1188 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



piece of wood about J^ inch square— and a 

 little longer than the tube of candy in the 

 introducing-cage, and push the stick central- 

 ly through the candy. The bees will do the 

 rest. When I first tried this, I expected the 

 bees to gnaw the stick out of the way. They 

 don't gnaw it. In some way they manage 

 to work their way through and throw the 

 stick out in the cage; but it takes them 

 about three days to do it. The candy-tube is 

 about i inch in diameter. With a tube big 

 enough for two bees to work at a time the 

 time would be shorter; and with a tube suf- 

 ficiently large the stick would make no dif- 

 ference whatever. [We have introduced a 

 good many queens, and are doing it to-day, 

 without caging; but our own experience has 

 shown us that, for the beginner at least, it is 

 better to cage, keeping the queen confined 

 at least three days. Your scheme of delay- 

 ing the passage of the bees to her majesty is 

 a good one. — Ed.] 



In confirmation of what the editor says 

 about alsike, p. 1145, I may say that in this 

 region, althovigh alsike-fields are compara- 

 tively scarce, yet specimens of alsike are 

 getting to be quite common along the pub- 

 lic; roads. Sorry to say that I have never 

 been able to find many bees on my field of 

 alsike this year. [But say, doctor, why 

 don't you furnish alsike seed at half price— 

 or, better still, free for one season, to near- 

 by neighbors? It may cost you forty or 

 fifty dollars, but you will find that your 

 neighbors will fiock to you for seed. We 

 think, further, that you will find that there- 

 after they will be willing to pay you halt 

 price, and, later on, put it in of their own 

 accord, paying full price for it. While there 

 is not a million in this proposition to you, 

 there is more in it than you may think. 

 Then in the fall of the year you may en- 

 courage the farmers to put in Vjuckwheat. 

 If you could only be sure of a good buck- 

 wheat year you could afford to give them 

 the seed for nothing until they get in the 

 notion of raising it In the giving of free 

 seed it is important to stipulate certain con- 

 ditions—that it must not be thrown on top 

 of bare ground, but sown along with other 

 seed, as, for example, timothy. The farm- 

 ers will soon catch on to the fact that alsike 

 mixed with timothy makes the very finest 

 of hay. They have learned that trick to a 

 great extent in Michigan, and that is why, 

 apparently, Michigan of late years has been 

 able to furnish white-clover honey in bad 

 years when other States have not been able 

 to furnish any. — Ed.] 



I ASKED in a Straw, page 1008, " Suppose 

 two queens are introduced at the same time, 

 either in two cages or in the same cage, will 

 not the bees accept both?" Notwithstand- 

 ing the cold-watery character of the editor's 

 reply I thought I'd ti-y it. August 16 I put 

 into the same cage two queens of the vintage 

 of 1904, making them fast so the bees could 

 not release them. Six days later I found one 

 queen dead in the cage, the other living. I 

 have had old queens die thus when alone in 



the cage, so it is not entirely certain whether 

 there was a duel or not. But I had also, 

 August IG, put two other 1904 queens in the 

 same cage, fast, and given them to a strong 

 nucleus. No. 69. August 20 I found both 

 alive in the cage, and removed the covering 

 to the candy, so that the bees could liberate 

 them. August 22 I found the bees had eaten 

 out the candy, and a number of the workers 

 were in the cage along with the two queens, 

 which seemed to be quite comfortable where 

 they were, and had not cared to leave the 

 cage. I let them out and closed the hive. 

 That's the last I've seen of them, and it is 

 now August 26. If you'll wait just a few 

 minutes I'll go down to the hive, investi- 

 gate, and report just what I find 



Well, the first frame I took out contained an 

 incomplete comb, and the bees had built 

 some fresh drone comb in which were eggs, 

 but no eggs in the worker-cells. The next 

 comb contained sealed brood, worker eggs, 

 and — a virgin! I set that frame to one side, 

 and on the next comb I found a clipped 

 queen. I set that frame to one side also. 

 On the next comb I found the other clipped 

 queen. I wanted to throw up my hat; but 

 my veil was pinned down, and if I had tak- 

 en it off I'd have been badly stung, so I 

 thought better of it, put back the comb with 

 the laying queen, removed the virgin, and 

 hurried back to finish this Straw and to brag 

 over my success. 



Now, the question is whether this is one 

 case of success to 99 of failure, or whether 

 there will be only one failure in 100. I have 

 another case under headway over at the 

 Wilson apiary, which I'll be able to report 

 in the next number. [Your experiment is a 

 very interesting one, doctor, and no wonder 

 you felt like tjirowing up your hat. Then 

 when you come to ask us the question wheth- 

 er this is the one case of success out of 99 

 failures we hardly know what to say. Ac- 

 cording to the law of chance you would not 

 have happened to hit upon the first trial — 

 the only case of success. We prefer to wait 

 for your further experiments before giving 

 judgment. There are some new things that 

 we nave not yet learned about introducing, 

 and the relation of queens to bees, and of 

 queens to each other. It is probable that 

 nature has been doing a lot of things, and it 

 remains now for us only to inquire. 



This whole question is a very interesting 

 one, and we shall be glad to hear from oth- 

 ers, especially queen-breeders who would be 

 in position to test this matter. — Ed.] 



Honey reports from the Southeast are very 

 encouraging in those sections where the main 

 flow comes during the summer, and the flow 

 is heavier in most locations than we have 

 ever known it. The flow with us is about 

 twice as heavy as in previous years. Ship- 

 ments of honey from Florida are coming into 

 the Georgia markets, and our crop from cot- 

 ton will soon be ready for market. 



Cordele, Ga., Sept. 5. J. J. Wilder. 



