918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



kind, making all secure so no robber bees 

 can find their way to it. Set up a small 

 piece of board, chip, or something of the 

 kind, so that the bees can easily climb over 

 to the feed, when a hole is to be opened to 

 the hive below, in some way the most con- 

 venient in accord with the hive you use, for 

 the bees to come up through. Now scatter 

 a few drops of feed down through the hole 

 and over the chip, when the bees will attend 

 to the rest, after you cover all up securely. 

 However, if you have a little time at your 

 command to make feeders, you will find them 

 more satisfactory. ' ' 



" How are they made?" 



' ' From fourth-inch stuff, or something 

 thin like picture-backing. Get out two 

 pieces of wood the same size as one of your 

 frames, less half an inch at the top. Nail 

 these on each side of the frame, fitting the 

 joints together with white lead, so as to pre- 

 vent leaking. If, after making, hot bees- 

 wax or paraffine is run all over the inside, 

 there is no possibility of leakage, and all 

 soakage of the feed into the wood is pre- 

 vented also." 



' ' I suppose this feeder is to be hung in the 

 hive in place of a frame. " 



"Exactly. And to fix for pouring the 

 feed in, it is best to bore a hole through 

 the top-bar, the size of any funnel you may 

 chance to have, when, by turning up one 

 corner of the quilt covering your colony, cut- 

 ting a slit in it over the hole, or boring a 

 hole in the right place, the funnel can be in- 

 serted and the feed poured in. If a slit in 

 the quilt is cut, the hole in the same will 

 immediately close on the removal of the fun- 

 nel. If a hole is bored through the cover, 

 a cork of the right size can be used in clos- 

 ing the hole. ' ' 



"But how about a float for this feeder? " 



"As the feeder is only an inch wide, there 

 is no need of a float, as the bees can easily 

 catch hold of one side or the other of the 

 feeder and crawl out of the syrup, so that 

 very few, if any, ever drown in any feeder 

 not over one inch wide. If the feeder is 

 made wider than this a float of some kind is 

 a necessity." 



A NUT FOR DR. MILLER TO CRACK. 



I keep a few colonies of bees for our own 

 use. They are full Italians. Early in the 

 spring one threw out an extra large swarm. 

 I had trouble to get it to enter a hive (a 

 Langstroth). In about an hour they left 

 the hive, and divided. One part went to the 

 mountain, and the other returned to the 



parent hive. In seven days they swarmed 

 again. I had no trouble to hive them; but 

 the next day they came out and returned to 

 the parent hive. The same colony swarmed 

 ten days later. I hived them in the same 

 hive, but clipped the wings of the queen. 

 In about an hour after they were hived they 

 seemed to be fighting furiously, and the 

 next morning I found a perfect queen in 

 front of the hive, and the bees are doing 

 finely. Now, what was the cause of this 

 swarming? Where did this queen come 

 from? The same hive now (the parent hive) 

 has about as many drones as workers. 

 Would you advise trapping and destroying 

 them? I have trouble to get them to work 

 in the supers. I put in partly filled sections 

 to entice them up, but no good. The large 

 frames are well filled, and there are some 

 buckwheat and acres of white clover; but 

 they do not appear to work much except in 

 the middle of the day. 



There were some fine fields of crimson clo- 

 ver, but I could never see a bee working on 

 it. G. W. Reeder. 



Duncannon, Pa., June 20. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



The old queen was with the first swarm. 

 As swarms sometimes do, the swarm settled 

 in two clusters. The one with the queen 

 left for the mountain; the other part, hav- 

 ing no queen, returned to the hive. Seven 

 days later a second swarm issued, and the 

 virgin queen may have had defective wings, 

 and may have been lost, so that, although 

 the swarm was hived, it returned to the old 

 home the next day. Ten days later, or 17 

 days from the issuing of the prime swarm, 

 a later-matured queen issued with a swarm, 

 this latter swarming likely delayed some- 

 what by weather or something else, and this 

 queen may have been fertilized during the 

 act of swarming, so that your clipping her 

 did no harm, although a risky thing to do. 

 As soon as this swarm issued, another young 

 queen emerged from her cell in the old hive; 

 and when you returned the swarm with its 

 clipped queen, there were two factions, and 

 the faction with the unfertilized queen suc- 

 cumbed, and you found their leader next 

 morning a corpse. 



It would be a good thing to destroy the 

 drones, and a better thing to suppress so 

 much drone comb. 



Atmospheric conditions or something else 

 cause that sometimes flowers may be in 

 abundance, yet produce no necta*-, and that 

 may be the reason the bees do not store in 

 supers. C. C. Miller. 



HOW TO REQUEEN ON IMMOVABLE COMBS. 



I want to requeen two or three colonies, 

 but don't know how to get the old queen 

 out of the hive. They have been in these 

 hives about five years; have movable frames, 

 but some. of the combs are built cata-corner- 

 ed, and so crooked that it is next to impossi- 

 ble to get them out, much less to find the 

 queen among them. 



Is this a good time of the year to transfer 



