488 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug-. 1, 1901. 



throug-h these hives, that dead larva; are scattered throug-h 

 other frames, and one colony is bad enough to interfere with 

 the increase of the colony. From one of my old colonies 

 that was so bad that scarcely a bee was hatching, while all 

 the frames were filled with brood and eggs, I removed the 

 frames, giving empty combs, and in two days introduced a 

 new queen, and now (about three weeeks) there are no signs 

 of disease. 



How would you treat the strong^ colonies? Some are 

 very strong, covering 20 Langstroth frames, and have two 

 28-pound supers nearly full. I have plenty of empty combs, 

 as I run for both comb and extracted honey. 



What can I do with the frames of brood and honey 

 taken from the diseased colonies ? They are all wired and 

 built on foundation, except the five new ones, and only 

 three of these are affected. 



What do you think this disease is, that would make its 

 appearance in every colony at once. 



Do you think the weather started it, and then it became 

 contagious? I have never known foul brood in this locality. 



I have not been able to get any odor from the worst 

 cases. When first noticed, the larva^ is about one-third 

 grown, some looking a soft, greasy white, and some a yel- 

 lowish white, and later turns brown, drying up in the cell — 

 some curled up and some lying lengthwise, 



2. Do you think these combs can be used another year 

 by placing them under water in a current ? 



Massachusetts. 



Answers. — I'm afraid there is disease among your 

 bees, which, although now apparently overcome while the 

 honey-flow is on, will reappear in the future. In the mean- 

 time it will be advisable for you to get all the literature you 

 can on the subject, especially the leaflet on pickled brood, 

 and back numbers of this journal relating to diseases of 

 bees, and being thus informed upon the subject you can 

 form a better judgment of the case than can one at a dis- 

 tance. 



2. Placing diseased combs under running water would 

 not be likely to do any good. 



Storing in the Brood-Nest— Swarming Out. 



1. In the months of November and December here the 

 queen greatly diminished her egg-laying, and the bees filled 

 up nearly every comb with honey. ' If extracted, the bees 

 store in honey all the same, and very little brood would be 

 kept up. This greatly I'educes the' force of the colony. 

 What must I do to prevent the bees storing honey in the 

 brood-nest in such season of the year ? 



2. When ray colonies swarm I destroy all queen-cells and 

 turn back the swarm (with the exception of the queen, 

 which I give to some queenless colony). A few days after 

 I destroy the remaining cells, such colonies now being left 

 without queen or fells. About two weeks after I give them 

 a cell each ; every one of the colonies swarmed out with the 

 virgin queen. What must I do to prevent such swarming ? 



J.'VM.A.IC.^. 



Answers. — 1. It is not easy to prevent the bees from 

 filling the combs with honey in some cases. Having young 

 queens will help. If you give empty frames or foundation 

 it will give the queen a better chance to get in her work. 



2. Instead of desroying all cells and then giving 

 another cell two weeks later, if you leave one cell — or if 

 you want to give a cell from choice stock give it at the same 

 time you kill the cells— you will not be likely to have so 

 much trouble with the bees swarming out. With your 

 present plan there is no brood, or at the most a very little 

 sealed brood, in the hive, and when the queen goes out on 

 her wedding-trip the bees go along. 



Bait-Sections— Extracting, Etc. 



1. I have the Ideal super and sections; some have been 

 on my five hives over two months, but the bees have not 

 yet worked in them at all. The frames are irregularly filled, 

 average two-thirds ; Hframe hives. The books say bait 

 with old or used section-boxes, but I am a beginner, and 

 have only the one kind — new. I can borrow 4% xl/s, but 

 they are no fit, if that makes any dift'erence to bees. 



2. How can I extract honey from comb without an ex- 

 tractor ? It could not always have been done with those 

 machines. I scrape out the honey and comb together with 

 a tablespoon, on each side of the foundation, cut it into a 



dish or pan, and separate it as we eat it. I want to put it 

 into jars. 



3. By the way, the foundation goes to pieces in scrap- 

 ing, though I use great care ; some breaks in carrying to 

 the house, about 20 steps. I use what is called in catalogs 

 "medium brood foundation." I am told it ought to remain 

 good in the frame at least eight years. California. 



Answers. — 1. So long as the brood-frames do not aver- 

 age being more than two-thirds filled, you hardly ought to 

 expect bees to do much in sections. Indeed, without any 

 bait in supers you ought not to expect them to make any 

 start at all until the brood-chamber is filled, and even with 

 bait they will confine their attention in the super to the 

 bait alone until they have more honey than they can get 

 into the brood-chamber. You need not be thwarted in the 

 matter of bait becasue you have no partly filled sections of 

 the right size on hand. If you can get sections of another 

 size, cut out the comb and fasten it into one of your sec- 

 tions. You may even cut a piece of comb with brood in it 

 out of a brood-frame and fasten it in a section for bait. It 

 will not make a desirable section when completed, but noth- 

 ing can be more seductive to the bees in the way of bait. 



2. I don't know of any way by which you can get honey 

 out of a comb without an extractor that will leave the comb 

 intact, unless it be to let the bees empty it. 



3. If I understand you rightly, when you are scraping- 

 the honey away from the septum the latter gives way. 

 Foundation may become dry and brittle through age, but 

 after such foundation is put in use by the bees I doubt its 

 being specially different from other. It is probably not so 

 much brittleness as tenderness of which you complain, and 

 the freshest foundation would have the same fault, the 

 natural comb being still worse. 



Honey-Plant Questions. 



1. Is yellow sweet clover better than white for bees ? 



2. Is crimson clover good for bees ? Does it bloom the 

 first year ? 



3. When is the best time to sow either? 



4. Does cleome bloom the first year ? If so, about what 

 time of the year does it bloom ? Subscriber. 



Answek. — 1. I don't know. Although I have sowed 

 some this year it can not blossom before next year, and 

 there is such a terrible drouth that none of it may be alive. 

 It would be of interest if the readers of this journal, who 

 have had both white and yellow sweet clover, would give 

 us some idea of their relative merits. 



2. It is a fine honey-plant. It is usually sown late in 

 summer, blooming the next season before white or red 

 clover. If sown early in spring, some of it may blossom 

 the same season. 



3. Sow sweet clover about the time of sowing oats in 

 spring ; crimson clover in August. Sweet clover may also 

 be sown in the early fall. 



4. Cleome Integrifolia, or Rocky Mountain bee-plant, 

 if I am not mistaken, blooms the first year toward the latter 

 part of summer. 



Cleaning a Mice-Infested Hive. 



Can a hive be cleaned that has been infested with mice? 

 If so, how ? Wisconsin, 



Answer. — If you mean the combs, the bees will clean 

 them up. If the hive without combs, use soapsuds. 



" The Hum of the Bees in the Apple-Tree Bloom " is 

 the name of the finest bee-keeper's song — words by Hon. 

 Eugene Secor and music by Dr. C. C. Miller. This is 

 thought by some to be the best bee-song j'et written by Mr. 

 Secor and Dr. Miller. It is, indeed, a " hummer." We can 

 furnish a single copy of it postpaid, for 10 cents, or 3 copies 

 for 25 cents. Or, we will mail a half-dozen copies of it for 

 sending us 07ie new yearly subscription to the American 

 Bee Journal at $1.00. 



Please send us Names of Bee-Keepers who do not now 



get the American Bee Journal, and we will send them sam- 

 ple copies. Then you can very likely afterward get their 

 subscriptions, for which work we offer valuable premiums 

 in nearly every number of this journal. You can aid much 

 by sending in the names and addresses when writing us on 

 other matters. 



