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Gleanings in Bee Culture 



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Why the Bees Refused to Accept the Grafted Cells. 



Dr. C. C. Miller:— Plense Inform me through the 

 columns of(JLEANiNGS regarding cell-building. I 

 have been trying to rear queens by the Doolittle 

 method, but have had failures every time, as the 

 bees would not accept the cells when I gave them 

 the embryo cells comijosed of royal jelly, and three 

 to five hours larvae. 



Nashville. Tenn. B. K. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



It is hard to answer fully why you have failed, 

 without knowing more fully what you have done, 

 and I can only guess. It may be that you have 

 tried to have the bees start cells over an excluder, 

 with a laying queen below. In such a case bees are 

 generally ready to continue cells already started, 

 but averse to .startina them unless the queen be old 

 and perhaps near being superseded. 



It may be. however, that you have vmqueened a 

 colon.v, giving the cells at once, and the bees have 

 promptly emptied out the cells before discovering 

 their queenlessness. ( )r you may have allowed the 

 bees to have brood of their own on which they pre- 

 ferred to start cells. If you use bees having enough 

 of the swarming fever to have already begun build- 

 ing queen-cells and give them cells with no queen 

 and no other unsealed brood in the hive, you ought 

 to succeed, especially at a time when bees are gath- 

 ering in abundance. 



It may not be amiss to tell you of another way 

 that \vill be sure to succeed, by which you can rear 

 just as good queens — the way I rear queens for my 

 own use, after having reared many queens by the 

 other plan. About the time bees think of swarm- 

 ing naturally, go to the hive with your best queen: 

 take out all the frames but two, giving these to an- 

 other colony to be cared for a few day.s. It will be 

 better if the two frames left are well filled, with lit- 

 tle room in them for the queen to lay. Between 

 these two frames put two or three empty frames, 

 each having two starters of foundation. The start- 

 ers may be four or five inches from each end. about 

 two inches wide, and coming down to a point with- 

 in two or three inches of the bottom-bar. In per- 

 haps a week you ought to find these frames partly 

 filled with comb containing eggs and young brood. 

 Take them away and return the brood you took 

 away. In your prepared frames there will be a bor- 

 der of eggs at the outer part of the comb. Trim 

 away all. or nearly all, these eggs. Now put this 

 frame in the center of a colon.y that has already be- 

 gun starting queen-cells, of course removing the 

 queen. The bees will do the rest, preferring this 

 new comb to their own older combs. 



Marengo. 111. C. ('. Millek. 



The Annual and Biennial Yellow Sweet Clover; a 

 Case where Spraying in Bloom has Killed Bees. 



I bought 1(10 lbs. of yellow-sweet-clover seed in 

 August. 1909. and su|)i)osed 1 was buying the bien- 

 nial variety, as I had heard nothing of the one-year 

 kind. But the next spring 1 was surprised to see 

 the stuff commence blf)oming when not more than 

 three inches high, and it kept it up nearly all sum- 

 mer; but not a bee touched it so far as I could see. 

 Thinking this might be a freak I waited till this 

 spring to see, and it is the same thing over. I have 

 some of the two-year variety, the seed coming from 

 Kentucky, which is doing finely, and bees are now 

 working on it right along. Does the annual varie- 

 ty produce honey in other places? 



About the spraying of fruit-trees in bloom, I will 

 say that a number of us bee-keepers here were bad- 

 ly hurt by the same this year. 



Koswell. N. M. R. B. Slease. 



[In regard to the yellow sweet clover that you 

 bought in 1909. we have reports where this annual 

 produced honey — in fact, it yielded honey right 

 here in Medina. We also have reijorts where it did 

 not yield honey, and others where the other varie- 

 ty did. When we first bought this sweet clover we 

 did not suppose there was more than one variety of 

 yellow; but in the last year or so we have been ad- 

 vertising the two. The annual is a little more rap- 

 id in growth, and in this locality it reaches the 

 height of the ordinary white sweet clover. Indeed, 

 you win find a photograph of ^t in our sweet-clover 

 pamphlet, where it is six feet high. The bees were 

 busy on it at the time the photograph was taken. 



It is possible the soil was not right, or that the 

 climate is not suitable for the annual: and, again, 

 another year it might yield very satisfactorily from 

 the seed droijping down from the first year's growth. 

 —Ed.] 



When Two Swarms Cluster Together, How Bees 

 Sometimes Protect Queens from being Balled. 



I have had experience like that of B. B. Fouch, 

 of Chamberino, X. M., May 1, p. 278; and I am con- 

 vinced that two or more swarms coming out at the 

 same time will unite without friction; but when 

 housing them, the bees of one .swarm, finding a 

 strange queen, immediately attack her. The prob- 

 ability is that, by observing closely, you will find 

 either two or more balled queens, or you may find 

 one carefully protected by her own bees. 



Hatch, N. M.. May 10. S. MASON. 



[<)ur correspondent refers to the fact that bees 

 under some conditions will sometimes form around 

 the queen to protect her from being balled by 

 strange bees. This is a wonderful provision of na- 

 ture, and it is the provision, probably, by which, in 

 the case of ordinary uniting, one queen will be 

 saved and the other killed or desti'oyed. It seldom 

 happens that both queens are killed, unless the 

 bees get to fighting among themselves. — Kd.] 



Cooperative Selling. 



In the article entitled "Cooperation in Selling 

 Honey," by .1. Hedstrom, April 1, page 204, he says, 

 " Now. a few of the larger bee-keepers get together 

 to sell honey on a cooperative plan, but somehow 

 the.v do not seem to get the reasonable price they 

 expected. They talk the matter over, and find that 

 there is honey on the shelf beside theirs at a lower 

 lirice. A small bee-keeper had to sell his crop, as 

 he needed the money: and as the commission man 

 wanted to make a little something for his trouble, 

 this small producer was forced to take less for his 

 honey." 



Now. could not the larger bee-keeper buy the 

 honey from the small producer, at a reasonable 

 price — that is, if the small producer had to sell his 

 crop because of being in need of money, and cut 

 out the commission man? 



May the day come speedily when both the small 

 and the large bee-keepers will sell on a cooperative 

 plan! 



Botkins, ( ). J. A. Becheb. 



Hiving a Swarm in a Hive with a Laying-worker 

 Colony. 



I wish to tell your subscribers how. without any 

 hive manipulation. I got ahead of a colony that had 

 laying workers. They had refused to accept a queen 

 of any kind, having gone for several months 

 without one. when one of my boys brought in a 

 rather large swarm of bees from the woods late one 

 evening. As it was dark I lifted the cover of the 

 hi\ e and shook them in over the frames, giving 

 them all a good smoking as they went in. ( )n look- 

 ing at them the following morning I found a few 

 dead bees in front, but a fine large dark-colored 

 ciueen Inside, a little shy, but enjoying all the priv- 

 ileges of housekeeping, .since then they have done 

 well. 



Austin, Texas. W. W. Durham. 



The Alexander Veil as a Swarm-catcher. 



I have demonstrated the usefulness of the Alex- 

 ander veil for caiJturing and carrying a swarm of 

 bees, and, furthermore, keeping the swarm over 

 night until a hive could be made ready. There is 

 one ijrecaution needed to succeed: and that is, to 

 be sure that the lapjjing of the wire and of the cloth 

 iboth top and skirt) is bee-tight. To preijare, fold 

 the skirt down over the wire, like turning up a 

 coat-sleeve just enough to control the cloth. Then 

 when the swarm has been jarred down Into the 

 veil, quickly gather the edges of the skirt into the 

 hand, and tie securely in the center with a string, 

 making a bow-knot if the distance to be carried is 

 short. This all presupposes that a swarm can be 

 reached in any practicable way. In an emergency 

 it works like a charm. 



Hoboken, N. .1. C. D. C. 



