610 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Oct. 



tially digested bees, of what kind I could not tell. 

 Now, should these birds be killed or not? 



Italy, N. Y. A. F. Robson. 



Friend R., I should be very glad indeed to 

 think these birds eat drones only. See what 

 is said about them in the ABC book. I 

 think, if you will look over carefullv the 

 raass you mention, you will find stinic?s in 

 it, and drones never have stings, you know. 



QUEENS FOUND NEAR THE ENTRANCE. 



I have 4 stands of bees — 3 Italians and one Holy- 

 Land. I like the Italians best; think they are the 

 easiest to handle. As I was passing one hive I saw 

 quite a number of bees on the alighting--board, and 

 outside of the hive; and on looking closer I saw the 

 queen crawling slowly away from the hive. I tried 

 to make her go back, but she would not; so I took 

 her with fi bees, put them under a glass, and took 

 them in the house. One side seemed to be paralyz- 

 ed, and she soon died, although the bees licked her 

 all over, and tried to feed her. I examined her with 

 a microscope, but could find no bruise or sting any- 

 where. What do you suppose was the trouble? I 

 don't know how old she was. There was brood, but 

 no eggs in the hive. The bees were very much ex- 

 cited while I was lifting out the combs. A lot of 

 them crawled inside my coat-sleeves, but only one 

 stung me when I pinched her. A. J. Hayner. 



West Sandlake, N. Y., Sept. 21, 1883. 



Friend II., T think you will find a good 

 queen in the hive, even though you do say 

 you find no unsealed brood. At this season 

 of the vear. old queens arp freqfuently driven 

 out of the hive, and sometimes found dead at 

 the entrance : but as a rule a young one will 

 be found inside. She may not produce any 

 brood this year, for queens often stop laying 

 at abouttbis season, and sometimes^ even 

 brisk feeding will not cause them- to com- 

 mence again before spring. T would look 

 the hive over very carefully before deciding 

 itrto be queenless. If it really is queenless, 

 of course you will have to get a queen some- 

 where, of some kind or other, in order to 

 winter them safely. It is true, they will do 

 verv well if a queen is given them verv^arlv 

 in the spring, but I would hardly thinli it 

 advisable. 



BEES THAT WON'T RAISE A QUEEN. 



Did you ever know'or'hear of a queenless colony 

 of bees that would" not>aise a queen, when brood 

 was given them? About the l.'ith of Aug. T discover- 

 ed that one of our colonies of^black bees was queen- 

 less. I gave them brood at once from one of my 

 Italian stncks.T The next day T opened the hive, ex- 

 pectin? to find a nice lot of queen-cells stai-ted, as it 

 was'quite a large colony,'but they had s^^arted none. 

 Thinking that perhaps! had made a mistake, and 

 they were not queenless after all, I made a thorough 

 examination of them, looking the combs all oyer, 

 but there was no other bi'ood in the hive, except 

 what I had given them, and they had started queen- 

 cells on the edges of the combs where there was no 

 brood. I gave^them brood "several times, but they 

 would not raise a queen. The brood [that I gave 

 them was all right, for it hatched into workers in 

 due time. As it was late in the season, I concluded 

 to unite them with another colony, but I was very 

 busy, and neglected, to do so for a few days. The 

 next time I opened the hive,' almost the flrst comb I 



lifted out contained eggs, and lots of them too, but 

 I saw at once they were not laid by a queen, and 

 concluded they must be the eggs of fertile workers. 

 The eggs were scattered around in the cells just as 

 it happened. Some cells contained several and 

 some none at all; some were attached to the sides 

 of cell, instead of the bottom, where the queen lays 

 them. But I stopped this business at once by unit- 

 ing them with another colony, and I had no more 

 trouble with them. O. G. Russell. 



Aftnn. N. Y. 



Friend R., it is not unusual for colonies 

 having a fertile worker to refuse to raise a 

 queen. That is one great reason why we 

 consider fertile workers bad to manage. 

 Had you given them several frames of 

 hatching brood, the bees as they hatch out 

 would ordinarily start queen-cells. I have 

 given vour letter, chiefly because it describes 

 so well just the way in which fertile workers 

 behave, or just the way in which colonies 

 having fertile workers usually behave. 



A REPORT FROM WEST VIRGINIA. 



As we seldom see any thing in Gleanings from 

 this State, I will give a few items. West Virginia as 

 a honey State will not come up to some of the West- 

 ern or Southern States; but if it had more Doolittles 

 or Houses there would be more honey produced 

 than there is now. There are about 400 colonies of 

 bees kept in this county (Marion); about 100 are kept 

 in Simplicity hives, as many in American, and about 

 '200 in various other kinds, but mainly in the old box 

 hive. This summer has not been a good honey sea- 

 son here. Fruit-bloom and poplar-bloom furnished 

 a fair supply of honey; but the heavy rains during 

 the white-clover bloom destroyed a greai amount of 

 honey from that source. Basswood furnished more 

 honey than any thing else, but it is confined to cer- 

 tain localities. We never get any surplus honey 

 here after basswocd is out of bloom. The average 

 yield of honey, so far as I can gather, is 3.5 lbs. per 

 colony, spring count, comb honey. The extractor is 

 not used in the county, to my knowledge. 



AT WHAT R.'VTR CAN BEES FLY PER HOUR? 



I see this matter discussed, so I will give my ex- 

 perience. I have a field of buckwheat situated 

 something less than half a mile from my apiary, 

 with no timber between. Now, for me to'place my- 

 self at about an equal distance between the buck- 

 wheat field and apiary, on a still clear morning, I 

 can hear a constant humming of bees, going to and 

 coming from the field, and I can occasionally get 

 sight of a bee, which, upon comparing with the 

 flight of a wild pigeon, I think fully as fast. It is 

 said by Morris, in his work, " Science and the Bible," 

 that the wild pigeon flies at the rate of 60 miles per 

 hour. I have been very careful in my observations, 

 and am sure that T am not mistaken in comparing 

 their flight. I have no doubt bees can easily attain 

 90 miles per hour in flying longer distances. 



Now, with due respect to Mr. Shotwell's experi- 

 ment, as given on page 435, I think his test was not 

 a good one, as the air in a car is carried along at the 

 same speed the train is moving, and a bee could as 

 easily reach the window in front of the car, as if the 

 car stood still. L. H. Wilcox. 



Farmington, W. "Va , Aug. 10, 1883. 



Friend W., are not you and many others 

 making a mistake in regard to the rate at 

 which carrier pigeons fly ? While on the 



