134 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



so on. B3' workingf in this way the getting- 

 of virj^fins accepted is rendered a compara- 

 tively easy matter, and the subject of queen- 

 feitilizin^ is considerably' simplified. Be- 

 sides, the output of a layini^ queen from 

 a g^iven number of nuclei can be nearly 

 doubled. 



Before Mr. TitofT made his caere we used 

 the Stanley and Miller cngres-the Stanley 

 as a nursery and the Miller as an intro- 

 ducingf cage. The virgins then had to be 

 transferred from one to the other, which, 

 when a lot had to be done, was a tax upon 

 the time and patience (f ihe beekeeper. 

 The same might be said of almost every 

 other kind of nursery cage in vogue. In 

 the cage h'-re shown, both featui;es are com- 

 bined — the virgin hatching right into her 

 introducing cage. By referring to Fig. 11 

 it will be seen how readiU' fresh candy can 

 be supplied, and t^e tin on the bottom 

 makes it easy to confine the queen or allow 

 the bees to release her. 



If you desire to make sure of j'our new 

 swarms, clip the queen's wings. An op- 

 portunity for doing this is off ered when they 

 are removed from the nuclei for introduc- 

 tion into strong colonies. Take the queen 

 from the comb by her wings with the rig^ht 

 hand; hold the first finger of the left hand 

 in front of her and let her catch on to it. 



to injury. Beginners had belter clip the 

 wings on one side onl}', as those on the oth- 

 er serve as a means of lifting' her in the 

 future. 



Fig. 14. 



As soon as she does so, bring your thumb 

 upon her feet; let go your hold on her 

 wings, and, as she raises them in an efifort 

 to fly, clip off the membraneous portion on 

 each side symmetrically. Never hold the 

 queen bj' one foot onl3', or she will swing 

 round and round and attempt to wring it 

 off. 



In P^ig. Iv'^, 1 gives an idea of how the 

 queen should be picked up; 2, however, is 

 misleading. Thequetn is to be held in ex- 

 actly the opposite position from that shown 

 — her hend turned toward the end of the 

 first finger, her body resting fl it upon it, 

 and her wings extended. No. 3 shows an- 

 other manner of holding her, and, for the 

 beginner, perhaps a safer one. She is ta- 

 ken up by the wings as shown in 1, and 

 the fingers of the operator rest upon the 

 thorax, which, being harder, is less liable 



LATE MATED QUEENS, ETC. 



1. Will a queen raised and mated in the 

 fall, that has done no laying, be g'ood for 

 any thing? I have three that I know were 

 mated late in the fall — too late to lay. 



2. I have two or three colonies in hives 

 the bottoms of which are wet, the water 

 even running out of the entrance, although, 

 there has been no moisture of any kind for 

 over two months. The bees seem perfectly 

 healthy; but I can not understand the wa- 

 ter in the hives in such dry weather. Will 

 it do any harm? The hives are raised, 

 about four or five inches from the ground. 



Bloomfield, N. M. Fred L. Clkrc. 



[1. Yes, suchqueenswill usuallylay in the 

 spring, providing they have been mated in 

 the previous fall; but unless there are 

 drones flying late (and usually there ar^ 

 none) such queens would be worthless. 



2. The conditio 1 described is not abnor- 

 mal. A powerful, healthy colony will give 

 off considerable moistr.re. If the bottom- 

 board or sides of the hives are cold they 

 will collect it in the form of numerous drops. 

 —Ed. ] 



sweet clover. 



It doesn't seem to me to be quite right ta 

 scatter the seed around in roads and other 

 people's lots. I have tried for several years 

 to get our fence rows and waste patches 

 seeded; but my sheep, goats, and horses 

 seem to search it all out and keep it down. 



La Haye, Ills., Jan. 14. W. D. Null. 



[Why, friend N., jour letter seems to 

 answer itself. I do not know but some of 

 our readers will think it a little bit of a joke 

 when j'ou saj' your conscience troubles you 

 about scattering the seed around in waste 

 places, and then to tell us that 3'our "sheep, 

 goats, and horses search it out and devour 

 if so as to prevent you from getting a 

 stand. If you think your neighbors would 

 complain if you should sow red or medium 

 clover in waste places along the roads, or 

 even if some of it should get over into their 

 lots, then you ought to be pretty careful 

 about sowing sweet clover. I do not know 

 that I ever heard of scattering sweet clover 

 or any other honey-plant seed on land that 

 belonged to somebody else, even if it was 

 waste land, and I would not recommend 

 such a course. Yet all those who persist 



