756 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



season; but they are a bad thing- in cold or 

 cool weather. Bees should be g-iven every 

 possible aid in keeping their brood-nest 

 warm. If they should be rearing any 

 brood, it should be protected. 



PHOTOS FOR ILLUSTRATION. 



When sending in photos for illustration 

 in Gleanings, be sure they are clear, well 

 timed, and well printed. A hazy, steaky 

 picture, is something we can not use. Pic- 

 tures for half-tones must be printed a little 

 dark in order to bring out a good tone on 

 the printed page. The process of engrav- 

 ing photos fades out the dark shades, mak- 

 ing the picture come out more brilliant. A 

 light-printed picture will fade so much in 

 the process of engraving as to be decidedly 

 weak. 



XHE WEATHER AND RED CLOVER. 



W:§ have been having, till within the last 

 w6ek of SOf P°°l August weather — so cool 

 as to fee chilly- at night, making a grate fire 

 feel comfoftable. At the time of this writ- 

 ing, Aug. 24, the weatbei /^ exceptionally 

 warm, and we are "enjo>'i©g" a genuine 

 drouth. We have had no he'd^Y ram since 

 the 30th of July, a pefiod of 25 di^9§, Great 

 quantities of gcldeflrod are out, aii'^ there 

 is considerable fed clover. There f» Httle 

 or no robbing in ouf yards; and we attfib- 

 ute this largely to the fact that our b*^s> 

 have been bred tc work on red cloverV 

 There is enough of it out to keep them 

 bnsy — at least to keep robbers from nosing 

 aronind when the hives are open. 



selling UNFINISHEIr SECTIONS, 



I awE before told of our method of dis- 

 posiB'gf of these at the close of the season. 

 As tteie plan works so admirably, and our 

 newer readers know nothing of it, I have 

 ■decided to give it again. Unfiniahed combs, 

 -or partly filled ones in sections, will not 

 sell. "^^ cut these out, however, putting 

 -one or t^o of them, according to their 

 weight, ihto a common wooden butter-dish 

 <X)sting bJt a fraction of a cent. In some 

 cases we g^tt almost as much, and at otb- 

 -ers fully aannuch for these as we would for 

 No. 1 secticds. There is something about 

 the chunks yi glistening sweetness in its- 

 pearly- whit 2* comb that attracts the eye- 

 It makes the prospective buyer think of the 

 days of his ^'{landfather or of his father. 

 "That is honsy," he exclaims. He buys 

 it once, and tiJys it again. There is no 

 better seller in our retail honey department 

 than these broki^n chunks of honey in but- 

 ter-dishes. If you never tried the plan, get 

 a gross of wooden butter-dishes, and see 

 how quick that klrid of goods will move off. 



introducing TWO Virgins at a time; a 



SCHEME OF HAST3]*fING FERTILIZATION. 



Our Mr. Geo. W. Phillips, of the apia- 

 ry, has struck upon an idea which, if not 

 new, is something I liave not seen in print. 

 The bane of all queen-rearing 3'ards, or in 



some, at least, is in getting queens fertil- 

 ized. It is easy enough to make artificial 

 cups; to graft them with royal jelly and 

 selected larvaj; it is easy enough to get 

 large beautiful ripe peanut-shaped cells; 

 it is easy enough to get the occupants 

 hatched; but getting them fertilized — aye, 

 there's the rub. Mr. Phillips has shorten- 

 ed the process by nearly a Iialf, and at the 

 same time reduced the risk of loss. Well, 

 what is it? 



Here is a colony, we will say, that is 

 queenless. Instead of giving it one caged 

 virgin, to be released on the candy plan, he 

 gives it to fzvo of flying age; but the loose 

 slide protecting the candy is removed, ex- 

 posing the food in one cage, leaving it in 

 the other cage covered by the slide. The 

 bees will release the queen of the first 

 mentioned. In a day or so she will become 

 fertilized, and go to laying. The other vir- 

 gin is kept caged in the meat! time. As 

 soon as queen No. 1 is laying, ahe is taken 

 out, and af the same time the slide covering 

 the candy to the other cage is set back, the 

 bees release queen No. 2. Before that is 

 done, another virgin is put into the hive, 

 caged with the candy protected. Queen 

 No. 2 is accepted, and ere long begins to 

 Iay» She is removed, and the slide of cage 

 No. 3 is slid back, and another virgin put 

 in, and so on the C3'Cle proceeds. The 

 po.'nt is here : Both queens while in the 

 hive acquire the scent of the bees and of the 

 ftomb, so that when one queen is removed 

 JAe' othei' queen is already introduced e^- 

 Cfi^t feleasii.ig'' which the bees do in a few 

 ho-^^g^,- and Sh° again is in a fair way to 

 becc'to^ the m<3^^: of the flock. During the 

 interMJ bfetweeil ihe Jime the queen is re- 

 leased atid when she becomes laying-, the 

 queen is- ad^uifing tite »C€Dl of the solony. 



But Mr> Phillips gf#je» one etep' farther. 

 Here is a coldhy thaf jp* not quecnlt'.*S^r_but' 

 we wish to sell' the (jij^een in two or lfe*ecf 

 days. He actbfdingly 6ages the virgie ira 

 the hive, and trhred' day^ after removes tJie? 

 laying queen, e-"«pOses~ tiie candy of the cag-' 

 ed virgin so the bfees can release her, when 

 she is immediately adcepted. There, don't 

 you see there is a lapse of only a few hours 

 of actual queenlessness? We will say that, 

 ID five hours after the laying queen is re- 

 moved, the virgin is stalking abroad over 

 the combs, quite at hofAfe.' 



This thing is no expetiment. We have 

 been testing it for weeks td see if it would 

 work under all conditions. 



If the virgins are hatched' in nurseries, 

 and a supply of them is kept on hand, no 

 colony need be queenless more than long 

 enough for the bees to eat out the candy, 

 which I should say would take about five 

 hours as we provision the cages. By this 

 plan one can get almost a double output of 

 queens. 



When using the upper-story plan of hav- 

 ing three nuclei in a super above wire 

 cloth, one can actuallj^ have six virgins tO' 

 one colony of bees, and the cycle will keep 

 on revolving, one queen being fertilized, we 



