1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



447 



the tops of the brood-combs. If you will 

 examine our arrangements for surplus, you 

 will find this provision always made, either 

 in the wide frames or crate to set over the 

 brood-nest. If you lind the combs attached 

 to tin separators. 1 think your section boxes 

 are too large. These troubles usually come 

 where beginners adopt some arrangement of 

 their own. Our standard goods have been 

 made with a view of remedying all these de- 

 fects. ^ 



TWO QUEENS IN ONE CEI.Tj, ETC. 



I began the season with three colonies; increased 

 to seven. I have been hatching queens in lamp nur- 

 sery for my own use, and have met with two rather 

 unvisual occurrences (to me at least.) First, after 

 having one hive quecnless about three days, I found 

 they had started qiiecn-cells on new comb that con- 

 tained no brood or ejrgs, but had made no effort to 

 raise a queen from young larva'. They accepted 

 the new queen on second trial. Second, in opening 

 one of the queen-ct lis that failed to hatch, 1 found 

 it contained two queens, nearly j-eady to hatch, hav- 

 ing their heads in opposite directions. 



Chari.es Lee. 



Stonersvillo. Berks Co., Pa., July 15, 1881. 



Bees often start queen-cells in the way 

 you mention, but 1 think you would find 

 they had eventually carried larvie over to 

 those cells, for tliey often do this.— If I am 

 correct, you have given us the tirst positive 

 proof of two queens from a single queen-cell. 



MOLLIE HEATH HONEV-PLANT. 



My one plant of the MoUie Heath seed I raised has 

 been in bloom some two months. I think it will do 

 well with me. I love to visit it early In the morning, 

 and see my pets come and fall into the flowers and 

 fill themselves, and then sail for home, often leaving 

 enough for a second load. Geo. S. LEorsoNE. 



Lake City, Col. Co., Fla., June 4, 18S1. 



We have never succeeded in getting a 

 blossom from this plant, although we had a 

 beautiful plant growing in the garden last 

 season. From the description above, it 

 would seem that it bears honey like the 

 Spider plant. Have others succeeded in get- 

 ting blossoms? 



A OOOD KEPORT FROM VERMONT. 



1 Started in bee culture List summer with one 

 swarm; increased to th.ee, and got 33 lbs. surplus. 

 Bought one in the fall, wintered the four in cellar 

 in Nellis Simplicity bee-hives, with plenty of top 

 ventilation bj' opening the flap to quilt, but not tak- 

 ing the quilts off, but T had thecaps off entirely. On- 

 ly one was troubled with dysentery, and that a very 

 little. In the spring I bought two in Kidder hives; 

 transferred them in May with good success; in- 

 creased the 6 to 12. I ran only 1 to extracted honey, 

 and that a young swarm that tried to abscond; it 

 has given 95 lbs. nice clover honey, as bass wood is 

 just in bloom. I have extracted 50 lbs. from frames 

 that I was obliged to empty; have taken out about 

 50 lbs. of box honey and some 200 lbs. almost ready 

 to come off. (Remember, I doubled my swarms.) I 

 think the L. frame supei-ior to all I have tried yet. I 

 gave my young swarms a frame of brood as given in 

 ABC, but in spite of that I had two swarms try to 

 abscond, and would have gone as sure as fate if I 

 had not been on hand, and the queen's wings been 

 clipped; in fact, one went almost to the woods, and 



came back only because they were forced to; they 

 had been in the hive some 48 hours; the other, only a 

 little while; the hives were painted in April, so 

 don't lay it to that. So, now, please alter A B C a 

 little, and say that you have heard of their trying to 

 abscond. Bees wintered very well right around here ; 

 but off 10 or 20 miles 1 hear of .50 out of e^'ery 100 per- 

 ishing, and some lose all. I hop? you will have bet- 

 ter luck next winter wintering, as I think some of 

 the ABC class have beaten you. F. M. Wright. 

 Enosburgh, Vt., July 27, 1881. 



. I think I have changed it in the A B C on 

 the point you mention ; but in our own api- 

 ary it is so rare an occurrence to have bees 

 leave unsealed brood, that we set it down as 

 about as sure a thing as any rule with bees. 

 Your point, that the bees wintered safely 

 around a small point, and did not outside of 

 this tract, would seem to indicate that it is 

 not always all the fault of the way they were 

 prepared for winter. 



COLOR OF DRONES. 



I wish to ask you in i-egard to the color of drones. 

 I thought 1 could find my answer in back Nos. of 

 Gleanings, but ha\e been searching and failed, I 

 have bought queens from a haif-dozenor more of the 

 most prominent importers and breeders in theU. S., 

 including one selected tested queen from you, but 

 have failed to raise drones the color I think they 

 ought to be, or as yellow as my neighbor bee-keeper 

 O. Field. They all raise nice three-banded workers, 

 but the drones, a great part of them, you could hard- 

 ly tell from the black drones. Now, how is that? Why 

 can't I raise some nice yellow drones? Can you fur- 

 nish a queen that will raise them? I have hybrid 

 drones that show more yellow than from the pure 

 stocks. Does a hybrid queen raise pure drones or 

 not? I see some think they do and some think they 

 don't. I think I have a superior strain of bees; have 

 a number of queens whose colonies stored 200 lbs. of 

 section honey last season, and some went over that ; 

 and as our hives are small, only about 12 inches 

 square on the inside, and 11 inches deep, I conclude 

 I have a prettj' good strain of bees; don't you? 



O. E. COON. 



Le Moore, Tulare Co., Cal., July 3, 1831. 



I do indeed, friend C. ; and I think, if I 

 were you. I should let the drones alone, or, 

 at least, I would not mind what cAor they 

 are. I believe it was pretty well agreed, 

 long ago, that little, if any, dependence is 

 to be placed on the color of drones. Those 

 from Italian queens usually show some sort 

 of a ragged yellow band : but very often, if 

 placed side by side with common drones, 

 there is not enough ditference to be notice- 

 able. Occasionally a queen will produce 

 drones having a great deal of yellow on them; 

 but I believe these are valuable only as a cu- 

 riosity, and nothing more. The drones of 

 Italy are, of course, just the same, very di- 

 verse in their markings. 



TOO MUCH POLLEN. 



What would you do with combs filled with pollen? 

 I have a lot of such, and as I know they will not do 

 to winter upon, I am at a loss. Can I get shut of 

 the pollen by any possible process but destroying 

 the combs? My bees gather little but pollen, and 

 they have cramped the queens badly by it; in fact, 

 some hives are full of pollen, so to speak. I had 

 thought of sending for some of your one-piece sec- 



