288 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



BOX HIVE QUERIES, &o. 



W'HAT course would you pursue to strengthen 

 a weak colony of bees in a box hive, from 

 your neighbor's bees in the same kind of 

 hive? They hang out in large clusters. At what 

 hour of the day would you advise one to do the 

 work? 



Giving them more bees in any way that I 

 know of, in a box hive, will be rather risky 

 business for the queen. Perhaps the best 

 way would be to go just at evening, and, 

 after smoking, brush off the bees that are 

 hanging outside, and exchange places with 

 the hives. The bees that were outside will 

 then be compelled to accept the weaker 

 Idve, and, if you keep them well smoked, 

 they will usually unite peaceably. 



Can I transfer my bees from box hives to movable 

 frame hives as late as September with success? 



Yes, if you are thorough enough. See 

 transferring in April No. 



Enclosed find a bee which I found the other bees 

 dragging- out of the hive. What ails its legs? are 

 the particles clinging so tenaciously to the hairs of 

 its legs sporules which accidcntnlly got there while 

 in the act of gathering stores from certain plants or 

 flowers? If so, from what plant did it receive them? 

 or is it due to a vegetative disease of the bee? • 



It is the pollen from the milkweed, illus- 

 trated in another column. 



My friend, M. J. Link, has several colonies of bees 

 upon a stand, very close together; No. 1 is in a Har- 

 bison hive. No. 2 in a Simplicity hive, and No. 3 in a 

 Harbison hive. No. 2 appeared to be very uneasy 

 for iS hours; No. 3 appeared to have more bees 

 than is due to it, hanging out in a large cluster; it 

 was also somewhat uneasy. The bees seemed to 

 pass to and from hive No. 3. He kindly sent a mes- 

 senger to me to come and see his bees. I immedi- 

 ately responded, and found the bees in hives No. 3 

 andNo. 3 A'ery uneasy, running all over the hives, 

 and many flying in the air, as in the act of swarm- 

 ing. I also "found a handful hanging to a limb of a 

 tree; I took them down, laid them upon a cloth and 

 found the queen, clipped her wing, and put her in 

 hive No. 3. For one and a half hours after, they 

 were still uneasy and not reconciled. Two hours 

 after, the queen was found down on the ground, 

 with a few bees. She was again Introduced into 

 hive No. 3. The bees in hive N(X 1 were quiet all the 

 while; 36 hours after the queen was introduced the 

 second time, it seems that peace is again restored. 

 However, hive No. 3 appears to have more bees 

 than dulj' belongs to It. Now, what was wrong with 

 the bees? Did we do right or wrong? 



Dr. H. J. Peters. 



Ragersville, O., Aug. 5th, 1878. 



The "wrong'' is in having the liives so 

 close that the bees can pass from one to the 

 other, and wlioever keeps bees in that way 

 will have more problems to solve than all 

 you have mentioned. The bees from strong- 

 er hives will imprison or kill a queen, and 

 other queens will very likely be raised, to be 

 served in the same way; perhaps it was 

 these young queens, one or more of them, 

 that occasioned the commotion of which you 

 speak. Give every colony a separate stand, 

 and luive it so that you can walk all around 

 it ; I would not have tliem less than 6 feet 

 apart, from centre to centre. You did nei- 

 ther harm nor good ; but if you had moved 

 the hives away from each other, you would 

 have hit the mark. 



tween two combs containing brood and honey, the 

 latter in reach of the queen. This was on Thurs- 

 day. On Saturday morning, I opened the hive and 

 made an entrance'to the cage, through the plug of 

 honey comb, sufficient to allow the queen and her 

 attendants to escape. I examined them Again about 

 two hours after, and found the queen still in the 

 cage, and also some Mack bees. I thought she 

 might be all right, and, as it rained all the after- 

 noon, did not have an opportunity to see her again 

 until Monday morning. I did not open the hive 

 Sunday, concluding that she had been already 

 either accepted or destroyed. On looking Monday 

 morning, I found ten. deail, hlach hccs. one live Italian, 

 and the queen, still alive, but feeble, in the cage, the 

 whole being sealed up securely, and a large piece of 

 comb suspended from the cage, even the meshes of 

 wire, some of them, filled with wax. I smoked both 

 bees and queen, and let her run down among the 

 combs. I have not seen her since, although I have 

 opened the hive a number of times; but I know she 

 is there, for nearly half the bees are now Italians, 

 and thei-e is a plenty of eggs and larvsie. Why did 

 they seal her up, after allowing a portion of their 

 number to enter the cage? and why was she accept- 

 ed after having been used in so un-bee-coming a 

 manner? 



In an article on fdn., you say the fdn. may be col- 

 ored so as to show if anything else is used in build- 

 ing out the comb; please tell us how we shall do it. 

 What shall we use for coloring matter that is not 

 poisonous, and that will be relished by the bees? 



Royalston, Mass. C. H. Goodell. 



The bees did not seal up the queen be- 

 cause they had any ill will toward her, but 

 simply as an accident ; perhaps some of the 

 young bees did it, simply because they want- 

 ed something to do. It is not safe to confine 

 a queen, even while being introduced, with- 

 out food and water. Had you not examined 

 yours just as you did, she would have been 

 starved as were the bees. The wire cloth 

 was waxed over, because it was a foreign 

 matter that they had no other way of get- 

 ting rid of. 



You can color wax with indigo, but differ- 

 ent colors of the natural wax, will often en- 

 able you to decide in what manner the wax 

 is drawn out, and made use of. 



INTRODUCING, FREAKS OF BEES, Ac. 



W HAVE succeeded in introducing my first queen. 

 !(, The cage in which she was confined was in the 

 *^i form of a cylinder, closed with a disk of wood at 

 one eml, and a piece of comb at the other. After re- 

 moving the old queen, the cage was suspended be- 



HOVV TO KEEP EXTRA QUEENS AI.ITIOST 

 ANY LENGTH OF TIITIE. 



ALSO, IIOAV TO GET OUT OF TROUBLES OF 

 ANY KIND. 



BOUT the time queens were thrown 

 out of the mails, I was really in troub- 

 le. Not for myself alone, but on ac- 

 count of the many "that were sending me 

 queens, and who were, perhaps, less able to 

 stand the loss than myself. As soon as the 

 order was received, we despatched jiostals 

 to everybody who had been sending us 

 queens, but for all that they kept coming; 

 day after day, had I said, "Well, I really 

 can not think we shall have any more, so 

 keev> up your courage, boys, and keep on di- 

 viding and making room for them." "VVe 

 did so, but more kejit coming. Hayhurst 

 liad just sent us a package of 25 or 30; Hen- 

 derson had sent as many more ; then Moore, 

 of Atlanta, Ga., came in with a fine lot; 

 and. besides the above by exjiress, a lot of 

 the A B C class were just getting the hang 

 of the l)usiness, and they swarmed in at ev- 

 ery mail, with their queer cages, but nice 

 bright queens, until I almost began to be 

 sorry I had ever tattght them how to raise 

 queens. Some of those tliat had been noti- 

 fied, kept sending them in, saying they had 



