December, 1909. 



393 



American Tiee Journal 



the same length throughout. No, after 

 listening once for yourself you will 

 never make the mistake of thinking 

 that quahking is the same as piping only 

 more muffled. 



A queen never quahks after she 

 emerges from her cell. She may — 

 perhaps always does — begin piping as 

 soon as she leaves her cell, and prob- 

 ably keeps at it by spells until satisfied 

 no rival is in the hive ; she may pipe, 

 from fright cr for some other cause, 

 after she becomes a laying queen, she 

 may pipe when in a cage out of the 

 hive, but she never pipes before emerg- 

 ing from her cell. 



Probably no one ever saw a queen 

 quahking : a queen may easily be seen 

 piping. Open the hive in which a queen 

 is piping, and try to locate her. Then 

 listen for the next piping, and it may 

 be in a different part of the hive, for a 

 piping queen is a rapid traveler. Lift out 

 the frame on which she is running, and 

 directly she will stop, hugging down 

 close to the comb, and her whole body 

 will quiver as she makes the piping 

 noise. 



Queen Stingrs a Drone 



The rule that a queen will sting only 

 another queen has so few exceptions 

 that it falls to the lot of few bee-keep- 

 ers to meet the exceptions. Once, and 

 once only in nearly 50 years observa- 

 tion, the writer saw a virgin queen 

 sting a worker. Now comes a report 

 of probably the first case on record of 

 a virgin stinging a drone. Paul 

 Waetzel. in Praktischer Wegweiser, 

 says that he held in his hand a frame 

 on which there was a queen-cell. While 

 the frame was still in his hand the 

 virgin emerged from the cell, and the 

 bees immediately grappled with the 

 queen, which in her turn grappled with 

 a drone that became mixed up in the 

 row, curved her body and stung him 

 in the thorax, and within 1.5 seconds 

 he was dead. 



Are such occurrences accidents, or 

 how are they accounted for? 



Foul Brood and Saliva 



Anent the matter of foul brood in 

 human saliva, this question was asked 

 in these columns: 



"Why should one be spittinf in a hive, 

 unless a tobaccochewer?" 



The Irish Bee Journal replies: 



"But this is to assume that infected saliva, 

 or infected honey either, is harmless scat- 

 tered about the apiary, and unless 'in the 

 hive.' with which assumption no one will 

 agree." 



Which, again. Editor Digges is to 

 assume that one must be spitting some- 

 where while in the apiary, either "in 

 the hive " or out of it, with which as- 

 sumption no one will agree — at least 

 "'in this locality." However it may be 

 in Ireland, a bee-keeper in this coun- 

 try, unless he be addicted to the weed, 

 while in normal condition never thinks 

 of spitting while working in the apiary 

 all day long. 



You say "infected saliva, or infected 

 honey, either." Now by what right, 

 legal or moral, do you assume that 

 even if one does assume that infected 

 saliva is harmless scattered about an 

 apiary, such assumption also involves 



the assumption that infected honey 

 scattered in the same way is harmless? 

 By what right, sir? 



And just because we are not to be 

 spat down by an Irish editor while so 

 far away, nor to be bullied out of our 

 rights to free opinion, we boldly assert 

 (with a very faint interrogation mark 

 attached) that infected saliva, scattered 

 about an apiary, is harmless, since no 

 self-respecting bee goes about seeking 

 what it may pick up in the way of nasti- 

 ness. So, there! 



Increase at Extracting Time 



E. Shicketanz reports in Praktischer 

 Wegweiser a somewhat novel plan of 

 proceeding. He secures a new colony 

 from each 6 or 7 colonies he extracts 

 from, and at the same time avoids the 

 unpleasantness of having the air filled 

 with a lot of cross bees that have been 

 swept from the extracting combs. 



A tin funnel is made, not in the usual 

 circular form, but long enough and 

 wide enough to have the bees from a 

 comb shaken or brushed into it, this 

 funnel being fastened into a hive-cover. 

 A hive has its entrance closed with 

 wire-cloth, and in it is put frames of 

 foundation or whatever may be deemed 

 best for the new colony, and over this 

 is placed the cover with its funnel. 

 The hive is thus made bee-tight, except 

 for the narrow slit in the funnel. As 

 each extracting-comb is taken from its 

 hive, the bees are brushed into this 

 funnel, until 6 or 7 colonies have been 

 operated on. Then it is placed on the 

 stand where it is to remain, the cover 

 with the funnel removed, and an ordi- 

 nary cover quickly placed over. Of 

 course it has been furnished with a 

 sealed cell or a queen, and generally a 

 queen will be kindly received if dropped 

 into the funnel with the bees. The en- 

 trance may be opened at once upon the 

 hive being placed upon its stand, or 

 the entrance may be left closed for 

 some time, according as it is desired to 

 have more or less of the older bees re- 

 main on the new stand. During the 

 brushing, a pail of water stands con- 

 veniently by, and if at anytime the bees 

 begin to crawl up througli the funnel 

 they are treated to a shower. 



Forming a Nucleus of Bees 



It is a very simple thing to put one 

 or more frames of brood with some 

 bees in an empty hive, and when you 

 have done that you have a nucleus. But 

 after having done that simple thing, 

 you may open the hive the next day to 

 find all the bees gone, and the brood 

 ;hilled. Some precaution must be taken 

 to make the bees stay where they are 

 put. 



The age of the bees has something 

 to do in the matter. Young bees that 

 have flown little or not at all will stay 

 wherever they are put if conditions are 

 satisfactory. Queenless bees are more 

 easily satisfied with a new location than 

 those that have a strong attachment to 

 a laying mother. A large number of 

 bees will stay in a new place better than 

 a small number. If bees are impris- 

 oned for about 3 days, they will, upon 

 being realeased, mark their location and 

 adhere to it. 



Keeping these principles in mind, there 

 ought not to be much trouble Take 

 from a normal colony a frame or two 

 of brood with adhering bees (be careful 

 not to take the queen), put them in an 

 empty hive, and fasten the entrance so 

 no bee can pass. Leave them thus for 

 3 days and then open the entrance. 

 Some, especially at an out-apiary, close 

 the entrance with green leaves or grass. 

 In 2 or 3 days the bees will dig the 

 entrance open, the drying of the green 

 leaves aiding toward this end. If a 

 strong colony should be imprisoned in 

 a hive in hot weather, the bees would 

 probably be smothered to death, but 

 there is no danger of this when a 

 nucleus is in a full-sized hive. And for 

 the general honey-producer it is hardly 

 advisable to use anything but the regu- 

 lar hive for a nucleus. 



Alone with the frame or frame? of 

 brood there should always be given one 

 or more combs without any brood, but 

 containing a pound or so of honey. 



Put into a hive as many as 6 frames 

 of brood with adhering bees, and there 

 will be no need to imprison the bees. 

 Of course, it does not matter whether 

 these 6 frames of brood be all taken 

 from the same hive or from 6 different 

 hives. Of course you do not want 6 

 frames of brood for a nucleus; that 

 would be rather a colony. So 3 days 

 later you may take away all but one 

 or 2 frames of brood, and you will 

 have a nucleus left. With the brood 

 and bees taken away you may form 2 

 other' nuclei, and these being queenless 

 will stay where put without being fas- 

 tened in, although for greater security 

 it may do no harm to imprison them 

 for a day or more. 



Sometimes a beginner wants to avoid 

 the unaccustomed task of finding a 

 queen. Well, a nucleus may be made 

 without ever seeing a queen. Take 

 from a colony a frame or two of brood, 

 shaking and brushing off all the bees. 

 If desired, a half-dozen such frames 

 may be taken. Put them in a hive- 

 body, and set this over a queen-ex- 

 cluder over a strong colony. It will not 

 be very long until the bees from be- 

 low will come up and cover the brood, 

 but it may be as well to leave it till the 

 next day. Then you can take these 

 frames of brood covered with bees and 

 use them as heretofore directed, with 

 no fear of takinc a queen. 



If you want to operate with only a 

 single colony, you may proceed in an- 

 other way. Take from the colony 2 

 frames of brood with adhering bees, 

 paying no attention to where the queen 

 is. Put these in an empty hive which 

 we will call B, the old hive bein- A. 

 Set A on the new stand where you in- 

 tend the nucleus shall remain, and set 

 B in place of A. Four days later you 

 may find plenty of eggs in B. That 

 shows that the queen is in B. Bring 

 all the brood and bees except one or 

 two frames from A and put in B, of 

 course filling up the hive with drawn- 

 out combs or frames filled with founda- 

 tion. That leaves your nucleus on its 

 new stand in A. You may, however, 

 find no eggs in B. If not you will be 

 petty sure to find queen-cells there. In 

 that case all you have to do is to let 



