1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



431 



[One of the Somerford's, of Cuba, I be- 

 lieve, has gotten out a patent for a hive 

 .made entirely of cement. He argues that 

 the cost will not be great, and that the hive 

 will last for ever. Bat a hive all of ce- 

 ment or stone, we will say, would not do at 

 all in a northern climate, as the stone would 

 be too cold. In chilly or cold weather the 

 outdoor temperature would be transmitted 

 clear through the walls into the cluster of 

 bees. But you do not contemplate a hive of 

 that kind. You would have the outer wall 

 of cement and the inner one of wood. This 

 arrangement would be somewhat expens- 

 ive, and, what is more, the outer walls 

 would be very heavy ; and, besides, there 

 would be danger of their breaking in han- 

 dling. All hives ought to be adapted for 

 the out-apiary, and should have a certain 

 amount of portability. For that reason it is 

 my opinion that any material, adding to 

 the present weight of our hives, would be 

 objectionable. 



Some years ago one of our correspondents 

 suggested the use of cement for bottom- 

 boards. These were made large enough to 

 extend around the sides of the hive to keep 

 away the grass and make a nice slanting 

 doorway to the entrance. But cement, even 

 as a bottom-board, would absorb too much 

 of the coldness of mother Earth when the 

 ground is frozen all around it. There ought 

 to be at least a bottom- board of wood on 

 top to shut off the too rapid absorption of 

 the heat of the cluster. —Ed.] 



THE ADVANTAGE OF KEEPING BEES IN AN AT- 

 TIC IN THICKLY POPULATED LOCALITIES. 



I got 154 lbs. of surplus honey, as we call 

 it here, beautiful section honey, from one 

 colony which I have in the attic of my par- 

 sonage. I live on a beautiful residence 

 street. A fact that too few people know 

 in regard to bees is that, if they are located 

 very high from the ground, they never 

 bother people on the ground. Our neighbors 

 did not know that we had bees till a year 

 after we had them in the attic. When I 

 presented them with some beautiful sections 

 of honey they were surprised to learn where 

 the honey had been made. 



Danville, Pa., Jan. 20. N. E. Cleaver. 



[This is a good suggestion where the pop- 

 ulation is more or less congested. There 

 are many persons who would like to keep 

 bees enough to get a little table honey of 

 their own. —Ed.] 



more about a, C. miller's INSTRUCTIONS 

 FOR INTRODUCING. 



In a footnote to one of Dr. Miller's Straws, 

 page 16S. you ask to hear from others who 

 have had experience, and it is not quite clear 

 to me whether you refer to scent or intro- 

 ducing. If to scent, I have no comments ; 

 but as to introducing I feel it my duty to 

 give my experience, since reading Mr. A. C. 

 Miller's article on that subject, as I am in a 

 warm climate, and can do some experiment- 



ing that will be of benefit to those in a cold 

 cHmate later in the season. 



I commenced the operation of introducing 

 according to A. C. M. 's instructions, with 

 some misgivings ; but I had a queen that I 

 supposed was an old worthless one, but 

 wanted her to keep the colony along until I 

 could get young ones fertilized to take her 

 place, but concluded to experiment with her. 

 The reason I supposed her to be old was that 

 she had a very small colony, and no cell had 

 less than three eggs, and some so many I 

 could not count them. I introduced her into 

 a large queenless colony as directed by A. 

 C. M., and, to my great surprise, on the fol- 

 lowing day I found her as lively as a cricket, 

 with two frames nearly full of eggs regu- 

 larly laid, one in a cell. I account for so 

 many eggs in a cell, not on account of age, 

 but a desire to lay; and the colony being too 

 small for her capacity, she laid them in the 

 cells which the bees could cover. I intro- 

 duced six others with the same results ; 

 but none were so prolific as the first, but all 

 did well. I used a very little smoke at the 

 top only. As I expect to introduce several 

 hundred queens this season, one can readily 

 see the value to me of Mr. Miller's article 

 on the subject of introducing. 



Mr. Miller speaks of introducing virgins 

 from the mails in the same manner, so I 

 conclude that, to introduce virgins into nu- 

 clei, would work as well by the same meth- 

 ods as fertilized queens. 



If I understand Mr. Miller correctly he 

 does not attempt to prove that bees have 

 no powers of scent, but that it is not the 

 controlling factor in introducing which is 

 claimed for it, and he surely has some foun- 

 dation for his behef, as my own experience 

 proves. I would not hesitate to introduce 

 valuable queens by this method now, and I 

 think Mr. Miller has contributed some very 

 valuable information on the introduction of 

 queens. E. M. Gibson. 



Jamul, Cal., March 6. 



[Facts are what we want, no matter 

 whom they favor. —Ed.] 



TWO SOUNDS MADE BY QUEEN ; HOW TO DIS- 

 TINGUISH ; AFTER-SWARMS WITHIN 

 FOUR TO SIX DAYS. 



In reading the Feb. 15th issue of Glean- 

 ings I was much interested in Mr. Doolit- 

 tle's conversation, which was a short treat- 

 ise on the controlling of after-swarms. He 

 describes two methods as used by himself 

 with success for a number of years, and in 

 the latter method he mentions the noise or 

 voice of the queen, which aids him in deter- 

 mining when an after-swarm is expected. 

 The ABC book mentions two noises made 

 by the queen— one while yet in the cell, and 

 another after being liberated. To which 

 one of these does Mr. Doolittle have refer- 

 ence ? and how are we to distinguish the dif- 

 ference between the two ? 



Again, Mr. Doolittle infers that an after- 

 swarm is not expected until the eighth or 

 ninth day. While that is the rule in his 



