1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



913 



3. (a) Queen on own comb, among her own 



bees, put into colony just unqueened. 

 Killed 



{6) Same, but colony aware of queenless- 

 ness. Killed. Five or 5-ix killed thus. 

 I tried tobacco smoke in some cases, 

 but could see no difference. 



(c) Queen given same way to populous 3 

 fiame nucleus containing laying work- 

 ers. Queen received all right. 



4. Queens run in under mat at night. Kill- 

 ed. Two cases. 



5. Simmins' " fasting method," i. e., queen 

 alone in small box or cage, and without food 

 for 30 minutes ; kept warm meanwhile, and 

 then made to run in under mat, preceded and 

 followed by a puff or two of smoke. A lot of 

 trials and no failures. 



In this last method I used tobacco smoke — 

 the tobacco being put in on top of the plauer- 

 chips after they were burning freely. How 

 much cf the success was due to the tobacco 



less a few hours — or at least that has been our 

 experience. I do not see how No. 5 differs 

 very much from 4 — that is, I do not under- 

 stand how fasting for only 30 minutes on the 

 part of the queen should induce a friendly be- 

 havior on the part of the bees. I should be 

 more inclined to believe that the favorable re- 

 sult was owing to the tobacco smoke. — Ed] 



BEE-KEEPING IN THE SOUTH. 



From 39 to 62, and 2200 lbs. of Honey. 



BY L. W. M'rAE. 



In this picture are mostly eight frame hives. 

 They are now in winter quarters, so you see 

 how we are blest in climate. I started in the 

 spring with 39 colonies ; increased to 62. I 

 have now doubled back to 57. I have taken 

 off 720 lbs. of extracted, 1472 well-filled sec- 

 tions, and plenty of stores for winter. 



AN APIARY IN AI,ABAMA. 



smoke I can not say, but I believe it had very 

 little to do with it. 



The Simmins method is certainly easy and 

 simple, and, in spite of adverse honey condi- 

 tions, was uniformly successful. 



Such were the experiments. Interpret them 

 according to your own experiences. 



Providence, R. I., Oct. 22. 



[The result of No. 2 is a little unusual. The 

 result in No. 3, a and b, is what I should have 

 expected. Queens introduced by this plan in 

 4 are very often received kindly. We once in- 

 troduced some 25 or 30 at night in this way, 

 and all were received ; but every colony was 

 surely queenless, for we had taken the queens 

 out a day or two before. A colony longer 

 queenless, or queenless long enough to get 

 some of their own cells started, is more likely 

 to reject a queen than when it has been queen- 



Bee-keeping with improved hives is a new 

 industry in this part of Alabama. I was one 

 of the few who were cranky enough to invest 

 in it, four years ago ; and, being afraid of my 

 own works, I went slow until now I am satis- 

 fied it can be made a paying industry. 



I find another trouble is to get our people 

 educated up to paying fancy prices for fancy 

 honey ; they have been so long paying 10 

 cents for chunk honey, young bees, and pol- 

 len, mixed, as cut from the box hive, that 12^ 

 cents is the best I could do this year for sec- 

 tions ; 8^ for extracted. 



I am now trying Belgian hares on a small 

 scale, although one of my fruit-journals says 

 a man should be prosecuted criminally who 

 would bring them into a State. 



In the picture is my wife, a neighbor's boy, 

 and myself. 



Calvert, Ala. 



