ISIVJ 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Ttili 



laws of iiatuiT as iiDticfd witli otluT animals 

 tiiiit an' known as tijrlitcrs. and why not with 

 iht'hccsV If the iim'fn sees a chance of snc- 

 (•(>ss she will lisiht the I'licniy. tu' it anl. hcc. or 

 any thinir t'lsc : bnl wiiy shiiuld siic lifxlitif a 

 dozen of dairiiei-s are ready U)i her? 



Dnrinii last winter 1 made another observa- 

 tion of value ti) some of your readers. Instinct, 

 (and natiirot is certainly a great thins with 

 animals. I keep message doves. In Novem- 

 ber the cold spell endangered the yonng 

 homers, so 1 placed some in my room. \Vhen 

 six weeks old, a second pair, with only the 

 mother, was caged. One tine day the mother- 

 nurse escaped from the cage and thnv out of the 

 open window, home to ihi' belfry. Then I took 

 one of th(> youngsters of six weeks, and placed 

 it with the two younger cousins only five or six 

 days old. The llrst hour was oiu; of astonish- 

 ment, the second of admiration, and the third, 

 motherly love, as of old. and the two little pets 

 were feci more than any pair will feed their 

 yonng. Ever since. 1 remove the young as soon 

 as they show signs of feathers, and place them 

 with such an extra nurse. The lesson is a 

 great one. Kindness toward fellow-creatures 

 is a natural law. With animals, instinct tells 

 them how; with human beings, the intellect, 

 tiod's great gift, tolls us how to show charity to 

 those in need. 



One word about introducing queens. Give 

 the queenless colony a new hive and new bot- 

 tom-board: and then place the cage, with new 

 (luiMMi. as jier directions on your Benton cages. 

 This will greatly insure success. Another way 

 would be to have a wire screen in shape of a 

 wide frame, wide enough to cover a comb. 

 Place a comb with hatching brood in thi> wire 

 cage, and let the new queen loose on it. Place 

 the screened comb in thi' center of the colony 

 two or three days, and all will be done well. 

 This plan has only one advantage: i. e.. the 

 queen will begin to lay at once, and this is one 

 great success. I had one that came from 

 Maine: and before lo minutes she was at work 

 laying eggs. To havc^ her in the small cage, 

 and let bees release her, woukl have retarded 

 the work 24 or 48 hours. Such a screen cage 

 can be made by any one who can handle car- 

 penter or similar tools. You could keep them 

 for sale for such as are unable to get them at 

 home. P. Stephen Stengek. 



St. Meinrad, Ind. 



IWe can make the cover just as you want it, 

 side strips and all: but that would destroy the 

 very feature which so many prize — that is, the 

 facility for sliding the cover on to avoid killing 

 bees. With the non-burr-comb frames of to- 

 day, this feature is a valuable one indeed. If 

 you are careful in putting on covers you will 

 not need any side strips. Hundreds of bee- 

 keepers will testify to that. Moreover, the 

 bees, when left to themselves, will propolize 

 points of contact between the upper edge of the 

 hive and the underside of the cover so perfectly 

 that no rain can beat in. Propolis (that great 

 bugbear of bee-keeping) right here does a good 

 service. It not only keeps the top of the hive 

 tight and warm, but it prevents the covers 

 from being blown off by every little wind, and 

 thus renders unnecessary the use of clamps or 

 hooks to hold the cov(irs on. Of course, if you 

 vise enamel cloths, or any kind of covering over 

 the tops of the frames, the board covers will 

 have to be fastened down, and then it will be 

 quite necessary to have the side strips so as to 

 make practically what is known as the tele- 

 scopic cover: but when one is used to the plain 

 cover over non-burr-comb frames, he can not 

 but w-onder why any one would want the extra 

 cloth or covering. 



With regard to the washboard act on the 

 part of the liees at certain times in front of the 

 entrance (raking, as you call it), we can not 

 believe that it, signifies any peculiar phenom- 

 I'uon in luiture, either of swarming, thunder- 

 storms, or any tiling else. We have observed it 

 at all times when the bees had nothing tdse 

 particularly to do, without any subsequent 

 swarms or thunderstorms. It is our opinion 

 that the bees do that simply because they have 

 nothing else to do; and in the same way they 

 will gnaw at sprigs of grass, small weeds, etc., 

 that stand in the way of th(> entrance. "'As 

 busy as a bee"— if they can not do one thing 

 they will do another. 



It is not denied in the text-books that (pieens 

 sting rivals, and. occasionally, workers: but it 

 is indeed very .^ieldom that they sting a human 

 being: but they have been known todo it in I'are 

 instances, and this brings us to a case that per- 

 haps we have never mentioned. Some years 

 ago we had an old hybrid qu<!en in one of our 

 yards that we could let right loose in any hive. 

 If the bees commenced to grab hold of her she 

 would simply paw and light them like a wild 

 tiger: and instead of the bwa intimidating /tcr 

 she intimidated them. We used her rep'^iitf^d'y 

 for giving eggs and larva? to colonies that were 

 short: but we never had any other queen that 

 we could use in a similar way. .She was only a 

 hybrid, and not worth imich, and we let her 

 loose in a great many different colonies without 

 even the formality of the ordinary methods of 

 introduction. If we remember correctly, she 

 simplv (lied of old age. Such a queen (and they 

 are very rare indeed) would be valuable in 

 many queen-rearing apiaries; because it is 

 easier to "drop" brood in this manner into a 

 colony rather than to go and hunt it up of the 

 right age from some other stock. 



We very much question whether the new 

 hive or new bottom-board had any Infiuence in 

 the matter of introducing. On the contrary, 

 the less the internal arrangement is altered, and 

 the less the routine of affairs is interrupted, the 

 better will be the chances of the queen being 

 introduced, other things being equal. The 

 wire-cloth cage you mention is used by quite a 

 number of practical bee-keepers— notably. J. F. 

 Mclntyre, of Filliuore. Cal. We know of no 

 better cage for introducing: but it is good only 

 for that purpose and for nothing else. It is a 

 simplification of tht; old Peet method used so 

 successfully two or three years ago, but now 

 abandoned, because a luore successful mniUng- 

 cage, as well as an equally good one for intro- 

 ducing, was devised.] 



PLANTING BASSWOOD FOR HONEY. 



J. A. GKEKN liECOMMENDS THE PRACTICE; 

 filKDLING TREES. 



I have always opposed the planting of special 

 crops for lioney. and I do not think that such a 

 course can ever be made profitable. But there 

 are times when, in planting, we may do so with 

 an eye to the honey that the crop will yield. 

 One form of this should be encouraged by all 

 who have an eye beyond the immediate present. 

 The planting of "basswood - trees for shade 

 wherever shade-trees are needed should be en- 

 couraged by all possible means. As a shade- 

 tree, the basswood is entirely unobjectionable, 

 and has many points in its favor, considered 

 aside from its value to the honey-producer. Of 

 its great value to the latter it is unnecessary to 

 speak. There is probably nothing that will 

 produce as much honey from a given amount of 

 ground as basswood; and, once established, it 

 will grow for many years without attention. 



