398 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



if swarming has been done "according to 

 rule " I hear a young queen piping, when I 

 know that a queen has hatched, and an after- 

 swarm will be the result if it is not stopped. 

 If no piping is heard I do not listen again till 

 the evening of the thirteenth day; for the next 

 rule is, that the colony swarmed upon an egg 

 or small larva being in the queen-cell, which 

 allows the queen to hatch from the twelfth to 

 the sixteenth day after the prime swarm came. 

 If no piping is heard by the evening of the 

 17th day no swarm need be expected. When 

 it is heard, which it will be, in nine cases out 

 of ten, on the eighth day, I go early the next 

 morning and take every frame out of the hive, 

 shaking the bees off each (in front of the en- 

 trance ) as I take them out and return them 

 again, so I shall be sure and not miss a queen- 

 cell, but cut all off, for we know that there is 

 a queen hatched from the piping which we 

 have heard. 



Once in a great while the bees will take a 

 notion to go with the queen when she goes out 

 to be fertilized; but such a happening is of 

 rare occurrence, and has nothing to do with 

 what is known as after-swarming. 



The above is a sure plan of accomplishing 

 what we desire to, under all circumstances 

 which may arise where the old colony is left 

 on the old stand. My experience tells me 

 that in the above two plans we have something 

 we can "tie to," as the expression goes. 



efforts to keep warm, they made themselves 

 less comfortable, and consequently subject to 

 disease. A human being who worries or frets 

 is always more liable to disorders than one 

 who knows how to go on in the even tenor of 

 his way. — Ed] 



A BUNCH OF QUESTIONS. 



I have wintered bees successfully in single- 

 walled hives for the last eight years by bunch- 

 ing them together and packing them in chaff. 

 This winter we have lost half of our bees by 

 dysentery. 



1. If the bees had been kept in the cellar 

 under proper conditions, would the loss ha\ e 

 been greater or less ? 



2. If the bees had been packed in chaff 12 

 inches thick all around, instead of four or six 

 inches, would the loss have been the same ? 



3. Why should one stand of bees die with 

 the dysentery when others having the same 

 protection come through all right? 



Petersburg, Neb., Apr. 11. A. L. 



[1. Probably less. Cellar-wintered bees last 

 winter fared better, as a rule, than those out- 

 doors, but no better than those properly pro- 

 tected in double-walled hives. 



2. There probably would not have been 

 very much difference. 



3. This is a question that we can scarcely 

 answer. There must have been a difference 

 in the stores or else in the bees. Some colo- 

 nies, like human beings, are more nervous 

 than others ; and possibly the cold spells had 

 a tendency to disturb the one colony more 

 than the o'ther, with the result that, in their 



PREVENTING INCREASE. 



In reading Gleanings for April 15 I see 

 that I failed to explain sufficiently the method 

 of preventing increase that I described. The 

 traps are to be put on all hives previously to 

 swarming. But no queen is to be removed 

 until swarming takes place, and the queen 

 found in the trap. Then she must be taken 

 away, and the traps replaced by an entrance- 

 guard, or arranged so as to permit the young 

 queens to go back into the brood-nest. This 

 is to have, as soon as possible, a " settlement " 

 among the virgin queens, and secure the 

 strongest one for the luture sovereign. Leav- 

 ing the trap, as a trap, would finally secure 

 alive only the last emerged, and probably not 

 the best ; besides, the first queens caught in 

 the traps would not be able to go back and 

 destroy the remaining cells, while the swarm 

 is out ; so the " settlement " would be unnec- 

 essarily delayed for perhaps several days. 



Knoxville, Tenn. Adrian Getaz. 



THE PORTER BEE-ESCAPES — HOW TO USE 

 THEM. 



When I undertake to clear my supers of 

 bees by the use of the ordinary escapes I sure- 

 ly feel much like a beginner ; for after wait- 

 ing many hours I seldom find half of the bees 

 have taken their departure. Will you please 

 teach me how to clear the combs without shak- 

 ing and brushing? 



Please let me correct Bro. Gifford's mistake 

 on page 229, which sends out the impression 

 that we had a disastrous freeze. All tropical 

 trees are not killed as far south as Palm Beach, 

 lor my place is two miles north of there and I 

 have a large assortment of tropical trees, in- 

 cluding the coffee, sour sap, mango, mango- 

 steen, avocado peas, rose apples, avocado pears, 

 banana, pineapples, etc., and I can assure you 

 that not one tree or plant was killed. Even 

 the coffee-berries and the cocoanuts remain on 

 the trees unhurt, and all fruits are coming 

 out very thickly in bloom. In fact, the visit- 

 or finds verv little damage done in the Lake 

 Worth country, and I have taken in over $100 

 cash from two pomelo-trees since the " freeze." 

 The hum of the bees in a single tree is now as 

 loud as the flight of a swarm. 



M. E. Spencer. 



Lake Worth, Fla., Mar. 25. 



[You did not give the escapes long enough 

 time to do the work, I suspect. It is usually 

 the practice to put them on the night before ; 

 and the next morning, or along in the after- 

 noon, the super should be fairly clear of bees. 

 It is very seldom that every bee will be out of 

 the super; but if there are a dozen or so left 

 they will usually take wing as soon as the cov- 

 er is raised — or at least a whiff or two of smoke 

 will dislodge them. — Ed.] 



