THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



463 



Fertile Workers- 



We extract the following from the 

 Indiana Farmer on the cause and cure 

 for these pests : 



Bees should never be allowed to go 

 any length of time without a queen, 

 or without eggs or brood from which 

 to raise one in case their queen gets 

 lost while on her bridal trip. Colonies 

 that have been queenless for any 

 length of time are very apt to contain 

 fertile workers. The evidence that 

 these pests are present, will be found 

 in tlie promiscuous manner in which 

 the eggs are scattered around in the 

 comb, sometimes one, but oftener 

 three or four in each cell. The bees 

 will cap the brood over, but the cap- 



Eings will be convex as other drone 

 rood is. They will even build queen 

 cells over the brood, but the eggs will 

 produce only drones. There is no way 

 of distinguishing these fertile workers 

 from any of the others, unless you 

 should see them in the act of laying, 

 and should you destroy one or two 

 there is likely to be a half dozen 

 others left in the hive. A colony con- 

 taining fertile workers will neither 

 accept a queen if given them, nor 

 raise one for themselves if brood is 

 given them for that purpose. It is 

 generally better to double up a colony 

 in this condition with one containing 

 a fertile queen. If the frames be 

 taken some distance from the hive, 

 and all the bees be shaken off on the 

 ground, the most of them will go back 

 to the old stand, leaving the fertile 

 workers on the ground, when if a 

 frame of brood is given them they 

 will raise a queen. A better plan is 

 to crowd the bees on as few frames as 

 possible on one side of the hive, and 

 close up with a division board. On 

 the opposite side of the board hang 

 two or three frames of brood and bees 

 from another colonv, and a queen if 

 you have one. They will soon dis- 

 cover ihe better condition of things 

 on the other side, and quickly unite 

 with them. 



Plan and Foresight of Bees. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, has this .in a 

 late number of the New York Tribune 

 on the above topic : 



The phenomenon of bees swarming 

 is well understood. Most of the 

 worker bees rush out of the hive 

 sometime between 8 a. m. and 4 p m 

 —usually from 10 a. m. to 12 m — 

 circle about in the air for some time, 

 apparently waiting for the queen, 

 which seldom leaves the hive till the 

 bees are well out, and then all alight 

 in a dense cluster on some bush, tree 

 or other support. If the queen refuses 

 to leave the hive to join the bees, or 

 If from defective wings she is unable 

 to joni them, they soon break ranks 

 and return to the hive. After a space 

 varying from half an hour to two 

 hours— I have known swarms to re- 

 mam clustered all night— the bees 

 take wmg and fly rapidly in a straight 



line to the new home. This is cer- 

 tain, as bees have often been followed 

 in a bee-line to the adopted home. 

 Others have been followed for along 

 distance, always in a right line, when 

 the chase had to be abandoned. Two 

 interesting questions arise : Why do 

 bees cluster 'i and How do they know 

 of the home toward which they al- 

 ways take a bee-line ? 



It has been argued that bees cluster 

 that scouts may go in quest of the 

 prospective home. It is also more 

 than probable that the queen, 

 whose organs of flight— muscles and 

 wings which she moves— have long 

 been inactive, possibly for more than 

 a year, may need this rest after her 

 brief flight from the hive, before th% 

 longer one, which may reach a dis- 

 tance of miles. This view is strength- 

 ened by the not imcommon occurrence 

 of bees resting midway on their flight 

 after flying a mile or more toward the 

 new home. I tiave known several 

 cases where bees have thus clustered 

 apparently for the queen to rest, after 

 flying a mile or more. This home 

 must have been sought out either 

 before the bees left the hive to swarm, 

 or else while the bees were clustered. 

 A few cases are given by European 

 bee-keepers where a few bees have 

 been observed about a house or tree, 

 going in and out of some small aper- 

 ture, then leaving. The next day, or 

 possibly the next day but one, a full 

 swarm would take possession of the 

 pre-empted quarters. 



One of our graduates, Mr. F. E. 

 Delano, a farmer of Oxford, Mich., 

 writes me that last Friday, while en- 

 gaged in tearing down a portion of his 

 house preparatory to rebuilding, he 

 noticed, about 3 p. m., bees flying 

 in and out of some holes under 

 the chamber floor. He supposed a 

 swarm had taken possession, but was 

 puzzled to know when they could have 

 come without being heard or seen. 

 The next morning early no bees were 

 to be seen. About 9 a. m. a large 

 swarm came and at once entered the 

 same openings where the bees made 

 ingress and egress the previous after- 

 noon. This seems clearly to prove 

 that scouts do, sometimes at least, go 

 out to seek and prepare the new home 

 before the bees swarm, and strength- 

 ens the probability that clustering is 

 not to give time for this prospecting, 

 but the rather to fit the queen for the 

 l9ng journey, which from her func- 

 tion and habits we must consider her 

 illy-fitted to take. 



Fall Feeding for Bees. 



A correspondent of the Home Jour- 

 nal details his method as follows : 



^^ The Rev. L. L. Langstroth has 

 been invited to attend the North- 

 western Bee-Keepers' Convention to 

 be held at Chicago, Oct. 17 and 18, and 

 accepts in tiie following language : 



" About the invitation to attend the 

 Convention at Chicago, and your very 

 kind invitation to me to share your 

 hospitalities, friend Newman, allow 

 me to say, I accept both with great 

 pleasure, and if nothing unforeseen 

 should prevent, 1 will be glad to make 

 the personal acquaintance of the 

 Northwestern bee-keepers. 



L. L. Langstroth." 



Each colony should be examined, 

 and, if out of stores, they should be 

 fed about a pint of sweetened water 

 every other day. This should be 

 given them in the upper story of the 

 hive, where other bees cannot get at 

 it, or there will be danger of exciting 

 • robbery. This light feeding should 

 be kept up to the latter part of Sep- 

 tember, and then the colony should 

 be provided with their winter stores. 

 I have found that about 15 pounds of 

 a good article of " A " sugar is sufli- 

 cient to carry an ordinary colony 

 through till the warm days of spring. 

 There are many ways to feed sugar 

 to bees, but I have adopted the fol- 

 lowing plan : Some kind of a feeder 

 is necessary (and there are many 

 kinds in use), and it should be cheap 

 and simple. For handy and rapid 

 feeding tliere is nothing better than a 

 quart fruit jar and a grooved board. 

 Cut a board 6 or 8 inches square, and 

 with a pair of compasses^ strike a 

 circle in its center about 4 inches in 

 diameter, and cut a trench a quarter 

 of an inch deep, similar to an old- 

 fashioned cider platform press, and 

 then cut grooves out to the circular 

 trench, and the feeder is ready. The 

 whole thing can be completed with a 

 pocket-knife in a few minutes. To 

 prepare the sugar for feeding, fill the 

 jar full of sugar, then pour on warm 

 water till the jar is full of syrup ; 

 have the sugar well dissolved by stir- 

 ring it. Now put a piece of oil-cloth, 

 or a piece of drilling will answer, on 

 the mouth of the jar, and invert the 

 jar and board altogether, and then 

 slide the cloth out from under the 

 mouth of the jar, and you have the 

 feed in the best possible shape to be 

 taken by the bees. I usually feed at 

 the entrance of the hive, placing the 

 feeders in position just after dark in 

 the evening, and removing them 

 early the next morning. At the start 

 a little syrup should be strewn from 

 the bees to the feeder, to start them, 

 after which they will rush into the 

 feeder like pigs into a swill pail. 

 Keep up the feeding regularly till they 

 are provided with suflicient winter 

 stores. If the nights are cool, place 

 the feeder in the upper stories of the 

 hives. Some people seeta to think 

 that it is a risky thing to feed $2 

 worth of sugar to a colony of bees. 

 But if they give 100 per cent, profit, 

 how then ? 



m" The Central Michigan Bee- 

 Keepers' Association holds its fall 

 meeting at Lansing, in the State 

 Capitol building, on Tuesday, Sept. 

 25, 1883, at 9 a. m. All interested in 

 anything pertaining to bee-culture are 

 invited to attend and bring anything 

 that will be of interest to the bee 

 fraternity. E. N. Wood, Sec. 



North Lansing, Mich. 



I®" Articles for publication must be 

 written on a separate piece of paper 

 from items of business. 



