72 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



RAISING DOIil^AR QIEENS, &c. 



S all my bees are safely packed under their 

 quilts and under the snow, I thoug-ht it would 

 be a good opportunity to report for the past 

 season. My bees here at my home apiarj- have net- 

 ted me, as nearly as I can estimate, about $17,60 per 

 colony, wintei ed, (24 in the spring:) in honej-, increase, 

 bees, and queens sold; but it was an unusually good 

 season after June 1st. The road of the bee-keeper 

 who raises dollar queens is not altogether strewn 

 with flowers, as you know and I can testify. Our 

 spring was warm as summer for a few days and then 

 cold and wet; and by the time my queen cells were 

 ready to hatch they would be all torn down or chilled; 

 then my customers would grumble and really when I 

 had done all I could to raise the queens, and "the fault 

 Avas in the weather, it was not pleasant to be abused 

 for it. In several cases I sent tested queens. 



E. W. Hale. 

 Wirt C. H., West Va., Jan. 9th, 1878. 



I wonder friend H., if we can not talk 

 over the matter pleasantly before the season 

 comes, and get onr friends to promise not 

 to scold, even if the queens do not come as 

 soon as they expect them. We got the 

 worst scolding for sending queens from 

 other apiaries ; but I really do not see why 

 we should be blamed for so doing, when we 

 had made no promises to the contrary. 

 When one has more orders for any kind of 

 produce than he can supply. I believe it is 

 usually customarv for him to purchase of 

 his neighbors, ;^fow the question comes in, 

 are the neighbor's products just as desira- 

 ble? If so, the orders may as well go direct 

 to these neighbors. It is quite important 

 to know just who among our queen rearers 

 has a surplus on hand, that we may get 

 prompt returns, for I tell you, nothing ad- 

 vertises, like queens sent by return mail. I 

 do not mean promises, but doing it. When 

 any of you get a stock on hand ready to 

 ship, I will mention the matter in print, free 

 of charge. Now who will have dollar queens 

 ready to ship, soonest? 



AUTOMATIC SITAROTING. 



A NEW SWARM GOrNG INTO AN OLD HIVE. 



Jr'M not a champion of the "boi hive," but I can 

 I send you a good report of one, gi^en me by a 

 _»! lady bee-keeper who has several kinds of hive's. 

 In the winter, a weak colony died out of an old box 

 hive, the bottom board of which is on the ground, 

 and partially buried in the earth. The next season, 

 at swarming time, a few bees were seen going out 

 and in for several days. No notice was taken of 

 their doings, it being supposed that they were hunt- 

 ing for honey, as the old comb was still in the hive. 

 In a few days a stray swarm was noticed in the air, 

 which soon settled upon the old box hive, entered it 

 and went to work. They filled the hive with honey 

 and made enough box honey to sell for $30.00. Who 

 can give a better report? A. B. 



Springfield, Ohio, Jan. 29th, 1878. 



Many thanks for your very valuable fact. 

 Friend Martin spoke of locating hives in 

 the woods, a few months ago, and several 

 cases have been reported, of new swarms 

 going into trees that had been previously 

 occupied; but we have known but few in- 

 stances in which the new swarm went into 

 a hive in the same yard. Does not this, in 

 reality, look as if the little fellows had an 

 eye out for the main chances, very much as 

 one with ^-eason, would have V Now for 

 business: Can we not manage to have 

 hives arranged in such an attractive man- 

 ner, hidden among shrubbery, or in places 

 for which bees are known by experiment, 



to havethe greatest preference, filled with 

 nice combs, in such a way that the new 

 swarms may take to them instead of going 

 to the woods? Can not we offer "counter 

 inducements'' as we do to get the street 

 boys to go to Sunday school? Imagine a 

 vender of patent hives, saying in his 

 circular, 



''The bees have unanimously given ray 

 hive the preference by adopting it in place 

 of any other, and they carefully examined 

 every point in its construction several days 

 before the swarm came out, as did thej' 

 also, 2-5 other patent hives placed in the 

 same yard under the same conditions. 

 When the swarms came out, they took a 

 bee line for my hive, and gave all the rest 

 the "go by." 



We could scarcely claim the bees were 

 influenced by any unfair motive, and if 

 they should take a log gum instead of the 

 chaff hive or Simplicity, we would have to 

 conclude they had very little sympathy 

 with modern "innovations. I verily believe 

 we can fix hives so that a great part of the 

 absconding swarms will go into them. If 

 it is better to have them located in a tree 

 top, I presume we can aiTange that part of 

 the ])rogramme also. Who can give us 

 more facts of a like nature? Box hives 

 sometimes do well, any way; glad to hear it. 



Perhaps the large yield of honey, was be- 

 cause they had secured a home after their 

 own liking; and, by the way, it seems 

 they made no objection at all to their hive 

 being not only on the ground, but if I 

 understand correctly, partially in the 

 ground. 



LARGER BEES. AND 4 1-2 CEI^l^S TO 

 TOE INCH. 



fDO not quite understand your remark as to ha»"- 

 ing made a mistake in ordering Vi cells to the 

 inch, bearing in mind you would not say so ex- 

 cept as the result of experience. In one of my for- 

 mer notes, I remember remarking on the quantity 

 of drone cells your fdn. had produced in the hands 

 of Mr. Cheshire; this was not borne out in my own 

 experience afterwards. Last year I replenished all 

 my hives with natural swarms giving fdn. 4'3 cells 

 to'the inch. I scarcely had a drone cell throughout, 

 except indeed where, as sometimes happened, the 

 wax sheet had broken awa.v or did not fairly fill the 

 frame. Mr. Cheshire's failure was no doubt through 

 his putting the new sheets in the centre of the brood 

 nest of strong stocks. I apprehend with or without 

 fdn. the bees would build drone comb when honey 

 comes in rapidl.v. Both Mr. Cowan (a very able api- 

 arian) and myself feel quite sure we obtain larger 

 bees from the larger cells, surpassing in size those 

 cradled in cells of their own usual size. Indeed I 

 think it quite possible, by gradually increasing the 

 size of cells and working with swarms onl.v, we 

 might breed up the workei-s to the size of drones. 



John Hunter. 

 5 Eaton Eise, Ealing, England, Jan. 15th, '78. 



It may be, friend H.. that larger bees -will 

 be raised in the larger cells; but you cer- 

 I tainly make a mistake in saying that drone 

 comb will be built under some circumstan- 

 ces, fdn. or no fdn. If 5 cells to the inch is 

 I hung in a quccnJes.'< colony, there will not be 

 I a cell of drone comb, and I have never heard 

 i of a cell of drone comb being built in the 

 j 5 to the inch fdn. We have a large num- 

 j ber of combs in our apiary, on the 4i fdn.. 

 j and it just now occurs to me, that this may 

 j account for the very large worker bees I 

 1 have noticed and mentioned during the past 



