1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



571 



and then? but now, with hives of all colors, 

 I do not remember to have had any combs 

 melt down in the hives in twenty years, and 

 most or a majority of my hives are exposed 

 to the sun most of the day. In fact. I have 

 become rather partial to colors. Red seems 

 to absorb heat about as much as black, but 

 rarely seems objectionable; but remember I 

 have heavy double walled hives almost alto- 

 gether. These are left packed at the sides 

 during the summer, and during the day ab- 

 sorb a considerable amount of heat, but not 

 so much as to make the brood- chamber as hot 

 as in a single- walled hive. As the wall of 

 packing absorbs heat during the day it gives 

 it out during the night to some extent to the 

 brood chamber. I do not even use shade- 

 boards on top of my hives, but instead I 

 raise the roof or cover on one side an inch 

 or so, which seems to answer every purpose. 

 I do not share the feelings of some, that, be- 

 cause bees cluster outside, work inside must 

 be at a standstill. Much of the work of the 

 hive during the honey harvest is reducing 

 the nectar to honey and producing wax, and 

 this work can go on just as well outside the 

 hive as inside. A damp atmosphere often 

 has quite as much to do with bees clustering 

 out as a high temperature. 



As to shade for hives, I have hives that 

 scarcely see a ray of sun from January to 

 December, yet they seem to thrive as well 

 as those in the sun. In fact, I have one 

 yard in a pine grove so thick that much of 

 it is always in the shade; but, oh my! didn't 

 they pile in the honey last summer in good 

 weather, and neither shade nor extracting 

 kept them from swarming. So it looks as 

 though I were in favor of hives of color, no 

 shade boards, but shady groves for hives; 

 and really I don't think it makes much dif- 

 ference, where one has double-walled hives 

 well packed between walls; but if I were 

 u?ing single-walled hives I should prefer to 

 have them painted white and use a shade- 

 board, and, perhaps, set them in the sun. 

 Mr. Alexander may be right in preferring 

 no shade trees for his bees, and thinking 

 the bees do a little better set in the sun; but 

 I know that, personally, I do a great deal 

 better when I can work in the shade of a 

 tree, on an intensely hot July day, when the 

 sun pours down " enough to melt the very 

 stones." A yard of bees sheltered from the 

 wind in extremely hot weather is a pretty 

 hot place, and sometimes I can keep going 

 only by constantly wetting my head in cool 

 water. 



DOES A STING PROVE FATAL TO A QUEEN ? 



Among those very interesting notes from 

 Germany, Dr. Brunnich mentions a worker- 

 bee as being stung by a queen one or more 

 times, and the worker died in a moment, 

 while on the same day he saw a worker sting 

 a virgin queen he had recently given. He 

 actually saw the worker withdraw its sting 

 from the thorax of the queen when it lost 

 the use of the middle left leg. He amputat- 

 ed her useless leg, and afterward she became 

 fertile, and now works in a full colony. 

 These statements bring up some reflections 



that are quite new to me. Can a bee be 

 stung, and the sting not prove fatal? or does 

 it always prove fatal to a worker and not 

 always to a queen? Does the greater vital- 

 ity of the queen enable it many times to 

 overcome the effects of a sting? We all 

 know that there is a great difference in the 

 virulence of the stings of different bees, 

 some affecting us but slightly, while others 

 appear to us as the most concentrated form 

 of poison possible. But it is singular, sure- 

 ly, that the poison should affect only one leg, 

 wholly destroying the use of that member, 

 without doing any other harm, apparently. 

 My attention has been drawn to this subject, 

 more particularly because I have occasional- 

 ly found queens with one leg defective or 

 useless, and apparently dead, and sometimes 

 the end gone. I have been quite unable to 

 account for it satisfactorily, and never be- 

 fore do I remember seeing the subject men- 

 tioned in print. Such defective queens are 

 often fairly prolific, and do good work at 

 egg-laying in spite of their rather awkward 

 locomotion across the combs. 



BEES AND POULTRY. 



Considerable interest is manifested in this 

 part of the world in Frank McGlade's some- 

 what humorous account of his poultry expe- 

 rience. While it shows that the "hen busi- 

 ness " was not much of a success with him, 

 it shows even more clearly, that, in order to 

 succeed, one must take a pride in his work 

 and enjoy it. Just look at that photo. Why, 

 he wouldn't be satisfied unless he could have 

 his picture taken with his wife and baby and 

 bee-hives all in one group. 



REQUEENING ON A LARGE OR SMALL SCALE. 



On page 1139 of Gleanings for 1905, Mr. 

 J. N. Cruickshank gives a method of re- 

 queening and prevention of increase to those 

 who can be on hand at all times when bees 

 are in the mood for swarming. The method 

 is, briefly, this: Destroy all old queens of 

 first swarms, allowing them to return, and 

 then when they come out again with a young 

 queen destroy all remaining queen-cells, and 

 again return the swarm, when it will be 

 content. This is a very good way when one 

 desires to requeen without any increase, 

 when it works all right. There would likely 

 be but little trouble with a few colonies; 

 but when you try to manage a hundred col- 

 onies in one yard in this way your patience 

 will be sorely tried. It is easy to destroy 

 old queens and let first swarms go back the 

 first of the season; but after ten days, when 

 your swarms begin to issue a second time 

 with virgin queens they are quite likely in a 

 large yard to come out at the same time as 

 others with a laying queen, and unite, when 

 the virgin is quite sure to be balled or stung, 

 when the bees will return to their respective 

 hives, or perchance all pile into some one or 

 more hives in a very promiscuous way, only 

 to repeat the circus as long as a virgin queen 

 can be had to cheer them on day after day. 

 It is so uncertain what will happen that 

 I have long since tried to prevent, so far as 

 possible, swarms issuing with virgin queens. 



