1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



m 



ARE THEY ITAIilANS OR NOT? 



WHAT ROOT SAYS. 



Concluded. 

 ^ FEEL a great deal disposed to criticise friend 

 Jl Root in a rough, friendly way. The ABC book 

 — ' has all along been my chief text-book. During 

 my first year, Koot was my oracle; what "Root 

 says" settled every question. But I think I have 

 learned that roots are not always well grounded. 

 Of course, friend Root does not claim to be infallible; 

 but he does seem set in his notions; he does assert 

 himself rather strongly, and he does seem to think 

 that everybody ought to do every thing just about 

 right. He has got possession of the idea— or the idea 

 of him— that bees are gentle during a honey-flow, 

 and get cross when it ceases. That is true, with 

 some qualifications. A boy says, as published in the 

 Juvenile, that bees are good natured until they be- 

 gin to get lots of honey, and then they get cross. 

 Friend Root tells him he got that just wrong; that 

 bees are good natured while they are getting honey, 

 and become cross when they can not. Now, if Mr. 

 Root's Idea is right, the boy's is not wrong. My ob- 

 servation, and that of others, confirm what he said. 

 Bees do get harder to manage, even during a good 

 yield, when the hive becomes full of honey and bees 

 —about what the boy meant. He tells A. how to 

 avoid getting stung. " Use plenty of smoke, and 

 never mash a bee." Friend Root, did you never 

 mash a bee? In his directions for transferring oc- 

 curs this phrase: " If you have not set your clumsy 

 (?) foot upon a bee," etc., and other things to match. 

 Friend Root, I should like to see you handle bees as 

 you tell us to do. 1 will illustrate: 



THANSFEKRI^G — AN EXPERIENCE. 



In apple-blooming season, I was going to transfer 

 my three box-hive colonies right a»vay. Now was 

 the time; Root said so. I went at it just as Root 

 said. I turned the hive back, smoked the inmates 

 well, pried off the side, and went to work. If I did 

 not get the honey to running, and start robbers, I 

 would not be apt to get stung. Root said so. 

 Mother was there, fastening the combs into the 

 frame as I cut them out. But, oh what a muss I did 

 make of it ! I soon got the honej' to running ; how 

 could I help it? In ten minutes from the time I 

 commenced, that scene was as pudding - like a 

 mixture as you could well imagine. Although we 

 were in the shade, we felt as if it were hot enough 

 to cook the pudding too; hive and combs broken up 

 into bits, honey running over every thing, bees 

 blackening every thing, crawling over every thing; 

 I straddling, tip-toeing and hopping around to avoid 

 setting my clumsy hoots upon a bee; bees swarm- 

 ing, buzzing, and stinging; two vessels smoking, 

 two actors sweating, steaming, and fuming; every 

 thing a boiling. I boiled over in the utterance. I 

 should like to see Root transfer accoi-ding to his 

 directions, without setting his " clumsy foot upon a 

 bee." 



The absording question now was, how to get out 

 of this seething muss. AVe hastily poked a lot of 

 comb full of honey, bees and all, into the comb- 

 bucket, for we could not get the latter off. I picked 

 up the pieces as fast as I could find them, and gal- 

 loped them off into the dooryard, leaving the bees 

 behind as much as possible. We managed to woriy 

 almost all the brood comb Into the frames, and run 

 tbem Ititn some hive or other, and poked the rest — 



honey, drone brood, bees, and all, into vessels. I 

 daubed up sheets, trowels, and blankets in the ef- 

 fort to save all the bees I could, and keep them 

 from the honey as much as possible. But they 

 swarmed around and into the vessels until, in des- 

 peration, I would pick them up and run one into the 

 smoke-house, another into the cellar, even carrying 

 fragments of the old hive, and crowding them on to 

 the cellar steps, blockading the entrance, to the 

 great disgust and dismay of the women folks. I 

 could not see, feel, nor swallow any thing but bees 

 and honey all that day; bees crawling over yard, 

 smoke-house, and cellar; bees drowning, poof 

 drones hatching away off from home, folks in terror 

 lest bees should sting them; one person shouting, 

 " TaKe your bees away;" another, " George, you've 

 got to get them things out of the way." It was a 

 boiling dish indeed. I contracted the entrance to 

 the new hive, and let the bees fight it out. I found 

 about a quart of bees dead and scattered around the 

 hive next morning. I was done with transferring 

 then; also with transferring at all with the hives 

 running over with bees; also with transferring 

 right in the apiary right among the other bees. 



One secret of the muss I made was the dearth of 

 pasturage during fruit-bloom. My bees were on the 

 rampage all spring. Another secret was my failure 

 to do some things just right. Of course, I do not, 

 friend Root, doubt that you have done such things 

 pretty nearly as you say, but I should like to see you. 



HOW I TRANSFERRED THE OTHER TWO. 



I waited until white-clover season to transfer the 

 other two colonies. One of them I swarmed by car- 

 rying the hive off to a new stand, and the next day I 

 carried the hive into the door-yard, set it on a sheet 

 of canvas, and transferred. With the third one I 

 acted upon the simplest plan of all, in my opinion. 

 It is that given by Mr. Heddon, as I read it in Mr. 

 Flanagan's circular. I first swarmed them by drum- 

 ming. Twenty-one days later I drummed the bees 

 out again, moved the hive into the yard, and trans- 

 ferred. I had neither bees nor brood to bother me. 

 I filled six frames with comb, nearly or quite empty; 

 that which was full I put into the extractor, and 

 used the comb at my leisure. 



STRANOE EXPERIENCE WITH QUEENS IN UNITING. 



I have had two, to me, curious experiences with 

 queens. I united two colonies in August. One 

 queen being very old I took her out and caged her. 

 In spite of all my smoking, the bees fought, and a 

 great many were killed. Three days afterward I 

 looked into the hive. I found no cells, no queen, 

 and only a few eggs in one comb. A few days later, 

 I looked in again to find several frames filled with 

 eggs and brood, and a queen. Later on, I united a 

 nucleus containing one of my lately reared Italian 

 queens, with a colony having an old black queen. I 

 removed both queens, set the frames from the nu- 

 cleus in the right, and those from the other stock in 

 the left side of the new hive. Acting according to 

 Ji'lanagan'a directions for introducing queens, I 

 daubed the young queen with honey from the left 

 side, and dropped her into the hive on that side. As 

 in the first case, the bees fought for a day or two' 

 more or less. The second day after uniting I looked 

 in to find queen-cells in the right, with but few eggs. 

 The queen had quite a dent in her abdomen, which 

 I think I gave her. As I was looking for eggs I 

 heard her crying on the other side of the comb. I 

 jooked around, saw the bees grabbing at her, and 

 she struggling to get away. When trying to get her 



