303 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



WHEN TO ITALIANIZE. 



Had tj swarms last spring; increased to 18. Have 

 taken 20 J lbs. box honey. When is the best time to 

 g'et Italian queensy spring or fall? 



Montrose, Pa., Aug. 2d, '78. Geo. S. Frink. 



By far the most economical time to get 

 queens is in the fall, because it mat- 

 ters not then, even if your hives be a short 

 time (ineeiiless. There is not then, the rush 

 and hurry of spring time, and queens are 

 als ) much cheaper. 



THE KINO BIRD AGAIN. 



I notice in Gleanings for Aug-ust that Mr. T. T. 

 Waite, of Berea, Ohio, afiirms that the king bird 

 catches bees, and, when gorged, ejects the substance 

 of their bodies. I have frequently witnessed this 

 habit of the bird, during my twenty years of obser- 

 vation and experience in bee-keeping, and as proof 

 of the truth of the statement, 1 herewith enclose 

 one of the "balls" or "wads" of compressed dead 

 bees, as they were cast out of the stomach of the 

 bird. Your advice to "kill the birds" is proper, and 

 the only way, 1 believe, to dispose of them. 



Marcenus Wright. 



Middleville, Mich., Aug. 2nd, 1878. 



The wad enclosed was a dined mass of 

 wings, legs, and the horny shell that covers 

 the body of the bee. I feel loth to give any 

 advice that will result in encouraging cruel- 

 ty towards the birds, and would be glad to 

 hear any word of defense that can be made 

 for the poor king bird. 



a word in favor of fdn. 



I was rather prejudiced against fdn., until Isaac 

 Hav sent to you for 15 lbs. He brought me 2 lbs., 

 and wanted me tr>- it. The result is, I have ordered 

 150 lbs. of you, for my neighbors and myself, and 

 Would recommend it to all bee-keepers. 



Somonauk, 111., July 8th, 1878. Frank Bliss. 



Those 6 queens I bought of you all proved to be 

 pure. The 10 lbs. of comb fdn. gives general satis- 

 faction. John Krippner. 



Oakland, Wis., July 29th, 1878. 



Bees are nearly flooding us with honey; 67 lbs. 

 from one hive in 10 days. S. S. Butler. 



Los Gatos, Cal., June 27th, 1878. 



I have used the §150 worth of comb fdn. which 1 

 received of you about a month ago, and am more 

 than pleased with it; in fact, it is a necessity that I 

 cannot hereafter dispense with. 



Onawa, Iowa, July 29, 1878. August Christie. 



crippled queens. 



I thank you for your kindness in otfering to send 

 me another queen, but would not exchange my 

 "cripple" and take the chances of introducing anoth- 

 er, as she is now doing nicely and is purely mated. 



Bethel, Conn., July 26th, 1878. S. H. HiCKOK. 



Several have expressed fears that queens 

 witli a leg or wing minus might not prove 

 sc^rviceable, bnt as they have done just as 

 well, sj far as we can see, in our apiaiy, we 

 have not hesitated to advise giving them a 

 trial. 1 do not know how queens become 

 crippled thus, unless it is in introducing, 

 eitlier in my liives, or after they reach you. 

 As it is not noticed until the queen is intro- 

 duced, I presume you often think slie was 

 8eut you in that condition. I liave never 

 knowingly sent out a crippled queen, with- 

 out stating the fact. 



Italians, that were a gi-eatmany generations 

 removed from the stock hrst imported. At 

 present, I am much inclined to think that 

 the greater part of the dollar queens we are 

 sending out will i)rove just as good as the 

 Imported queens themselves. The principal 

 reason why I insist that the queens I buy 

 should l)e reared from an imported motliei: 

 is that the stock may all of it be very recent- 

 ly from Italy, so as to preclude, as far as 

 possible, seiuling out either hybrids, or the. 

 very yellow stock that is generally agreed to 

 be less valuable as lioney producers, than the 

 original dark natives. You can Italianize 

 at any season when bees fly. The fall 

 months we consider the most 2jrofitublc sea- 

 son in which to do it. 



DOES the queen DESTROY THE QUEEN CELLS OR DO 

 THE WORKERS DO IT? 



I opened a hive the other day, and found two 

 queen cells. By referring to the record, I found 

 that they were about ready to come out. In the af- 

 ternoon, I cut out one cell, and noticed that the becF- 

 were biting away the end of the other. I laid tht- 

 cell on a board, fixed up the hive, and went and pre- 

 pared another hive for the cell cut out; but when I 

 found it, it was empty, and six or eight feet from it, 

 I found the queen. I took her and put her in the 

 hive without the cell. Now, that queen did not de- 

 stroy the other cell left in the first hive, but the bees 

 did, which proves to me that the queen is not born 

 with "murder in her heart and blood in her eye", as 

 oiir book makers claim. E. B. South wiCK. 



Mendon, Mich. 



You are hasty, my friend. We book mak- 

 ers recognize tliat ''two swallows do not 

 make a summer." In the case you have 

 given, very likely the workers tore down the 

 cell ; but I have many times seen a queen 

 start directly for the other cells and tear 

 them open, jtist as soon as she was hatched. 

 Sometimes she will simply bite a hole 

 through and pass on, allowing the workers 

 to come and tinish up the job ; at other 

 times, she will bite into the immature body 

 of her rival sister. It is said that they some- 

 times sting the inmates of the other queen 

 cells, but I have no proof of this. The 

 young bees seem to have a great propensity 

 to tear open any queen cell, after it has beei» 

 injured either by a queen, or by cutting in 

 taking them out. I have rescued queens 

 where the cells had been toni open, and had 

 them hatch in the lamp nursery all right ; 

 from this, I infer that the queen often does 

 nothing more, and that it is the workers 

 that pick and pull out the white chrysalis, 

 piece by piece. At other times, the workers 

 seem to tlo the whole work of tearing down 

 the cells after a queen has hatched. 



How much superior are imported (jueens to 

 .Americans raised from imported stock? Can an 

 Italian be introduced at this late season? 



-Mmcda, S. C, July 27th, 1878. W.m. O. Holmes. 



When we lirst introduced impoi-ted stock 

 into our apiary, there was. at once, a marked 

 difference in favor of it over our lionie bred 



THE $25.00 CHAFF HIXTR. 



Now, 1 would just as soon go into the Growlery 

 as anywhere, but before you put me there, just 

 look over your medley of chaff hives, and it may hv 

 that you can make one good one from all of them, 

 and perhaps we may all of us get $25.00. 



W. S. Daniels. 



Hubbardston, Mich., July 26tb, 1878. 



In all the plans for chaff hives that have 

 been submitted, I tind nothing so simple 

 and clieap as the one I gave you in the first 

 place; neither have I seen any suggestions 

 that I would add or adopt. Some of you 

 may think me obstinate, but I have given 

 all the plans submitted, careful thought and 

 consideration, and this is my candid opinion. 



