1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



1^ 



247 



'< Lfnitiug Colonies of Bees." 



BY CHAS. F. MIJTH. 



When I read the above caption on page 71 of the " Old 

 Eeliable," I was struck again by the idea, as has been the case 

 many times, that the least of our bee-keeping friends, and I 

 include our " posted " friends, have a good understanding of 

 " uniting." 



It should be understood that any colony in normal condi- 

 tion, i. e., having a laying queen, will accept, without any 

 trouble, any colony which has been queenless for at least 2-± 

 hours. Consequently, if you want to unite two colonies stand- 

 ing side by side, deprive oneof its queen, and the next day, or 

 the day following, hang the combs with adhering bees of the 

 •one colony in the second story of the other colony, immediately 

 above the bees below, and remove the empty stand. The 

 united colonies will use the same entrance, and no fighting 

 will be done. If you are preparing your bees for winter, and 

 want to confine all to the brood-chamber, brush them down 

 the next day, or any day thereafter. No harm will be done. 



It should also be understood that you can never unite a 

 colony having a virgin queen with a colony in normal condi- 

 tion. If you do it anyhow, and no matter what precautions 

 you may take, the last bee of the one party will be killed be- 

 fore the fight ends. There are no infallible rules laid down 

 by the bees, nor the bee-keeping fraternity, but the above 

 rules hold good in nine cases out of ten. Convince yourselves. 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 



Bee-Keepiug in California. 



RY DR. E. GALLUP. 



I do not know when I enjoyed myself any better than I 

 did at the California State bee-convention, Feb. 5, 1895. It 

 seemed so much like old times. 



I see they were crying cold weather away down South the 

 first of March. Well, we have had a splendid winter here in 

 California. C. W. Dayton, at Florence, Calif., says bees were 

 gathering pollen and honey rapidly on Jan. 13. They were 

 no doubt gathering from the eucalyptus, as there are many 

 groves in and around Florence. The fragrance from eucalyptus 

 honey is remarkable. I have often wondered why California 

 bee-keepers did not set out the trees around or near their 

 apiaries. They are a remarkably fast-growing tree, and can 

 be had of any nursery-man at one dollar per hundred. After 

 the first year they need but very little water. 



I am asked by many Eastern correspondents, why bees 

 cannot be kept in the valleys as well as in the mountains. 

 They are kept in many localities in the valleys, and in other 

 localities the inhabitants proclaim them a nuisance. Then 

 the honey is not, as a general rule, of a good quality. In 

 many cases, I think they are like the old lady who lived near 

 me in Wisconsin. The first season that I kept bees there she 

 complained bitterly that my bees were carrying all of her cur- 

 rant blossoms away, and she should not raise a single currant, 

 etc.! Another thing, she was afraid for her life every time 

 she went out-doors, for the pesky things she knew would sting 

 her to death some day ! 



Bees do remarkably well in the valleys, so far as increase, 

 storing honey, making wax, etc., is concerned, and at certain 

 seasons they store a first-rate article of honey. A Mr. Koukle, 

 three miles west of Santa Ana, rears lots of them for sale, and 

 for their wax. He increased from 15 (and the most of them 

 only nuclei) to 130 colonies last season, and in a dry year 

 when bees in the mountains were starving to death. All are 

 in splendid condition, and the most of them in two-story hives, 

 and extra heavy with honey. He is selling them to good ad- 

 vantage this season to mountain bee-keepers to restock their 

 apiaries. 



Mr. J. Fox has a mountain apiary and a valley ranch, 

 three miles south of Santa Ana. He always keeps some bees 

 on his valley ranch. He moved a part of his mountain bees 

 down to the valley last season. He lost about one-half of 

 those left in the mountains, and now he is moving bees up 

 from the valley to restock his mountain apiary. You must 

 know that nuclei of two and three combs will winter here just 

 as well as a full colony. I have said, and still believe, that 

 bees are self-sustaining in all seasons, if properly managed. 

 Mr. Mclntyre, at the convention in Los Angeles, if I mistake 

 not, made the statement that he fed but very little the past 

 season, and considered his bees in very good condition. His 

 plan is my plan, or my plan is his plan, I care not which way 

 you take it. That is, never to extract after the bees show a 

 disposition to rob. Let them fill up the supers, and let it re- 

 main on the hive until the next season. It is not lost, for if 



the season proves to be a good one, you can extract just before 

 the flow commences. If a poor one, leave it there, and let the 

 bees draw on their surplus as they require. The season can 

 almost invariably be foretold by the amount of rain during 

 the winter. That is, if we have a suBicient amount of rain, 

 we can with a certainty expect the bees to store some surplus. 

 We cannot always predict the amount, for that depends a 

 great sight upon the weather, the same as it does in the East 

 or South. 



On the above plan, the bees cost nothing in a poor season, 

 and in a good season they are almost sure to give us the 

 sweets. Quite a proportion of bee-keepers here extract all 

 they can possibly get, which leaves the bees in bad condition 

 for a dry season. Santa Ana, Calif. 



^ 



The Will of the Queen. 



BY GEO. BISCHOFF. 



Can a queen lay eggs at will, some for worker-bees, and 

 some for drones ? 1 say yes. In the first place we must 

 know a bee is an insect, although I noticed in the American 

 Bee Journal of last year, that some big bee-man in Iowa has 

 discovered that the bee in an animal — which is right. So do 

 men belong to the animal class, but it is not necessary that a 

 man must be a mule. 



The life of the insect is different from any other animal. 

 Take the hen — she will lay eggs without a rooster, but they 

 will not hatch. But take a laying worker-bee — she will lay 

 the cells full of eggs, and they all batch, but nothing but 

 drones — and they are no good. Now take a queen that had 

 no chance to meet a drone — she will lay eggs in time, and 

 they hatch, but all drones, and they are as good as any. 



Here is another thing : We all know if we have a pure 

 Italian queen, and she is mated with a black drone, her 

 progeny will be hybrids, but the drones are pure. Why is 

 this ? I will try to explain it. The ovaries, or egg-sac, is 

 divided into two parts, as it is very nicely illustrated in 

 "Langstroth on the Honey-Bee," Revised by Dadant, page 

 56, plate 5. You will notice, where the two channels come 

 together, below it is a round ball, with muscles around it, this 

 is the sperm-sac. Now, whenever she lays an egg for a 

 worker-bee, she will squeeze that ball with her muscles, and 

 fertilize the egg when it comes in position with the ball ; but 

 for a drone, she will let it pass without fertilization. That is 

 the reason why drones are pure, and it is also plain that the 

 queen can at will lay an egg for a drone or a worker bee. 



Burlington, Iowa. 



No. 2. — Bits of Experience, and a Few Ques- 

 tions Suggested by Them. 



BY T. I. DUGDALE. 

 (Continued from page 23a.) 



We also made experiments with several kinds of mineral 

 wax, to learn if possible if the cost of foundation could not 

 be reduced. All these tests proved unsatisfactory, and it was 

 found that only pure beeswax was a success. 



I have since used considerable comb foundation in my 

 work, and have tried full sheets, part sheets, and starters 

 only, in the brood-chamber, and have finally reached the con- 

 clusion that if it is increase as well as honey we want, then 

 full sheets are the thing to use ; but if honey alone is the 

 object in view, I firmly believe that starters properly used will 

 give equally as good results, and will have a tendency to pre- 

 vent swarming, as the bees, having been induced to make a 

 start in the sections, do not build comb in the body of the hive 

 so fast, and the queen will use it about as fast as built. Of 

 course, for extracting, I prefer full sheets. Also, it is more 

 labor to look after a colony that has been allowed to build 

 their own combs, on account of too much drone-comb being 

 built, which should be removed and made into wax. 



At the close of my season's work with Mr. Nellis, I re- 

 turned home, and decided to again engage in bee-keeping, 

 which I did by buying upwards of 40 colonies in box-hives. 

 These I transferred to frame hives. I also procured several 

 Italian queens and Italianized them all. Here I had a fine 

 chance to learn something in regard to the distance bees will 

 go in search of nectar. As there was at that time no Italians 

 within 20 or 30 miles of my yard, I saw that season these 

 bees at work at least 3 miles in a direct course from my place, 

 and do not know but they may have gone even farther, and of 

 that distance I can speak positively. 



At the close of the following season several colonies belong- 

 ing to a party 4 miles distant showed the Italian markings 



