If<74. 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CELTERE. 
17 
oris own a?uuv. 
vpij^E have only two losses to record since 
jj out last, and this bright morning, June 
Stu, everything seems to indicate we are near- 
ly through our valley of huniilation Of the 
two losses mentioned, one was the loss of the 
Queen received from Lousiana, she was stung 
by the bees after having been accepted at least 
'24 hours, the other was the swarming out as 
we suppose, of the Queen reared thisspring in 
the Quinby hive; for bees and all were all gone, 
leaving only a small patch of brood not ready 
to hatch. We believe both cases point out a 
moral : The former, the uncertainty of any of 
the methods of introduction of Queens to old 
bees, and the latter of the folly of having a hive 
in the Apiary with combs of an odd size, for 
had not such been the case we should have 
strengthened them up with hatching brood as 
we did the rest. In regard to introducing 
Queens, of those sold last season, it seems that 
nearly half of them were reported lost in get- 
ting them into colonies. Now the plan we 
adopted with our imported Queen viz., giving 
her four combs selected from different colonies, 
each one containing bees just gnawing out of 
the cells, it seems to us is not very difficult nor 
troublesome, and it makes a sure thing of it, 
and, a good colony in very few days. In 
lifting the combs from the hives we brushed 
off every single bee, but in half an hour enough 
had hatched to make <juite a little cluster 
about the Queen, and to-day (17 days later) 
they are working about as briskly as any col- 
ony we have. Of course some unsealed brood 
will be lost, but if the weather is warm, or the 
hive he taken in doors for the first week during 
cool nights, but little loss will ensue. 
We have now 16 colonies and some of them 
are hardly yet able to repel robbers, although 
we have drawn on our stronger colonies for 
brood until they have become seriously weak- 
ened. 
IIOW THE MOTHS NEARLY GOT THE 
BETTER OF US. 
June ntJi — On the first day of June, which 
was a bright Monday morning, P. U., with 
commendable ambition, repaired to our bee 
house about 4 o'clock in the morning and pro- 
ceeded to give it a thorough “setting to rights” 
which il then was sadly in need of, and so 
quietly did site proceed, that her task was well 
nigh accomplished before Novice made an ap- 
pearance. In order to reduce the compass of 
‘he accumulation of combs and hives from 
which the bees had died, she put twelve combs 
in the hives that had contained ten, and thus 
reduced the number of hives that lumbered up 
the room. Novice when informed of these j 
proceedings was inclined to remonstrate, but 
being rushed with other duties, and thinking 
all the combs had been frozen since the bees 
'' ll 'd, and that our house was tight enough to 
keep out the millers etc., we actually let the 1 
matter rest” without looking at those 12 comb 
hives until last evening. It is true we careful- 
ly looked over a part of the hives that were] 
left closed on their summer stands, removing 
tlie combs that became infested, and after pick- 
ing out the welis and wpnns as well as we 
'■"tild, placing the comb in the centre of a col- 
'myofbecs. ‘Tvvas really amusing to see the 
Italians dig out any worms we had overlooked 
and the promptitude with which two of them 
if need be, would take a big worm amt carry 
him to “furrin parts.” After spreading the 
combs until each hive contained only seven or 
eight, without quilts, we had but little trouble. 
Well, after we had gone over those out doors 
on the evening of the 16th, as it was nearly 
dark, we proposed making an inspection of the 
twelve comb hives. The first comb would hard- 
ly come out, ’twas webbed fast to its neighbor ; 
the next hive was about the same. After a 
hurried consultation the job was, at his re- 
quest, turned over to Novice and although 
’twas nearly 6 o’clock and raining, he proceed- 
ed as follows ; As no brimstone had been used 
in our Apiary for some years, he first repaired 
with umbrella to the drug store, next the hives 
were lifted down and the shelves were turned 
up edgewise so that they would hold a row of 
combs the length of the building. The combs 
were placed about one inch apart, no attention 
being paid to webs or worms ; as the shelves 
would not quite hold all, thus, a few were 
spread in the'hives and left on the floor. Mrs. 
N's largest kettle was borrowed, and half filled 
with glowing coals, it was placed over another 
to prevent its burning the bee house floor; 
both were placed so near the door, that when 
all was ready a whole pound of brimstone was 
dropped in the kettle of coals and the door 
closed hastily — the upper ventilator had been 
stopped by a roll of quilts, and all was tight. 
The work of death proceeded, and although 
’twas half past ten, Novice stood with his uoge 
flattened against the window in the door, until 
plump eleven o, clock, then lie repaired to his 
rest, but Instead of sleeping the sleep of the 
just, he dreamed alternately that the Apiary 
was burning up, and of great worms a 
foot long or less that defied both fire and brim- 
stone, and not only refused to die but “chawed” 
voraciously at nice strait worker comb, and 
when that was all gone actually commenced 
chewing up the metal corners too. 
Five o'clock in the morning — Anxiously Nov- 
ice wends his steps bee-house-ward ; raises a 
comb from a hive on the floor; as sure as you 
are alive there the worms are, alive and well, 
lie closes the door in despair, takes a turn in 
the rain but finally goes back and looks at the 
string of suspended combs. All ! They are 
dead , dead as door nails — all dead except 
ttiose in the hives on the floor. Of course the 
rest were hung up high in a string, aud whilst 
(lie room is undergoing a second fumigation, 
Novice was promptly on hand at business as 
usual, and is now “deep” in Gleanings. 
June 25 th — We have now got the moth 
worms under complete subjection, but very 
few having been found after the second fumi- 
gation of tlie beehouse, and these were where 
they were completely covered up, in a mass of 
webs; strange to us, this mass of webs seems 
to enable them to withstand, in some eases, 
the sulphur fumes for several hours. 
Our first attempt at rearing queens from our 
imported mother, gave us eight queen cells, 
and we have, strangely enough, succeeded in 
getting eight line queens from them, by the 
plan given on another page. Although the 
queen* nv not yet fertile, we are giving their 
nuclei a comb f ggs, as fast as they can use 
them ; “vie" an non '24 pretty fair little colonies. 
