May 9, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



297 



enough. It may not be a g-ood thing for the bees, but it 

 will do you enough good to make up. 



3. Generally no need to take out more than one or two 

 so as to make room to move the others freely in the hive. 

 Indeed, if taking out the dummy leaves room enough for 

 easy handling, there is no need to take out any except the 

 one you have in your hand. If, however, you have an 

 empty hive to put the frames in as you take them out, there 

 is no harm in taking out all, for the frames will keep each 

 other warm in one hive as well as another. There are just 

 the two things to guard against in taking frames having 

 combs out of the hive — cold and robbers. If you don't 

 chill the brood, and if you don't start robbing, there is lit- 

 tle danger of too many frames being out, or of their being 

 out too long. If obliged to open a hive when the tempera- 

 ture stands only 60 or 70 degrees, try not to have a frame 

 out more than two or three minutes. Perhaps you can 

 judge better by the flying than by the thermometer. If the 

 bees are flying very freely, call it warm ; if very few are 

 flying, meddle with the bees as little as possible. 



4. A frame is well-covered when there are enough bees 

 on it to cover the whole comb, the bees being close enough 

 to touch each other all over the frame, altho some parts of 

 the frame may not be entirely covered, and some may have 

 bees piled on one another three or four deep. I don't know 

 whether " frames well covered " means all in the hive or 

 not — depends on the connection. If you saj' a colony has 

 its frames well covered, I should say you meant all ; other- 

 wise you would be likely to specify the number. 



5. No, and yes. The frames in the brood-chamber are 

 all alike, and if you have a set that are empty you may 

 change them indiscriminately without doing any harm. 

 They are unlike in this respect, that you will not find the 

 two outside combs with as much brood as others, if indeed 

 you find any brood in them. They will be mostly filled 

 with pollen and honey. The rest of the combs will contain 

 both brood and honey, those toward the outside having 

 more honey than the central ones. 



6. They may in a good season. 



7. Probably not. 



8. Decidedly. Use only enough to subdue the bees, and 

 if they show fight use a little more, and keep using it occa- 

 sionally if you need it. Generally, however, there will be 

 no occasion to use it the second time. 



9. Note whether there is an increase of honey in the 

 hives. If the honey-flow is good the bees seem in more of 

 a hurry and more of them are flying. When they are 

 doing a big business some of them will drop down in front 

 of the hive with their heavy loads, and will have to rest 

 there a bit before they rise to enter. 



10. I don't know definitely enough to give a categorical 

 answer. The weather, the source of nectar, and other 

 things have to do with the case, and the time may vary 

 much. Sometimes it seems to ripen within two or three 

 days, and sometimes in as many weeks. A section Taa.y be 

 two or three weeks from the time the bees commence stor- 

 ing in it before it is entirely sealed, in which case it could 

 not be said that the whole of it was ripened in less than 

 two or three weeks, and yet it would hardly be right to say 

 that any part of it was two weeks in ripening, for the first 

 stored in the section was probably ripe some time before 

 the last, and the last may have been gathered less than a 

 week before it was sealed. While it is true, as a rule, that 

 honey is ripe when it is sealed, there seem to be cases in 

 which it remains unsealed after being ripe, and others in 

 which it is sealed before it is ripe. If you insist that I 

 shall say how long on the average it takes honey to ripen, I 

 should say that in this climate it takes about a week. But 

 I frankly confess I don't know, and shall be glad to learn 

 from some one who has made a study of the matter. 



11. As a rule, when ripe ; but as before said, there may 

 be exceptions. The exceptions, however, are probably not 

 at all common. 



12. The most natural way that would suggest itself to 

 an inexperienced person would be to take hold of it and 

 pull it out just as you would a thorn or a splinter, and the 

 question might seem like a foolish one. But if you take 

 hold to pull it out in the usual way, you will grasp tlu- 

 poison-bag which remains attacht to the sting, and you will 

 squeeze some of the poison into the wound. Scrape it <iut 

 with the thumb or finger-nail. A quicker way, and one 

 that is just as eS'ective, you will learn by experience when 

 stung on the back of the hand, where a large proportion of 

 stings are received. Slap the back of the hand quickly on 

 the leg with a sort of wiping motion the instant the bee 

 strikes the hand. That will mash the bee, and at the same 

 time it will wipe out the sting if you use force enough. 



Swarming Management, Etc. 



1. I am just a beginner in the bee-business. I 

 hived some (lO swarms last spring, and some eight this 

 spring, and I have ray first yet to lose. I always move the 

 swarm. Now what is the difference ? I see some advo- 

 cate moving the old hive. 



2. I have my bees on the lowlands of the river, so I 

 have to scaffold up for them, five or six feet off of the 

 ground. Can I set them on the ground during the summer, 

 then raise them in winter, so as to keep them above high 

 water ? I have been thinking of putting them on the 

 ground this spring. California. 



Answers. — l. Putting the swarm on the old stand and 

 moving the old hive is not done for the sake of keeping the 

 swarm from deserting, but to throw the flying force into 

 the swarm, making it strong for storing, and also prevent- 

 ing the issue of afterswarms. If you will try it you may 

 find that with this practice you will get more surplus from 

 the swarm than you will get from both if you put the 

 swarm on a new stand. 



2. I see no reason why it will not work all right to lower 

 the hives during the time it will be safe, and it will certainly 

 be much more convenient not to have them so near the sky 

 when working at them. 



Perhaps Bee-Paralysis. 



What can be the matter with my bees? The colony 

 most affected has almost perisht. The bees crawl or are 

 dragged out of the hive and they then crawl off in the 

 grass to die. Some try to fly but fail. Where one lies dur- 

 ing the night a yellow stain is sometimes, but not often, 

 left. They have been that way two months. I am feeding 

 them honey. They are in Langstroth hives. 



Arkansas. 



Answer.— From the little of description that is given it 

 is not possible to be certain, but the great probability is 

 that your bees have bee-paralysis. If that is the trouble, 

 you will find the affected bees have a trembling motion, are 

 inclined to be black and shiny, and are pulled and dragged 

 about by the other bees. Many cures have been offered, 

 but unfortunately none of them seem to be reliable. It is 

 possible the disease may disappear of itself, and it is pos- 

 sible it may keep on with its deadly work. Some have con- 

 fidently claimed a cure by making a diseased colony 

 exchange places with a healthy one. It would do no great 

 harm to try the experiment. 



Dividing Colonies. 



I have 16 colonies and wish to divide them so as to get 

 the white clover honey. I divided last year and put one- 

 half into each hive, but lost the white clover crop, as they 

 put it all in the empty hives, or on the four sheets of foun- 

 dation that I put in place of the four that I took out. I use 

 the eight-frame dovetail hive. I wish to requeen from two 

 queens that I got last fall. Would I better use the nucleus 

 plan, as I can get that out of the Journal or the " A B C," 

 as I have both ? Illinois. 



Answer.— You will do well to use the nucleus plan both 

 for rearing your queens and making your increase. That 

 will allow you to keep most of your colonies strong for stor- 

 ing. When you cut a colony right in two. neither half is 

 strong enough to do much storing ; but you can from time 

 to time draw a frame or two of brood and bees from a col- 

 ony that is storing without very seriously interfering. Of 

 course it does make a difference but nothing like the differ- 

 ence it does to take away half the force. 



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