1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



449 



by pounding up white sandstone ; a couple 

 of little girls are engaged in tying up the 

 grapevines, and clipping otT the shoots that 

 push out in the way. A young lady who is 

 learning bee culture goes through the hives, 

 and takes out the queen-cages where queens 

 have been introduced. After that she 

 marks the slates as fast as she linds the 

 queens laying, and then gathers up the cag- 

 es in a basket. We liave plenty of bees, 

 plenty of queens, and plenty of every thing 

 to fill orders as fast as they come,— only lack- 

 ing plenty of skilled, competent help. What 

 a great thing in this world is skilled and in- 

 telligent help ! Did you ever think of it ? 



Bees are going out of the apiary every 

 day, and are also coming in every day. One 

 morning a farmer's boy brought us some 

 swarms of bees before five o'clock, and so 

 they come stringing along almost every hour 

 of the day. Frequently some of our friends 

 in the country bring us a load before dark, 

 and we have to fix the hives and combs, and 

 dump them in, weigh their boxes, give them 

 their money, and off they go. AVe pay $1.(I0 

 per lb. for Italians, and frequently the same 

 bees are sold the next day for ;?ii.(i(» per lb. 

 Don't you think this is a money- making 

 business? 'Jhere is one little drawback to 

 it. A new swarm of bees is heavy witli 

 honey, while those we shake off from the 

 combs and send off are frequently just the 

 other way. As a proof of this, a new swarm 

 heavy with honey when put on to empty 

 combs just at night will often have a pound 

 or two of honey in the combs before they 

 start out to fiy in the morning. Vou see, 

 this kind of trafiic — loads of bees coming 

 into the hives, and going out daily to fill or- 

 ders — rather breaks our apiary up, so there 

 is no order, system, or individuality about it. 

 ]^y the way, I might mention that most of 

 the bees now brought in are beautiful Ital- 

 ians. Italian blood has become so thorough- 

 ly disseminated in Medina County, that the 

 blacks are becoming almost crowded out. 



If you want to see a scene of din and bus- 

 tle and stir and hurrah, pay a visit some 

 time in July to " Our Own Apiary." 



BRE-NOTES FROITI THIi: SOUTH. 



TWO QUEENS IN ONE niVE. 



I.HIS has occurred with me on several occasions. 

 I have closely watched them, and my opinion 

 Is that there is ahvays some good reason for 

 the phenomenon, for such it really is. 



Upon one occasion I could see no reason whatever 

 for the bees desiring the additional queen; but as 

 she was laying, and looked quite lively and tine, I 

 concluded to put her (the eld queen) in a nucleus 

 hive, leaving the young queen in charge of the col- 

 ony. I did so, and the old queen went on laying as 

 nicely as could be desired; but, lo! when the bees 

 hatched out they were diminutive drones, all of them, 

 and reared in worker comb. 



This was two years ago; and 4 weeks ago the 

 some thing occurred, and I now discover the queen 

 lays nothing but drone eggs, and only a few of them. 

 To sum up, I am quite positive that, whenever we 

 find an old and young queen, or two queens in one 

 hive, something is wrong with the older one. The 



bees seem to possess this knowledge, or instinct, and 

 rationally make preparation to supply the defect in 

 the old queen by rearing a new one. Query : Would 

 it not look reasonable to suppose that they might 

 put this off too long, until no eggs for queen-rear- 

 ing remained, of the right kind? It certainly does 

 to me; but I suppose in chat case, the discovery be" 

 ing madethat them other was laying drone eggs only, 

 in worker-cells, would be the evidence sought by the 

 colony that she was getting to be of no further use 

 as a queen; in that event, they could, if necessary, 

 I presume, immediately resort to the larva- on hand, 

 for a new queen. 



The new queens luak well, and do as gocd work as 

 those raised by best methods; and, taken all in all, I 

 don't see but it is a right good thing, though of 

 course much valuable time is lost. 



STOniNG DURING A HEAVY HONEV-YIELD. 



We are at this moment in the midst of a heavy 

 honey-yield, and I am running my bees for extracted 

 honey only, although having no extractor, having 

 sold mine a year or so ago. On some of my colonies 

 I have sir Simplicity hives at this moment, and all 

 of three top ones arc full of honey. Strange to say, 

 that only the top or upper story is sealed over. Up- 

 on the front of every other hive I have an inch 

 auger-hole bored, through which the bees can pass. 



EXTRA ENTRANCES. 



I think, in using as many as six hives tiered up, 

 some other entrances besides lower ones are badly 

 needed; this is my reason for having the auger- 

 holes bored. As a rule, I wouldn't bore holes in my 

 hives. In my six-story hives there are four en- 

 trances, and they pass in and out in a stream at 

 each. Oh, it's delightful to watch them hurrying in 

 and out of these monstrous big hives! 



If I had an extractor 7i(m', I would extract largely; 

 but I shall defer it until fall. I was fortunate enough 

 to buy a couple of hundred L. frames filled with 

 empty comb, and these are going to be " stacked 

 up "over the strong colonies till filled, and shall stay 

 till I get ready to extract. I expect to make a report 

 of an extra large yield to the colony, this fall. I was 

 so sorry to hear, through friend Doolittle's last arti- 

 cle, of the death of the " invulnerable bee man " I I 

 am firmly convinced that this " style of man "is 

 scarce, though of course I do not doubt every word 

 that Mr. Doolittle says; and I believe if his bee- 

 man's equal can be found in the United States, 1 for 

 one shall start on an excursion to see him at the 

 earliest possible moment, bringing with me a colony 

 of Cyprians to try him on. R. C. Taylor. 



Wilmington, N. C, June 6, 1883. 



Friend T., your fact in regard to the hives 

 storied up six stories high is quite an im- 

 portant one. I, too, have thought of the ex- 

 tra entrances, and have tried them to some 

 extent; but I rather caught the idea that these 

 entrances induced the bees to neglect the 

 combs below them ; that is, if we put an en- 

 trance in the second stoiy, the bees seem a 

 little loth to use the lower story, unless they 

 were obliged to. Friend Doolittle. or some 

 one else, suggests that the bees which bring 

 in the honey never carry it into the upper 

 stories or boxes, but that they deposit it in 

 the cells quite near the entrances, and that 

 the wax-workers, or bees that can not fly, 

 carry it up where wanted. Even if this be 

 the case, I presume some labor is lost, un- 

 less it is a fact that these "youngsters" 



