234 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



111NTERING NUCLEI, AND HOW IT 

 TURNED OUT. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT QUEENS GOING "A VISITING." 



f PROMISED to report how my experiment in 

 wintering my nucleus queen succeeded. (See page 

 , 62 ) Well, the cause ot this late report is that I 



moved myself, bees and all, from Cleveland to Tusca- 

 rawas county, Ohio, in April, wliich gave me plenty 

 to do. Then on the 26th of July my planing mill and 

 lumber yard here were destroyed by Are, which 

 cleaned me out. No, I have my pets yet, but they are 

 rather reduced this spring. Well, I brought the nu- 

 cleus through with some tussing until about the mid- 

 dle of April, when I put them out to have a fly, and a 

 good one they had, too, and are flying yet for aught I 

 know. I saw the queen all rjglit on the comb in the 

 morning, and when I came home to dinner I noticed 

 quite a qunntity of bees flying in the air in the yard, 

 but thought nothing of it. After dinner I examined 

 tlie hive and saw "nary bee." They had left for parts 

 unknown. They stopped raising brood in Feb.; had 

 a slight touch of dysentery, and dwindled considera- 

 bly by the time I put them out. I had supplied them 

 with honey, ot which t.hey liad some, but not a large 

 quantity, when they left. My 13 oilier colonies came 

 through very well until I moved them. One of them 

 I think had not quite enough ventilation, and about 

 one-half died, and they have all dwindled fully one- 

 half this spring. 



Now 1 have a nut for you old bee-keepers to crack. 

 I be'ieve you all claim that a queen never leaves the 

 hive after fertilization, unless to swarm, but here are 

 some facts: about a week or ten days alter they were 

 moved, I looked for, and saw every queen in her prop- 

 er place, and a few days later I clipped one wing of 

 the queen in tlie middle hive, as they were standing 

 in a row 8 feet apart; then went to an outside one 

 but found instead of a queen, about a lialf dozen sick- 

 ly looking queen cells. No eggs nor brood; all had 

 hatched except a few of the outside scattering ones, 

 and they were all capped over, so I concluded they 

 were queenless. About 10 days, or perhaps more, af 

 ter this, I brought home a queen that I bought of 

 "Wardle Bro's, of Uhrichsville, to give them, and on 

 examining tlieir combs found them well filled wiih 

 eggs and larva'; the largest about as large as a grain 

 oj plump wheat; '■'(hat (jot me:'' Had the old queen 

 been resting, visiting, or what? This is her third 

 laying season. Well, what should I do with my new 

 queen? I had bought and paid for her, and my bees 

 ■were rather light to divide, but as 1 wanted to in- 

 crease, I divided them. I tcok a look at the middle 

 hive again (the queen v/ith the clipped ving) and be- 

 hold I a dozen large capped queen cells, and one 

 young queen just hatched. So I cut away all the cells 

 and let her remain, and she has now been laying ?> 

 days. On going back to the other hive, I found the 

 queen with the clipped wing there, apparently at 

 home. Now she had left her own hive, crawled or 8 

 feet and gone into another, and they had accepted 

 her. There had been no changing ot combs, nor any- 

 thing by which I could have changed her unknow- 

 ingly, nor could she have come out with a swarm, and 

 gone back into the wrorg hive; they had no occasion 

 to swarm for it was too early, and besides they were 

 rather weak. There was no't more than one quart of 

 bees, and combs were quite eirpty, yet contained 

 enough for their present wants. Who can explain ? 



A. A. Fradenbukg, Port Washington, June 8, '77. 



What we said about absconding in our A B 

 C, will I tliink explain it all. TIad your nu- 

 cleus been kept in the warm cellar, with an 

 abundance of food, I do not think they would 

 have ceased brood rearing, nor have swarmed 

 out. When colonies get down to a quart, and 

 get dysentery or dwindling, they are pretty 

 sure to swarm out; and they do this and come 

 back to their hive much oftener, I imagine, 

 than we know of. My explanation is that 

 your bees swarmed out; for when this mis- 

 chief is once started, all the colonies near are 

 pretty sure to hear the swarming note and 

 Start, especially if everything at home is not 

 agreeable to their feelings. You looked the 

 hives all over, and they probably swarmed out 

 as soon as you left, for I have noticed that dis- 

 turbing hives at such a time, is very apt to in- 

 duce such catastrophes. One spring when we 



started to brush out all the hives, we desisted 

 wbeji about half through, because we thought 

 it made the weak ones swarm out. 



Let ABC 



represent, the position of the three hives. All 

 had queens about the first of May. About 

 May iOth, the queen in B was clipped, and C 

 was found queenless ; from the age of the 

 brood, we judge she must have swarmed out 

 just after examination, May 1st ; she may have 

 dropped off the frame after having been 

 clipped, or she may have simply been replaced, 

 being in her third season. Immediately after 

 the hive C was closed, a queen must have 

 hatched, which commenced laying about the 

 20th. The purchased queen must have been 

 brought about the 26th, we judge from the size 

 of the larva;. B was now opened, and a young 

 queen had just hatched, so the clipped queen 

 must have swarmed out about the 15th, and 

 hopped over to A, where there was a pitched 

 battle, the stranger proving^ victor. The bees, 

 after having lost their queen, returned home, 

 as they always do il their queen has clipped 

 wings. 



When some one shall see a fertile queen "out 

 doors," without a swarm attending her, we 

 may have to admit that such things do hap- 

 pen, but meanwhile had we not better take 

 some such explanation as the above ? 



^ •♦♦ m 



CROSS REES. 



J4/^HY are some bees so cross, while others are good 

 natured ? I have some that will allow me to put 

 my hand in the clustrer when they are outside, or 

 to lift the board ufl the frames, paying no attention to it, 

 more than to crawl on my hands or face, and I have oth- 

 ers that won't let me look toward the hive, if they can 

 help it. They are all hybrids ; it is impossible to keep 

 them pure here. 



I notice one of my best natured stocks has not swarmed 

 at all ; it is now three years old, has a very prolific queen, 

 and they raise a pile of bees— and produce a pile of honey. 

 Now the question is, is there any way to make the "ugly" 

 ones a little more "sociable?" If 1 were to raise queens 

 from the good natured ones, and give them to the cross 

 ones, do you think it would affect them anyV I am in- 

 clined to think it would. A. N. Gkiswold. 



Naugatuck, Conn., June 27, 1877. 



To be sure you can make your bees gentle, 

 by rearing queens from those only that have 

 that desirable quality. Let your crossest hy- 

 brids rear a lot of queens, and see how the 

 children and grand-children will act. There is 

 a very great difference indeed, in the behavior 

 of bees, and it is not always the 3 banded bees 

 that are the gentlest. We have one colony of 

 quite dark hybrids, that are beautiful bees to 

 handle; no smoke is needed at any season, if 

 we use proper care, and do not pinch or crush 

 them. Very likely their being so gentle is 

 much owing to their being handled- so often, 

 for I have known bees that were remarkably 

 good, made so vindictive by some accident 

 that injured a number of them, that they did 

 not get over it for a long time. I have also 

 succeeded tolerably well in making very cross 

 bees gentle, by careful handling. It is a little 

 significant, that all the colonies we are in the 

 liabit of handling often, are always gentle. I 

 have at times thought that the cross bees were 

 the best honey gatherers, but so many excep- 

 tions have been noticed that I am inclined to 

 think it is just as it happens. You can make 

 your stocks gentle by selection, as well as 

 you can make a flock of black ducks white. 



