620 



Accordingly 300 queens were ordered to be 

 sent at the rate of 40 per day, and on the 21st 

 of August I left my home with the intention 

 of requeening, taking off the buckwheat hon- 

 ey, and doing all other work necessary to 

 put the colonies in shape for winter, think- 

 ing that no more trips would be necessary 

 this fall, as we have a good man engaged to 

 put the bees in the cellar when the time 

 comes. 



I found that I should have come to the 

 apiary at least a week sooner, for by that 

 time 'most of the buckwheat was over, and 

 the bees were not getting enough honey to 

 prevent them from trying to rob if the hives 

 were opened to any extent. When I viewed 

 the 280 colonies, all strong with bees, I was 

 impressed with the magnitude of the task 

 of having to go through the whole outfit to 

 find the queens. The hives are 14 by 20, 

 and two inches deeper than the L. frame; 

 but instead of 8 frames lengthwise in the 

 hives, there are 12 frames crosswise in each 

 hive. The frames had been moved but little 

 for years; and as the hives were jammed 

 with honey, any one who has had much ex- 

 perience with bees will know what I was up 

 against. Of course the main problem was 

 how to find the queens; and on this point I 

 bad fortified myself with the best advice 

 possible from some of the best-known bee- 

 men. 



Among the methods advised were the fol- 

 lowing: 



"Place entrance-guards over the fronts of 

 the hives, shake the bees in front, and thus 

 screen out the queens." "Use a device 

 similar to the one described by Mr. Greiner, 

 which is known as the Hanneman device 

 for hunting queens." " Put a comb or two 

 in an empty hive, and on top of this place 

 a queen-excluder with the hive to be treated 

 above that. Shake and smoke the bees 

 down and find the queen on the excluder." 

 "Place a super just above the brood-nest, 

 first having nailed a bottom on the super, 

 then drum the bees up into the super, and, 

 when all are up, dump them in a hive-body 

 over the brood-nest, the two having a queen- 

 excluder between them; then chase the bees 

 down and find your queen on the zinc." 



As soon as I started operations it was quite 

 apparent that, with the exception of the lat- 

 ter method, all of the foregoing advice would 

 be impracticable, as it would be necessary 

 to do all of the work under a tent, owing to 

 the fierce robbing tendency of the bees when- 

 ever a hive was opened. While I had great 

 faith in the plan of drumming, I was much 

 disappointed to find that it would not work 

 in my hands; and after trying it with three 

 colonies, and getting none of the queens, I 

 felt blue over the prospect of finding those 

 black queens that could get such a move on 

 whenever the combs were handled. As in- 

 timated already, all work had to be done 

 under a tent; and as this necessitated my 

 being on my knees all the time, some plan 

 had to be worked out that would not expose 

 honey to the robbers, and at the same time 

 it had to be one that would not require luo 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



much paraphernalia owing to the cramped 

 space at my disposal under the tent. 



After considerable thinking, the following 

 plan was decided upon; and it worked so 

 well that in future operations of the kind I 

 shall probably follow the same method. In 

 a shallow extracting-super two combs were 

 nailed fast in the center; over this was plac- 

 ed an excluder; and on top of this, again, a 

 full-depth super (same size as the hive- 

 bodies) was fastened. The tent was placed 

 over the particular hive to be operated on, 

 and the super or supers, thus i)repared, were 

 placed to the left in front of the hive. Then 

 I crawled under the tent with the smoker 

 and proceeded to business. After a puff of 

 smoke had been blown in the entrance, a 

 block was placed over it to prevent the bf es 

 from stampeding out of the hive in front, 

 for kneeling there I did not care to have too 

 many bees going up my trousers; and then, 

 again, the queen was apt to run out as well 

 as the rest of the bees. After opening the 

 hive, the front comb was lifted out; and after 

 a hasty look over it, it was placed in the 

 prepared super in front of the hive. This 

 process was continued until all the combs 

 were out of the hive, unless, of course, the 

 queen was found on the combs, which was 

 not very frequent, I am sorry to say. As a 

 rule, as soon as the combs were out I would, 

 on looking among the host of running bees 

 on the bottom and sides of the hive, find 

 the queen in a few seconds; and by actual 

 count, out of every ten colonies I found six 

 queens on the bottom-boards, three on the 

 combs, and one on the zinc between the two 

 supers after shaking the bees ofT the combs 

 before returning them to the hives, which 

 was, of course, necessary only when the 

 queen was not found on the combs nor in 

 the hive. The fact that the frames were 

 bad to handle no doubt explains why so 

 many of the queens ran off the combs. 



Naturally the question will be asked as to 

 how many queens would be missed; and 

 just here I might say that no one was more 

 surprised than I at the good luck experienc- 

 ed. In going through the first 75 colonies, 

 73 queens were found, and next morning I 

 found a dead queen in front of one of the 

 two missed, so that, in reality, only one 

 queen was missed out of the lot. Then, 

 again, no doubt many will think the process 

 followed was a laborious one, and very slow 

 at that. By actual timing, five queens an 

 hour could be found — indeed, were found at 

 that rate whenever we went at the work. 



One morning the weather was dull and 

 cloudy, with not a bee flying; and as the 

 robbers were bad, even when working under 

 a tent during sunshine, I went at finding 

 queens under circumstances which only 

 those who have been similarly engaged in 

 can understand. From 7 in the morning 

 until a little after 10, sixteen strong colo- 

 nies were examined, and every queen found. 

 It is needless to remind one that, with the 

 tent to carry around, and with all the incon- 

 venience of working under it, our move- 

 ments were much hindered; and there can 



