1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



609 



queens does not in any way prove to be any 

 injury to the queen. Dr. E. F. Phillips, one 

 of the entomologists at the University of 

 Pennsylvania, says the wing structure is 

 such that the clipping can cause neither 

 pain nor injury to the insect. If there is an 

 unusual amount of supersedure it will be 

 due to some cause other than clipping. —Ed. ] 



FEARING QUEEN-CELLS IN BROOD-NEST BY 

 MEANS OF PERFORATED ZINC DIVISION- 

 BOARDS; HOW LONG CAN QUEENS 

 BE KEPT IN SWARTHMORE 

 MATING- BOXES ? 



Is not the division-board used for the 

 divided brood-chamber, described on page 

 11 of Modern Queen- rearing, made of queen- 

 excluding zinc ? If so, why be so particular 

 to have them fit bee-tight all round ? Will 

 not uncapping honey stimulate the bees as 

 well as giving sugar syrup ? 



How long can queens be kept in the 

 Swarthmore fertilizing- cages without injur- 

 ing them for egg-laying? E. D. Howell. 



New Hampton, N. Y., April 25. 



[The division-board referred to is made of 

 perforated zinc. It is true that the author 

 says, "Make two tight-fitting zinc division- 

 boards bound with wood. " As he was talk- 

 ing about perforated zinc on the previous 

 page, he probably did not think it necessary 

 to describe the kind of zinc again. Although 

 bees are supposed to pass freely back and 

 forth through the metal he was particular 

 to have it reach from cover to bottom- board, 

 and from end to end of hive tight enough 

 to prevent bees from passing around at any 

 point. If the bees could get around, there 

 would be danger that the queen might also. 

 If the queen should get into the compart- 

 ment where the cells were building, she 

 would soon make short work of them. 



Laying queens can be kept in Swarthmore 

 boxes a month or six weeks. Usually it is 

 better to take them out as soon as they are 

 laying, send them away to fill orders, or 

 give them to larger colonies where they will 

 have a little more scope for egg- laying. We 

 have practiced keeping laying queens in 

 baby nuclei when we had no other place to 

 put them, or until such time as we received 

 an order for one or more. — Ed.] 



do QUEENS GET DISSATISFIED IN A BABY 

 NUCLEUS ? 



This year I have been experimenting with 

 baby nuclei. Do you think the queens get 

 dissatisfied in such small hives, as they so 

 often desert ? I had a big nucleus and a 

 small one on the same stand. The large one 

 was queenless, and the baby had a virgin 

 queen in it. Some days afterward I exam- 

 ined the baby and the queen had gone ; and 

 when I examined the big nucleus I found 

 her in it laying for all she was worth. 



Another time I prepared a hive for queen- 

 rearing. I put in strips, and two days after- 

 ward I found 27 cells commenced. Seven 

 days after that I looked again and found all 



the cells destroyed. I then looked through 

 the combs, and, to my surprise, I found 

 eggs and hatched brood. Thus a laying 

 queen had taken charge of the hive. At the 

 same time, one queen deserted a baby 

 nucleus which I had placed about three 

 chains from the apiary. Now, what I want 

 to know is, how can you account for the 

 hive being requeened ? The queen must 

 have come from the baby nucleus. If so, 

 how did it pick out the only queenless hive 

 in the apiary ? The old queen I killed. 

 Cambridge, N. Y. R. J. Melville. 



[In the case of the first instance I should 

 say that the virgin, by mistake, went into 

 the large box of bees rather than the small 

 one. In our experience, virgins are not 

 unerring as to their old entrances, and very 

 often make queer mistakes. It is not an 

 uncommon thing to find one balled in a 

 hive with a laying queen, simply because 

 she made a mistake and went into the wrong 

 hive. As to the second instance, it is pos- 

 sible that the virgin was not entirely satis- 

 fied with her old quarters, being cramped, 

 and hence wandered over to some other 

 hive; but, more likely, she made a mistake; 

 or it is possible there is a bee language by 

 which virgin queens recognize by the be- 

 havior of the bees on the outside that such 

 and such a hive is queenless. — Ed.] 



THE SIBBALD SYSTEM USED WITH SUCCESS IN 

 CONTROLLING SWARMING. 



I have received Gleanings for April 1, 

 and was pleased to read your editorial, page 

 358, speaking of a new plan to prevent 

 swarming. I practiced that plan success- 

 fully last season, with one or two frames of 

 brood in hive No. 2. One removing of No. 

 1 prevents swarming after the appearance 

 of queen-cells, except one hive that had 

 capped queen-cells. That hive issued one 

 swarm; 16 out of 17 were a perfect success. 



M. Broun. 



North Little Rock, Ark., April 6. 



FOUL BROOD NOT SO BAD IN CUBA. 



On page 484 Mr. Leslie Burr says "foul 

 brood is one of the things that thrive in 

 Cuba. It exists from one end of the island 

 to another, etc." I take exception to this 

 statement, for Camaguey Province is a 

 pretty big piece of Cuba, and we have no 

 foul brood here, nor have had any. Why 

 will your correspondents who come to Cuba 

 and run around a few miles on the outskirts 

 of Havana talk of the island as if they were 

 familiar with every nook ? 



ROBT. L. LUACES. 



Camaguey, Cuba, May 10. 



DIBBERN'S QUEEN-TRAP FURTHER IMPROVED. 



We mail you one of our latest improved 

 queen-traps. We think you will find this a 

 decided improvement over the one we first 

 sent you. We will try to point out where 

 we claim it an imnrovement over your Alley 

 trap, though we find the model you recently 



