116 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 21, 



standing that are for that purpose, and not to be read in con- 

 vention. 



I am aware that what I have written, and my defense of 

 the essays at the St. Joseph convention appears contradictory, 

 but such is not really the case. I defended the essays, and 

 demanded their reading at St. Joseph, because those men had 

 been asked to write them, and had complied, with the under- 

 standing that they would be read, and it would then be an 

 injustice to them, not to say insult, to not have their essays 

 read ; but while I defended them on this ground, I yet believe 

 the asking for so many essays was a mistake. 



Mr. Abbott says : "It is all very well to take up some 

 of the time of the convention by such questions as, ' Which is 

 the best smoker ?' ' Which is the best queen — one with her 

 body all yellow, or one with a tip of black at the end of her 

 tail ?'" etc. Well, Mr. Abbott, it cost me (as my books show) 

 exactly .§11. 40 to find out by experimental buying which 

 smoker is best ; and as for queens, I have spent many dollars, 

 much time and labor, and I am not yet decided, so these ques- 

 tions, especially the latter, are to " us, who don't know it all 

 yet," rather interesting, and somewhat practical. 



Again, Mr. Abbott says, "Or else become an automatic 

 question-box to satisfy the latent egotism of those who have 

 an unconquerable desire to ask questions in order that they 

 may have a chance to answer them, flattering themselves all 

 the time that they can answer them a little better than any 

 one else. All questions are not asked for information." 



Let us see about this. I, at St. Joseph, put in the ques- 

 tion-box the following question, viz.: " What can be done to 

 prevent the bees sticking frames and hive-sections fast with 

 propolis ?" Now, I had my idea about this, and thotig)tt I 

 knew how it could be done. I wished this question to come 

 up in convention, in order that I (just as Mr. A. says) might 

 answer it. Why? Was it because I was egotistical? No! 

 Because I wanted to bring my theory before the supply manu- 

 facturers there present, and see what they thought of it, and 

 to see what others thought of it, and to talk it over and see if 

 it was practical, or if any one could suggest anything better. 

 I claim that though I desired to answer that question myself, 

 yet it was asked for, and I was searching after, information. 

 Asking and answering such questions through the journals is 

 unsatisfactory, because it is usually either answered by one 

 man, or by a dozen without discussion, and in the latter case 

 one will say " Yes," the other " No," and each being assured 

 to be an expert, what have I learned? La Clede, Mo. 



Keeping Fertile Queens in Nuclei. 



BY H. DUPRET. 



I am experimenting, this winter, as to how long I can pre- 

 serve fertile queens in small nuclei. Here is a short story : 



On Sept. 23, 1894, I got a swarm — fully 2 or 3 pounds — 

 which issued from a colony which was replacing its old queen. 

 On previous days I had found as many as four young queens 

 (on different days) killed and thrown at the hive's entrance. 

 On Sept. 2.3 I found near the hive, on the ground, a big ball 

 of bees, and upon examining I saw the old queen (Italian blood 

 from a Texas queen-breeder), and a piece of newly-made 

 comb as large as my hand, containing nearly as many eggs as 

 there were started cells. I suppose the old queen, unwilling 

 either to die in the hive, or to live peaceably with her daugh- 

 ter, had chosen to start a new home. I thought immediately 

 that I should try to preserve this swarm, in my observatory 

 hive (accommodating only one frame). So I did ; but all the 

 bees could not get into the observatory hive, so I caught part 

 of them, and gave them an old black queen that I was at the 

 time preserving in a very small nucleus. 



The bees in the observatory hive I fed with maple syrup 

 (a big mistake, as I see now). The queen went on laying, 

 and the colony seemed to prosper as long as the bees could 

 have their regular flights. But when I confined them to a 

 dark room, diarrhea set in, and they were soon reduced to 

 perhaps one-fifth of their previous number. So I concluded 

 that the experimenting with maple sugar should stop, and 

 yesterday (Dec. 16) I confined the queen and the remainder 

 of the bees (some 700 or 800) in a small box, accommodating 

 four one-pound sections of mostly capped honey. So much for 

 the story of the old Italian queen. I may conclude It in a few 

 months. 



Now to the black queen, with her Italian retinue. They 

 were placed also in a very small box containing one one-pound 

 section (% pound of honey). Will you believe it ? They are 

 still in very good condition — may be a few bees died (there 

 were about 250, and there remains about 150), and not the 

 least sign of diarrhea. At the present date (Dec. 17) their 



honey is not quite all consumed, so I had to place them in a 

 somewhat larger box, adding nearly one pound of capped 

 honey. Will they get through the winter? The future will 

 tell. 



One more word, and an important one, too. Upon exam- 

 ining the frame of ray observatory hive, now empty, I found, 

 to my great surprise, by the side of the little remaining syrup 

 (which was never capped), nearly 2,000 eggs lying flat on the 

 bottom of the cells. I suppose the eggs are three days old, 

 but not a single larva. I never thought the queen would re- 

 sume so early her laying duty. The exceptionally mild weather 

 of last week may account for this. But then, what think you 

 of the large colonies ? If laying is going on, a big quantity of 

 food will be consumed, and some may starve before the spring 

 opens. That is the reason why I am thinking of giving more 

 food to weak colonies. 



PUMICE-STONE FOR REMOVING PROPOLIS. 



Here is another kink : Best hand cleaner for propolis, 

 and handiest, too, is the pumice-stone (apply to your drug- 

 gist) used with simply water, for scraping your hands. At 

 least I find it so. Montreal, Canada. 



A Plan for Uniting Nuclei. 



BT PHILO S. DILWORTH. 



Various plans have been given for uniting nuclei. Much 

 of that kind of work is to be done after the honey season, 

 when there is not much if any honey coming in. Where the 

 queens are not valuable, and the apiarist is not particular, 

 there are various hit or miss plans that are fairly successful. 

 Sometimes we wish to reduce the risk to the minimum, and at 

 the same time do not want to cage the queen. 



Once last summer I tried the following plan, that is, so 

 far as I know, original with myself : 



I wished to unite No. 1 nucleus with No. 9, that was also 

 a nucleus. No. 1 had the good queen that I wished to keep — 

 No. 9 had a poor queen I wished to kill. I killed the queen 

 of No. 9, took away all brood and eggs, and covered her bees 

 down on two empty combs, with a little honey. I do not 

 understand that the presence or absence of honey in the dead 

 combs figured in the success of this plan. I left No. 9 queen- 

 less, broodless and eggless 24 hours until the following 

 evening. At the expiration of the 24 hours, I went to No. 1 

 and covered down their queen, bees and combs of brood to one 

 side of the hive, using a close-fitting division-board for that 

 purpose. I then reached into the large empty part of the 

 hive behind the division-board, and stuffed the entrance with 

 rags. This left no communication with the empty part of the 

 hive except through the space at the upper corner of the 

 division-board at the tin rabbets. 



Then I went to No. 9, smoked the bees onto their dead 

 combs, and carried them to No. 1, and hung them in the 

 empty part farthest away from the other nucleus. Close to 

 them I hung a loose division-board or follower, allowing the 

 strange bees free access to the vacant center of the hive. But 

 they could not get outside the hive except by passing through 

 the apertures at the upper corners of the close division-board, 

 and down through the good nucleus. The entrance to the 

 good nucleus was left open as usual, except to guard against 

 robbers, and retain the warmth. 



In a couple of days I found the dead combs deserted, the 

 good nucleus about twice as strong as before, and the queen 

 quietly laying as usual. The queen did not appear to have 

 been disturbed by the strange bees, and none went home to 

 the old stand. Ingram, Pa. 



T1^c Sut)r)\i Soui1r)lat)d^ 



CONDUCTED BY 



AIRS. JENNIE ATCIILEY, BEEVTLLE, TEX. 



To Southern Bee-Keepers. 



We have had a very cold winter, and likely a late, back- 

 ward spring will follow, and some of your bees may need feed- 

 ing before honey comes. It won't pay to let them suffer. We 

 are at least one month behind on account of the cold weather, 

 and I suppose this will apply to most Southern States, aind our 

 bees will likely have a hard month before honey comes. We 

 must look a " leetle oud," and supply their wants and needs. 



