574 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUI.Y 15. 



white and tender as frogs' legs. They are 

 rather tender, and are liable to uie without ap- 

 parent cause ; but if care is taken to keep 

 every thing clean there will be little loss. 

 Cicero, Ind., July 2. S. W. Carson. 



INTRODUCING OUEENS WITH TOBACCO SMOKE; 

 THE USE OF IT AMONG BEES IN GENERAL. 



Last summer I lost six queens in introduc- 

 ing according to directions sent out by breed- 

 ers ; but I quit that method and took A. I R.'s 

 method, hinted at in an old edition of the 

 ABC, using tobacco smoke at sundown. Out 

 of 36 I never lost one. Why don't you recom- 

 mend it more? B. F. Jones. 



Idaho Falls, Idaho, May 7.; 



[Tobacco smoke for the purpose of handling 

 bees should be used very sparingly and care- 

 fully. It is hardly safe to advise beginners to 

 use it, for its effect is to stupefy the whole 

 colony; and if the fumes are administered 

 during the day there will be an hour or two 

 hours, perhaps, when the bees, slightly intox- 

 icated, would put up no defense whatever at 

 the entrances. If during the robbing season, 

 they would allow robbers to come right in 

 pellmell and help themselves ; hence tobacco 

 smoke is recommended for use only at night. 

 But even then I suspect the introduction 

 could be accomplished almost as well without 

 the w^eed. The best time to introduce queens 

 is toward night. We once released two dozen 

 queens right among the bees, and every one 

 was accepted. The queens in this case were 

 some that came through the mails, badly 

 daubed, and reached us just at nightfall. 

 Nothing remained but to let the queens run 

 loose and take their chances, and we were 

 very greatly surprised the next morning to 

 find all of them apparently nicely accepted. 



In peculiarly stubborn cases tobacco smoke 

 may be used, especially where the bees are 

 determined to ball the queen, and we have 

 positive evidence that the bees are queenless. 

 I have made a colony so ' ' beastly drunk ' ' 

 (pardon the expression ) that when the bees 

 finally recovered from their spree they accept- 

 ed the queen, when before that they would 

 ball her on sight. 



Our practice now is to use tobacco smoke 

 only during fair time, for, unfortunately, our 

 county fairgrounds are within an eighth of a 

 mile of our apiary ; and during the time the 

 stands are making taffy, selling watermelons, 

 lemonade, and the like, our bees would prove 

 to be a great nuisance unless we went around 

 to all the hives and gave a smudging of tobac- 

 co smoke. This is done in the morning, about 

 S o'clock, and another dose is given about I 

 o'clock Half a dozen puffs of smoke are 

 blown in at the entrances, all over the apiary. 

 If the colonies are all stupefied there will be 

 no danger from robbing. This smudging keeps 

 the bees at home. But care should be exercis- 

 ed, as there is danger of overdoing it, and 

 also danger of not doing enough of it ; for if 

 they have once got a taste of the sweets over 

 at the fairground it takes a great deal of stupe- 

 fying to keep them at home. — Ed.] 



OUEENS flying on emerging FROM THE 

 CELLS. 



Noticing several references to the power of 

 flight of young queens on emerging from the 

 cell, in recent numbers of Gleanings, I will 

 relate my experience. 



I cut two cells from a frame of brood. On 

 opening one I found an immature queen, 

 white and motionless. The other contained a 

 very vigorous young queen which came out as 

 soon as the cell was opened, and flew off a 

 few feet. As I had no use for her I thought I 

 would see how well she could fly. I held her 

 up on my hand about six feet high. Starting 

 from that she flew a circular course of about 

 fifty feet, alighting on a catalpa limb about 

 fifteen feet from the ground. Resting there 

 about a minute she arose, circled around 

 twice, and flew out of sight over the top of 

 my house, which is thirty feet high. Her 

 mother is a hybrid, about five per cent of her 

 workers black ; the remainder show three 

 bands plainly. F. G. Anderson. 



Wabash, Va., May 15. 



[I have had queens' fly immediately on 

 emerging from the cells, but never more than 

 four or five feet. The circumstance you relate 

 is quite out of the ordinary, and yet I have no 

 reason to doubt it. 



These circumstances of a queen flying im- 

 mediately after hatching are explained by the 

 fact that bees often confine their queen-moth- 

 ers in the queen-cells for several days after the 

 time they shotild have hatched. It has been 

 suggested that, while they are thus confined, 

 they are fed by the bees. This temporary 

 imprisonment seems to be for the purpose of 

 allowing second and third swarms to depart, 

 each taking a virgin queen ; and the bees 

 know that if all young queens emerged at one 

 time, or about one time, there would be a roy- 

 al battle, resulting in one queen only ; and as 

 bees apparently like the fun of swarming, 

 they use the scheme of imprisoning so they 

 c^n have several gala times. Pardon me if 

 this seams to be somewhat fanciful ; but it is 

 pretty well established that the queens are 

 confined, and, if confined, I can conceive of 

 no other reason than the one given. 



Well now, then, a queen that has been held 

 in her cell, and been fed, would, when re- 

 leased, be able, probably, to fly quite a dis- 

 tance ; although it must feel a little queer to 

 the young to-be-mother to emerge from her 

 dark cell for \.\x^ first time and suddenly find 

 herself transported out into the open, into 

 glorious sunshine, there to enjoy the beauties 

 of nature. The transformation is as magical 

 as it is sudden. — Ed.] 



Please tell us in Gleanings how many 

 acres of buckwheat it will take to keep 100 

 colonies of bees busy. E. M. Hayes. 



Kilbourne, Wis. 



[This is a hard question to answer. Five 

 hundred acres might be enough. I can only 

 conjecture. — Ed.] 



