GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Heads of Grain From Different Fields 



THE BACKLOT BUZZER 

 BY J. H. DONAHEY 



They say the reason the patient camel has such an 

 ughj disposition is because they have never found 

 the right word to say to him, and about the time, you 

 think you have found it for the lees you discover 

 that they've changed the countersign. 



Contentment. 



Sitting in my sunny kitchen 



With my simple lunch, 

 Sometimes bread and milk and honey, 



Sometimes fruit to munch. 

 Straight across the light I'm looking 



Toward a queer old shed. 

 White, except two nut-brown doorways 



And the roof o 'erhead. 



There across the ragged roof-line 



And the doors below. 

 Back and forth the bees go flashing. 



And I love it so! 

 Then I think of formal luncheons 



With their chit-chat ways 

 And thank God for bees and kitchen 



And my home-grown days! 

 Nashville, Tenn. Grace Allen 



Black Italian Queens the Mother of Well- 

 marked Italians. 



I have an Italian queen that is of good 

 color, and produces uniform three-banded 

 bees of a good yellow color; but every queen 

 reared from her is as black as coal. Can 

 you give a reason for it? Did you ever see 

 such a ease? I bought her for a breeder and 



have reared several queens from her, and 

 every one is black. Her bees are uniform 

 and gentle, and hustlers. Her sisters give 

 nice yellow queens and bees, her, mother was 

 a five-bander and a good breeder. I have 

 not had time to test any of these black 

 queens yet, so I can 't tell what they will do. 

 But they are as lively as crickets. 



I have also struck something new. I have 

 a colony that will accept artificial cells all 

 right in large numbers, but will not accept 

 the royal jelly and larvae put into them. 

 Why is that? 



Gimlet, Ky. W. L. Lovejoy. 



[There is a great difference in breeding- 

 queens. One queen that will produce uni- 

 formly nicely marked Italian bees will also 

 produce queens that are quite dark, some of 

 them black. We have sometimes had to re- 

 ject an otherwise good breeding-queen be- 

 cause her queens were too dark to suit the 

 trade. One of the blackest queens we ever 

 had produced very nice Italian bees, very 

 gentle, good workers, having three yellow 

 bands, altho the third band showed rather 

 indistinctly. 



Sometimes a queen-breeder is a little care- 

 less in his treatment of the cells for the 

 queen. If ripe queen-cells are exposed to a 

 chilling atmosphere, the queens, when they 

 • hatch out, will be dark, sometimes almost 

 black. 



Some years ago we had two different 

 queen-breeders working for us, and both 

 breeding queens from the same queen. The 

 queens that one breeder reared were black, 

 while those of the other were light-colored. 

 When we came to examine into the causes 

 we discovered that the man who was having 

 the black queens was careless in the han- 

 dling of his queen-cells. He left them ex- 

 posed until they became partially chilled. 

 After we cautioned him he was able to get 

 as bright-colored queens as the other breed- 

 er. 



We believe you will find that the black 

 queens will be as good as any that j^ou ever 

 had for actual work; but if you enter into 

 the business of selling queens you will find 

 the trade will not take these dark ones. ■ 



In relation to the last question, possibly 

 there was something wrong with the royal 

 jelly. Perhaps it was too dry. You should 

 get it of about the right consistency. We 

 know of no reason why a colony should 

 reject queen-cells containing royal jelly un- 

 less the royal jelly itself was not quite right. 

 —Ed.] 



Sealed Brood Only for Cell-building Colonies. 



The writer was very much interested in 

 an article which appeared in the May 15th 

 number of Gleanings entitled ' ' Queen-rear- 

 ing for the Beginner, ' ' by J. E. Jordan. He 

 brings up one interesting point on which I 

 should like to have some additional informa- 



