1883 



GLtJAKlNGS IN BEE CtlLTUEE. 



539 



for an A B C. I had a very cross colony of hybrids. 

 It took a week before they would receive her; once 

 when I was smoking them off from her she flew 

 away, but soon came back. A. Trueblood, 



Fountain City, Ind., June 23, 1883. 



FRAMES OF OLD AND SOURED HONEY. 



1 have some honey ia frames, which has soured. 

 Is it of any use? The bees died. Wm. M. Young. 

 Nevada, O., July 14, 1883. 



Yes, sir, lots of use. Just give those 

 combs, one at a time, to colonies raising 

 brood rapidly, and they will manufacture 

 that old honey into young bees, and have it 

 out of the way, besides fixing the combs all 

 up in nice trim. 



WHERE DID THE QUEEN COME FROM?— HONEY FROM 

 CORN. 



In the swarming season I divided a strong colony 

 of Italians, putting the old queen on a new stand; 

 two days after, the queenless colony cast a swarm. 

 I hived them, giving a frame of unsealed larvaB. 

 In two more days 1 examined them and found eggs 

 in all, or nearly all, empty cells. I looked farther, 

 and found a dark-colored queen, wbils the mother- 

 queen was light. Where did the dark one come' 

 from? Up to that time I had not lost any laying 

 queens. I hived an after-swarm, and gave them a 

 frame of unsealed brood; but in about an hour they 

 came out again and clustered in the same place they 

 did the first time. 1 found the queen on a sunflower 

 leaf; killed her (she being a hybrid), and united the 

 swarm with a nucleus. Why did they leave the hive 

 when they had brood in all stages? They had plenty 

 of room, and were retnoved to their stand in the 

 shade immediately after hiving the first time. So 

 you see that unsealed brood will not hold them every 

 time. I practice giving each afterswarm a frame 

 of brood when hived, and this is the only instance of 

 their leaving it. My bees have been gathering 

 honey from corn for the past week— not from the 

 tassel, neither from the silk ; but where the blade 

 comes out from the stalk. I have seen and watched 

 them while gathering the honey. J. H. Eby. 



North Robinson, Ohio, Aug. .5, 1883. 



Friend E., I can not tell where the dark- 

 colored queen came from. If you were not 

 sure it was the old queen, I should have said 

 she had left the hive and gone home again. 

 — It is now pretty well proven that the stalk 

 of the corn does sometimes furnish honey, or 

 a sweet substance. 



WIRED FRAMES, ETC. 



The season for honey has not been very good. We 

 have had lots and lots of white clover, fields and 

 roadsides white with blossoms, but not much honey 

 — only enough to keep up breeding, and develop the 

 swarming mania. Bees have therefore swarmed a 

 great deal, and the demand for hives and fdn. has 

 been good — more than 1 was able to supply. When 

 a man has once hived a swarm on wired frames of 

 fdn , and sees the nice straight combs built out, al- 

 most as if by mrgic, he thinks he is not using his 

 swarms fairly to require them to huild their combs, 

 and is very willing lo pay for the fdn. I tell them it 

 Is money well invested; for if the bees die, the 

 combs will be worth more than the fdn. cost. We 

 have had a great deal of rain this season, which is 

 probably the cause of the poor yield of honey from 

 clover. Basswood did quite well, ana bees got to 



work In sections quite freely; but tbe weather was 

 not good — cold and wet and windy — only several 

 nice days. The past week we have had rain every 

 day. All kinds of bloom are, however, prospering; 

 and with good weather we may get more honey yet. 

 Two years ago we got the bulk of our honey in 

 August. E. C. Long. 



Williamsville, N. Y., Au.<t. 3, 1883. 



WHO SHALL L"^ THE LOSER? 



I sent a man a dollar qui en last fall. She had a 

 good appearance, and was laying well before being 

 shipped. This summer, about a month ago, she 

 was returned to me, the man slating that she was 

 entirely worthless, not lajing enough to keep the 

 colony up. Please let me know the reason, whether 

 the cause lay with me or with the treatment she re- 

 ceived after she had been received. If the fault 

 was mine, I must send him another; if his, he has 

 paid only for his expei-ience. 



QUEENS RETURNING TO THE HIVE WHERE THEY 

 WERE HATCHED. 



I had a strong colony into which I wished to in- 

 troduce a queen; so I took one from a neighboring 

 nucleus, and introduced her safely. Upon examin- 

 ing the stock two days after .^ard I found eggs, but 

 no cueen. Happening to look next day into the nu- 

 cleus from which the queen was taken, I was sur- 

 prised to find the very same old queen back into her 

 old quarters, as contented as you please, and the one 

 which had just hatched, balled by the bees. I know 

 that it was the same queen, from her appearance — 

 being a very choice one. Is it a very usual thing for 

 queens to act so? I never saw it before. 



J. O. Facey. 



New Hamburg, Ont., Can., Aug. 15, 1883. 



Friend F., if your queen never laid at all 

 after your customer received her, or if the 

 eggs she laid were all drone eggs, I should 

 say it was your duty to give him another 

 queen, because the one he received from you 

 was never of any value ; but if, on the other 

 hand, the queen commenced laying all right, 

 and afterward turned drone-layer, or ceased 

 laying. I do not think you should be held re- 

 sponsible ; for queens, like all else of ani- 

 mated nature, are liable to die at any time. 

 If you sold your neighbor a horse or a cow, 

 and it should die within six months, would 

 you expect to give him another ? If, out of 

 the kindness of your heart, you thought pro- 

 per to sell him another at a low price, or 

 bear part of the loss on account of his mis- 

 fortune, it might be a kind thing to do ; but 

 I should no means say you are obliged so to 

 do.— It is not unusual for a queen to go back 

 in the way you state. I have mentioned 

 the same thing in the ABC book, and many 

 other cases have been reported. I do not 

 know, however, that I have heard of one 

 where the queen stayed lon^ enough to get 

 to laying. On this account it is a little un- 

 safe to take a queen from one hive where slie 

 has been reared, and introduce her to an- 

 other hive in the same apiary. T have some- 

 times thought the bees perhaps drove them 

 ont of the hive, and on taking wing they would 

 of course remember the location they noted 

 when they took their wedding flight. From 

 the facts gathered it would seem, too, that a 

 queen will remember the location she fixed 

 on her wedding flight, even as long as a year 

 or two afterward. 



