416 



might advertise to sell queens producing 

 long-tongued bees, the fiicls are tluit not all 

 queens from a long-tongued mother will 

 show the abnormal development advertised. 

 It is almost imi)ossible for a queen-rearer to 

 duplicate the characteristics of his breeding 

 queen. The fact that Natvire has designed 

 that there shall be promiscuous mating 

 among the drones, explains how sports show- 

 ing "extra yellow" or "long tongues" re- 

 vert back to normal in spite of us. It was for 

 that reason, several years ago, we discontin- 

 ued advertising long-tongued bees. When 

 we lost the old original long-tongued breed- 

 ing queen we found that her daughters were 

 not quite e(]ual to the mother, and the grand- 

 daughters showed a still greater dejjarture, 

 until the great-granddaughters went back 

 to the original type. If we could control 

 the male parentage a little better we might 

 be aljle to produce golden-all-over Italians 

 and five-banders that would be true to name, 

 and not bees that show a sprinkling of three, 

 four, and live banders. 



It ill becomes us to criticise any of our 

 queen-breeders who have Leen advertising 

 in our columns; but "poetic license," if Me 

 may use the term, has been carried too far. 

 We might as well admit the fact, first as 

 last, that many of us if not all of us have 

 been living in glass houses. If so, is it not 

 about time for us to start a reform all up 

 and down the line? We are not dictating 

 M'hat our advertisers shall say; but may it 

 not be just as well to substitute the names 

 "golden Italians," or "extra golden Ital- 

 ian"? These terms are flexible enough to 

 admit of \'ariation and yet make no mis- 

 statement; and until we can control the male 

 parentage, none of us can guarantee goldeii- 

 all-over or five-banded bees, although it is 

 possible, as we have said, to jiack a mailing- 

 cage full of each class of bees out of extra- 

 yellow stock. 



DIAGNOSING. AT THE ENTRANCE; HOW TO 



DETERMINE THE CONDITION OF A WHOLE 



APIARY IN A COUPLE OF HOURS. 



In this issue two of our correspondents — 

 (i. M. Doolittle and 8. D. Chapman — refer 

 to the possibility of diagnosing the internal 

 condition of a colony by certain manifesta- 

 tions at the entrance, or by a glance over 

 the t()i)s of the frames. Some years ago, as 

 our older readers will remember, we wrote a 

 number of editorials showing the feasibility 

 of ascertaining the condition or needs of a 

 colony without going down into it or remov- 

 ing a single frame. While an accurate 

 knowledge can not always be obtained in 

 this way, yet a busy man of experience 

 will approximate conditions in any particu- 

 lar colony when the bees are Hying well. 

 For exaniple, in the height of the honey- 

 flow some colonies will need supers, and 

 others additional supers if they already 

 have one. To ojjen up the hives to deter- 

 mine whether the bees need room means a 

 lot of work and time. We have found that 

 we have been able repeatedly to tell by the 

 llight of the bees at the entrance whether 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



the colony in question needed any more 

 room or not. For se\ eral seasons, as a mat- 

 ter of experiment during the honey-tiow we 

 have tried the plan of running an outyard 

 by making only two or three visits a w"eek, 

 and spending an hour or two at each yard. 

 We found we were able to give each colony 

 the attention it required, largely on surface 

 indications. If in doubt we opened up the 

 hive. At the close of the season's work 

 scarcely a colony had suffered from a want 

 of proper attention. 



But the beginner may ask how we can 

 tell by the flight of the bees whether they 

 need room or not. If we see them stream- 

 ing in and out like hot shot, and appear to 

 be laden when they come in, and the record 

 on to}) of the hive shows the colony was 

 given a super a week previously, we con- 

 clude it needs more room, and we set an 

 empty suj^er beside it. 



The next hi\'e does not seem to show 

 much activity at the entrance— that is, the 

 bees are not flying much if any. We pass 

 this. The next colony is doing a little bet- 

 ter, but not a great number of bees are fly- 

 ing. We ])ass this. The next hive shows a 

 stream of bees going in and out. We lay an 

 emi)ty super beside it. The next hive, a 

 ixnverful colony that was working strongly 

 a week ago, has a lot of bees clustered iii 

 front. Bees are going to the fleld, but in a 

 sort of listless way. llight here we may ex- 

 pect swarming-cells; some Italian colonies, 

 instead of going into the sujier, will jam 

 honey in the brood-nest. In this case we 

 And the combs are "honey-bound," and 

 very little cai)i>ed brood and" (jueen-cells in 

 all stages of develoi)ment. We destroy the 

 cells, uncap the honey, and put into the 

 super a section or tw^o started from some 

 other colony. \\q smoke the bees at the 

 entrance, and say, "You fellows get busy 

 and clean uj) the dripping honey from your 

 combs." 



It may be that this work was done too 

 late; but many times it has the effect of 

 starting the bees at work in the super. 



V\e again begin our rounds of the hives. 

 The next colony shows a roar of bees at the 

 entrance; but the bees are not going in any 

 particular direction — just flying aimlessly 

 around in front. This is a clear case of 

 playspell on the part of the young bees. 

 We pass this hive for the time being, and so 

 on through the whole apiary. When we 

 get through we have, perhaps, a dozen or 

 so colonies with empty supers along beside 

 them. With smoker in hand, and a hive- 

 tool, we lift the covers of all colonies in one 

 row at once, ^^'e drop the hive-tool and 

 smoker, then proceed to i)ut the supers on, 

 and finally cover each one of the colonies. In 

 some cases we i)ut the super under, and 

 sometimes we put it above a super already 

 on the hive. In the same way we treat oth- 

 er colonies in the other rows. 



^^'e now come back to the colony that 

 was having a playspell. They have quieted 

 down; but as they do not seem to be flying 

 heavily to the field, we pass them. In two 



