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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



then when the queen is freed the color re- 

 mains permanent, making it easy to find 

 her by a mere glance. [This is a valua- 

 ble kink if we can get some dye, paint, or 

 coloring-matter that will be permanent. I 

 question very much if any thing could be 

 found that would answer the purpose. But 

 wouldn't white be better than yellow, as 

 the contrast would be stronger? — Ed.] 



I SUSPECT that it is a mistake not to give 

 a puff of smoke at the entrance on opening 

 a hive, if smoke be needed at all. The 

 guards at the entrance are the ones on the 

 lookout against intruders, and the least 

 jarring of the hive, as in removing the cov- 

 er, will start them on the war-path. An 

 initial puff of smoke at the entrance will 

 save stings, and I think it will save smoke. 

 [Perhaps you are right; but our imported 

 stock has been so gentle that we have rare- 

 ly found it necessary to blow anj' smoke in 

 at the entrance. I remember that a large 

 number of your bees are hybrids, or on the 

 hybrid order, and it is very reasonable to 

 suppose that a pufif of smoke at the entrance 

 would be quite a necessary precaution. — 

 Ed.] 



"Is IT NOT POSSIBLE that, during hot 

 weather or the swarming season, the drones 

 help to increase the heat so that comb- 

 building may fairly progress? " quoth ye 

 editor, page 872. Surely, a pound of drones 

 will get up a lot of heat ; but a pound of 

 workers will get up just as much, and the 

 workers are worth something besides. [Yes, 

 that is true; but suppose the hive has lots 

 of drones in it, and there are no other bees 

 to take their place to supply the necessary 

 heat. You certainly would not then trap 

 them all out when the bees were doing 

 heavy work storing, and bringing in five 

 times as much honey as the drones con- 

 sume. I grant that good management should 

 keep them down, and have workers reared 

 instead. But remember that Mr. M. W. 

 Shepherd, page 841, says that his bees rear 

 drone comb on worker foundation. They 

 will rear some drone comb for all of us in 

 spite of us. Well, I suppose you would go 

 over all the hives and cut out every portion 

 of drone comb early in the season. — Ed.] 



You SPEAK, Mr. Editor, p. 878, of "the 

 usual characteristic ballot bees " found on 

 the ground with the clipped queen of a 

 swarm. Do you generally find such a ball 

 of bees in Medina? We've had swarms 

 with clipped queens for many years, and in 

 " this locality " not one case in twenty will 

 have such a ball. [It just occurs to me 

 that, inasmuch as you referred to this very 

 matter some time ago, in a similar way, 

 you misunderstood what I meant by "the 

 ball of bees." I did not mean the kind 

 that is attacking the queen — oh, no! — just a 

 little peaceable cluster that congregates 

 around their mother, rejoicing that they 

 have found her. There are a few strag- 

 glers in a swarm that are looking for the 

 queen. It is these bees, if she be crawling 

 in the grass around the hive, that will find 



her. It is much easier to see a little clus- 

 ter of bees than a single individual queen 

 in the grass. I just referred the matter to 

 our Mr. Phillips, who has had large expe- 

 rience in the production of honey in Jamai 

 ca, and who has worked for us a who 

 year. In both localities he said he was 

 the habit of finding the clipped queen by 

 the cluster of bees around her. — Ed.] 



Locality has had nearly every thing 

 laid to it, and now it is crossness cf bees. 

 At Los Angeles Mr. Delano told of moving 

 half his apiary to a different location where 

 they were terribly cross, those remaining 

 not being cross, although all of the same 

 blood. Frank McNay gave a still more 

 striking instance. He moved some bees 

 some miles away, and while there they 

 were so cross it was almost impossible to 

 handle them. On moving them back to the 

 old place they were as gentle as the others. 

 [I thought the bees at one of Frank Mc- 

 Kay's apiaries were about as cross as any 

 I had ever seen. If this is the yard where 

 they were peaceable, I wonder what they 

 were at the other place referred to. But, 

 say — I do not quite see why locality should 

 affect the temperament unless it should be 

 of such a character as that the secretion of 

 nectar would stop suddenly, in which case 

 the bees would be cross immediately there- 

 after.— Ed.] 



" It should require no argument to 

 show that bees successfully wintered in the 

 cellar are better able to bear the rough 

 weather of early spring than bees that have 

 suffered all the rigors of the entire winter 

 out of doors." This I quote from the Bee- 

 keepers'' Revieiv, spoken of bees successful- 

 ly wintered and not diseased, and I set it 

 up for some one to knock over — if he can. I 

 am anxious to believe it; and it's spoken by 

 a man who knows a good bit about winter- 

 ing bees — Hon. R. L. Taylor. [Like your- 

 self, I want to believe that Mr. Taylor is 

 right; but I am afraid he may not be, for 

 we have had reports from bee-keepers who 

 used the two methods side by side, some of 

 whom have said that, while their outdoor 

 bees used more stores, they were more vig- 

 orous in spring. We have been wintering 

 bv the two plans side by side, with this 

 difference — that weak colonies were put in 

 the cellar, and the stronger ones outdoors. 

 This winter we will try to make a more ex- 

 act report for next season. I know this — 

 that indoor colonies consume less stores; 

 and if in spring they are just as good, it is 

 high time we recognized the fact and acted 

 upon it; for what would be the use of throw- 

 ing away from one fourth to one-third of the 

 stores every winter, where feeding has to 

 be resorted to? — Ed.] 



Thinking it over carefully, I'm inclined 

 to lean toward the belief that entire control 

 of fertilization might be a loss rather than 

 a gain. If I can have control of the colo- 

 nies that rear drones in my own and neigh- 

 boring colonies. I believe that's all the con- 

 trol I want. In the mad chase after the 



