May, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 

 Rff\( 



385 



HEADS OF GRAINK 7FR0M)Q fl DIFFERENT FIELDS 



the swarming fever has started, then ■wait 

 till the swarming fever is over. The pleas- 

 ant fact in this connection is that, if the 

 colonj^ be about ten days without any eggs, 

 the swarming fever will be over. 



From this it will be easily seen that when 

 a colony swarms, if the old queen be taken 

 away and a young queen given in her place, 

 and the swarm then returned to the brood, 

 the bees will swarm out again, just as they 

 would if the old queen had not been taken 

 away. Of course there are Exceptional cases 

 in which the return of the old queen with the 

 swarm would not be followed by swarming; 

 and it is possible that in such cases a young 

 queen might have a little better result; 

 but such cases are so rare as to be hardly 

 worth considering. 



In the treatment you relate, you killed 

 cells when you caged the queen, five days 

 later, and then five days later still. That 

 was three times — once more than was neces- 

 sary. All that is necessary is to make sure 

 no virgin hatches. You will accomplish 

 that if you kill cells at the time of swarm- 

 ing or any time within five days, and then 

 a second time ten days after swarming. 



It is quite possible that the result might 

 have been different if, instead of caging the 

 queen, you had kept her in a nucleus. 



You inquire how it would be "to remove 

 the queen and leave just one cell after the 

 swarm had returned." I don't know that 

 I could tell just why, but I think the plan 

 would work well in some places and not in 

 others. It may be well worth while to try 

 it. The colony will be little more than two 

 weeks without a laying queen, if so long as 

 that, and would be likely to keep at work 

 without sulking. " C. C. Miller. 



Providing Water "Water! water! " my 



by Means of a bees seemed to call, 



Candle Wick as they flew about, 



and lit and stiffened 

 in a temperature of 52° this 20th of Febru- 

 ary. I hurried to the cellar, got a number 

 of empty jelly-glasses, some candlewick, a 

 good length of foundation wire, tacks, ham- 

 mer, and pliers. Close by the side of their 

 narrow entrance, and at about three-fourths 

 the height of a jelly-glass, I drove two tacks 

 lialf way in, and about four inches apart; 

 then wrapped one end of a short length of 

 wire around one tack; set the glass between 

 the tacks, so that it rested on the alighting- 

 board, and bound it to the front by bringing 

 the wire around it and wrapping wire about 

 the other tack. Now with a piece of candle- 

 wick about ten inches long, and some water 

 in the glass, my fountain was complete. I 

 soaked the wick in water; strung about 

 three inches of it along in front of the 

 entrance, and about half an inch therefrom. 



stuffed the other end of the wick down into 

 the glass. We filled the glass with water. 

 My bees did not go further than that ab- 

 sorbing candlewick all day. I will not 

 leave them without it again. 



Emsworth, Pa. Geo. W. Guthrie. 



Steady Cold About October 1 we 



Much Easier have our first show- 



on the Bees ers, enough to stop 



the honey-flow. We 

 generally still have bright sunshiny days, 

 however, with the result that the bees fly 

 practically every day of the winter. Colo- 

 nies that went into the hives the first of 

 October (one can not call it winter), with a 

 hive full of bees and honey are reduced in 

 the spring to a handful of bees, and with the 

 stores almost all used up. 



While eastern beekeepers, no doubt, envy 

 their western brothers with their mild win- 

 ters, if they only knew what these winters 

 mean they would be thanking their stars 

 that they aren 't cursed with them. Winters 

 that are stormy from October until March 

 the bees come thru with practically no loss, 

 as they are never excessively cold, and the 

 bees stay inside and are waiting to go to 

 work when the first flowers begin to bloom. 

 They use little honey such winters. 



Lemoore, Cal. W. J. Hickey. 



White Sweet Clover In the Dec. 15th issue 

 in Full Bloom the on page 1188 I notice 

 First Year Sown an article by Mr. C. 



W. Eiggs regarding 

 melilotus alba blooming the first year. I 

 have had only one year 's experience with it, 

 and that was in 1915 when in Aj^ril I sowed 

 a small patch just to see how it would do in 

 my locality. I kept it moist with a garden 

 hose as there was no rain for a time.. It 

 came up nicely and grew rapidly; and when 

 about four feet high, about the first week in 

 July, it began to bloom and kept growing 

 higher and sending out new buds and bloom. 

 I went away Aug. 4, and a few days before 

 going I took an 8-foot rule and measured 

 a number of the stalks. The tallest measur- 

 ed 9 ft. 8 inches and it was still growing 

 when I left. Several other stalks went 8 ft. 

 and 7 ft. 6 in., and from that down to three 

 feet. Some of the stems were almost half an 

 inch in diameter at the base. When I re- 

 turned the latter part of September it had 

 seeded and most of it was down. My bees 

 were very busy on it every day while it 

 bloomed. I got the seed from a local seed 

 house and it was the white variety, very 

 sweet-scented. 



I allowed some of the volunteer plants to 

 remain last year. They came up in the 

 spring but grew slowly, did not grow more 



