out. A quarter-inch hole is bored into the end 



* Tills is the largest number of perfect queen- 

 cells witli only two missing I ever had built by one 

 colony at one time. 



