132 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
Nov 
REAR NOVICE:— Last year I bought two young 
colonies of hybrids, bringing each home in the ^ve- 
iling of the day on which it swarmed. One stayed, 
the other “cut sticks” the woods, next day. The 
contented one nearly tilled its hive by fall, when I 
took out one frame or honey and equalized the distan- 
ces between the others, and laying two grooved 
sticks across them for passages for the bees, put on 
the quilt, leaving oil' the cap, and put them in the 
cellar. They came out in good condition in the spring, 
and a large swarm issued on the 18th of June; and 
supposing that to be glory enough for one year, I es- 
sayed to destroy all but one of the Queen cells, but 
found the “sell 4 ’ to be the other way, as another swarm 
rushed out in due time, when I again examined all 
the frames while the swarm hung from a bough, finil- 
ing several cells more, and thinking it a sure thing 
this time, returned the swarm to the old hive. But in 
a day or two a swarm sallied forth somewhat larger 
than the other, when 1 gave up “beat” and hived 
them. They vied with the other colonies in numbers 
and industry. 
On the 18th of July, finding the old hive pretty w r cll 
tilled, I took out the frame which was returned in the 
spring empty, but now tilled with white clover honey, 
replaced it again empty, and adjusted a set of small 
frames for surplus, made according to directions of 
Mr. Burch in B. K. 3/., of last year. And as the iirst 
swarm had almost kept pace with the old one, I pla- 
ced boxes the same way over that, furnished with 
nieces of nice comb by way of a gentle hint for the 
bees, expecting both frames and boxes to be tilled 
with the sweets of clover, as the pastures and road- 
side were profusely be-decked with its nectar-bearing 
flowers. It was confidently believed at any rate, as 
both colonies had already so nearly tilled the bodies 
of their hives, that when lluckwhcat burst into bloom 
the receptacles would no longer remain empty, as 
some two acres of that mellilerous plant had been 
sown within 100 rods, while no other bees were nearer 
than a mile, and but 5 or G stands within bee distance. 
But no signs of labor hail appeared in the consecra- 
ted receptacles when your Aug. number came to 
hand containing the following sentence: “If our 
friend will excuse the liberty, we would advise him to 
nut his surplus receptacles where neither lie nor his 
bees will ever see them more.” This had reference to 
a verdant question of mine about, receptacles, and 
was a severe damper on my faith, but which I find to 
have been sound advice, as the receptacles are still 
empty, Sept. 15, and the buckwheat nearly played out; 
but as what we call Spanish needles— the pest of the 
corn Held- -are in full blast and the bees after them, I 
will let the frames and boxes alone a few days longer, 
that the bees may remain the party found wanting. 
The bees have persisted in lounging about the en- 
trances in large numbers, a few have been moping 
through the frames and boxes, and I know not how 
many have been inside, sanctimoniously “loafing 
around the throne.” 
Should my bees survive the coming winter, I intend 
to transfer the old colony to a hive like those occu- 
pied by the young ones, thus having all frames of 
a uniform size and shape, and send to you for an ex- 
tractor to match. 
Stephen Young, Mcchanicsville, Iowa. 
From the dollar Queen 1 got of you last fall, I have 
raised 60 Queens the past season, and each one 
is a duplicate of its mother, and not one of 
them produces a black bee, with thousands of black 
and hybrid drones around. The same Queen produ- 
ced 120 lbs. of box honey the past season besides. 
Also add for Adair’s special benefit that all her wings 
are cut close to her body and that she lias five legs, as 
the bees “hugged” her in June so she drew one leg 
behind her and I cut it off to have it out of the way. 
Would not take $25.00 for her to-day. 
G. 31. Doolittle, Borodino, N. Y. Oct. 5th, 1874. 
Some of the Journals, (the World especially) 
seem to have had grave doubts of the possibility 
of the dollar Queens proving equal to the high- 
er priced ones, and considerable pains has been 
taken to caution the public against them. 
That Queens hatched by artificial heat would 
prove fully equal to others, of course we had 
no means of determining only by experiment ; 
accordingly we have anxiously awaited reports 
from them. Not a single unfavorable one has 
come to hand that we know of, and the one 
mentioned by Mr. Quinby in Sept. No., as well 
as the one above, were both hatched in the 
Lamp nursery, for we sold no others. 
Eighty-eight stocks Italians, all full, from 17, J\n ■ 
1st. Every Queen's wing clipped. Raise Queen , , 
soon as she lavs, flit up with combs— brood Inn., 
strong hives— Champion hives. 
E. l). Godfrey, Red Oak, low 
The above came on half a postal card, lnt; 
we presume our practical bpekeepers will ilnd 
it perfectly intelligible. Pretty well done even 
if there was no surplus, was it not? 
C. Wurster of Kleinbnrg, Ontario, Canada, 
writes quite a lengthy article detailing his loss 
of Queens, while extracting, and in spite of 
various precautions. He says : 
I lost one or two Queens from 1G storks at every 
operation. 1 extract every three days; In the midst 
of <i llow of honey giving from 5 to 15 lbs. per hive, per 
day, this is no small loss as yon well know. 
We certainly do know, for in our earlier ex- 
periments we did lose a few, perhaps three or 
four in a season, out of 40 colonies. The sea- 
son after, we made up our mind that this must 
be remedied, and accordingly, put our hives 
directly on the ground, cleaned away all grass 
and turf, and with sawdust, fixed each hive so 
that no crack or crevice remained that a Queen 
or young bee could by any mistake crawl into. 
Since then we have lost almost none at all 
while extracting, and yet we never see the 
Queen while handling the combs for this pur- 
pose unless by accident. Opening hives when 
there is a great disposition to rob, is liable 
to cause demoralization of the colony and even 
loss of the Queen ; so of late we have only 
worked our extractor when the bees seemed 
peaceable. When much robbing is going on, 
you can take it for granted that hut little hon- 
ey is being gathered, and therefore ’tis as well 
to give up extracting for the time being. 
Friend W. inquires why it is that others say 
uothing of similar troubles; we opine ’tis be- 
cause they have their hives arranged as we 
have mentioned. Having hives very close 
together, will often result in loss of Queens, 
simply because in extracting, some bees will 
crawl into the wrong hive, and attack the 
Queen before being aware that their unusual 
upsetting has changed their locality. 
We have been inclined the past season to 
decide that nearly all the parricidal attacks 
which have been so frequently mentioned in 
the Journals, have been caused by bees from 
hives that were placed too near, getting in by 
mistake, and that the stinging is after all not 
parricide. 
We remarked this, on finding Queens thus 
attacked most frequently, where we used douls 
le hives with the entrances near each other, 
and especially where we used wire cloth divis- 
ion boards. We are inclined to think the 
trouble with friend W’s bees much owing to 
his having placed his hives too near each otli 
erf; we judge this because he says the trouble 
was the same, even when the frame contain- 
ing, the Queen was left in the hive without 
extracting. With hives arranged as far apart 
as they are given in the Hexagonal Apiary, we 
think no such trouble will be experienced. 
When they are first set out in the spring, 
there is quite a tendency for them to get into 
neighboring hives, and accordingly we ha" 
quently hear of bees hugging or killing then 
Queens at such seasons. 
