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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



the arrangement of the hives, or because one 

 hive of a pair is different from the other, and 

 strikingly different from the hive located in 

 the same position in the next pair. — Ed.] 



Strange how some foolish idea will go the 

 rounds as if there was something to it. There's 

 that idea of Rambler's. Now, is it possible 

 that bee-keepers in general are so weak in the 

 upper story that, when looking for a queen, 

 they can't remember what they're looking for 

 without saying, "Queen, queen," over and 

 over again ? No, sir, Rambler ; when I look 

 for a queen I'm after that queen, and nothing 

 short of a call to dinner will call my attention 

 to any thing else. If I were like some other 

 people I know of it might be different. Even 

 saying "Queen, queen,'" wouldn't do them 

 any good. I can imagine Rambler, frame in 

 hand, softly crooning to himself, 

 " Queen, queen, queen, 

 O queen of my heart. 

 How I wish you were here ! " 

 while the queen he ought to be wishing for 

 was walking across the comb right before his 

 eyes. 



Misery likes company, and here's some- 

 thing for those who have not been very suc- 

 cessful in rearing young queens. May 29 I 

 formed a nucleus and gave it a virgin. I saw 

 her there nine days later, then she turned up 

 missing. I gave in succession five more vir- 

 gins and two cells, which I think were k'ndly 

 received in most if not all cases, and brood 

 was given from time to time so that the nu- 

 cleus was unusually strong, but I never got a 

 queen to laying in that pesky nucleus till 

 Sept. 12. If any one has done worse than 

 that, please rise. [This is a record-breaking 

 case, sure. I should like to know more about 

 that colony. Is it not possible that it had a 

 fashion of making way with its queens? Pos- 

 sibly they did not lay soon enough to suit 

 their fancies. After using up four or five vir- 

 gins I should have felt like treating this col- 

 ony as I would a colony of laying workers, 

 scattering their brood and bees in four or five 

 strong colonies, leaving one comb to catch the 

 few returning bees. Then I do not know but 

 I should feel like taking those bees and brim- 

 stoning them. It used to be my practice, 

 when I was working every day in the apiary, 

 to take an ' ' obstreperous " colony or nucleus, 

 and treat it after this fashion. — Ed ] 



Some new freak is always coming up 

 among the bees. Lately I took a comb out 

 of a nucleus, and found it regularly supplied 

 with eggs except a cluster of cells at one end, 

 each containing five to ten eggs. "Laying 

 workers," thought I. But all were worker- 

 cells, and directly I spied a fine - looking 

 queen. A few days later it was the same 

 thing. I strengthened the nucleus, giving 

 the queen more room to lay, and after that 

 there was only one egg in a cell. I have often 

 known a queen to lay two or three eggs in a 

 cell here and there, but never before have I 

 seen one dump all her extra eggs in one little 

 spot. [Yes, we very often have queens that 

 will commence to lay irregularly at first, and 

 after a while will get down to business. It is 



not an uncommon thing for one who receives 

 an imported queen to report that she is "no 

 good " because she scatters her eggs and puts 

 one or two in a cell ; but we always advise 

 waiting a little, and giving her a further trial. 

 So far as I can remember, these queens have 

 in every case, with perhaps one exception, 

 turned out all right. — Ed ] 



August 18 I took a queen from a nucleus 

 and gave it a caged queen-cell due to hatch 

 Aug. 22. Aug. 31 I gave it a frame of young 

 brood. Sept. 18 I found eggs and brood, and 

 on the same comb, not two inches apart, two 

 queens, one a virgin by her looks. The case 

 looks a little like this : When the frame of 

 brood was given Aug. 31, the bees started a 

 queen-cell as a precautionary measure, be- 

 cause their queen was not yet laying, and 

 then allowed both to continue. But did you 

 ever know of such an exception before ? Now 

 suppose these had been black queens, and I 

 had sent to a queen-breeder for an Italian, 

 which I introduced after killing one of the 

 blacks without seeing the other. The Italian 

 would be killed, and three weeks later I 

 would find only blacks hatching, and would 

 feel sure a black queen had been sent me. 

 [This can and probably does explain how, in 

 one way, a good tested queen turns out to be 

 no better than a common black. Lately we 

 have been clipping our best queens, and only 

 this week we had a case where a customer 

 reported that an imported we had sent him 

 was nothing but a hybrid. We wrote back, 

 and asked if the queen now in the hive had a 

 clipped wing. We have not yet heard from 

 him, but are morally certain that one of two 

 things is true — either that he does not know 

 how to distinguish hybrids from pure Italians, 

 or that the queen has got supplanted in the 

 manner you speak of. It has very often hap- 

 pened, when we have ferreted the matter clear 

 down, that there has been an exchange of 

 queens. The customer was entirely honest, 

 and supposed that we had, of course, made 

 some mistake. — Ed.] 



The bluejay's angry shriek, the withering leaves, 



Foretell stern Winter's blast ; 

 The summer scarcely seems to come 



Before — "the summer's past." 



AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 

 The issue for September contains a good 

 view of the apiary of Mr. H. L. Jones, Good- 

 na, Australia. Better than I can do it myself, 

 the editor describes the phenomenal success 

 of Mr. Jones as follows : 



It is interesting to note the progress of our industry 

 around the world ; and the case of Mr. Jones corrobo- 

 rates the fact already established, that, in the hands 

 of the right man, very limited means and a small 

 start frequently outgrow and surpass the more pre- 

 tentious business which, though having abundant cap- 

 ital, has not the skill and natural adaptability neces- 



