Sept. 29, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



667 



Send Questions either to the ofliee of the American Bee Journal, or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Keeping Mice Out of Hives In the Cellar-Uniting Two 

 Small Colonies. 



1. If I take off the bottom-boards when I put bees into 

 the cellar for wintering how can I keep the mice out? 



2. How ought i to proceed to unite two small swarms, 

 and when ought it to be done? They are two rods apart. 



3. Do you think it best to contract the hive-space for the 

 bees before putting them in tlie cellar for wintering? Some 

 of the bee-men here say, "put them in as they are." 



Michigan. 

 Answers. — i. I don't know that you can satisfactorily. 

 Yet you might make a frame two inches deep, covered with 

 wire-cloth, with coarse mesh to put under the hives. 



2. Remove one of the queens three or four days before 

 uniting. Then take the queenless bees to the other hive, 

 alternating the combs. Or. set the queenless colony over the 

 other with a sheet of tnanila paper or two or three thick- 

 nesses of newspaper between them and a hole torn in the 

 paper big enough for a single bee to get through at a time. 



3. Just as well to put them in as they are. 



Queenless and Laying-Worker Colony. 



I have a little trouble on my hands at present. Colony 

 No. I issued about July 15. I hived the swarm, moving the 

 old hive several feet away and plajcing the new swarm at the 

 old place. The old swarm, or Colony No. 2, remained very 

 weak, in fact seemed to get weaker and weaker. Thinking it 

 was queenless, I sent for a select tested Italian queen. Before 

 introducing her I was going to make sure that the swarm 

 was queenless, so I opened the hive again and this time found 

 plenty of capped and uncapped brood, but no queen. On fur- 

 ther examination I found nothing but drones — some even 

 smaller than the ordinary bee. I searched for the queen, but 

 in vain — even forced all the bees through a queen-excluder 

 twice with no results. Is it possible that there is a laving 



worker in the hive? What can be done in my case? I have 

 the Italian queen in a cage on the hive, but the bees will not 

 come up, and therefore I think they will not accept her. Can 

 this queen be introduced in this cnlony? How? 



Wisconsin. 

 Answer. — That colony has been queenless eight weeks, 

 and the bees are so old that at this time of year they're hardly 

 worth saving. It is not only "possible that there is a laying 

 worker in the hive," but pretty certain that a lot of laying 

 workers are there. It is not likely that you can get the colony 

 to accept the queen. It is, not a question of saving the col- 

 ony, but how to save the queen. Perhaps the best way is to 

 introduce her into another colony in a normal condition, re- 

 moving its queen. The next best thing is this : Take two 

 or more fratnes of bees from a colony with a laying queen — • 

 better still if taken from two or more different colonies — 

 put theiTi in a hive with the queen in an introducing cage, set 

 the hive close beside the colonv of layin" workers, and 

 keep the entrance closed for three days. Then, every day or 

 two, give to this nucleus a frame of comb and bees from the 

 laying-worker colony till nearly all are given ; then shake 

 down in front the remaining bees and take away the hive 

 that had the laying workers. 



Dividing After the Honey-Flow. 



I. Desiring to increase my colonies. I want to inquire 

 if it would be wise in my case to divide the old colonies this 

 late in the year, after the honey-flow is over. My colonies are 

 strong, and I thought of dividing them and letting the nucleus 

 rear queens fiom the comb of eggs and brood given them. 



California. 



.'Vnswer. — Don't. Better have one colony to go into win- 

 ter strong and good, than two with neither of thein fully up 

 to the mark. Neither is it nest early or late to give brood to a 

 nucleus to rear a queen. A good, strong colony for that up 

 to the time the queen is nearly ready to emerge. 



DIRECTOR E. WHITCOMB. 



DIRECTOR R. C. .\IKIN. 



DIRECTOR W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



