If mm JSMERICMK BEE? jQvm^mi^. 



G31 



as they were. The next day, when 

 they came out agSin, I was on hand, 

 but before they were fairly out of the 

 hive, another swarm came tumbling 

 out of a very populous hive and went 

 with them. 



No sooner were they all in the air, 

 than the whole of them were re-en- 

 forced by another swarm from another 

 hive, which I had said was not to 

 swarm that year on account of their 

 having a failing queen. This last hive 

 had been opened an hour previous, and 

 all queen-cells cut off, so as to keep 

 them as I wished for a few days, till I 

 could get some queens fertilized which 

 I had under headway ; and one can im- 

 agine mv surprise and chagrin, when, 

 before this last swarm had got two- 

 thirds out, the whole mass went piling 

 into the hive of the colony that I had 

 determined should not swarm. After 

 a few moments' thought, I concluded 

 to leave them as they were (only I put 

 on section room to the capacity of 100 

 pounds, or over), to see what would be- 

 come of it. 



The next morning, before 8 o'clock, 

 out they came, and were hived in an 

 empty hive, after giving them one of 

 the good queens which were kept back 

 the day before. Having secured them, 

 and having the old queen, that I had 

 said should not swarm, in a cage, I 

 went to the hive to inspect it before I 

 let her go back in. Now came the 

 greatest surprise of my life in the way 

 of queen-cells, for by turning to my 

 diary I see that by actual count there 

 were 423, 276 of them having eggs and 

 larvDB in, when less than 11 hours be- 

 fore there was not a queen-cell in the 

 hive. 



Here was where I first detected the 

 difference between eggs carried to a 

 queen-cell by the bees, and those placed 

 in them by the queen. I decided that 

 188 eggs had been laid by the queen in 

 these cells, by their being attached by 

 the point to the bottom of the cells, and 

 17 were carried there by the bees, as 

 they were in all positions in the cells ; 

 71 cells had larv;e, which the bees must 

 have carried there, of course. These 

 larvai were from two to three days old, 

 as nearly as I could judge, and all of 

 them were literally swimming in royal 

 jelly, as much so as any I ever saw of 

 that age in my life. Here is a point 

 worthy of note for those who claim 

 that no queen can be really good unless 

 started from the egg and fed as a 

 queen. 



Since then I have a few times had 

 eggs and larvje removed from the comb 

 I had given to a queenless colony, to a 

 dry comb at its side ; but in all these 

 instances the queen-cells were built 

 first, and the eggs or larvse deposited in 

 them, the position of the eggs resemb- 

 ling that which 1 have described above; 

 but as 1 said near the beginning, the 

 cases are quite rare where either eggs 

 or larva? are removed from one cell to 

 another, and three larviB are removed 

 to where one egg is removed ; for the 

 bees can get a queen more quickly 

 from the larvas than from the egg. 



The usual way of working in a queen- 

 less colony to secure a queen is, to Hoat 

 the royal larva when chosen, out to 

 near the end of the worker-cell in 

 which it is, and when there, turn 



queen-cell down over the ends of the 

 cell. Nearly all writers tell us that 

 the bees when made queenless tear 

 down adjoining cells so as to build a 

 queen-cell over the larva which they 

 have selected for a queen ; but this is 

 not done once in one thousand times, 

 according to my experience, and not 

 then, unless the combs are new, not 

 having any cocoons in them, or the 

 selected larva is near a hole in the 

 comb, or the edge thereof. 

 J5orodino, N. V. 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



IVo 



Honey Crop, and llie 

 arc Starving. 



Bcc§ 



From the British Bee Journal 

 Aug. 30, 1888. 



, "place the sugar in 

 ' advises a fifth ; -'No, 



We think that the season of 1S88 may 

 be reckoned as the most disastrous that 

 modern bee-keepers have ever experi- 

 enced in the British Isles. Flowers 

 have been plentiful, but when in bloom 

 the weather prevented the bees leaving 

 their hives, and also retarded the secre- 

 tion of the necessary nectar in them. 

 In consequence of this, many colonies 

 at the present time are either starving 

 or bordering on that condition. 



Last week we " drove " (bumped) 7 

 colonies of bees in straw-skeps, the 

 property of a cottager who, in other 

 seasons, has averaged from 1.5 to 20 

 pounds of honey per colony. Although 

 the hives were full to overflowing with 

 bees— we took ^}i pounds of bees from 

 one having a super on— the total 

 amount of honey obtained from the 7 

 colonies was just a trifle over 3 pounds; 

 one of them had commenced to suc- 

 cumb, hundreds lying dead on the floor- 

 board. 



The foregoing we take as almost a 

 general average, in our district, of the 

 condition of colonies left entirely to 

 their own resources. At the present 

 time, therefore, the question left for 

 consideration is, will it pay to feed the 

 colonies the quantity of stores neces- 

 sary for their winter's consumption V 

 With the frame-hive bee-keeper his an- 

 swer, given we should think without a 

 moment's consideration, will be " yes." 

 Of this there cannot be two opinions, 

 but with the cottager an outlay of (say) 

 four shillings per colony is a considera- 

 tion; yet it will pay him. Many of 

 these poor folks have all their work cut 

 out for them to make two ends meet 

 with their present earnings, but to ex- 

 pend four shillings per colony, money 

 down, to keep the bees alive, is an im- 

 possibility, and so the dying out of such 

 colonies during the coming winter will 

 be most calamitous. 



Having satisfied ourselves that 

 " feeding up " is now the only and most 

 remunerative course to pursue, the next 

 question to arise is, What to feed? 

 There is such a varietyof sugars on the 

 market that the novice scarcely knows 

 which to choose, and even when he 

 does know the description of sugar, the 

 form in which it is to be given to the 

 bees is a stumbling-block. " Dry sugar 

 feeding," says one ; " syrup," says 

 a 'another; "candy,"' another; -'Good 



candy,", a fourth 



a dummy-board.' , 



don't; put it on top of the frames,' 

 chimes in a sixth. Well, between all 

 these numerous words of advice he be- 

 comes bewildered, and gives the appar- 

 ent enigma up in despair; and yet each 

 of these advisers is giving sound ad- 

 vice in as far as the different require- 

 ments of a colony at a given time 

 necessitate. 



A little refiection on the part of the 

 bee-keeper will prove to him that dry- 

 sugar feeding alone during the coming 

 season will be of no use whatever ; the 

 food given must be syrup— good, thick, 

 cane-sugar syrup ; no washy sugar- and- 

 water— we might almost say, water and 

 syrup. We have for some years tried 

 dry-sugar feeding, and have fqund it 

 in some cases very useful, but where a 

 colony has little or no natural stores, it 

 has invariably been a failure; times 

 and times have we endeavored to rear 

 condemned bees placed in fully-built 

 combs upon dry sugar, but always 

 failed. A colony at the commencement 

 of winter having G or 7 pounds of stores, 

 if fed on dry sugar will die out, or be 

 of little use the next season, but where 

 a colony has just a shortness of stores, 

 barely enough to last it until the fol- 

 lowing spring, then dry sugar feedmg 

 will be invaluable, and so will candy, 

 both ordinary and " Good." 



Having then satisfied ourselves that 

 for the present season, at least, syrup 

 feeding is our only resource, it be- 

 hooves us to consider what sugar to 

 use, how to make the syrup, and how 

 to feed. The first question is, perhaps, 

 of the greatest importance, as the 

 quality of— we cannot call it adulter- 

 ated—unsuitable sugar for bee-feeding 

 on the market is enormous. 



Sugar at the present time is obtained 

 commercially from a variety of vegeta- 

 ble substances ; of course those yield- 

 in" the greatest quantity are chosen 

 before others, and as the beet-root 

 yields 8 per cent, of cane-sugar, it is 

 the principal (after the sugar-cane) • 

 vegetable requisitioned to supply the 

 tea and breakfast table. Then agam, 

 cane (sugar-cane) sugars, when dam- 

 aged or of bad color, are after chemi- 

 cal treatment transformed into good 

 colored and sound samples, and used 

 for admixing with beet-sugar ; this de- 

 scription of sugar can be mostly de- 

 tected by the smell, by an adept by the 

 sight the chemicals used in the 

 bleaching process, giving a most de- 

 cided acid odor. The smell of beet- 

 su^ar to most people (for our own part, 

 we" should say to all people), is most 

 nauseous, but when mixed with other 

 sugars and refined, it loses to a great 

 extent, but not entirely so, this un- 

 pleasant odor. Sugars of this descrip- 

 tion are known in the trade by the 

 term '■ pieces." When feeding bees 

 sugar should be avoided. 



Any respectable grocer will give an 

 apVlicant the iuformationas to what is, 

 or what is not " pieces." Loaf-sugar, 

 best qualities, are almost free from 

 beet, the best being "Tate's cubes" 

 No. 1 quality, black brand, Martiueau s 

 cubes first quality ; both of these are in 

 hundredweight square, wood cases. 

 Dutch crushed, sold now in large quan- 

 tities for preserving purposes, is not to 



