1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUliE. 



445 



110 equivalent, I should expect the proprie- 

 tor to make good the amount lost, lie must 

 learn not to Keep such on his premises. It 

 is true, I do not know who saw the adver- 

 tisement in Gleanings; but 1 believe they 

 will tell me pretty nearly the truth when I 

 get ready to ask them. You would, friend 

 lleddon, wouldn't you? 1 do know all who 

 advertise Avith me, pretty Avell, and if I lose 

 in this case, I shall iiave to conclude it will 

 be better to keep a little tighter rein on 

 some of you than I have done. I think 

 friend IJurch is going to fix it all up him- 

 self, excepting perhaps the damage to his 

 customers, resulting from the delay. lie 

 can regain confidence another seasoii, if he 

 chooses, by advertising that the cash need 

 not be sent until the bees are received. 



QirjBEN-REARING. 



QUEENS GETTING, LOST ON THEIR WEDDING TRIP; 

 CAUSE AND REMEDY. 



^1, OME of the friends speak of heiivy losses from 

 ^%> yoving queens failing to return to their re- 

 ^""^ spcctive hives after their wedding- tour, and 

 are solicitous to ascertain the cause and remedy. 

 Much can be done by the apiarian to save these 

 losses. I am not of the opinion that many queens 

 are carried away by birds; some may be, but the 

 greater nuEtbcr of queens lost is occasioned by en- 

 tering the wrong hive on their return. The number 

 of losses may be diminished very much by doing 

 away with the systematic arrangement of the queen- 

 rearing colonies. Even if the hives arc 13 or 15 feet 

 apart in rows, and there is much similarity of ap- 

 pearance of the hives, often queens, as well as bees, 

 will make a mistake and enter the hive at either 

 side in front or in rear of the hive in which they be- 

 long. If this is the arrangement of your apiary, and 

 on account of appearance, or for want of room, you 

 must continue to have it so, you will And it a great 

 aid to your queens in returning to their own hive, 

 if you will take the precaution to cut some grv^en 

 bushes or weeds, and place them over and about the 

 hives in such a way as to give a diveryity of appear- 

 ances to those hives having queens nearly old enough 

 to fly out. This is a great aid to them in marking 

 their place. Mere color of hives will not do. It 

 is not a good plan to be among the hives, opening 

 and changing the appearance of them where queens 

 of proper age might bo on the wing, especially from 

 13 to 3 o'clock r.M. 



After the usual hours have passed for queens to 

 liy, and you are aware that you have had some 

 queens that have flown from their hives, it is well 

 to look into these hives, and if the queen is not 

 there (usually the bees, on disturbing them, will 

 manifest the absence of the queen by that peculiar 

 doleful sound made by fanning their wings; some 

 colonies manifest their loss with greater intensity 

 of emotion than others), it is well to make an effort 

 to lind her, and when j-ou do find her, especially 

 when you are behind with " orders for queens," you 

 will feel better than you would had you gotten a 

 small fortune. But you say, "Where shall I look 

 for her? if she has got into some other hive it won't 

 pay to open the 'whole business' to find one queen, 

 and then, may be, she is not in any hive, so I'll let 

 her 'go to the dickens.' " But generally there is a 

 pretty sure indication of the whereabouts of the 



lost queen if she is in the wrong pew. When a 

 strange queen enters a colony already supplied with 

 a piece of furniture of this kind, the bees will ball 

 the strange queen to give themselves time to look 

 into matters; and either the bees, in their eagerness 

 to kill the queen, -^ting each other, or else the queen, 

 in trying to free herself, stings the bees, I am not yet 

 sure which; at all events, shortly after a queen 

 is balled, if the colonies so retaining her has a queen 

 of their own, the indication of a strange queen is in 

 the fact of a number of bees just stung and carried 

 out. Now, when this is seen, it is at all times (if no 

 robbing or fighting has been going on), better to 

 open the hi\ e; and if the queen has not been balled 

 too long she will be found all right, and she must 

 then be caged a few hours among her own bees be- 

 fore liberating her, being sure to have food access- 

 ible to the queen, as bees will not always feed an 

 unfertile caged queen. As a general thing, queens 

 that are lost from their own hive will be found in 

 the hive at either side, or the hive immediately in 

 front or rear of the hive in which she belongs, and 

 these may be looked into - examining all the combs 

 and sides of hive for the ball of bees, before the 

 "sign," dead beos, are thrown out of the hive. I 

 have saved a great many queens by this timely at- 

 tention. But nearly all of this trouble and loss of 

 queens may be saved by scattering the queen-rear- 

 ing colonies about through your orchard, among 

 bushes and weeds, and facing their entrances in dif- 

 ferent directions. It takes more time to "go the 

 rounds," but it will pay in dollars and cents. 



This has been a pretty fair season with us. I had 

 only 16 stands to begin with, and they were so weak 

 they did not start brooding until sometime in April, 

 and there was not one young bee hatched until the 

 8th of May; yet I have increased them from 16 weak 

 things to TO, all in prime order for winter. Of course, 

 I had all my combs saved " to go and come on," and, 

 as friend Hutchinson says, these empty combs are 

 a great " institution." 



The queens of these old colonics were so forced 

 and overworked by giving them so much comb to 

 fill with eggs, they were nearly all completely ex- 

 hausted by the close of the honey harvest, which 

 ended with us the 12th of July. I have now a young- 

 laying queen in each of my hives, artificially reared, 

 but that don't scare me a bit, as thev will average 

 as prolific as any other 70 naturally reared queens 

 in this country. Where is the use of so much talk 

 about natural and artificial queens, when it is so 

 small a matter to transfer larva- just hatched, from 

 any stock into cells containing royal jelly, and have 

 them receive as much, or more, royal food than they 

 get by the natural process? J. A. Buchanan. 



Huutsville, Logan Co., O., Aug., 1881. 



Many thanks for your excellent hints, 

 friend 13., right where I am sure they will 

 help. Our hives are pretty near, but as the 

 entrances face all points of the compass, we 

 have very little trouble from young queens 

 getting into the wrong hives. A queen, 

 while being introduced, often takes wing, 

 and I have several times found the boys 

 sorely troubled, when 1 would be able to 

 find the queen almost every time, by just the 

 plan you have given, and the boys were just 

 about as glad to find her as you have ex- 

 pressed it^ A queen that gets lost by fiying 

 away, under almost any circumstances, can 

 usually be found by one who understands 

 them. They almost, if not quite, invariably 

 come back to where they started off, and a 

 glance at the hives in the vicinity will often 

 tell where they have gone in, or attempted 

 to enter. It is wonderful, how one's wits 

 may be sharpened for such work, if he set 

 right resolutely to it. 



