490 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



ery Ward & Co. list them at 35 cts. per lb., 

 the dry blossoms. I asked our family doc- 

 tor about it, and he said its principal value 

 is for making an emulsion, something like 

 that made from slippery elm. And this re- 

 minds me that, when I was a boy in my 

 teens, I had a trouble with my eyes so that 

 they swelled shut. After trying several 

 things the doctor said we should scrape the 

 pith out of some shoots of basswood and 

 make an emulsion. This, when placed over 

 my eyes as' a poultice, very soon enabled me 

 to open them. By all means, let us use 

 roots, herbs, and blossoms in place of inju- 

 rious drugs. We can rest assured that bass- 

 wood-blossoms will never harm anybody, ex- 

 ternally or internally, even if they do not do 

 any good.— A. I. R.] 



TAKING OFF SUPERS; BEES REFUSING TO 

 STAY IN DANZENBAKER HIVES. 



Being away from home last fall I left my 

 supers on the hives, and, in fact, did not 

 know they had to be taken off in the fall, 

 and am not positive yet; if so, when should 

 it be done in my case? 



Can you tell why the bees would not stay 

 in the Danzenbaker hive? I put in three 

 different new swarms, and they left every 

 time. Two of the swarms were very large. 

 I never had trouble with the other hives. 

 This may seem strange to you, but it is a 

 fact. J. D. Barfield. 



Metropolis, 111., Feb. 12. 



[There are some swarms that won't stay 

 in any hive. In my own experience I have 

 had some particular swarms that would im- 

 mediately fly out of any hive where I placed 

 them, even when I gave them a frame of 

 unsealed brood. They were just bent on 

 going off. In such cases it is advisable to 

 shut them in the hive with wire cloth, and 

 carry the hive down cellar and keep them 

 there until they "cool off" or get over their 

 mania to abscond. I do not think the hive 

 in this case had any thing to do with it. In 

 dozens of cases we have liad our swarms 

 stay in Danzenbaker hives as well as in any 

 other hive. The case is probably an idiosyn- 

 crasy on the part of the swarm itself. It 

 should be said, however, that an empty hive 

 without combs, especially if no frame of 

 brood be given, is not as liable to hold a 

 swarm as a hive in which these essentials 

 have been supplied. 



The super should come off when the combs 

 are sealed. — Ed.] 



LAYING workers; WHAT IS TO BE DONE? 



Last spring (May 29th) I hived a good 

 swarm of bees in an eight-frame Dovetailed 

 hive, Hoffman frames. They proved very 

 poor workers. They had not gotten into the 

 super by July first, and made hardly any 

 surplus. At the end of the honey flow, or 

 or at least by the first of October, they 

 began to die off, and dwindled amazingly, 

 long before cold weather came on. But they 

 lasted through the winter, and on Feb. 21, 



when I examined them, seemed to have 

 plenty of stores; but I noticed that the 

 queen eluded my search. March 25th I made 

 a second examination, and was cheered by 

 the sight of brood, sealed and unsealed, but 

 no queen. The words "high convex cap- 

 pings" caught my eye as I skimmed the 

 pages of the ABC, and led me to read the 

 article on "Laying Workers." To-day I 

 made a more intelligent inspection. Al- 

 though there was comparatively little drone 

 comb in the hive, the bees were very slug- 

 gish; brood irregular, next to top-bar; eggs, 

 two in a cell; larvae apparently two in a cell; 

 cappings very high, like big brown blisters. 

 I guess that proves the case, does it not? 

 Query, how long has it been queenless ? 



I do not like to lose that -hive. Has any 

 smart bee-keeper devised a way of meeting 

 the difficulty since the ABC of 1900 was 

 printed ? Will it better the case to insert a 

 frame of brood from another hive with a 

 well-developed queen-cell ? or would it be 

 better now to use this hive, which has plenty 

 of stores and is well stocked with worker 

 comb, for building up a new colony by 

 frames from other hives ? 



Austin D. Wolfe. 



Parkville, Mo., Mar. 29. 



[The case is a very clear one of laying 

 workers. Just how long the colony had 

 been without a normal queen would be hard 

 to say. Some strains will develop these 

 pests when the colony has been queenless 

 only a few days. In the case of Italians the 

 hive may go a month or six weeks and still 

 not have them, while Holy Lands might 

 show them in ten days or less. It would be 

 all right to give the frame of brood with 

 queen-cell; in fact, the giving of a cell alone 

 is very often effective in bringing about a 

 cure. — Ed.] 



watery cappings. 



Do the three-banded Italians always make 

 thin watery cappings on their comb honey ? 

 Experienced bee-keepers tell me they al- 

 most always do, but that the goldens do 

 not, but cap it white. As I produce comb 

 honey I want it white, as my customers do 

 not like water-faced honey. 



W. I. Greenough. 



Mechanicsburg, O., Feb. 20. 



[As a general rule, black bees make a 

 whiter capping to their honey than the 

 average Italians, but the difference is only 

 slight. There are very few strains of Ital- 

 ians that will make a water-soaked trans- 

 parent capping to honey. 



I know the claim has been made that five- 

 banders make a white capping. I rlo not 

 know why they should make any whiter face 

 than the average Italians, because they are 

 only a strain of that blood. Some extra- 

 yellow stock that we had made cappings so 

 thin and transparent that we killed off the 

 queens, fearing that their drones might 

 mate with some of our choice queens and 

 cause trouble with our customers. On the 



