264 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 25, 1901. 



given me comb honej- and in good shape, that is the kind 

 of queens that I want to rear others from." And in read- 

 ing that, from the foremost practical comb-honey producer 

 of the world, I said right out \oud, " Amen." Working 

 along that line means a constant improvement in our bees, 

 while resolving that each colony must have a new queen 

 every year, has not a single element of improvement in the 

 whole "shooting match." Besides the above I find, as a 

 rule, that the bees will supersede their own queens as soon 

 as they begin to fail to any appreciable extent ; and when 

 the bees undertake this work it is done much more satisfac- 

 torily, all things considered, than it is when the apiarist 

 attempts to say, " This shall be," or " This shall not be." 



But if our correspondent thinks he must have his own 

 way, then there probably is no better plan than to follow 

 what is given in " Scientific Queen-Rearing," or that given 

 by W. H. Pridgen, during 1900, in the bee-papers. If you 

 think this too much bother, or consider it "fussy," as some 

 claim, then you can rear pretty good queens in this way : 



Kill the old queen and let each culonv rear one from 

 her brood. In five days from the time you killed the old 

 queen, open the hive and look for quee'n-cells. In doing 

 this it is well to shake the bees off the combs so that the 

 cells can easily be discovered. If they are found capt at 

 this time they should be destroyed, as they will contain 

 larvs that are too old to make good queens. Bees do not 

 cap over a cell containing a good queen-larva, as a rule, in 

 less than six days from the time the mother queen is 

 removed. The reason for this lies in the fact that bees 

 rarely miss their queen to a sufficient extent to start cells 

 in less than from two to two and one-half days after her 

 removal ; and if you find cells sealed over on the fifth day 

 after the removal of the old (or mother) queen, you may 

 know that the larva in said capt cell must have been three 

 to three and a half days old when the bees undertook to 

 change it to a queen. All queen-rearers agree that larva? 

 two days old and under give the best queens, and that a 

 larva older than three days should never be used under any 

 circumstances, if we would have queens which can to any 

 extent be called good. Of course, the colony is to be well 

 fed, if no honey is coming in from the fields, until the sixth 

 day, or till all cells are capt over. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



I Questions and Answers. | 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. O. MILLER, Marengo, m. 



[The Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail.— Editor. 1 



Getting Increase-Kind of Bees. 



1. What is the best way to increase rapidly the number 

 of colonies for a beginner? I have six strong and one 

 weak colony that I shall have to feed. I am giving partly 

 filled sections to this one now. I would like to increase to 

 60, but do not count on getting any surplus honey to sell. 

 This is a fair location for honey. I had one strong colony 

 that put 66 pounds of honey in sections : the other one did 

 not do much but swarm : I got S natural swarms from it. 

 The 4 will winter well. The honey sources are willow, elm, 

 soft maple, sugar maple, basswood, red and black raspber- 

 ries in abundance, gooseberry, plum, apple, peach, cherry, 

 and a few pears. The fall bloom is where we get most of 

 our surplus, such as buckwheat, goldenrod, and fireweed. 

 You see I have a steady flow most of the summer, which is 

 necessary for you to know in order to give your opinion. 



I do not know what my bees are. I will Italianize the 

 whole in a little while, or as soon as they begin flying well. 

 I bought 3 queens last September, and made a success of 

 all, so I have only 4 more to make all of an improved strain, 

 which I think will be the best way to start. 



2. Which strain is the better for extracted honey, the 5 

 or 3 banded ? 



3. Could you tell me what breed mine are ? They have 

 5 bands, are larger than Italians, and longer, are ugly, and 

 rush about the hive as soon as opened, and sting anything 

 that comes along quickly, and will only retreat before a 



cloud of smoke. In handling supers it keeps one using the 

 smoker to do anything with them. They are good workers, 

 and if they were gentle I would not change. 



MlCHIG.\N. 



Answers. — 1. If you do anything in the way of rapid 

 increase, the first thing is to get a text-book and become 

 familiar with general principles and with the different ways 

 of increase therein. My advice to a beginner desirous of 

 increasing from 7 to 60 would be — don't. You might with- 

 out such a great deal of trouble get 60 started, and then you 

 might with less trouble have all dead before Christmas. 

 The wiser plan will be not to set any such limit, but to 

 work on safe ground and increase just what you can safely, 

 whether it be to 16 or 60. Take the nucleus plan, and hav- 

 ing used one or two colonies to start nuclei, draw from the 

 others to build them up, but do not allow yourself in any 

 case to draw from a colony so as to reduce it to less than 

 four frames of brood. Then you can start others, and as 

 fast as a nucleus becomes strong enough it can do its part 

 toward helping, only keep in mind all the time that in draw- 

 ing you must not reduce to less than four frames of brood. 

 In this way you will not be caught with a lot of weaklings, 

 but can close up any time when the weather threatens to 

 close up. Of course, with such a long season as you seem 

 to have you may be able to reach the goal you have set, but 

 don't count on going beyond just what you can safely do. 



2. Some colonies of one kind are best, and again some 

 of the other. 



3. Very likely they are Italians, and very likely if you 

 compare carefully with other bees of the same age, you will 

 find them of the same size as other Italians. Some of the 

 5-banded Italians are reported as cross, and others as gentle. 



aueen Flying in March. 



March 24th my bees had a fine flight, it being the first 

 warm day since the holidays. While watching them just at 

 noon I saw a queen come out and fly away, but return in 

 IS or 20 minutes. This was repeated three or four times 

 while I was watching them. The colony is strong in bees, 

 and was working nicely carrying in pollen. Now, was that 

 a young queen trying to mate? If so, why did the bees 

 supersede the old queen so early when there are no drones ? 

 If the colony became queenless in the winter where did they 

 get the egg to rear the queen ? It has been so cold since 

 that I can't look thru the hive. It has been too cold for bees 

 to fly ever since. I have been keeping bees since the spring 

 of 1881, but this is something new to me. Indian.\. 



Answer. — It may be that the young queen was reared 

 last fall late and failed to mate, and she may yet be all 

 right. At any rate such cases have been reported in which 

 the queens turned out well. 



Alfalfa Not Recommended for South Carolina. 



I have about 20 colonies of bees at home, and on another 

 farm 3 miles away 30. I wish to try, on a small scale, the 

 best clover for hay and also for bees. A friend of mine 

 tells me that while he was in the distant West he noticed 

 bees doing well on alfalfa, and says its hay qualit3' sur- 

 passes all he knows of. But, of course, he knows nothing 

 as to its being adapted to our climate. Will alfalfa do well 

 here ? Is it used to any extent by bees ? How much per 

 acre, and at what season can I with reasonable certainty 

 sow the seed ? Will the alfalfa grow wild ? I think I have 

 heard that bees may not look for help from alfalfa for tWo 

 or three years after sowing. South Carolina. 



Answer. — As far east as Illinois alfalfa will grow, but 

 seems to be of no value for bees, altho in the States farther 

 west it is one of the best honey-plants. It is not likely that 

 it would be of any value in South Carolina. Sweet clover, 

 alsike, and crimson clover, are the things for you to try. 



When and How to Form Nuclei. 



1. I have studied three bee-papers all the winter, besides 

 several bee-books, but so many plans only confuse me. 

 What time (please give month) and how shall I form nuclei 

 for increase, so as not to interfere with some surplus honey ? 



2. Will taking two frames of brood and bees before time 

 for white clover weaken the colony so they will not store 

 any honey ? 



I opened a hive the other day, and very much to my 



