1S79 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



413 



peciftlly coiicorning eomb-biiilding in iho sec- 

 tions. If tlie apiarist can bo thore but once a 

 weolv or less, then a swarmer or uon-swarmer 

 or self hiver, or whatever name you may call 

 the apparatus by, is better than a queen-trap. 



After trying all sorts of contrivances imagin- 

 able during several years, the only kind I can 

 recomm<>nd issomething like a queen-trap with 

 the upper part large enough to admit two or 

 three combs. These need not be full size, ex- 

 cept for convenience. The lower part of the 

 upper apartment in front of the cones must be 

 of perforated zinc, partly to allow the bees to go 

 in and out, partly because the cones must be 

 where the light strikes them. Neither queen 

 nor drone will go up a cone placed in the dark. 



Well, a swarm issues. The old queen goes up 

 into the swarmer. There she will remain with 

 a certain number of bees, and go to work. The 

 bees of the brood-nest, relieved of the quarrel- 

 ing between queen and queen-cells, or, rather, 

 their attempt to protect the queen-cells against 

 the queen, will also do good work until a young 

 queen emerges. Then the racket starts again; 

 the young queen comes out with a swarm, gets 

 into the swarmer, and kills the old queen. The 

 others follow until there is but one left in the 

 swarmer and one in the brood -nest. This last 

 comes out to mate, and meets the other in the 

 swarmer, and then there is but one left in the 

 swarmer. By that time the apiarist must be 

 on hand, and permit the last queen to mate. 

 Further delay would practically ruin the colony. 



When the apiarist comes he will probably 

 find some that have just swarmed, and some 

 that have swarmed or have been repeatedly 

 swarming. 



If the old queen is yet in the swarmer, the 

 colony can be divided. If no increase is desir- 

 ed it is necessary to prevent further swarming, 

 to destroy or remove the old queen, and allow 

 reqxieening. It is not absolutely necessary to 

 destroy all the queen-cells, but yet it is better 

 to do so, except, of course, one or two. At the 

 next visit, only one queen will be there, proba- 

 bly in the swarmer, no brood young enough to 

 raise more queens, and possibly some of the last 

 queen-cells constructed. These can be destroy- 

 ed, and the young queen allowed to mate. 



If a young queen is present, destroy all the 

 remaining cells and let her mate. There is no 

 danger of more swarming if the brood is all 

 capped or too old to raise more queens; and I 

 think there is very little danger, if any, even 

 with young brood, destroyed cells, and a virgin 

 queen; still, I am not positively sure. At any 

 rate, requeening as described above will end 

 the swarming for that year, provided enough 

 room is given in the surplus apartment, even if 

 the brood-nest is not larger than S L. frames. 



If, instead of allowing the colony to requeen, 

 the apiarist will introduce a young laying 

 queen, it will be necessary to wait until the 



bees have been two or throe days with no un- 

 capped brood. The nurse-bees have not then 

 taken to the field, and there will not be enough 

 of them to construct more queen-cells after the 

 young queen begins to lay. 



Two points need consideration here: 



Dr. Miller says the perforated zinc will not 

 prevent the queen from going out with the 

 swarm. Well, my experience disagrees com- 

 pletely with his. I have had but one case 

 where I think the queen went through the zinc; 

 but in all the other cases where the queens 

 were missing with the swarm I found some 

 crack somewhere, generally in the most unsus- 

 pected places. The queen will remain in a 

 swarmer; but with a queen-trap she will event- 

 ually (in the course of two or three days) find 

 her way back through the cone; and if she is 

 then killed by a young queen the apiarist may 

 think that she has escaped through the zinc. 



Another drawback is this: It may happen 

 that, when a young queen goes to mate, a 

 swarm comes out from another hive, joins the 

 young queen, and the whole outfit goes to the 

 woods, but not often. I once had a young 

 queen that brought the swarm to her own hive. 

 In fact, the young queen will often return to 

 her hive without paying any attention to the 

 flying queenless swarm; yet a few may be lost 

 that way. 



The only way I know of to prevent such loss 

 absolutely is for the apiarist to let the young 

 queens mate only when he is present. After a 

 young queen has tried several days to go out, 

 and failed, she is very keen to do it; and if, af- 

 ter one or two o'clock in the afternoon, the api- 

 arist opens the zinc, she will, in nearly every 

 case, mate at once. Should a swarm issue at 

 that time, the apiarist being there could take 

 care of it. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



HEATING A BEE-CELLAK ARTIFICIALLY. 



OIL-STOVES NOT SATISFACTORY. 

 By O. C. Greiner. 



The closing sentence of Dr. Miller's answer to 

 Mr. Fred B. Cavanagh's inquiry, " Better warm 

 it up some way," is exactly what I should want 

 to do if the temperature of my cellar averaged 

 as low as ?.5 to 38 degrees; but the question is, 

 " How?" 



Years ago I had the same trouble. My cellar 

 was not at that time filled to its full capacity, 

 perhaps not more than one-half or one-third 

 the number of colonies it would accommodate, 

 allowing about 1.5 cubic feet to the colony. Be- 

 sides, it had not the outside protection it now 

 has. I mistrusted that, through the colder 

 part of winter, artificial heat would be necessa- 

 ry, and planned to use an oil-stove in the entry. 



