GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



lation, and emply combs where necessaiy. 

 When I found queen-cells tlie third time J 

 noted it in the hive-records, closed those 

 luves, and left them alone until they sAvarra- 

 ed. I have found that, if colonies persist in 

 trying to swarm, after the queen-cells have 

 been cut out twice, and they have been 

 given extra room, they do far better woik 

 if allowed to swarm in the natural way. 

 However, I watched the above-mentioned 

 colonies closely, and was rewarded by see- 

 ing a swarm come out of every one of them, 

 and settle on the blackberry-vines. After T 

 hived the swarms I foUoAved the usual meth- 

 od of placing them on the old stands, and 

 moving the parent colony to one side. Of 

 course the weaker colonies were sloAver in 

 building cells and attempting to swarm 

 than the stronger ones. 



I don't know whether the bees would 

 settle on a row of small trees as readily as 

 they do on the beiTy-vines or not. Their 

 liking for the latter is at times almost un- 

 canny. 



One day this summer I saw three swarms 

 come out about twenty minutes apart and 

 quietly fly over and settle on the blackberry- 

 vines. I usually find the swarms clustering 

 around the post and clinging to all the 

 canes. This gives them more " standing 

 room " than the limb of a tree, and does not 

 compel so many bees to cling to a few. T 

 also notice they usually cluster in such a 

 way that the vines shield them from the 

 direct rays of the sun. 



I expect to examine each colony twice 

 next summer for queen-cells. Both times T 

 mil give empty combs where they are 

 needed. Then I am going to keep them 



suppli d with plenty of super room and 

 leave tliem alone. The colonies that are 

 determined to swarm will swarm anyhow, 

 or else sulk ; and I can hive a swarm from 

 a blackberry-vine in less time as well as 

 with more satisfactory results than I can 

 manipulate a colony to prevent swarming. 



North East, Md. 



[In locating an apiary there are several 

 considerations to be taken into account. 

 Fiist of all, the bees should be placed as far 

 as possible from a line fence or a general 

 highway. In either case, the streams of bees 

 in going to and from the fields in the height 

 of the season are liable to encounter teams 

 of horses and men, and sometimes this 

 causes trouble. 



Another important consideration is shade 

 — not too much of it, but just enough to 

 screen the bees during the hottest part of 

 the day. In the securing of that shade, as 

 our correspondent points out, it is very 

 desirable to place hives near low shrubbery 

 to catch the swarms. If there is no such 

 shrubbery, and tall trees are close at hand, 

 there will be some unpleasant experiences in 

 trying to get swarms down from high places ; 

 in fact, some of them will be entirely inac- 

 cessible, and will be lost. It is a fact that 

 low shrubbery, if near the hives, will attract 

 a large percentage of the swarms; and when 

 a swarm has once alighted on a bush or 

 limb, that bush or limb will probably, on 

 account of the odor, attract other swarms. 

 This we have proven out time and time 

 again in the case of our grapevines, that 

 catch practically 99 per cent of our swarms, 

 the remaining one per cent going up on our 

 I all evergreens. — Ed.] 



THAT APRIL 1ST COVEE PICTURE; LUCK IN BEEKEEPING 



BY F. GREINER 



I want to congratulate you on the fine 

 cuts exhibited on the title page of the April 

 1st number. We have at different times in 

 the past been searching for good representa- 

 tions of honeybees, but have always turned 

 away in digust from any thing that was 

 offei'ed us. In the line of a queen-bee Ave 

 found there were seven abdominal rings in 

 the best cut we could find. It would seem 

 as if an artist ( "?) putting out work like that 

 would hide his head. Representations of 

 bees and drones found in our text-books are 

 so faulty that it requires an expert to find 

 features resembling the real thing. In vieAv 

 of all this it does me a lot of good to feast 

 my eyes upon the title page of the April 1st 

 number of Gleanings. It is true that there 



is not present in these pictures that sym- 

 metry found in engravings and Avoodcuts of 

 former efforts; but that only increases the 

 interest in them, and enhances their value. 

 The only defect seems to be in the drone, the 

 abdomen being too short, as you have point- 

 ed out in your editorial; and I hope that in 

 subsequent ti'ials you Avill succeed in elim- 

 inating this defect by selecting a specimen 

 Avith a fuller abdomen. 



QUEEN NOT ALWAYS TO BLAME; SOME QUES- 

 TIONS RAISED. 



The idea that the queen is not ahvays to 

 blame Avhen the colony is not coming up to 

 the mark is one I have entertained for n 

 great many years. I had at one time quite 



