440 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



white and yellow, which get their names from the 

 color of the wood. Poplar, you know, is the great- 

 est wood known to swell and shrink, which is due to 

 the open texture of the wood absorbing and expel- 

 ling moisture; and while this is an objectionable 

 feature on account of its being hard to keep the 

 cracks stopped, it is also a decidedly favorable fea- 

 ture, as it takes up the moisture and keeps the clus- 

 ternice and dry. Especially is this the case with 

 the yellow variety, it being more porous, but not so 

 bad to shrink, a9 the white. I think the "coming 

 and going " of the wood keeps the propolis inside 

 the hive broken enough to allow the wood to receive 

 the moisture. 



TWO QUEENS IN A HIVE. 



I was just on the eve of writing about a young 

 fertilized queen laying nothing but drone eggs; but 

 today upon opening the hive the first thing that 

 caught my eye was two queens, one the above men- 

 tioned, and another young unfertile queen, one 

 evidently feeding the other. The unfertile queen 

 had faulty wings, which accounts for the drone 

 eggs; and on further examination I found that the 

 other queen had begun laying properly. I simply 

 write this to illustrate how a great many things 

 might be misrepresented. I might have written, 

 stating that I had a young queen that had been fer- 

 tilized, but laid nothing but drone eggs, as it really 

 seemed to be the case. Chas. Kingsley. 



Greeneville, Tenn., July 11, 1883. 



PREPARING BEES FOR SHIPMENT. 



FRIEND OABKOLL'S WAY. 



f PREPARE bees for shipment in metal-cornered 

 frames, on metal rabbets, and I do it in 5 min- 

 — ■ utes. I take a thin strip :! inches wide, and just 

 the length of the inside of the hive across the frames. 

 I nail this across the frames in Vie center of the hive, 

 by using two 's-inch wire nails to each frame in the 

 outer edge of the 3-inch strip, and two nails driven 

 in the ends into the hive at an angle of about 30°. I 

 now take common lath and saw four strips, and nail 

 at each corner of the hive from top to bottom, rais- 

 ing the cover one inch or more. I tack a strip of 

 wire cloth around the hive, where I raise the cover, 

 and your bees will go safely any distance, and can 

 be unpacked in 3 minutes. No sticks are needed at 

 the bottom of frames. No turning up the hives to 

 screw on the bottom. Of course, the entrance is al- 

 so covered with wire cloth. B. P. Carroll. 

 Dresden, Texas, July 7, 1883. 



Very likely your plan will answer, friend 

 C, providing the bees bulged tlie combs 

 pretty well, and made attachments from one 

 comb to the other through most of their 

 length ; but unless they have, I should very 

 much fear the frames would get swung 

 around, or the bottoms get to swinging 

 against each other. Two wire nails only 

 three inches apart, or a little less, it seems 

 to me could not very well fasten the frames 

 very firmly, while our spacing-boards make 

 them positively rigid throughout their whole 

 length. You may be able to make a hive 

 ready for shipment in five minutes by the 

 plan you suggest ; but I think it would take 

 an average bee-man nearer half an hour, and 

 I have had a pretty large experience in the 

 matter. Another thing, I would not want 



to risk a very large colony during the hot- 

 test summer weather with the small surface 

 of wire cloth you mention. Even where the 

 whole top is covered with a sheet of wire 

 cloth, when a strong colony gets on a stam- 

 pede (if that is the right word), they will 

 cover tTiis wire cloth so densely with nothing 

 but the heads of bees with their tongues out, 

 that suffocation ensues. I know of no plan 

 absolutely safe, except to have the whole top 

 and the whole bottom of a Simplicity hive 

 covered with wire cloth. Then we are all 

 right, no matter how many bees are inside, 

 nor how hot the weather is. 



A QUESTION OF MUCH MOMENT TO 



MANY OF US. 



WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR BEES AFTER THE 

 HONEY SEASON IS OVER? 



fjl HIS is a question of considerable importance, 

 and not so easily answered either. 



The honey 



'^^' season is practically over with us here now, 

 unless we should perchance get a little from buck- 

 wheat, which we have never done yet. They will 

 bring in a very little for a week or so yet; then for a 

 month they will not get as much as they consume; 

 then in September and October they will fill up 

 pretty full for a winter's supply. 



If we can calculate from past experience, how to 

 manage them for the best results is the query. They 

 are at this time all strong; only about one-third of 

 them have swarmed, and will well cover from 15 to 

 30 frames. Quite a portion of them are, of course, 

 old and nearly worn-out bees; and if left just as 

 they are until time for winter quarters, will not con- 

 tain more than one-half as many as there are now, 

 even if the queen did an average amount of her du- 

 ty; and there is no use trying to sot them to fetch- 

 ing in honey by smoking, for there is no honey to be 

 found to fetch in. 



If we divide and increase our stocks, and then 

 from any cause our bees do not winter well, we shal' 

 be accused, "both at home and abroad," of "mak' 

 ing haste too fast." 



In previous years I have tried dividing after 

 swarming-time, and mixing in empty frames, but 

 have found it " no good," for there was not enough 

 honey to permit them to build new comb in the emp- 

 ty frames. But this year I think it will be safe to 

 divide moderately, and give empty combs and a lay- 

 ing queen at once, as 1 have a lot raised for that pur- 

 pose, and have had about 80 lbs. of fdn. worked this 

 summer. 



I have had no second swarms, as I have learned a 

 good way to prevent it. As soon as I can, after a 

 swarm has issued, I just go to the parent stock and 

 cut out every queen-cell, " every last one," and then 

 let a laying queen, taken from a nucleus, crawl in 

 at the entrance, and give her a parting salute with 

 the smoker, and put a cell into the nucleus she came 

 from; that is all. I haven't lost one yet, and no 

 queenless parent hive for a week or ten days. A 

 good way, isn't it? A. A. PBADENBuaa. 



Port Washington, O., July IV, 1883. 



Friend Fradenburg, ray answer to your 

 question would be, divide the bees, and feed, 

 liut I advise this with tfTfe understanding 

 that they can be whitered and sold at a good 

 profit in the spring. But 1 think it very 



