r876 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURK 



W 



IT.iUANIZINGr. 



In Italianizing how would it do to put xjueeii cell in a 

 •cage in the bl;u* liive a^id as SO021 as slie as hatclied, ve- 

 ivnove the, black .queen azul liberat<e .young one in 21 liours ? 

 If practicable the hive would be witlyvat a laying qaeeii 

 ■only about a week. 



In 1870, we made eorae very lengthy experi- 

 3nents in caging queen cells, and gave pla,n in 

 A. B.J./ since then the idea has been taken up 

 and dropped by man}' different ones, and one 

 or two have offered queen cell protectors; 

 but we believe the result lias l>een that al- 

 though we may succeed now and then, it can 

 not be considered a success. Instead of hav- 

 ing the hive without a laying queen for a 

 week, we may manage to have the period not 

 ■exceed two days, or by a little different man- 

 agement have the young queen depositing 

 eggs at the time the old one is taken away. 

 The cages we used were made by pushing a 

 •cup, made of wire cloth with the ends raveled 

 •out, over the queen cells; but as we found the 

 bees would eat through the comb to get at 

 them, we put a similar cup on the opposite 

 .side, the points of the wires passing ea<;h other 

 just a little. The queen that hatched first 

 was allowed liberty, and as scon as she com- 

 menced to lay, was removed and the next old- 

 est released, and so on. In this way we ob- 

 tained 3 fine laying queens from one hive on 

 the first trial. The others some way got their 

 legs or wings i^ulled off by mischievous young 

 9)ee6, and after other experiments we finally 

 abandoned it. To replace a poor queen, our 

 plan was to insert a cell and cage it; after it 

 had hatched the young queen was allowed to 

 i'emain caged 8 days, and was then released in 

 the afternoon when the drones were in full 

 flight. As soon as she returned fertilized she 

 was caged 2 days and then when given the 

 liberty of the hive would usually commence 

 laying immediately. While the young queen 

 was out on her excursion the old queen was 

 generally taken out of the hive to avoid acci- 

 dent. This looks very nice on paper, and in 

 fact can be made to work very well in practice, 

 during the height of the honey harvest, but 

 .alas, at other times tHe bees pitch at either or 

 both the queens, and perhaps at the apiarist as 

 well, and he concludes on the ivhole, he would 

 rather let mother nature and the bees fix it 

 their own way, wasteful though it may seem. 



The above besides, requires too much super- 

 vision ; some plan should be adopted 

 that would go along of itself as much 

 as possible even il the apiarist were 

 called away, or should find it inconveni- 

 ent to be on hand at the precise day or hour. 

 We believe a division l)oard fixes this best, all 

 things considered; but it must be borne in 

 mind that to use a division board, for queen 

 rearing, there must be two distinct entrances, 

 and that under no circumstances can the bees 

 be allowed to go into either apartment indis- 

 criminately. If they do, one or both the 

 queens are almost sure to be killed, and for the 

 same reason the boards must fit so that no bee 

 can by any possibility get under or around 

 them. 11 the entrances are a few inches apart, 

 and a little different in appearance, it answers 

 every purpose ; and we have been quite suc- 

 cessful in having a colony divided in a common 

 L. hive, one entrance being at the north corner 



of the jX)rtico, and the other at the south. This 

 is some trouble it is true, but by the means we 

 may have the young queen laying before the 

 •old one is taken away; and even should the 

 young one need caging, which is seldom the 

 case during the honey harvest, we have both 

 sides of the hive well supplied with eggs when 

 the division board is removed. For all such 

 divisions, it is much more convenient to have 

 the entrance to the hive at the side of the 

 combs as we have arranged it in our "hoop 

 hive." The entrance for the queen rearing 

 side may be only a Sg hole bored in the back 

 side of the hive, for but few bees are needed 

 after we have a good queen cell built in some 

 strong colony, and this temporary entrance 

 may l>e nicely closed up when not needed, by a 

 common vial cork. One great advantage in 

 having nuclei in the back part ofaJiive, is 

 that when done with, the bees will all go 

 round to the main entrance when this one is 

 closed up, and none will be lost. We would 

 suggest that the nucleus be covered with a 

 piece of thin board instead of depending on the 

 quilt, as the bees are very apt to push under to 

 what is going on in the back part of the hive; 

 for young bees are very inquisitive, and as full 

 of mischief as a lot of puppies. We would 

 have all queen cells built from eggs that are 

 just hatching into larvtc, and none of the larvjc 

 should be larger than to be just visible to the 

 naked eye. This c-xu be obtained readily by 

 putting an empty worker comb in the centre 

 of a strong colony, for about four days. If any 

 eggs should be laid in drone cells, cut them 

 out, for they will at times build cells over 

 them, though they never hatch. 



Swjtrming commenced with us, March 0th. Three gal- 

 lons white clo;er honey is the most I've extracted fiom 

 one hive up to date. You say in Gleaxings, that upper 

 and lower stories should be exactly alike. Would you 

 have ,i inch space between bottom bars of frames and 

 bottom of hive and h inch from tops of hive to top bars ?' 

 As I have CO or 70 more hives to make this year, I want to 

 get the e.x.act dimensions before commeiicing. 



With ,^4 inch space above the frames for 

 tucking down the quilt, which is pretty close 

 work, and 3^ inch below, as we have mention- 

 ed, we can get along very well ; but the ,i._, inch 

 between the two stories, is rather too much, 

 and the }^ inch spaces rather too small. We 

 have preferred in our own hives, to add a hoop 

 which is to be removed when they are placed 

 over each other. 8ee page 27, 



Would you extract the lower part of an 8 frame L. hive 

 while t)ees arc working in boxes above ? 



Since our troubles with starving bees, we 

 have alxjut decided to discontinue extracting 

 from the lower combs, but if the hive contain- 

 ed no upper stor}', of course we should extract 

 the heaviest of the combs to give them room. 



If a colony were well at work in the boxes, 

 we would not extract at all, but if their combs 

 were full and they seemed disinclined to store 

 in the boxes we would extract the honey and 

 set them to work at once. If surplus combs 

 are at hand, we think it will be an excellent 

 idea to have a reserve stock of filled combs on 

 hand for emergencies. It will probably be the 

 cheapest way of feeding that can be devised, 

 especially if honey docs not bring more than 

 10 or 12 cents. 



