1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1039 



the honey will be extracted, and run into the 

 feeding-tank from which it will be drawn 

 out and put through the feeders under those 

 fifty feeding colonies for the purpose of fin- 

 ishing our sections. We will begin extract- 

 ing at once so as to get our bees at work in 

 the feedei's; for we do not want them to stop 

 comb-building until our sections are finished. 

 Some will, doubtless, think that this feeding 

 back is a fussy job. Well, so is the feeding 

 and cai'ing for our 1200 chicks and our 350 

 laying hens; and if any of you are afraid of 

 work you had better choose some other oc- 

 cupation than the bee and poultiy business; 

 however, it takes only a little time just at 

 night to till the feeders, and does not inter- 

 fere with our other work. 



The honey harvest is now practically end- 

 ed, although the bees will continue to work 

 on a few late- blooming trees for several days. 

 Our scale hive showed a gain of only 3 lbs. 

 yesterday. We will now remove all the sec- 

 tion-supers from our comb-honey colonies, 

 placmg them on the feeding colonies without 

 driving or molesting the bees. We want 

 them to work right along in the supers until 

 they are finished. Our supers are now all 

 oft", and it was just thirteen days from the 

 time the first super was put on to the time 

 the last one was removed. 



Our next article will treat on feeding back 

 and feeders. 



To be continued. 



WHY THE BEES BALLED THE QUEEN. 



Will you please explain why the Ijees ball- 

 ed one of my queens and killed her when I 

 opened the hive'.' The conditions were as 

 follows: 



I blew a little smoke in at the entrance, then 

 kicked gently on the side of the hive to cause 

 the bees to fill themselves, and in about five 

 minutes I opened the top and proceeded to 

 search for the queen in the usual way. 

 When I came to the last frame, and before 

 moving it, I found the queen balled. I with- 

 drew the frame quickly, and sprinkled water 

 on the ball and procvired the queen, which I 

 should have put into a cage but did not. In- 

 stead I placed her back on the frames, and 

 the bees immediately killed her. This queen 

 was pui'chased last fall or late in the sum- 

 mer. She raised a nice colony of bees, but 

 they killed her a few davs ago. 



J. K. LiPFEN, Ph. C. 



Battle Creek, Mich., May 30. 



[It is sti'ange but nevertheless true that 

 bees will at times ball their own queen — one 

 that perhaps has been in the hive for months 



or years for that matter. The attack seems 

 to be caused by the mere opening of the hive. 

 In your case there was an unusual disturbance 

 as you bumped the hive in addition to blow- 

 ing smoke in at the entrance. But this 

 smoking and bumping should not induce 

 balling, and ordinarily does not do so. 

 From the date of your letter we infer that 

 there was a dearth of honey; and, what is 

 more, the bees were running close on their 

 supply of stores. Under such conditions 

 bees are more apt to do unusual things than 

 when a condition of prosperity exists. But 

 we have seen just such balling as you de- 

 scribe, time and time again, and we have had 

 various reports of it. If one could only know 

 that some certain colony was "touchy" he 

 would refrain from doing any thing to dis- 

 turb them so that they would feel disposed 

 to wreak vengeance on their poor queen 

 rather than the big animal (man) that tore 

 open their home. — Ed.] 



KEEPING A NUCLEUS CONTENTED. 



In the answer .to my question, page 714, 

 you say, -'and, in addition, give the bees a 

 frame of unsealed brood." Now, Swarthmore 

 says, in his "Increase," "Never give brood 

 to a newly formed colony until after the 

 queen is safely introduced, lest the confined 

 bees ball the queen as soon as she is run in- 

 to the box." 



I always like to follow directions to the 

 letter; but, according to the above, I am just 

 as wise as before reading "Increase," but 

 will practice on home-bred queens after this, 

 as I need to increase my colonies this sum- 

 mer. G. Herman Peterson. 



Deerwood, Minn. 



[Swarthmore is correct in stating that the 

 presence of brood makes the introduction of 

 a queen more difiicult, but there are other 

 things to be considered in your case. For 

 example, the weather this spring was very 

 trying to bees. Genial weather is a necessity 

 for operations of this kind. Your nucleus 

 got discouraged, and a frame of brood would 

 have put new life in it till conditions im- 

 proved. — Ed.] 



THE USE OF THE FLKJHT-HOLE IN THE CHAM- 

 BERS NON-SWARMING DEVICE. 



I should like to ask whether J. E. Chambers 

 still uses the flight-hole at the back-end of a 

 dividing-board when using his non-swarming 

 device, as described in Gleanings. 



Millville, Pa. J. R. Bogart. 



[This question was sent direct to Mr. 

 Chambers, who replies as follows:] 



In answer to Mr. Bogart's inquiry, I will 

 state that, as originally designed, it was in- 

 tended to be used or not according to the 

 manipulation practiced. I do not know 

 whether the public so understood it, but it 

 was intended to give the operator a choice 

 of manipulations. For those who wished to 

 use their old (jueens rather than to requeen 

 with young ones reared in the parent colony, 

 and to drain out quickly the entire force of 



