968 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



have to scrimp on account of fears of starva- 

 tion, not nearly as much brood will be raised 

 as there would be were there so much honey 

 in the hives that the bees could use it lavishly. 

 A hive which has twenty pounds of honey in 

 it on the first day of April will, as a rule, give 

 from one third to double the bees Pt the com- 

 mencement of the clover harvest that the one 

 will which has only from three to five pounds, 

 providing the latter does not starve altogeth- 

 er. " 



"Well, what about the good queen you 

 spoke of ? " 



"A good queen is an actual necessity ; for, 

 tuck up the hive as well as we may, and give 

 the bees any quantity of stores, yet if the 

 queen is a poor or a failing one there will be 

 only enough bees raised to keep up the dying 

 population of the hive, resulting in little or no 

 honey to the owner." 



" What more will the farmer need ? " 

 "Seeing that the bees have the three requi- 

 sites spoken of, little more will be needed from 

 the farmer till swarming time arrives. When 

 the first swarm issues you will mark the date 

 on the hive so that on the eighth day you can 

 go in the evening and listen for the piping of 

 the first young queen, which usually hatches 

 some time during the seventh day, where the 

 swarm issued on the sealing of the first queen- 

 cell, as it generally does." 



" What do you mean by piping ? " 

 " When the bees desire to send out an after- 

 swarm they cluster about all the queen-cells 

 in the hive, so that the first hatched queen 

 can not get at them to destroy them. This 

 seems to enrage the queen that is out of her 

 cell, and she utters some shrill notes, sound- 

 ing like teet, teet, teet, several being uttered 

 in quick succession, which is easily distin- 

 guished from all other noises in or about the 

 hive." 



" When this is heard, what then ? " 

 " If you hear the queen piping you may 

 know that if the weather is pleasant a second 

 swarm will issue the next day, unless thwarted 

 in some way, and also that there is a young 

 queen out of her cell and at liberty in the hive. 

 If this piping is heard, the hive should be 

 opened early the next morning, and every 

 queen-cell cut oflf, which will prevent any afl- 

 er-swarms issuing from that hive." 



" Is it easy to find these queen-cells ? " 

 "Yes, fairly so ; but to be sure that none 

 are missed by being covered by the bees, it is 

 well to shake the bees off each frame, shaking 

 them in front of the entrance so that they can 

 run into the hive again." 



"When should I put on the honey-boxes?" 

 " The surplus arrangement should be put on 

 each hive that has its combs filled with brood, 

 as soon as the honey harvest commences, no 

 matter whether the bees have swarmed or not; 

 and upon all others as soon as there are bees 

 enough in them so that they can keep up the 

 necessary warmth for brood-rearing with the 

 surplus arrangement on." 



" How about taking off the honey? " 

 " As soon as many of the sections are filled 

 they should be taken off while snow-white, as 

 the appearance of the honey in market has 



much to do with the price we receive for it. 

 But I have an engagement to meet at our vil- 

 lage an hour from now, so I can not talk any 

 longer, if I get there on time. But one word 

 more before I go : No one should think of 

 keeping bees without some one of the many 

 good bee-books of the present. One of these 

 will tell you all about hives, and the manage- 

 ment of bees, much better than I can were I 

 to talk with you two days. Get one of Root's 

 ABC books and see if I have not told you 

 right." 



mE 





aA.|gg^ 



A SHORT-TUBE CLOVER IN SIGHT ; HOW THE 

 BEBS U'ORKED ON IT. 



I am very much interested in the effort you 

 are making for long-tongued bees and short- 

 tubed clover. I for one believe that the goal 

 can be reached from both directions ; i. e., by 

 combining the two. In 1898 I noticed my 

 bees going and coming in one direction, name- 

 ly, southwest. Thinking to find what they 

 were working on I followed in that direction, 

 and found very few bees at work on or near 

 the ground, and no timber of any consequence 

 on which they could work. About a mile and 

 a half from home I found a clover-field fairly 

 swarming with bees, while a clover-field of 30 

 or more acres with one side of it, not 50 yards 

 from a part, and not more than 40 feet from 

 the remainder of my lot of 30 hives, had very 

 few bees on it. Some two or three days after, 

 I noticed the bees stopping work about noon, 

 and taking my wheel I rode around and found 

 my clover-field laid low. When the second 

 crop came in bloom I again noticed the bees in 

 particular, and found them working on this 

 same field, although the field across the road 

 from my home contained many more bees than 

 on the first crop. This fact alone caused me 

 to decide that I wanted seed from that particu- 

 lar field. When the neighbor hulled his seed, 

 by offering a few cents above the market 

 price I obtained it, but had to take the entire 

 crop to get any. I managed to sell some of it 

 to some of my neighbors, and some more to 

 my father, who lives some ten miles southwest 

 of me. 



The crop of seed sown near me in 1899 was 

 almost a failure in catching, and what did 

 catch was winter-killed last winter, while some 

 fair fields were left over at my father's. 



My prospects for honey last spring were any 

 thing but bright for 30 colonies, so I decided 

 to divide up territory. I took five of my weak- 

 er colonies and one strong one to my father's ; 

 4 were taken to a place where there were a fair 

 number of basswood-trees, although badly cut 

 by the canker-worm. Well, this fall I had 24 

 colonies to feed, nearly all being at starvation's 

 door. 



My father said when he cut his hay he never 

 saw bees thicker on a buckwheat-patch than 

 on his clover. I made a trip to see how they 



