1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1091 



QUEEN WANTED. 



I waut to buy a queen, and here is a chance 

 for any up-to-date queen-ljreeder to make a 

 reputation. Fij'st, she must be all yellow — 

 wings, feet, and all of those little celluloid 

 washers that make vip the back part of the 

 bee. These must be all yellow and not just 

 the fuzz that grows on them. The sting 

 must be yellow— no, just send us one with- 

 out any sting. They are not a necessity in 

 this locality. I want her of an intelligent 

 turn of mind so she can instruct her progeny 

 to make white-clover' honey out of ragweed. 

 She must also have a bad-weather and 

 drouth attachment so her egg-factory will 

 not shut down when we have a two months' 

 rain; and, if short of stores, or in case of 

 dire necessity, she can raise brood on rain 

 water. I will pay a little above the regular 

 price if she can make us some mistletoe hon- 

 ey. Mistletoe honey is great stuff at a spoon- 

 ing match. It comes on here about Christ- 

 mas (I mean the mistletoe), when it is awful- 

 ly cold (not the spooning-matcth but the 

 weather). If any of you Gleanings fellows 

 believe in degeneration I wish you would send 

 me a queen that degenerated from a she 

 bumble-bee so she could curl up in the fall 

 and go to sleep without any thing to eat, 

 and be happy while all the neighbors' bees 

 are kicking for something to eat. Then 

 when spring comes (when we have one it 

 comes anywhere between January and July) 

 she will wake up and hustle her breakfast 

 off from the lilacs. But here is a technicali- 

 ty that might cause some one to turn down 

 the order. If she sleeps all wiuter, how on 

 earth can she get that mistletoe honey in 

 February? Let s strike out the bumble-bee 

 clause, as I don't 'want to ask any thing un- 

 reasonable. 



This brand of bees must have a little lati- 

 tude. If they can stay hei"e in Indiana and 

 gather mangrove honey in Florida, and, a 

 little later, go after the red-raspberry honey 

 in Wisconsin and Michigan, that will suit me 

 all right. I am not so particular about lati- 

 tude. 



Say! I nearly forgot to order a tongue. 

 Lawsy massysakesi put a tongue on this one 

 so she can stay in the hive on rainy days and 

 suck the nect.ar out of the apple-ljlossoms. 

 What would any thing feminine do without a 

 tongue? Just don't be afraid to put on a 

 good long one, as our trees are high. I have 

 a little garden-hose reel I can lend her if she 

 gets cramped for store room. 



But about that stinging apparatus. Better 

 put one on, as the queen never uses them. 

 Only have this one curl up instead of down. 



It would look so much better, and that is all 

 they are good for any way. Can't I get a 

 queen that knows how to bring up her girls 

 better? Now, boys are like their ma — they 

 never do sting. But the plagy girls! When 

 they sting I try to shame them by telling 

 them their mamma never used to do that way, 

 but it doesn't do any good. 



Now, if you can send me a queen that can 

 meet these requirements I will keep the lid 

 on on Sundays, and swarm only when told. 

 I'll try hei\ About the price, I don't sup- 

 pose you will guarantee one to do these stunts 

 forseventy-tivecents,so suppose I shall have to 

 pay a dollar, as I want her tested. If you pre- 

 pay the charges you may send her in a spe- 

 cial car. If not, send her in one of those 

 wooden pill-boxes for one cent. I will pay 

 this cent, even if I have to; as I said before, 

 I hate a fellow that is unreasonable. I told 

 a newspaper guy to put it in the paper about 

 what a tine queen I was going to have, but 

 he was not educated on bees as I am. and he 

 thought I was lying, and he said that news- 

 papers never publish any thing but what they 

 know is so. 



HOW TO CLIP WINGS OF QUEENS WITHOUT 

 DANGER OF CUTTING LEGS. 



I practice clipping queens, for I could no 

 more undertake to handle my bees without 

 clipping the queens than I could handle them 

 without a smoker. I have, in the last four 

 or five years, clipped about 2000 queens and 

 haven't crippled or killed one in the opera- 

 tion. 



HOW I CLIP QUEENS. 



I catch the queen by thewings with thumli 

 and first finger of my right hand and turn 

 her over almost on her back; then catch her 

 by her legs with thumb and first finger of 

 left hand. Never try to hold a queen by 

 one leg, as she will twirl it off. Catch two 

 or all three legs on one side; turn her straight 

 back, and her wings will be over the lower 

 edge of your left thumb-nail. I use small 

 scissors. Take these in the right hand, 

 opened somewhat. Run the back of the 

 scissors along on the thumb nail till you get 

 under the wing you wish to clip. Close the 

 scissors almost together, then clip. Do not 

 open your scissors wide and make one big 

 stroke, but have them almost together. 

 Queens have four wings— a long and a short 

 one on each side. I usually clip the two on 

 one side one-third to one-half off. I some- 

 times clip queens with the small blade of my 

 pocket-knife by catching her the same way 

 and letting her wings come over the edge of 



