1878. 



GLEANINGS m BEE CULTURE. 



293 



<in buck skins rather than on my own. But the hive, 

 1 found queeuless, and not one cell of young brood 

 in it. There was plentj- of honey below and not a 

 drop in the new combs made in sections above. 



FACTS IN REGARD TO "NATURAL" QUEENS. 



Next to it, was a prosperous colony that had cast a 

 larg-e swarm the day before. It had the whole sec- 

 ond story occupied," and after lifting- that off, the 1st 

 comb taken out revealed mature queen cells, and 

 this the day after swarming; so it must have been a 

 second swarm. The next frame and the next had 

 eftch 3 cells; there were, in all, some 12 or 15. I saw 

 a cap to one of the cells lifted, and a very handsome 

 <iueen pranced out, gay and lively, and at once 

 dove down into a honey cell for a feast. While se- 

 curing her I saw another one come out, and at once 

 decided to form two or more nuclei. Before I could 

 complete the job, however, and within 1.5 minutes, I 

 saw 6 queens come out. I kept each comb separate, 

 to avoid a conflict or loss. The 1st and finest one 

 (beautifully colored), in a few minutes, flew off the 

 comb into the hive. The 2nd one was a full black, 

 to all appearances. I was able to cage 3 and make 

 ;{ nuclei. The two caged ones were at once intro- 

 duced to queenless hives. The rest were lost or 

 went into the hive. 



P. S.--This morning, I found a knot of bees on the 

 portico of a hive near by, and a dead j'oung queen 

 in the middle. 



I never saw a queen hatch before, and was sui> 

 pnsed to see the strength and agility of these. But 

 why is it that one was black, and one finely banded 

 and light? 



Such a season as this, I should think, would con- 

 vince the most skeptical of the value of foundation. 

 • The yield, this j'ear, promises to be a very light 

 one. I tried to avoid increasing by extending i-oora 

 and, in cases, by taking out brood combs and sub- 

 stituting empty ones or fdn. When the honey flow 

 is abundant, I succeed well in checking the swarm- 

 ing. When moderately good, it seems that most of 

 their energy goes toward inci-ease. J. W. Porter. 



CharlotteviUe, Va., June 18th, 1H78. 



I would use the smoker, friend P., by all 

 means ; I would also use a veil, if compel- 

 led to ; but I liave never seen a case where 

 I think buckskin gloves were even excusa- 

 ble, begging your pardon for differing. 

 Your observation with the queens shows 

 that even queens reared in the hive natural- 

 ly vary greatly in color ; does the color real- 

 ly affect their honey value, other things be- 

 ing equal? Young queens do frequently 

 take wing and fly, when they have stayed in 

 the cell, until they are fully mature. I do 

 not know but that queens hatched in a full 

 liive, under the conditions of natural swarm- 

 ing, are more apt to do this, foi- tliey often 

 stay in the cells, apparently afraid to come 

 out. Perhaps the defiant calls of the rival 

 queens have something to do with this. If 

 any disttirbance occurs, such as the opening 

 of the hive, tins calling ceases and the 

 queens push open the door-like caps to the 

 cells, and take wing, crawl about, and cut up 

 just as you have narrated. In such cases, if 

 I wished to save the queens, I would make a 

 nucleus of every frame in the hive, the old 

 hive itself making another strong one. 

 tSuch queens are almost sure to be speedily 

 fertilized, for they iwe full grown. 



PREPAISaxa FOR WBNTER. 



^j^ LEASE give me the best means of feeding up 

 fr^ swarms when short of stores, preparatory 

 %^ for wintering. The continued vret weather 

 and heavy rains, in this section, lessened the crop 

 here, by % to %. Late swarms have done next to 

 nothing. Drones were killed off about the 25th of 

 July. Basswood honey was a failure. We have 

 plenty of bees in the stocks and little honey. Shall 

 we unite stocks, or shall we feed up the light ones? 

 Will it do to feed uncajjped honej' in the comb in the 

 fall, where they have lilth: or no hrocd couih InuU/ If 

 my frames were only lilied with brood comb fdo,, I 



should be all right; but, as it is, I am at a loss what 



to do. We are using the Gallup frame. Perhaps I 



had better get some fdn. and insert, and then feed. 



Lima, Iowa, Aug. 13th, 1878. W. Stearns. 



The matter has been gone over so many 

 times lately, that I shall have to repeat to 

 some exteiit. In the tirst place, be sure you 

 have bees enough to winter; if you have 

 not, unite until they are strong enough. I 

 would not luidertake to winter any colony, 

 unless it could cover well, as many as 4 L. 

 frames, which, perhaps, would be equivalent 

 to 5 or 6 Gallup frames. If your colony has 

 not as many as 4 good combs, tliey must 

 be supplied with fdn., and made to build 

 them out. If they are to do it this month, 

 you and the bees both must stir yourselves. 

 I tell you. There must be no forgetting 

 them, and you must be at home every day, 

 to attend to it. Close the space up by chaff 

 division boards, until there, is just comforta- 

 ble room for the 4 frames, put in your fdn. . 

 where the combs are lacking, aii^d then feed 

 them every night, from a half pint to a pint 

 of food. For building out the combs, the 

 grape sugar will do just as well as anything, 

 and it will also answer for winter until very 

 severe weather sets in. Open the hive every 

 day or two, and see how things get along. 

 You want a good queen, and lots of brood 

 started. Make them prosper, and build up. 

 You will soon learn to know what prosperity 

 means. They should be rearing brood, 

 building comb, and getting full of bees, pre- 

 cisely as they do in June. You can feed 

 them grape sugar safely, until about the 

 first of Oct., and then they should be provis- 

 ioned for winter. For winter stores, I 

 would use coffee sugar ; feed them about a 

 half lb. every night, until their combs are 

 full. If you have the 4 combs average 

 about 5 lbs. each, you wilL be on the safe 

 side. If your colony is heavy enough to 

 cover () combs, clear out to the "ends, during 

 a cool night, they will perhaps need 6 combs 

 filled so as to average 5 lbs. each. When 

 you get the bees, and the stores, with the 

 chaff cushions on each side, they are all 

 ready to winter, by simply putting a thick 

 chaff' cushion over them. This arrangement 

 is not as good as a regular chaff' hive, but it 

 has answered for several seasons past, quite 

 well. If the winter is very severe, a colony 

 that would cover densely 5 or 6 combs would 

 be much safer than a smaller one. The 

 main points are, a brood apartment closely 

 packed with bees, and plenty of good sealed 

 stores. With these two conditions alone, 

 the bees will generally winter all right, even 

 in a hive made of inch boards. II the bees 

 are not enough to fill the hive, reduce the 

 size of the apartment until they do till it. 

 This is usually done by a division' board. If 

 the walls of this wintering a))artment are 

 made of thin wood, the bees will then keep 

 the thin walls of the hive, as well as them- 

 selves, Avarm all winter, and we shall then 

 avoid the loss that often ensues by bees con- 

 tinually freezing to the outside combs. 

 This is the purpose of the chaff' hive ; it is 

 about as much use to put cliaff and stra^' 

 over the outside of great heavy hives, as it 

 would be to put your I)ed clothes on the root 

 of you.r house, instead of next to your body, 

 on a cold winter night. 



