1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1083 



THE GIANT BEE. 



It fills my heart with joy to hear that Mr. 

 Benton is on his way to India for the pur- 

 pose of getting giant bees. If the giant bee 

 is as good in other ways as our Italian bees 

 are, and if they are large enough to get all 

 the nectar out of red clover, they will be 

 worth millions of dollars to both bee-keepers 

 and farmers. Just think of it! What would 

 a queen be worth to me if her bees could get 

 all the nectar out of red clover? I believe 

 that there is close on to 600 acres ^f red 

 clover in reach of my bees, and I am get- 

 ting some of the nectar from it, but not all; 

 and I am satisfied that my bees will work 

 red clover as closely as any bees in the coun- 

 try; and while Mr. Benton is gone after 

 larger bees let every bee-keeper try his best 

 to improve his own stock. 



Velpen, Ind., Aug. 1. W. T. Davison. 



[I doubt if the tongues of even the giant 

 bees would be long enough to reach to the 

 bottom of some of the corolla-tubes of red 

 clover. The tongues so far measured are 

 only slightly longer than those of some Ital- 

 ians; but we shall be glad to have these new 

 bees introduced into this country. — Ed.] 



WHAT TO DO WHEN BEES PERSIST IN BALL- 

 ING A QUEEN. 



What would you advise me to do in the 

 following cases? July 14th I tried to intro- 

 duce a queen to a colony of bees. I follow- 

 ed the directions on the cage, and on open- 

 ing the hive on the fifth day I found the 

 queen balled. I picked her up and smoked 

 the bees off, then I put some tobacco in my 

 smoker and smoked the whole colony and 

 queen, and let them go for about twenty 

 minutes; then I looked again and found her 

 balled again; then I picked her up and went 

 to another hive and took out two frames of 

 hatching brood, brushed off the bees, and 

 put the queen and brood into an empty hive 

 with a wire screen on the bottom, and put 

 it on top of the queenless colony. I let it 

 stay on for three days, then I put it into the 

 hive with the young bees clustering around 

 her, and in half an hour, on passing the 

 hive, I noticed through the entrance that 

 the queen was balled again. I took her out, 

 put her into a cage with some young bees, 

 and put her on top of the frames with the 

 cardboard over the hole in the cage. After 

 six days I found my queen lying on the out- 

 side, very nearly dead, and that was the last 

 of her, as I killed her then. That the hive 

 is queenless I am sure, for there is not a bit 

 of brood in the hive; and, furthermore, I let 

 the bees all run through an Alley trap into 

 a new hive. Can you tell me what the 

 trouble is? 



Here is another question: Should this sea- 

 son's queen reared in May stop laying on or 

 about the 15th of July if she is of any use? 

 I have a colony that I made up this spring, 

 and the queen is not laying. 



Chas. a. Staff. 



Albany, N. Y., Aug. 1, 1905. 



[It is a little difficult to explain exactly 

 why the bees balled this queen. Ordinarily 

 I would assume that the bees had in the 

 hive something that they recognized as a 

 queen — probably a laying worker. But I 

 have noticed this: When a colony commences 

 balling it is likely to keep it up; and the only 

 thing to do is to satisfy its ,whim by giving 

 it a ripe queen-cell and let it rear its own 

 queen. And, again, a queen that has been 

 balled a number of times by one colony is 

 quite liable to be balled by another. She 

 possibly acquires an odor of angry bees, and 

 becomes from that time on a persona non 

 grata to all bees. Again, it is possible that 

 the queen you attempted to introduce was 

 an old virgin. This might account for the 

 excessive balling described. 



The time when a queen will stop laying 

 for the fall will vary a good deal, according 

 to the conditions and locality. After a hon- 

 ey-flow queens will ease up on laying, and 

 sometimes stop altogether. Ordinarily we 

 do not expect egg-laying to stop much be- 

 fore the first or middle of September in most 

 of the Northern States. — Ed.] 



DOUBLE-GROOVE-AND-WEDGE PLAN OF FAS- 

 TENING FOUNDATION CONDEMNED. 



I have been putting in foundation for a 

 neighbor, in Hoffman frames. While work- 

 ing with your frames made with molding on 

 the under side of the top-bar I got mad. But 

 when I worked with a lot with two grooves 

 and a three-cornered wedge to drive in, I got 

 madder. The grooves are never made deep 

 enough to hold the foundation, the wedge 

 will not stay in, and half the foundation will 

 shp out unless waxed in, and that is too 

 much work for me. I do not think any one 

 can maintain a Christian character long and 

 use the double-groove-and-wedge frame. 

 Try the wood frames and be happy. Make 

 the top-bar exactly like the old-style window 

 sash, with a strip to tack in for putty. Lay 

 in your foundation as you would glass in a 

 sash; push the strip up tight against the 

 foundation, and tack in firm, and it is done, 

 and the foundation can not be pulled out. 

 There is no patent on my frame. Try it 

 once and you will not want any other. 



Santa Barbara, Cal. Delos Wood. 



[On carefully reading what you have to 

 say, I am firmly convinced that you did not 

 read the directions that go with the frame; 

 or if you did read them you failed to carry 

 out the instructions. If the frames were 

 made by The A. I. Root Co., you should 

 have received instructions that you are not 

 only to put the wedge in the groove, but 

 that you were to drive it below the surface 

 of the ivood. I quote from the directions as 

 follows : "But in order to make the wedge 

 stay in place it must be driven below the 

 surface of the wood, as at 3; otherwise it 

 will crowd out." Of all the methods of put- 

 ting in foundation, this seems to give the 

 most satisfaction. The plan you describe 

 may be a good one. It was originally intro- 

 duced by E. Kretchmer. The idea of a dou- 



