February, 1921. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



99 



HEADS OF GRAIN 



Best Time My experience with pack- 



For Arrival of age bees indicates that un- 

 Package Bees, der favorable conditions, 

 when received early enougli 

 t!f^ two-pound packages will produce about 

 as much honey as full colonies wintered 

 over here. But from one-pound packages lit- 

 tle surplus can be obtained unless they are 

 helped by a frame of brood, or unless the 

 season is very favorable. Of course much 

 depends on the time of arrival and also on 

 the kind of queen they have. I believe the 

 best time to receive packages here in New 

 York State is about May 10 or between 

 the first and fifteenth of May. 



The bees that arrive in the packages are 

 nearly all flying bees. By the fifteenth or 

 twentieth of June very few of the original 

 bees will be left, but the brood that was put 

 in at the beginning will just be biinging 

 forth a new crop of honey producers. You 

 may have observed how the number of fly- 

 ing bees and nurse bees fluctuates every 30 

 days from the time the bees first begin to 

 breed. As there is time from the fifteenth 

 of May for only one crop of workers be- 

 fore the harvest begins, the time has to be 

 figured out closely. If the bees are received 

 later than this, they may be strong in nurse 

 bees and weak in honey gatherers when the 

 honey flow is on. This often accounts, I be- 

 lieve, for strong colonies being classed as 

 poor honey gatherers when the reason is 

 they were received out of time with the 

 honey flow. 



I would urge all who intend to purchase 

 bees in combless packages to get them early 

 if possible. If no surplus is expected, pack- 

 ages received here as late as June 20 will 

 build up into strong colonies by fall, and 

 if there is a late flow of buckwheat or other 

 honey in August they may gather some sur- 

 plus from it. F. L. Barber. 



Lowvllle, N. Y. 



=»o^sa= 



Queen Not a Suicide. Two letters in your 

 Do Bees Steal Eggs? department o f 

 "Heads of Grain 

 from Different Fields" in the December 

 number contain statements Avhich should not 

 go unchallenged. 



On page 742 Hafford Jones is perhaps 

 making playful statements, yet he starts 

 out by saying that he positively knows that 

 superseded queens commit suicide. He might 

 as well know that every colony stores 275 

 pounds because one of his did. Very few 

 queens comparatively do as did his. Most 

 superseded queens stay on the job, if I am 

 to be informed by my own observations. 

 Earely does a queen act as did this old one. 

 I have seen queens act thus twice, and 

 neither one of them was a supersedure 

 queen. They were sick queens. Workers, 



DIFFERENT FIELDS 



also, when sick, will crawl from the hive. 

 Put a sick bee back, and at om-c it will 

 come crawling out. Why should a sick queen 

 not act like sick workers in this respect? 

 If such statements as Mr. Jones made are 

 to be printed, would it not be well for them 

 to be labeled in such a manner that begin- 

 ners can know them to be jokes? 



On page 744 W. C. Davis says he thinks 

 that he has clear proof that bees steal eggs. 

 I would ask him whether he would want 

 to be hanged on such clear proof as that. 

 Probably he would reply, " I 'd be hanged 

 if I would. ' ' Mr. Davis has overlooked two 

 very probable and obvious ways in which 

 that egg could be accounted for. His very 

 letter offers the most likely answer. He 

 says that he found three frames full of bees 

 on the old stand. Unfortunately, his letter, 

 offers no date, and it is more difficult for 

 me to draw correct deductions as to this 

 statement. Yet three frames full of bees 

 would be rather unusual at any season of 

 the year. From the context I should assume 

 that he moved the hive early in the spring, 

 say in late September or early October in 

 South Africa. At that time with him the 

 north side of the house would be the only 

 side having the sun. At this season the field 

 force would be small, and consequently he 

 would not be likely to get three full frames 

 of bees. It therefore looks as if his hive on 

 the old stand came into possession of a 

 small absconding swarm. The mixed bees 

 were not in a happy state of perfect social- 

 ism, so the queen in the stray swarm was 

 not long tolerated. She was allowed to lay 

 one egg before her demise. 



It has been my observation many times 

 that old bees furnished with a queen will 

 frequently worry that queen and soon bring 

 ;ibout lier death, but not before a cell or 

 two have been t^tarted to furnish the colony 

 Avith a queen. 



Another explanation is this: Possibly the 

 old bees went back in numbers sufficiently 

 largo to cover three combs. For hours that 

 hi\c was a scene of busy (?) activity. Those 

 bees were crazy for a queen. They were 

 rushing in and out of that hi\ e for a long 

 time. Every little while they set up a loud 

 uproar. At some time while these bees were 

 in this uneasy state a virgin queen out on 

 her weddiug trip, or a laying queen of some 

 small absconding swarm, was attracted by 

 the uproar and entered that hive. This is 

 no idle surmise, for I have had it occur more 

 than once. If a virgin and one reared early 

 in the spring, then it might very likely 

 prove very poor and never get beyond the 

 laying of one solitary egg in a queen-cell. 

 (And, by the way, have you not frequently 

 observed that in the case of a young queen 

 eggs appear first in the queen-cups?) 



A third possible, the improbable, expla- 



