1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



471 



good colony at least twenty pounds; and in 

 the absence of them this year, feed till all 

 have that amount." 



"I see. I saved about 100 pounds in combs, 

 thinking that would be all I needed, and it 

 may. If not, I will feed. You said some- 

 thing about a good queen. How am I to tell 

 if this or that colony has a good queen ? " 



"By the looks of the combs that have 

 brood in them. At this time of the year you 

 may find brood in five or six combs. The 

 brood in these combs should be in compact 

 form, with eggs on the outside of the outside 

 combs to the brood-nest (not hrood-chamber, 

 remember), and all the cells within this circle 

 of eggs being occupied with one egg in 

 each. ' 



"Is that the way you tell ? " 



"Yes. I have noticed for years that a 

 poor or failing queen does not lay like this, 

 but 'scatters' her eggs all about, some cells 

 having no eggs in them, and some with 

 brood all the way from the egg to that near- 

 ly mature. A good queen will so deposit her 

 eggs that there will be but very few empty 

 cells among her brood, so that we often see 

 the center of the frame, having sealed brood 

 in it, and on the outside of this, larva' — those 

 just ready to seal next to the sealed brood, 

 and waning in size from these toward the 

 outside of the comb till we find those just 

 hatched, and from these just hatched larvj« 

 on outward the cells all full of eggs till the 

 outside circle of eggs is reached. Such a 

 comb tells at a glance that the queen in that 

 colony is a good one; and a glance at a comb 

 having brood of all ages scattered all through 

 this comb with many entirely empty cells 

 mixed in tells just as plainly that such queen 

 is of little good as the mother of a colony 

 from which we are hoping to secure a good 

 yield of section honey." 



"Suppose when I examine I find such poor 

 queens, what then ? " 



' ' My advice would be to send south for 

 queens to replace them, leaving the old 

 queens in with their colony till the new ones 

 come." 



"Could I not save money by raising such 

 needed queens myself ? " 



"Not at this time of the year, for it is the 

 spoiling of a good colony to set it to raising 

 queens by taking away its queen now; and 

 any other than a good colony would only 

 turn out so poor queens that they would be 

 little better than the one you were desirous 

 of superseding." 



"I see. What next?" 



"There is little moi'e to be done now, 

 more than knowing that all colonies have a 

 good queen, and stores to the amount of at 

 least 2U pounds; and I generally leave them 

 alone from this till apple-trees blossom, when 

 the apiary is to be gone over again." 



' ' What is done when the fruit-trees bloom ?" 



"The first work now is to see the queen 

 in each hive and know that her wings are 

 clipped, so that she can not go away with 

 the bees to parts unknown, if you do not 

 happen to be on hand just when the swarms 

 issue." 



"How do you find the queens? This is 

 the hardest work I have to do. ' ' 



"In the first place you want to sit or stand 

 with the back to the sun." 



" What difference does that make ? " 



"All the difference between not finding 

 the queen half the time when facing the sun, 

 and finding nineteen out of twenty in two to 

 three minutes after opening the hives, with 

 the back toward the sun. Then when you 

 take a frame out of a hive, instead of look- 

 ing at it the first thing, look on the side of 

 the frame next to the one you have in your 

 hand, which is still in the hive, for 49 out of 

 every 50 queens will begin to run around to 

 the dark side of the comb they are on as soon 

 as the light strikes them. If yon do not see 

 her on the first good look at the face side of 

 the comb in the hive, then look for her on 

 the comb you are holding. If not seen, take 

 out another frame, looking on the comb in 

 the hive first every time, and then on the 

 side of the comb opposite you that you are 

 holding. In this way any queen is easily 

 found, unless you smoke or jar the hive till 

 the bees are stampeded — in which case you 

 might as well shut up such a hive and leave 

 it while you are finding the queens in four 

 or five other hives, when you can come back 

 to the stampeded one again, with as good a 

 chance of success as if nothing had happen- 

 ed." 



"Well, I think that will be of help to me, 

 for I had paid no attention to which way the 

 sun was, nor have I done any thing but look 

 at the frame I held in my hand each time." 



" What more can be done now, depends 

 upon how you wish to work your bees." 



" What do you mean by that ? " 



"If you ai-e to put on upper stories, this 

 is the time to do this, with all strong colo- 

 nies; and if you are to put the sections on 

 without any further preliminaries, all the 

 really strong colonies are now ready for 

 such." 



' ' Do you think that I had better try to 

 work for section honey in fruit- bloom ? I 

 thought it better not to put on the supers 

 till after swarming, as these supers would 

 hinder the bees from swarming." 



"It the supers hinder the bees from swarm- 

 ing it might be a good hindering; but as a 

 rule they make little or no difference along 

 this line. What you want is to get the Ijees 

 at work in the supers as soon as possible; 

 and the supers now on the hive allow the 

 bees to cluster in them, and they will often 

 make a start on them during fruit-bloom, 

 storing honey in them, so the queen has 

 more room in the brood-chamber, and giv- 

 ing plenty of honey to tide over the dearth 

 of nectar we usually have between fruit- 

 Ijloom and white clover. Remember that 

 plenty of honey for brooding purposes is one 

 of the great essentials at all times previous 

 to the flow from clover; and failing here you 

 will fail of the best i*esults." 



"You spoke of putting on upper stories 

 instead of the sections at this tiiiie. What 

 did you mean by that ? " 



" These are often put on so that the bees 



