88 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



Not infrequently the question is asked 

 ^vhat to do with combs filled with pollen. 

 On the other hand, Dzierzon discusses, in 

 Leipz. Bztg., how to secure extra combs of 

 pollen, advising that, in some cases, colo- 

 nies be kept queenless in order to secure 

 them. Many, especially beginners, do not 

 appreciate the value of a -good supply of 

 pollen in spring [Pollen in combs is good 

 property; but it sometimes happens we have 

 too many of them. In such a case, if they 

 be soaked in a tub of water, and then be 

 put in the extractor, the pollen can be 

 thrown out. — Ed.] 



California National Honey-produc- 

 ers' Association, p. 57. Does that mean 

 that California is a nation all by its lee- 

 lane self? Well, they do beat the nation, 

 anyhow, in some things. [You would think 

 that California was almost a little nation 

 by itself if you were to travel through it on 

 a Pullman for days and days, and yet not 

 get out of its borders. Why, just think of 

 it! It takes several hours in a Pullman to 

 go through a single county, or at least some 

 of the counties are larger than some whole 

 States. Yes, indeed, they beat us in some 

 things. — Ed.] 



That retinue surrounding the queen is 

 something after this fashion in this locali- 

 ty: Under normal circumstances, when a 

 queen is traveling over the comb, no worker 

 accompanies her. If she runs against the 

 hind end of a worker, the worker will pay 

 no more attention to her than to another 

 worker. If, however, the worker is in such 

 position that she can recognize the presence 

 of the queen, whether the queen touches her 

 or not, the worker will invariably squarely 

 face the queen; and if the queen stands still 

 long enough there will be a circle of bees 

 all facing centrally. As soon, however, as 

 the queen moves on, the circle breaks up, 

 never to be formed again of the same bees. 



Swarthmore deserves credit for empha- 

 sizing the need of young bees for queen- 

 rearing, and giving a feasible plan for get- 

 ting them, p. 57. For some, a good plan 

 would be to move a full colony to a new 

 stand, leaving a frame of brood or so in a 

 hive on the old stand to catch the returning 

 fielders. Two days later there would be 

 no old bees in the removed colony, and, aft- 

 er taking what young bees were needed, it 

 could be returned to the old stand. That 

 may get some too young, but thej' will be 

 older in a day or two, and it would avoid 

 the few old ones that would be captured by 

 Swarthmore's plan. [I have often used the 

 latter plan that you describe, with very 

 good results. — Ed.] 



You SAY, Mr. Editor, p. 65, that the A B 

 C has never said "the old queen leaves 

 with the swarm." Well, then, what does 

 become of the queen? Does she always re- 

 main in the old hive ? I have known cases 

 in which I feel pretty sure that the queen 

 came out with the swarm, and there have 

 been some cases in which it has been report- 

 ed that the old queen was found in the hive 



with the swarm after the swarm has hived. 

 Do such things occur only in this locality? 

 [This is a bad typographical error. The 

 quotation in your first sentence should 

 read, "The old queen leads the swarm." 

 As it reads in your quotation, it is mere 

 nonsense; but you will get the thought by 

 reading the next sentence, even if the first 

 one is queer. I was a little under the 

 weather when the last journal went out, 

 and was not able to read all the proofs. — 

 Ed.] 



L. Stachelhausen, p. 55, says I seem 

 " to prefer a non-swarming race of bees to 

 preventing swarming." My good friend, 

 you misinterpret me, being, perhaps, misled 

 by a certain troublesome editor who spoke, 

 Dec. 1, of my "chasing that phantom of a 

 strictly non-swarming race." I do not ex- 

 pect ever to reach that, and I do not wish 

 to waste the bloom of my youth in a hope- 

 less chase. But, as I have said in each 

 number of Gleanings for this year, " I do 

 not despair of finding some feasible plan of 

 dealing with a colony that will leave it 

 without the desire to swarm." So you see 

 it's non-swarming I'm chasing after, not a 

 non-swarming race, which is quite another 

 thing. Your plan, mein guter Bruder, 

 comes very close to the thing needed — closer 

 than any thing else yet brought forth. 



You are right, no doubt, Mr. Editor, in 

 saying that the text-books don't say that 

 the queen is among the first of the swarm, 

 p. 65, and yet I should have made the same 

 mistake as Delos Wood did; for until lately 

 I think it has been the common thing (and 

 I think it is more or less common now) to 

 talk about the queen " leading out a 

 swarm." [The statement has sometimes 

 been made that the queen leads out a 

 swarm, just as we say the sun rises, when 

 neither is true. I have yet to find in any 

 of our text-books, written within the last 

 fifty years, any teaching to the effect that 

 the queen leads out the swarm. I have 

 known her to be the first out, and have 

 heard her zeep, zeep, zeep; I have seen her 

 come out of the entrance, and the bees fol- 

 lowed right after; but the general rule is 

 that the bees come first and the queen comes 

 tumbling after. — Ed.] 



I think I see a quiet smile on the face 

 of some when they read on page 66 about 

 Congregationalists being not quite so stifi^, 

 formal, and perhaps aristocratic as Pres- 

 byterians. Bro. Root, there are some faulty 

 in that way in both denominations, proba- 

 bly as many in one as the other, and you 

 can't tell a Congregationalist from a Pres- 

 byterian with a high- power microscope by 

 his life or belief, unless you ask him about 

 his church government; and not one in 

 ten can tell you the difference in church 

 government. Some of these days they'll all 

 be shaken up together in the same bag, and 

 then turned out as Presbygationalists. 

 [The reader is hereby informed that A. I. 

 R. is a Congregationalist and Dr. Miller 

 is a Presbyterian. The doctor does not 



