1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



461 



TO PREVENT BEES FHOM ABSCONDING AFTER BEING 

 HIVED. 



When bees have selected a place to go to, before 

 swarming-, it is very difficult to retain them. I had 

 a swarm this spring that 1 hived three times — giv- 

 ing them a frame of brood; but they continued to 

 swarm out as often as hived, and Anally got away. 

 My remedy is to hive the bees in a Simplicity, and to 

 use, for a bottom-board, a Simplicity flat top, over 

 which is placed a zinc honey-plate. Saw down a 

 place in the end of the bottom-board for entrance of 

 bees. When the bees begin to work in earnest, take 

 out the bottom-board, and remove the zinc plate. 

 The Idea is, the queen can not pass out through the 

 zinc board, and is necessarily a prisoner. The 

 worker bees can pass in and out, however, and so 

 the work can progress. W. E. H. Searcy. 



Griffin, Ga., June 28, 1883. 



Friends., I suppose your idea is to confine 

 tlie queen by means of the zinc honey-board. 

 The Jones entrance-guard is intended for 

 this purpose ; but I presume you object to it 

 because the holes are too few to allow the 

 working force of a colony to get out and in 

 without hindrance. 1 would suggest, as a 

 similar way, that you tack a piece of perfor- 

 ated zinc on the under side of a Simplicity 

 hive, large enough to cover one-half of the 

 bottom. Now slide the hive forward on the 

 bottom so far that the worker bees can go 

 out through this perforated sheet. In this 

 way, any size of entrance desired can be giv- 

 en, proportionate to the working force of the 

 colony. All such devices, however, will, I 

 think, prove to be only a temporary remedy; 

 for after the bees have tried to swarm a few 

 times, and find the queen can not go with 

 them, they will be apt to kill her and raise 

 another. Another point : lias it been fully 

 proven that an average queen can not get 

 through the Jones perforated zinc V 



IS IT THE QUEEN OR THE WORKER BEES? 



Does the youog queen or the worker bees destroy 

 the superfluous queen-cells? I can give you some 

 definite points on this topic, which I see in this 

 month's Gleanings. I had a stock which I knew 

 had a large number of cells, and I opened it just in 

 the nick of time, to find out whom to blame for the 

 slaughter of the unhatched queens. One had hatch- 

 ed, and she was on a distant part of the same comb, 

 mounted on a cell, chewing away for dear life to get 

 at the inmate; but she had help, for three or four 

 workers were on the same cell, doing the same 

 thing. I held them up quite a while, and closely 

 watched to know just what they were at; then upon 

 examining other frames 1 found worker bees tear- 

 ing open the cells wherever they could find them, 

 even on combs that the OJie queen had most probably 

 never yet visited. Some cells were nearly opened; 

 others were not perceptibly touched; yet every bee 

 feeemed determined to devour them as soon as pos- 

 sible. Now, some writers claim that the queen does 

 all the mischief, because they have seen her in the 

 act, while others claim it is the workers, because 

 they have caught them at it, while the one queen is 

 crawling, apparently unconcerned, over the comb?. 

 Now, I am fully convinced that both the queen and 

 workers have a hand at it, and I believe the workers 

 tear away many cells that the queen never sees, and 

 she helps to destroy all that she comes in contact 

 with. But I have noticed that they are sometimes 



left as long as 34 hours before all are destroyed, as I 

 have cut them out and saved them the next day aft- 

 er I have seen a hatched queen. No blasted hopes 

 this season. A. A. Fradenburg. 



Port Washington, O., July 9, 1883. 



I think you are right, friend F. ; and the 

 singular part of the whole performance 

 is, that the worker bees never commence 

 this tearing-down process until the queen is 

 hatched. Now, is it possible that they have 

 sense enough to say to themselves, '' There, 

 we have got a good queen hatched otit, and 

 there is not any further use for these great 

 bungling queen-cells in the way ; let us tear 

 them all down so there won't be any jangling 

 among the royal blood, if another should 

 happen to hatch "V If they do not think 

 this, what do they think, and why do they 

 do it v 



another bee-disease. 



I have noticed in gleanings, pages 256 and 398, 

 present volume, a disease of the brood, which is 

 and has been very troublesome in this part of the 

 world. What to call it, I don't know; but I will tell 

 what I know about it. I bought one colony of black 

 bees in September, 1S83, and I soon discovered that 

 there was something the matter with it. They 

 threw out quite a lot of the young bees, such as 

 were about to hatch, and down to the egg, and 

 during the winter it died. In February, 1883, I 

 bought another one from a neighbor, and 1 soon 

 found that they had the same disease; so in May I 

 transferred to a movable-frame hive, and I soon 

 found that they would amount to nothing if allowed 

 to go, and 1 did not know what to do. So in a few 

 days I took a look at them, and found they were 

 queenless, and the bees were weak in numbers; and 

 1 came to the conclusion that I would let them go, as 

 I had no other bees to raise a queen from. So 1 or- 

 dered a 3-frame nucleus from Mr. Flanagan; and 

 when It arrived, the brood had all hatched in my old 

 black colony; and as soon as I could get eggs and 

 larva3 from the nucleus I inserted it in the black, 

 and they succeeded in raising a queen from this, 

 which became fertilized in due time; and since then 

 I have noticed no more throwing out of brood, and 

 they have increased to two good strong colonies. 

 Now, here is the question: Was this the fault of the 

 queen being too much worn out, or was it because 

 they were bred from the same strain of bees that 

 this neighbor's grandfather had on the same farm 

 100 years ago, without changing or increasing? I 

 think the latter is the cause, the same as it is with 

 sheep or hogs, if kept without change too long. 

 Now, please tell these friends to destroy all the 

 queens in colonies thus affected, and let the brood 

 all hatch, and then give them a queen from some 

 other race that is not affected, and see if it won't 

 cure the disease. It did with me, at least. 



Staners, Pa. P. D. Miller. 



I am inclined to think, friend M., that the 

 disease you mention is something pertain- 

 ing to a particular queen. I, too, have seen 

 something quite similar, when destroying 

 the queen and giving a new one would cure 

 the matter entirely. I do not agree with 

 you, however, that it was caused by in-and- 

 in breeding, for the reason that the same 

 rule can not apply to bees as to other farm 

 stock. You see, the queens fly out to meet 

 the drones from several miles distant, very 



