344 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



MARKING QUEENS TO TELL THEIR AGE. 



In May Gleanings, page 240, you consider my 

 plan unreliable, as queens g-et their wing-s mutilated 

 by age after one year or more. If this is the case, 

 and the mutilation is so similar to that cf clipping 

 that we can not discern the difference, how can nat- 

 ural swarming be a success in the hands of the box- 

 hive bee-keepers? 



Again, friend R., did you ever sec a queen's wing 

 that was reduced one-half or more its length by mu- 

 tilation, though she should live a decade of years? 



I have practiced the described method with hun- 

 dreds of queens, and I never found one thus treated 

 that I could not tell, at first sight, her correct age 

 from the clipped wings. 



T'ei-haps you do not clip as closely as I do. It you 

 do, I think you would find the markings reliable. 



SWEET corn; "corn OYSTERS." 



As you wish our recipe for corn oysters, I will give 

 it gladly: 1 dozen ears, scraped as described in 

 GLE.A.NINGS, p. 240; 2 eggs; 1 cup rolled cracker (or 

 flour can be substituted;) 1 teaspoonful of soda. 

 Add sweet or sour milk, if necessary, to make it the 

 consistency of thick pancake batter; fry in butter. 



We plant sweet corn about May 1, June 1, and July 

 1, which gives us a — jugt such a " prolongment" as 

 Doolittle gets from basswood. 



Scriba, N. Y. F. H. Cyrenius. 



Well, I have seen queens, friend C.,witli 

 their wings all gone entirely, and I think a 

 similar case is mentioned elsewhere in this 

 No. The box-hive men don't "tinker" 

 their hives and bees about as we do. Nev- 

 ertheless, your point is a good one.— Many 

 thanks for the corn recipe. It makes me 

 hungry just to read it, and it is only half- 

 past 10 o'clock. Why, it will do to plant 

 corn for green corn after this journal reaches 

 you, according to your figures, friend C, 

 and, just as sure as you are alive, I am going 

 to have some planted July Jst, too. Thank 

 you. 



TWO QUEENS WINTERED IN ONE HIVE. 



A brother about half a mile distant had two queens 

 that wintered friendly in one hive, and no mistake 

 about it; for they were put in the cellar the early 

 part of Dec, and the 25th of Feb. was a moderate 

 day (and he lives at a rather sunny spot), and at 

 noon ho moved them to their summer stands for a 

 Hy. A few hours later, on examination he found 

 one had two queens. He sent to my place for a 

 cage, and to know whether any queen had left my 

 apiary. Without any examination I knew that could 

 not be, for mine were all in the cellar, except a few 

 very strong colonies, and the temperature had not 

 risen above 40°. I slipped a few cages in my pocket, 

 and went down, and, sure enough, there they were. 

 The first one we came to was a large bright young 

 queen, apparently fertile. The bees had then balled 

 her, and, after that, brother said the other one was 

 darker. We soon found her also balled. She had 

 been balled before, for she had not the least sign of 

 a wing ; but she was large and active. I suppose 

 she was the old queen 1 had reared a few years ago. 

 There was brood in all stages, some young bees ap- 

 pearing. Now, they either superseded the old queen 

 late in the fall, and the old mother wouldn't die for 

 them, or (what I think is more probable) one of my 

 nuclei went in there late in the fall. The young 

 queen looked like an albino, and I had several nu- 



clei that swarmed out and went down to this apiary. 

 Let it be as it may, they were living very friendly. 



POLLEN ; IS IT ESSENTIAL TO BROOD-REARING ? 



Friends, it looks very much to me as if pollen does 

 much of the mischief imong our bees during winter. 

 Is it really necessary for brood-rearing? Who has 

 had larvic analyzed, and what are the proportions? 

 On the Uth inst. I selected several A-ery nice bright 

 combs with neither pollen nor honey. I placed 

 them in a hive, and put a rather small colony on 

 them, and fed them pure A sugar syrup, and to-day 

 they have nearly as much brood sealed over as thej' 

 can protect. They have not had any pollen; how is 

 that for brood-rearing? S. V alentine. 



Double Pipe Creek, Carroll Co., Md., Mar. 23, 1881. 



Why, friend V., you come pretty near tak- 

 ing the ground that bees never need any pol- 

 len at all, and that when they carry it into 

 their hives, they are making a blunder. 

 The experiments I made in the greenhouse 

 are, I think, conclusive, — that no brood can 

 be reared without access to pollen or some 

 substitute ; but I may be mistaken. Your 

 bees flew, doubtless, between March 14 and 

 23 ; and, although you did not see them car- 

 ry any in, nor And it in the combs, I think 

 they got enough for the brood they reared. — 

 I am inclined to think the queens you men- 

 tion w'ere mother and daughter, or at least 

 were both hatched in the hive. Has any one 

 ever introduced a laying queen into a hive 

 having a queen, so that both would continue 

 laying side by side? 



HOW the GENERAL RUN OF BEE-KEEPERS AVERAGE. 



I thought perhaps you would like to know how 

 the bees in this part of the country have wintered 

 the past season. The following is a list of the bee- 

 keepers who live within about a mile of me, and 

 their losses:— 



NAME. NO. lOST. lAME 



I Chas. Fell, 



S. Navlor, 

 I J. J. Starr, 



S. Tracy. 

 i.J. T. Diven, 

 I T. B. Anderson, 



IN' FALL. 



1 



LOST. 



1 



(• E. Canoles, 33 7 



Wm. .Tohnsun, 14 13 



.Tohn Knight, 12 11 



Harry Mays, 13 11 



,T. Vance. 14 7 



.■Xnios Shultz, 2 2 



R. Fell, 2 2 I 



Nearly all the above colonies which died were 

 black bees in box hives. I had only 5 in box hives; 

 4 of them died. The others were in L. hives. I 

 now have 1 in box, and 25 in L. hives. Those I 

 have left are Italians and hybrids, except one, 

 which is black. It has been the hardest winter on 

 bees that was ever known here. All the above bees 

 were wintered on summer stands. Most of the bees 

 that died left from 5 to 30 lbs. of honey in their 

 hives. I am beginning to receive orders from my 

 three-line adv't in your May No. C. E. Canoles. 



Hereford, Bait. Co., Md., May 21, 1881. 



Well, it seems the above does not ^how 

 greatly in favor of box hives and black bees, 

 does it, friend C. ? 



BUNAAVAY .SW.4RMS; HOW TO REMEDY. 



How do you keep bees from swarming while you 

 are away at church and Sunday-school? I had ten 

 strong hives to begin with this spring. Las: Friday 

 one of them sent out a large swarm, and I hived 

 them and set them away. Saturday another 

 swarmed. Sunday, all went to Sabbath-school, and 

 when I came home I found another swarmed, and 

 gone to parts unknown; but this is not what troub- 

 les or puzzles me so much or what 1 expect to lind a 



