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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



when it comes to wintering here in the North, 

 I would double up, saving my best queens, 

 and have every colony in an old-fashioned 

 Root chaff hive.— A. I. R.] 



WILL BEES CARRY HONEY DOWN FROM THE 



UPPER STORY? CONDITIONS FAVORABLE 



FOR SWARMING. 



Mr. Root: — I wish to ask a few simple ques- 

 tions which I fail to find in your ABC book. 



1. I winter my bees on summer stands, and 

 I wish to know whether, if I leave my honey- 

 boards on top of the first story, the bees will 

 carry down honey from the upper story pro- 

 vided they run short below, or will they be 

 liable to suffer, or allow the queen to suffer, 

 during some cold snap ? 



2. Will bees be as apt to swarm with the 

 honey-board over the first story of an eight- 

 frame Dovetailed hive with one five-inch su- 

 per on top as they would provided the honey- 

 board were left off, and allow the queen to go 

 into the super too ? 



3. Can I make it pay me to invest money in 

 bees when I have o-nly about five to six weeks' 

 honey-flow from poplar and linn that furnish- 

 es the bees a good chance to gather honey ? 



Kings Creek, Ky. Dr. M. Fields. 



[1. Bees will not, as a rule, carry honey 

 down from the upper story to the lower ; but 

 in any case the bees would not starve as long 

 as they could get at something above. The 

 cluster would be more likely to desert the 

 lower part of the hive, and go into the upper 

 where the honey is. 



2. In speaking of a honey-board I assume 

 that you mean one using perforated zinc. As 

 a general rule, we may say that the more lim- 

 ited the quarters for the queen for egg-laying, 

 the more inclined the bees will be to swarm. 

 If she could have access to the super as well 

 as to the brood-nest the bees might delay their 

 swarming — perhaps not swarm at all. But I 

 should never think of letting a queen go into 

 a comb-honey super. If you wish to cut down 

 swarming, give the bees an extra brood-nest, 

 and let the queen have access to both stories. 

 But unless the honey-flow is liable to continue 

 for five or six weeks, part of the time from 

 basswood, you had better keep the bees con- 

 fined to one brood-nest, and let them swarm if 

 they will. 



3. Yes, I think you could. Some bee-keep- 

 ers make it pay when they have a flow of only 

 two or three weeks. A good deal depends, 

 however, on how much of a flow there is dur- 

 ing the time. — Ed.] 



HOW TO SEND OUEENS BY EXPRESS. 

 A party residing in Fingal, Out., Canada, 

 who used to own an apiary here, which, in its 

 transfer to other parties' hands, has made as a 

 stipulation in settlement by one of the parties 

 through whose hands part of the bees have 

 passed, that in part settlement for obligations 

 incurred, said party shall deliver at Fingal, 

 Ont., Canada, five queens together with 200 

 (or 250) bees with each queen. What dimen- 

 sions and specification for the right kind of 



shipping-cage will meet this case with fair 

 chance of getting queens and bees delivered 

 with success? RussELL J. Hall. 



Craftonville, Cal. 



[If it is required that there should be not 

 less than 200 bees in each package with 

 queen, the shipments would have to go by ex- 

 press. In that case I would recommend a 

 beeway section having combs attached all 

 around on the four sides, and partly filled 

 with honey. The section should be placed in 

 a little box just large enough to receive it. 

 A queen with 200 bees could then very easily 

 be accommodated, and yet the package would 

 be light enough to go at comparatively small 

 expense. The inclosing box or case that con- 

 tains the section should have two ventilating 

 holes Yz or 3^" in. in diameter, covered with 

 wire cloth on the inside. The five packages 

 should then be put in one crate, and the 

 whole sent by express. It would be far cheap- 

 er to send the queens by mail in the regula- 

 tion cages, and run the chances of being com- 

 pelled to replace one that might die in the 

 mails. If queens were taken direct from the 

 hive, and mailed the same day, the whole five 

 ought to go through alive in good order. But 

 the packages by express would make small 

 nuclei ; and, if given proper feeding and time, 

 would make colonies. — Ed.] 



STRENGTHENING WEAK COLONIES AT THE EX- 

 PENSE OF THE STRONG. 



I have a colony of bees that is not as strong 

 as I should like them to be. I do not want to 

 unite them with one of the other colonies, for 

 they are strong enough. They aie in old 

 Langstroth hives and the combs are built in 

 all directions, so I can not give the weak col- 

 ony a frame of brood. Do you think I could 

 take the first swarm this spring and put it in 

 with the weak colony if I were to kill one of 

 the queens ? E. SchwarzTrauber. 



Greenbush, O., May 9. 



[It is generally regarded as bad practice to 

 push ahead all weak colonies at the expense 

 of the normal or strong ones. Your better 

 way would be to leave it just as it is ; and 

 while you probably can not make it strong 

 enough to gather much honey, you can get it 

 into good condition for winter so that it will 

 be strong and vigorous a year hence. To take 

 brood away from another colony would hurt 

 that colony far more than it would benefit the 

 one to which it was given. In other words, 

 you will get more honey in the end if both 

 colonies are left as they are. If you should 

 happen to have a stray swarm come, hive it 

 with this weak colony, but be sure to cage the 

 queen already in the hive, and destroy the one 

 that came with the swarm if she is inferior to 

 the one caged. — Ed.] 



WILL ABSCONDING SWARMS RETURN? 



I see in Questions and Answers, in American 

 Bee Journal, that Dr. C. C. Miller seems to 

 think an absconding swarm will not return. 

 My neighbor, Madison Duke, had one return 

 several years ago, and June 12th of last year I 



