516 



Gleanio gfin Bee Culture 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo. 111. 



J. E. Crane, p. 485, if my bees ever tore 

 down one side of worker-comb and rebuilt 

 drone-cells I never noticed it. 



Wesley Foster, however it may be in 

 Colorado, here we have whole combs of 

 brood sealed, not a cell missing. If, as you 

 say, p. 452, only ^{ of the eggs laid come to 

 maturity, there ought to be unsealed cells 

 mixed in. Wish the Washington savants 

 would tell us about it. 



Three weeks after swarming, Lizzie J. 

 McCalmont found in the mother colony a 

 queen but no eggs, ])age 473. Was not the 

 only trouble that the queen had not yet be- 

 gun to lay? The virgin emerges about a 

 week after the swarming, aiid lays when 

 eight or ten days old, say sixteen days after 

 the swarm issues. In this case it might 

 easily be five days later, either because the 

 swarm issued before the sealing of the first 

 cell, or because of delay in fecundation. 



To PROTECT passers-by from an apiary 

 within 25 feet of the street, a fence of poul- 

 try netting 40 inches high was erected. The 

 netting had a two-inch mesh, but the bees 

 all flew over it, not one going through, al- 

 though one colony was only 12 inches from 

 the fence.— Schweiz. Bztr/., 229. [We have 

 not tried this, but we believe it is true. In 

 the same way, bees do not like to fly through 

 tall grass and weeds to get to their entrances; 

 and yet we bee-keepers are careless enough 

 to force them to wear out their wings j)re- 

 inaturely. — Ed.] 



The qveen of No. 64 was caged and the 

 cage stuck in the entrance of the hive. Nine 

 days later an egg was found in a queen-cell. 

 Colony very dark. Did a worker lay that 

 egg or carry it from the cage? [We have 

 had a couple of cases where queens laid eggs 

 in a queen-cage and the bees deposited them 

 in queen-cells, or queen-cups, and raised 

 queens. Dr. Iv. A. Simmon, of Auburn- 

 dale, Fla., will shortly tell of a very remark- 

 able case that came under his observation. 

 He showed us the cage of queen cells and 

 the queen. — Ed.] 



Here's my latest feeder for a small quan- 

 tity at dusk in hot weather: A tumbler of 

 syrup at the entrance, with cork-chips for a 

 float. If the evening be cool, kick the hive 

 and then run. [This scheme will work; but 

 a beginner ought to be cautioned not to 

 place too much food before a weak nucleus, 

 for they might not be able to take it all out 

 before morning. Your advice to "kick the 

 hive and run" had better be practiced by 

 all beginners when putting food out this 

 way in front of an entrance, otherwise the 

 bees might not discover it. — Ed.] 



The editor of Australian Bee BuUetin 

 says bees can not transfer eggs, for even he 

 hiinself has tried it and failed. [This state- 

 ment is surprising. The fact that our friend 

 failed to move eggs and have them hatch is 



by no means proof that the bees can not do 

 it. Bees can do a thousand and one things 

 that we can not do, and there are a few 

 things they do that we can do, and one of 

 them is moving eggs. If our friend, the ed- 

 itor of the Australian Bee Bulletin, will 

 spend a summer in a large queen-rearing 

 yard he would probably change his mind. 

 See answer to Straw in this issue regarding 

 the queen of No. 64. — Ed.] 



Aufsaugefangkaefig (suck - up - catch 

 cage) is the name of a new contrivance for 

 catching a queen without touching her with 

 the fingers. The cut from III. Monatsbleiet- 

 ter, 59, needs little explanation. Place the 

 end of the little glass cylinder, give a quick 

 suck, and the quesn will be in the cylinder, 

 when you will put in the plug. Of course 

 there is no chance for the queen to pass into 

 the rubber tube. 



I HAD A CHANCE to try carbolic acid for 

 robbers. A fierce attack was made upon 

 No. 109. I dipped the tail-feather of a tur- 

 key in a bottle of carbolic acid and drew it 

 once across the front of the hive just above 

 the entrance, then dipped it again and drew 

 it just once across the alighting-board. A 

 solid phalanx continued to fly at the en- 

 trance, but not a robber passed through 

 that two-inch space perfumed above and 

 below. The effect continued for fifteen 

 minutes, and every fifteen minutes for the 

 rest of the day t painted the entrance 

 afresh. In the morning the robbers were at 

 it again. I carried the hive into the cellar, 

 and put in its place an empty hive of like 

 appearance. Next day I returned No. 109, 

 closing the entrance to one square inch. 

 There was no further trouble. [We have 

 tried experiments somewhat similar, but 

 the acid seemed to confuse the inmates of 

 the hive as well as the robbers. We did 

 not, however, apply it in just the way you 

 describe, around tlie entrance. As we now 

 recall, we sprayed a weak solution over the 

 entire entrance, robbers and defenders alike. 

 We will try it again at the next opportuni- 

 ty, and perhaps the results will be more fa- 

 vorable, providing we make a "dead-line," 

 so to speak, an inch or so from the actual 

 opening of the entrance itself. Robbers 

 would have to pass the "dead-line" neces- 

 sarily, while the defenders of the home 

 would not', and would, therefore, have the 

 advantage. You do not say whether the 

 carbolic acid you used was full strength or 

 diluted; but we infer full strength, release 

 enlighten us if we are mistaken — E^d.] 



