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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 4, 



2, that Mr. Pringle gives on page 393, is a very remarkable 

 one. Nevertheless it tits almost precisely — perhaps 1 might 

 leave out the " almost" — to the season right here at Marengo. 

 But a distinct divergence comes if he is correct in his anticipa- 

 tion of good behavior on the part of vfhite clover. The season 

 is now well on its way (June 20), and white clover appears to 

 be, as it was last year, an utter failure. Marengo, 111. 



Wiutering —Rearing Oueetis — Swarming. 



BY CHESTER BELDING. 



I put 61 colonies into winter quarters in first-rate condi- 

 tion. I requeened, last season, all that showed signs of not 

 being prolific, and as we had a good fall flow of honey they 

 were well bred up, and had plenty of stores. 1 use 10-franie 

 Langstroth hives, winter them on the summer stands, and put 

 on outside cases, packed with leaves and fine planer shavings. 

 The hives were entirely snowed under for nearly six weeks, 

 and the bees suffered from dampness. The loss was eleven 

 colonies, and some others badly reduced. Three colonies were 

 left unpacked, and one of them is now in the best of condition. 

 I think if all had been left without outside cases, and given 

 more ventilation underneath, the loss would have been less, 

 as neither of the unpacked colonies died out. 



BEARING QUEENS FOR REQUEENING. 



Now about increase, or rearing young queens forrequeen- 

 ing: My plan has been for years to secure all the cells possi- 

 sible from a few of my earliest swarming colonies, and give 

 them to nuclei, or to kill a played-out queen and introduce the 

 cell just before it hatches. This I Hiiufc gives me a strain of 

 working bees that cannot be excelled by any other mode of 

 procedure, or at least it has done for me what I fail to get 

 from any queens I buy, reared by a forced process, as prac- 

 ticed by our queen-breeders, even from high-priced selected or 

 imported mothers. 



And then another point that, from experience we have 

 stuck a pin at, is not to purchase an untested, low-priced 

 queen of a breeder that sells high-priced tested ones ; or, in 

 other words, if you have from three to five dollars to put into 

 queens, instead of paying the five dollars for one, get five for 

 the same money, and, ten to one, if your breeder is a reliable 

 person, you will get more than one out of the number that 

 will be a hustler. I speak somewhat from experience, and I 

 now have some 10 of this class of queens in my yard, pur. 

 chased from six different breeders last season, and I shall note 

 results this summer, but as yet none of them comes up to my 

 own stock reared from cells from first swarms. 



PREVENTION OF SWARMING. 



How to prevent swarming is not a troublesome query with 

 me. I have not been troubled that way for years, even in the 

 most prosperous seasons. I do not average 10 swarms from 

 50 colonies. I use 10-frame hives, give plenty of room for 

 the queen to lay, put on the sections in due time, and venti- 

 late if necessary by raising the front of the hive. Then I 

 think that bees are subject to change considerable by reason 

 of proper modes of treatment and manipulations of hives, 

 fixtures, etc., at required times, and thus their swarming in- 

 stincts are somewhat changed or diminished. 



Middletown, N. Y., May 27. 



Balling Queens and Moving Eggs. 



BY I. W. BECKWITH. 



I wish to give my experience with bees balling their 

 queens, and so answer Query No. 96"J, on page 291. 



During some 12 years that I kept bees in Nebraska, I do 

 not know that I had but one case of balling, though I handled 



them a great deal, but during two years at Ft. Lupton, this 

 State, I had much trouble, especially the second year, and at 

 this place it is still worse. 



In some kinds of weather, especially if it is a little cool, 1 

 can hardly disturb a colony without having their queen balled. 

 This is more especially the case with virgins. Joseph Shat- 

 ters, of Lupton, told me that he overcame that difficulty by 

 keeping his young queens in very small nuclei of not more 

 than 100 bees, till they commenced laying. I tried his plan, 

 only I put more bees in a nucleus, and have no more trouble 

 with the virgins, but I cannot make a success of bee-keeping 

 and keep the old queens with so few bees. Though, by-the- 

 by, I have not tried it. 



I have some times thought the young queens were balled 

 by having the hives jarred by the wind, or perhaps without 

 even a jar. 



I have noticed that when the bees were not working any, 

 and had no brood, they never ball their queens, no matter how 

 much they are disturbed. 



I think the condition of the atmosphere has much to do 

 with it. I am here at an elevation of about 6,000 feet, and 

 it is now (May 24) the driest ever known here. There has 

 been no rain this spring, and the grass is just as dead as in 

 winter, except where snow-drifts melted. The drier, the more 

 trouble, I think. 



Probably " Indiana's " informant lived in a climate simi- 

 lar to this, so that stimulating the bees to activity in cool 

 weather induced balling. 



BEES MOVING EGGS. 



The members of the Southwest Texas bee-convention 

 seemed to be unanimous, and some of them emphatic, in as- 

 serting that bees do not move eggs ; and several of them gave 

 their reason for that belief, viz.: moving eggs from one cell to 

 another would require reason, and as bees do not reason, 

 therefore they do not move eggs. 



Not long ago " Mrs. Atchley " published an article in the 

 American Bee Journal in which she claimed that mankind is 

 the only animal that is endowed with reason. I do not pro- 

 pose at present to discuss the question of animals reasoning, 

 though I might relate many anecdotes illustrating the reason- 

 ing power of beasts, bees and other animals, and if she will 

 wake up a little memory that is at present dormant, she could 

 probably tell just as many. 



None of ths members of that convention had read any of 

 the instances recorded where bees have moved eggs, or they 

 had forgotten them, or believed the writers untruthful. I 

 have witnessed several cases of egg-moving myself — not the 

 act of moving, but the work after it was done — and I supposed 

 it was of such common occurrence that it was not worthy of 

 remark. 



I wish Willie Atchley would take a queenless colony and 

 give it eggs only in a very old, black comb, putting this comb 

 at the side of the hive, and then put new, empty combs next, 

 and report result. If I should say, " It is not possible that 

 bees gather and store honey for future use, for that would re- 

 quire reason, and bees do not reason," these same persons 

 would say, to themselves, at least, "Beokwith is in the same 

 condition mentally as the bees;" but if the bees can do the 

 one without reason, they can the other. Grover, Colo. 



♦' Many Heads,Many Minds " — Wintering Bees. 



BY REV. STEPHEN ROESE. 



On reading and reflecting upon the various reports of bee- 

 keepers, we might form the opinion that the " Old Reliable " 

 was wrongly named, but being fully aware of the fact that 

 the American Bee Journal is only the humble servant or me- 

 dium through wliich so many speak, we will have to refrain 



