1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



939 



late fall months. It is possible there was 

 nothing in the hive from which the bees 

 could build cells. If there are no eggs or 

 brood of any kind the colony should be fed 

 a little every day for about a week. This 

 would probably start the queen to laying, 

 then vou could remove her and get cells. — 

 Ed.]^ 



red-clover bees. 



On page 656 G. M. P. asks Dr. Miller if it 

 is possible to get bees that would work on 

 red clover. I have had the red-clover bees 

 for two years, and they have worked red 

 clover both years. It was when white clo- 

 ver was in full bloom all around, and yield- 

 ing honey, that I saw them on the red clo- 

 ver. I had five acres of alsike in full bloom 

 at the same time. They will work red clo- 

 ver without any doubt. I have seen them 

 shove their heads down into the blossom, 

 and just stay there and drink; but I don't 

 claim that they can get all the honey there 

 is in red clover; but they can get part of it. 

 All the fault that I have to find with them 

 (and that is not a bad fault) is this: If you 

 give them plenty of super room and a wide 

 entrance they are not apt to swarm. I have 

 had but one natural swarm in two years. 

 All the way I can get increase is to resort 

 to the " shook-swarm " remedy. I got my 

 start of red-clover bees from .J. P. Moore, 

 of Morgan, Ky. I have been thinking that, 

 if I could find a golden queen whose bees 

 would work red clover, I would cross them 

 with my bees to avoid in-breeding. My 

 neighbors have been telling me that they 

 have seen my bees on their red clover. One 

 man told me there were so many bees on his 

 red clover while he was cutting it for hay 

 that they bothered his horses. I believe ev- 

 ery bee-keeper ought to breed from the 

 longest-tongued bees that can be found. 



Velpen, Ind. W. T. Daveson. 



DOES A QUEEN MATE MORE THAN ONCE? 



This question is important to those who 

 v/ish their purely bred queens to be purely 

 fertilized once for all, with no risk of a future 

 spurious progeny. I would add my testi- 

 mony to that of those who have known a 

 queen to go out for mating, and return with 

 apparent signs of success, and then to re- 

 peat the performance after a few days' in- 

 terval. For many years I have looked into 

 this matter, and my records show several 

 instances of this second mating, or what 

 Mr. Whitney, p. 550, calls "copulation with- 

 out fertilization." And now, while your 

 correspondents have been discussing this 

 question I have had another instance of the 

 same thing. 



Prof. Phillips says, p. 286, it is necessary 

 ' ' to get down by the hive every afternoon dur- 

 ing the time of flight, and stay there until the 

 queen is seen to fly and return." That is 

 just what I did not have to do. Instead, I 

 watched the queen from the time she came 

 out of her cell until her final departure, many 

 times each day, and sometimes at night; 



and the result was similar to what I had 

 seen before. 



May 30, 9 p. M. — Fine dark queen appears. 



June 2, 12 M. —Queen shows great activity; 

 follows a crowd of young bees to the exit, 

 looks out, and retires. 



June 3. — Bees begin to encircle and caress 

 the queen. After an hour of excitement she 

 took flight about 1 P. M., and in ten minutes 

 returned with no evidence of success. An 

 hour later she went to the exit but did not 

 vepture forth outside. 



June 5. —Queen made flights at 12, 1, 2, 

 and 3, being absent from ten to twenty min- 

 utes, the last time returning with a small 

 appendage which the bees removed in half 

 an hour. The substance came away entire. 



June 6. —Queen takes another outing, and 

 came back no more. 



In very many cases of successful mating 

 I have noted always that, as Baron von Ber- 

 lepsch puts it, "the signs of copulation 

 stand far out. ' ' (By all means see Lang- 

 stroth, p. 126, note — I do not find the pas- 

 sage in Dadant. ) But in these cases of un- 

 successful mating, the appendage, although 

 conspicuous, is much smaller than in the for- 

 mer cases, and is speedily plucked away by 

 the bees instead of being gradually and 

 wholly absorbed. 



Whether a queen, after due impregnation, 

 and after beginning to deposit eggs in the 

 cells, ever finds it necessary to take anoth- 

 er mating-flight, is a different question, ad- 

 mitting of no mere theory or guesswork, but 

 calling for accux-ate and repeated observa- 

 tion to establish a fact. Meanwhile, there 

 is no occasion for anxiety; for if a queen's 

 wings are clipped she can not elope, and we 

 may trust that our favorite strain of bees will 

 continue uncontaminated until the scientists 

 shall have discovered or invented some pro- 

 cess of mating within the hive. 



Hopkinsville, Ky. Daniel F. Savage. 



ONE FAULT TO FIND WITH THE FENCE SEP- 

 ARATOR; FOUL-BROODY HONEY NOT 

 DISINFECTED BY BOILING. 



One fault of the fence separator is the 

 fastening of the cappings of the sections to 

 the cleats on the fences; and when a fence 

 is taken out the capping is broken, and leak- 

 ing results. I think if the cleat were nar- 

 rower so it would not overlap the sections, 

 it would not happen so much. 



I have fought foul brood for five years 

 past, and kept my bees (my neighbors' bees 

 are gone), and I have experimented several 

 times with foul-broody honey. I first put 

 the combs through the wax-extractor, and 

 then boiled the honey and fed it back, and 

 every colony so fed became diseased again, 

 while those fed sugar syrup were healthy. 

 Inspector France tells about cleaning up 200 

 colonies, feeding back the honey, and having 

 bees to work again with the loss of only un- 

 hatched brood; but how many of those 200 

 remained healthy he does not say. I say, 

 shake foul-broody colonies early in the first 

 honey-flow, or feed sugar syrup and shake 



