342 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 12, 1904. 



I aim to have on hand about that time, or, if I run short of 

 these, I store in 60-pound square cans. 



I By the time I am crowded for more storage, my first tank 

 is empty again, and by managing in this way I always have 

 a place for honey that is being extracted, as well as a chance 

 to draw clear honey from one or the other of the tanks. 

 Honey so treated will retain its liquid condition during my 

 early honey-trade, but with the advancing season it begins 

 to thicken ; its whitish appearance is the warning sign that 

 granulation is taking place. 



To restore it to its former condition, heating or reliquef y- 

 ing becomes necessary. But this is an easy job. For glass 

 cans I use the shelf over our kitchen stove, which will ac- 

 commodate about one dozen around the stove-pipe, and 34 

 hours of common firing for family use will generally melt 

 it up so completely that not a particle of any granule is left. 

 When it arrives at this condition (and this is necessary to 

 prevent future granulation), I seal it up tight and store it 

 away, and the chances are that it will remain liquid until it 

 is sold. 



I am not sure that it is necessary to loosen the top of 

 the can when being melted, but as it gives the rubber a 

 chance to expand to its natural shape, and the air a chance 

 more readily to escape, I imagine that by loosening the 

 top a very little (which I always do) it can be sealed up 

 nearer air-tight when hot. 



During the late fall and early winter I keep this kitchen- 

 stove shelf occupied a good share of the time, but do not 

 melt up much faster than I intend to use it on the road. If 

 kept too long after liquefying, especially in cold weather, I 

 think it will granulate again. 



When melting up 60-pound cans, I set them in a large 

 pan of water, on the back part of the stove, being careful 

 not to heat the water above what the hand can bear. It 

 takes about the same time — 24 hours — to make honey run 

 from the can. If it is not thoroughly liquefied when filling 

 my retail cans, I pay no attention to that, but let the latter 

 take a turn on the shelf to finish the job. 



Niagara Co., N. Y. 



Queen-Right Colony— How to Find Queens. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLK. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes me thus : " I see that you 

 sometimes answer questions through the columns of 

 the American Bee Journal, and I have one or two I wish 

 you would answer that way. Last summer I hunted a col- 

 ony all over several times to find a queen, and, finding 

 none, concluded that they were queenless ; therefore I sent 

 for a queen for them, procuring a fine one. I tried to intro- 

 duce her, according to directions accompanying the ship- 

 ping-cage, and the bees killed her. Upon looking into the 

 hive later on I found brood, so I suppose they had a queen 

 all the time. Will you please tell me how I may know for a 

 certainty whether a colony has a queen ? and also how to 

 find the queen if a colony has one ?" 



To know if there is a queen in the hive, inspect the 

 combs, and if no eggs or small larvas are found in the bot- 

 tom of any of the cells during April, May, June, July, 

 August or September, you may reasonably expect that such 

 a colony is queenless, except at a period of from 20 to 30 

 days after the issue of a first or prime swarm from any 

 colony, with which swarm goes the old mother-queen, and 

 it takes about the time named for any of the young queens 

 left in the queen-cells to get to laying in the parent hive. 

 Then, if you find, when looking, that the eggs are few and 

 scattered about, with vacant cells intervening, and without 

 any regularity, the queen in such a colony is not as prolific 

 nor as good as she should be, and it is the part of wisdom 

 to hunt her up, kill her, and put a good queen in her place. 

 But, to be absolutely sure that any colony is queenless 

 in which you find no eggs or brood of any kind (and you 

 should be thus sure before you try to introduce a valuable 

 queen), take a frame of comb having eggs and little larvie 

 in it, from another colony, and put it into the center of the 

 supposed queenless colony, leaving it there undisturbed for 

 three days. If queenless, queen-cells will be formed over 

 some of the larva;, and if no such cells are started you can 

 rest assured that they have something they are cherishing 

 as a queen, which always makes it unsafe to try to introduce 

 another until such a " something " is disposed of; for any 

 queen which you may try to introduce will almost certainly 

 be killed while there is something in the colony the bees 

 are reverencing as a queen. If the bees start cells on this 

 brood given, then you may know that they are ready for a 



queen ; and if you take this frame of brood away when you 

 are ready to put in the queen, you can be almost reasonably 

 certain she will be accepted, if you use a>ty of the plans 

 given for introducing a queen. 



Now about finding queens : To the accustomed eye of 

 the practical apiarist, prolific queens are easily found, 

 especially if the bees are of the Italian race ; but a virgin 

 queen, or something the bees may be reverencing as a queen, 

 is often very hard to find, even by an expert. 



To find any queen, the best time to look is from 11 a.m. 

 to 2 p.m., as at that time the most bees will be out of the 

 hive in the field, or taking their first outing, when they will 

 be out of the way. If your hives face south, as they should, 

 if your location will so allow, the sun will shine more or 

 less down between the combs, and the light, thus striking 

 them, will show you the qneen much better than at any 

 other time of the day. If the time of looking is before noon, 

 you should sit or stand on the east side of the hive, facing 

 west, and if at noon, sit on the other side, facing east, so 

 that the sun shall not shine on your face or bee-veil; and, 

 also, so that you will be looking on the side of the combs 

 where the rays of the sun strike. 



Always carry a light box with you, the same being two 

 or three inches wider than your hive ; and when opening 

 the hive, do it as carefully and with as little smoke as possi- 

 ble ; for if you use too much smoke, or are careless, and jar 

 the hive much in opening, the bees and queen may become 

 excited and run about much to your disadvantage, even if 

 the queen does not leave her " egg-laying place " and go 

 into the corners of the hive ; and if you should smoke the 

 bees too much, those of the hybrid and black variety will 

 often so " stampede " about the combs or out of the hive 

 that your object will be thwarted at the outset. 



Having opened the hive so carefully that the bees hardly 

 know that they have been disturbed, and as carefully re- 

 moved the first frame on the side of the hive next to you, 

 look over it for a queen, if there are enough bees on it so 

 she might be there. Having satisfied yourself that the 

 queen is not on this frame, set the same on the further si&e of 

 the box from you, this box having been placed in a conven- 

 ient position before you open the hive. Now take out the 

 next frame from the hive, looking it over and setting it in 

 the box next the first frame, if the queen is not found. You 

 now have room so you can readily look down into the hive ; 

 and on taking out the next frame, immediately glance down 

 the side of the fourth frame (now in the hive), when the 

 queen will be seen, if she is on the " face " side of that 

 comb, in her attempt to run around to the opposite or dark 

 side of the comb, especially if she is a virgin or a black or 

 hybrid, for such queens generally commence to try to get 

 away from the bright sunlight just as soon as it strikes 

 them, and in running around the comb your eye "picks 

 them up" almost instantly. If you do not see her, immedi- 

 ately hold the comb you have in your hands, so that the sun 

 may strike the opposite side of it, or what was the dark side 

 of this comb as it set in the hive, for the queen will be on 

 one of these dark sides if anywhere. 



In this way keep on till she is found, or all the frames 

 are in the box. 



Twenty-four times out of 25 I find the queen in going 

 through a hive like this, no matter what the queen, and 

 whether laying or otherwise, and, if in the prolific part of 

 the season, I do not have to lift over two or three frames to 

 find her, if I keep in mind about where she will naturally 

 be, as I will soon give. But should the queen not be found 

 I now commence putting the combs back in the hive, and 

 by putting them in the box the way I have told you, I can 

 look at the " dark sides " of the combs as they come out of 

 the box (and to a better advantage, as the box is so much 

 wider than the hive that I can commence to look in this 

 way with the first comb taken out), the same as I did in 

 taking them from the hive, and it is a very rare thing in- 

 deed that I fail entirely to find any queen in looking over 

 the combs either from the hive or the box. If such a thing 

 as a failure should occur, the hive is closed, and a trial is 

 made some other day. 



And now a word about finding prolific queens when 

 they are laying at a good, fair rate every day. Look for 

 her between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on one of the 

 two outside combs of the brood-nest, for during these hours 

 she will nearly always be found on one of these two combs, 

 while earlier in the morning, or later in the afternoon, she 

 is apt to be nearer the center of the brood-nest. Keeping 

 this in mind I generally look down between the combs, so as 

 to tell by the bees that are clustered between the ranges of 

 comb, about how far the brood comes on either side of the 



