484 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



years ; while with bees, if we discover a choice 

 queen we can in a single season give to every 

 hive in a yard a young queen from her. It is 

 true these may mate with other drones ; but 

 we know that the following season all the 

 drones will be of exactly the same blood, or 

 nearly so, as our best queen, when we may se- 

 cure another choice queen and get another 

 cross where we are sure both drones and queens 

 are the best attainable." 



"Hello!" shouted Bill Carr, from the 

 roadside. "Say, deacon, what will you sell 

 me your horse Prince for? " 



"One hundred and twenty-five dollars," 

 he replied. " I paid that for him, and I con- 

 sider him worth it still." 



After bantering some time he offered the 

 deacon one hundred dollars ; and when the 

 deacon refused he said he had always heard it 

 was harder to deal with church-members than 

 other people, and now he knew it was a fact. 

 I noticed the deacon's face flushed, and his 

 eyes flashed fire ; but he didn't say any thing, 

 nevertheless. 





J|,J)oPl!Tn&| 



NATURAIv SWARMING VS. ARTIFICIAL IN- 

 CREASE ; STRAIGHT COMBS, ETC. 



" Good morning. Is this Mr. Doolittle? " 



" Yes, that is what they call me. But what 

 shall I call you ? " 



" My name is G. A. Patten, and I come over 

 from another town this morning to have a lit- 

 tle talk with you about increase, comb build- 

 ing, etc., as it will soon be swarming time 

 with the bees. Which do you prefer — natural 

 swarming or artificial increase? " 



" For the rank and file in bee-keeping I pre- 

 fer natural swarming, as the bees can divide 

 themselves to a greater perfection than it is 

 generally done by the majority of those who 

 practice artificial increase. Then, natural 

 swarms seem to work with more energy and 

 vigor than do those made artificially, even 

 when they are made by the most efficient api- 

 arist." 



" But with natural swarming will not many 

 swarms leave and go away to the woods or 

 elsewhere?" 



"Not if we keep the wings of the queen 

 clipped ; and there are very few apiarists of 

 the present day, who work for comb honey, 

 who do not practice clipping their queens." 



" How do you care for swarms having a 

 queen whose wings are clipped ? " 



"I hive the swarms by letting them return, 

 previously moving the old colony to a new lo- 

 cation and setting the new hive containing the 

 full number of frames in its place, laying the 

 wire-cloth cage containing the queen down 

 in front of the entrance of the new hive. As 

 soon as the swarming bees miss their queen 

 they return, supposedly to their old hive of 

 brood, but really to the hive we have provided; 



and, finding their queen, they commence to 

 run in, the same as does a swarm hived from a 

 limb. After half or two-thirds have run in, 

 the queen is liberated, when she runs in with 

 the rest. No other plan of hiving swarms 

 equals this for ease." 



" But such a swarm, hived in this way, builds 

 comb the same as any, does it not?" 



' ' Yes. But with all swarms I open the hive 

 on the second day after hiving, when I find 

 that the bees have started comb-building in 

 about five frames. These five frames I place 

 together at one side of the hive, and a division- 

 board is placed next to them so as to confine 

 the bees to these frames. This throws the full 

 force of bees on these five frames, and they 

 will soon fill them with straight worker comb, 

 as a general rule." 



" I am very glad you told me this, for I did 

 not have the means to purchase foundation to 

 fill my frames full this year. But won't the 

 bees be crowded in so small a space as the five 

 frames allow? " 



"If there are more bees than can work to 

 advantage on these five frames, the surplus 

 arrangement, or as much of it as is required, 

 is placed over them, this last being a great 

 help about securing comb having the worker 

 size of cells." 



"But will not the bees build crooked 

 combs? " 



" If you furnish each frame with a starter 

 of comb foundation half an inch wide, and 

 work on the above plan, not one frame in 500 

 will contain aught but a straight comb ; for if 

 you get the first five built straight you will 

 have no trouble in getting the rest so, as 

 they can build them in no other way, if placed 

 between two of those already built." 



" How about drone comb being built, Mr. 

 Doolittle? " 



"There is little danger in having much if 

 any drone comb built in the first five frames, 

 as hinted at before ; and should drone comb 

 be likely to be built in those put in later on, 

 it will pay you or anybody else to fill these 

 last with foundation ; but I think it pays well 

 to use only guides in the first five. If you 

 can have every comb a straight one, and all 

 of the worker size of cells, such a colony will 

 be a profitable one, or a 'lucky swarm,' as our 

 fathers and grandfathers used to term them. 

 If you attend to this comb-building the first 

 season, you will have all ptofitable swarms. 

 See?" 



" But if a man has only a few colonies, will 

 it pav to thus fuss with them ? " 



" No man or woman contemplating keeping 

 bees, even when having no more than two or 

 three colonies, should consider a colony in 

 proper working order until each comb is a 

 straight worker comb. There is no need of 

 having hives half full of drone comb, and so 

 crooked that they can not be handled. Do 

 things in the right time and in a proper man- 

 ner, and your bees will more than pay you for 

 all of the time spent on them, even though 

 you have but few. " 



" But your hives are better adapted to such 

 comb-building than are others." 



" I do not claim that the hive I use is the 



