232 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



one of the prime causes of swarming tallied so well 

 with my experience of 1912 that I feel emboldened 

 to wi-ite. 



This is the third year of my actual experience 

 with owning and caring for bees. I started with a 

 single hive which, on the advice of the party from 

 whom I purchased, I located in the second story of 

 my barn, a nan-ow slit cut through the siding allow- 

 ing the entrance or landing board to project through 

 this slit outdoors, while the hive was on the iioor of 

 the second story close up to the inside of the siding. 

 It wauS in the southwest corner of the building, and 

 on a hot day this corner was a little hotter spot than 

 any I ever hope to inhabit in the future. During 

 the day my business calls me to the city (I am a 

 suburbanite on four acres). During the season of 

 1911 I realized too late that my bees had swarmed, 

 and that I had donated the swarm to a neighbor less 

 tlian half a mile away. That fall I realized about 

 2.5 pounds of honey from my bees. The next year, 

 1912, when the hot days came I noticed that my bees 

 would cluster around the entrance and hang in a 

 bunch to the entrance-board until long after dark. I 

 figured it out that the inside of the hive must be so 

 hot that the poor bees simply followed the plan of 

 poor human beings who live in the crowded and hot 

 tenements of our cities — whenever possible, to sleep 

 (or at least stay) out on the roofs during the nights 

 of the heated term. And this is what I did to help 

 out the situation. 



It was a very hot Sunday afternoon. The bees 

 were flying in numbers around the entrance and 

 hanging to the board in bunches. I took a big pail 

 of cold water up into the barn, and, soaking some 

 heavy burlap bags and strips of old carpet in this 

 cold water, I laid the ends over the top of the hive, 

 allowing the wet bags to hang down around the 

 sides, and sprinkled what remained in the pail over 

 the whole thing so that it was dripping. Then I 

 went outside, and sat in the shade to watch results. 

 In thirty minutes the bunches of bees had dwindled 

 fully a half, and inside of an hour had disappeared. 

 That fall I frot nearly 90 pounds from my single 

 colony, and I did not hear any of my neighbors s-ay 

 that Barlow had donated another swarm of bees to 

 anybody. 



Grand Rapids, Mich. .1. B. Barlow. 



Getting a Colony from a Tree without Cutting 

 it Down 



Some time ago I captured a colony of bees from 

 a tree, followins the plan given in the A B C and 

 X Y Z of Bee Culture, introducing a queen to the 

 bees that went into my hive. Five weeks I kept the 

 bee-escape on the hole in the tree; then I smoked 

 the tree well with sulphur. As the season was get- 

 ting late and flowers scarce I left the tree open for 

 the bees (now in the hive) to rob out. 



In three weeks I went out, closed the hive, and 

 brought it to town in a boy's express wagon, walking 

 the five miles. I have a fine colony of well-marked 

 Italian bees, and they have eight brood-frames full 

 of honey in their hive. 



I now have the two colonies up in the attic, east- 

 ern exposure, where they get the morning sun, and 

 by afternoon the whole roof is warm. They have a 

 direct nutlet to the outside, so there are no bees in 

 the room. There is a porch roof the whole width 

 of the house for them to alight on, and then they 

 can walk right into the hive. 



Cleveland, Ohio. A. Lyndox Hitchcock. 



Bees Transferred from the Wall of a House 



I had quite an experience in transferring two 

 swarms of bees from the north side of a house in 

 October. A part of one of the swarms I succeeded 

 in getting in a hive where I had transferred several 

 empty combs and some brood. Some of the bees 



stayed on the side of the hoiise, and I found the 

 queen in this small cluster of bees a few days later. 

 She had been away from the bees in the hive so long 

 that I thought it best to smoke the bees and queen 

 well. I then let her run into the hive, and the bees 

 received her all right. I am not sure whether the 

 queen went into the hive which I placed on a scaf- 

 fold, for the bees were next to the roof in the second 

 swarm. A small cluster of bees stayed under the 

 hive, and next to the house several days, and then 

 flew away. I am not sure that the queen is with 

 the bees in the hive or with the few bees which flevr 

 away. 



There was enough honey, which was somewhat 

 dirty, being taken from between the siding and the 

 plastering of the house, nine squirrel-nests being 

 somewhat mixed in the honey. I placed this honey 

 in a super above the bees. I suppose there was 20 

 lbs. on each hive. I laid the broken chunks of 

 honey so the bees could come up into the super and 

 get plenty of empty comb transferred to frames be- 

 low. J. W. Stine, Iowa Deputy Bee Inspector. 



Salem, Iowa. 



Bees in a Stump in a Cornfield 



While gathering corn to-day, Nov. 8, in passing 

 by an old stump my brother happened to put his hand 

 on top of it when the heart, about the size of a 

 saucer, fell in. Upon looking into the cavity he 

 found a colony of bees with stores. The stump had 

 rotted out from the ground up nearly to the top ; but 

 the top had not given way. The bees entered the 

 top of the stump through a small crevice. Here is 

 the novelty of the thing: I got a saw, cut the 

 stump off just above the ground, or about 18 inches 

 from the top of the stump ; put it on a cloth, part 

 of it on the wagon, brought it home, and put it near 

 my other bees. The old stump is very much decayed: 

 but I intend to keep it as a curiosity. I have found 

 bees in trees and logs, but these are the first I have 

 found in a stump in a field of corn. 



Kenton, Tenn. Fred T.\te 



The ["Advantage of Clipped Queens Late in the 

 Spring 



By clipping the queens late in the spring when it 

 is safe for the bees to rear another, in case any thing 

 goes wrong, which not infrequently happens, and 

 by giving plenty of room, I find that not more than 

 one-third of the hives will swarm, even when run- 

 ning for comb honey. 



The swarms are given another hive-body with 

 foundation, and the old hive is set to one side for 

 two or three hours, or until next day, if desired, or 

 long enough to allow all of the workers to fly from 

 it and return to the new swarm. It is then carefully 

 set upon a weaker hive for extracting purposes, with 

 an excluder between, and no attention paid to cells. 

 Of course there are a lot of bees in this old body 

 that it seems should be shaken with the swarm; but 

 those left are mostly heavy nurse bees; and now the 

 question is, would they train down and become field 

 bees, or remain nurse bees to the end? In the latter 

 case they may as well remain with the old hive-body, 

 where there is something for them to do. 



Cincinnati, Ohio. John E. Roebling. 



Pollen and Honey from Grape Bloom 



You say editorially, Feb. 1, that there is some 

 difference of opinion as to whether bees pollenize 

 the blossoms of grapevines. I wish that you could 

 be here in May and June, and take a stroll through 

 the woods and hear the hum of the bees and smell 

 the delicious perfume. It would make you feel good. 

 Our wild grapes bloom one or two weeks later than 

 our tame, and the bloom furnishes a large amount of 

 ])ollen and honey. 



Concord, N. C, Feb. 9. W. D. York. 



