July 21, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



507 



any piping before the issuing^ of a swarm with a laying 

 queen, no matter how young she may be. 



2. (a) Pretty safe. • (b) No. (c) No. Yet there are ex- 

 ceptions to all of these. When queen-cells have been de- 

 stroyed in a colony, I have known them to swarm the next 

 day with nothing farther than eggs in queen-cells. I don't 

 know whether they will ever swarm before having sealed 

 cells if left entirely to themselves. I doubt it. Bad weather 

 may delay a prime swarm, but not for many days. 



3. Possibly she may, probably not. 



"^4. Likely she will never be a prolific queen. But if she 

 has been through the mails, having been all right at the 

 start, you may rear young queens from her and expect them 

 to be as good as if she had continued laying well. 

 I 'Si. No, there is no need of an empty super under the es- 

 cape to receive the bees. Now don't misunderstand me — 

 there may be a great need of an empty super, but not be- 

 cause you are taking off a full one. For if a second super 

 is needed at all, it is needed before the full one is finished. 

 If you are going on the plan that the bees are never to work 

 in more than one super at a time, you are probably making 

 a costly mistake. I know that some advocate having not 

 more than two supers on at a time, but I'm sure I should 

 lose if I didn't sometimes have 3, 4 or more supers on at a 

 time. At the close of the season, you may wind up with 

 only one super on, and if it crowds the brood-nest to have 

 the bees of that super go down, let it crowd. No use to put 

 on an empty super when there is nothing to be stored in it. 



6. Unless that cover is extra heavy, SO pounds. More 

 will do no hurt. 



7. Hardly. 



< » »■ 



Bee-Management— Queenless Colony. 



1. What course would you pursue with 3 colonies of 

 bees ? Last winter 3 colonies died, and I put the 3 hive- 

 bodies, 2 of them under good, strong colonies, and the third 

 above another good colony. The bees have filled both 

 bodies, and each colony is working in the second super. It 

 will not do to try to winter them in such shape, so how shall 

 I manage them ? The queens' wings are not clipped. 

 ~ 2. I have one colony that is very weak, and may be 

 queenless. I put a frame of brood and honey in that hive a 

 week ago, and I fear there is not force enough there to care 

 for the frame given. Iowa. 



—^ Answers. — 1. You say, " It will not do to try to winter 

 them in such shape." Why not 7 They would probably 

 winter all right in the two stories. But it will be an easy 

 matter to reduce them to one, either now or later. Put a 

 queen-excluder between the first and second story, and in 

 21 days there will be brood in only one story. Then you 

 can take away the story without brood, shaking off the bees 

 from the combs. When putting the excluder between the 

 stories, it will be a little better to see that the queen is in 

 the lower story, and to put in that story the frames that 

 contain most brood. If you so desire, you may make a 

 quicker job of it without any excluder. Merely take away 

 at once half the combs, those containing the least brood, 

 and dispose of them elsewhere. 



cTj 2. Take a frame of brood and adhering bees from some 

 other colony, making sure you don't get the queen, brush 

 off the bees at the entrance of the weak colony, and return 



the comb where you got it. If you want to make it still 

 stronger, do the same thing with another comb. But if you 

 give too many strange bees you may endanger the queen of 

 the weak colony. 



«-«-» 



Brood-Diseases— Swarttilns, Etc. 



At 11 a.m. yesterday, I had a swarm of bees, hived it, 

 and they are working on foundation starters. The parent 

 colony had no queen-cells, and on looking for some I dis- 

 covered a number of dead larv;i? lying on their backs with 

 ends up, as per description of pickled or black brood. There 

 is positively no odor that I can distinguish. I have done 

 nothing since finding the dead brood but study what to do. 

 I have just put the bees, left in the parent hive, with the 

 swarm. They left in the parent colony a full set of nurse- 

 bees, about four or five quarts, I should think, and the six 

 frames of Jumbo brood with hundreds of hatching bees I 

 have just put into the wax-boiler, over a hot stove — the 

 most cruel thing I have ever done in my apiarian experi- 

 ence. The authors on bee-diseases say destroy if you do 

 not know, and I do not know. I have found 2 other colonies 

 that show the same disease to a less extent. These bees are 

 all in new Jumbo hives, transferred about June 12, and are 

 on Miller bottom-boards, with full entrance open. 



There are still four frames of foundation drawn and 

 partly filled with honey, but no pollen. I shall keep these 

 frames until I read your answer. 



I might add that the nurse-bees had started a single cell 

 since the parent queen left them, and that the young hatch- 

 ing bees that come out of the cells adjoining dead larva; 

 seem strong and active. 



1. What shall I do with the remaining colonies that 

 show disease ? 



2. What made the bees swarm when some were willing 

 to stay and try to rear a queen ? 



3. Would I better have fed the honey than to have 

 thrown it into the boiler ? 



4. Could I have put the frames of brood in the hive, 

 over another hive with wire-screen between, and let them 

 hatch and live, rather than to have boiled them up with 

 the wax ? The colony now fills 10 Jumbo frames nearly 

 full. Illinois. 



AnswKRS.^1. In a matter entailing such serious possi- 

 bilities, I would not trust the advice of any one, no matter 

 how well informed about bees, unless he were thoroughly 

 conversant with brood-diseases. I am not that, and advise 

 you to send sample to one of the experts in that line. I may 

 say, however, that I thitik you need not be greatly alarmed, 

 and that notwithstanding the appearance of the dead brood 

 the disease may disappear of itself. I base my '• think " on 

 the fact that I knew a case that appeared the same as yours, 

 which did not terminate disastrously. 



2. There seems nothing in the case different from an 

 ordinary case of swarming, unless it be that no queen-cells 

 were started, and I am wondering whether it might not have 

 been that they had started cells previously and you had 

 destroyed them. 



3. While it might have been safe to feed such honey, it 

 it is better to take no chances, and I would not feed it with- 

 out boiling. 



4. Yes, I think so. 



i\\ii\h\Miii^ 



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