Aug-. 29, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOUKNAL. 



551 



always from larvw ; and an egg could not be too old unless 

 dead. Neither would they start a queen-cell from too old a 

 larva if constantly supplied as you say with fresh eggs. 

 But the presence of eggs and _voung brood would be no help 

 toward the acceptance of a queen, for they might think 

 they could rear a queen of their own, and thus reject the 

 one offered. 



If you want to take the trouble, you can make the 

 acceptance of a queen a sure thing. Take two or three 

 frames of just-hatching brood, with no unsealed larvae, put 

 them in a hive without any bees, put in the queen and shut 

 the hive up bee-tight, and keep it for live days in a warm 

 place in the house, or over a strong colony with wirecloth 

 between, so that the heat but no bees can pass up through. 

 You can make sure of frames of the right kind of brood by 

 putting frames of brood eight days in advance in an upper 

 story over a queen-excluder. 



Late Swarming. 



July 25 I opened hive No. 1 and killed the queen ; July 

 27 I gave a new queen to the colony, and Aug. 10 this same 

 colony swarmed. I caught the queen and had the bees to 

 return to their hive. Two days later I opened the hive and 

 found one queen-cell ; I cut it out, and handed it to my 

 daughter, when, to her surprise, the queen left the cell and 



was born, as it were, in her little hand. I caged the young 

 queen and returned the old one. 



1. Now, why did they swarm so late, when the flow is 

 almost over with us here in Pennsylvania, and starvation 

 staring them in the face ? 



2. Is the young queen of any value to me, as I see no 

 drones flying any more ? Pennsyi.vani.\. 



Answers. — 1. You do not say whether you know that 

 the queen which you caught Aug. 10 was the same one you 

 introduced or not. It is possible it was the same, and that 

 the bees were nearly ready to swarm when you introduced 

 her, but the break in laying postponed their action. The 

 flow being near its close would not hinder the swarming, 

 so long as the flow continued, for the bees might expect it 

 to continue indefinitely. If, however, it was a normal 

 prime swarm, the old queen issuing with the swarm, a 

 young queen would hardly have issued from the cell so 

 soon as two days after the issuing of the swarm. It is 

 more likely that the queen you introduced was killed, and 

 that a young queen issued with the swarm, for when young 

 queens are reared upon the killing of a queen, the colony is 

 likely to swarm when it might have had no notion of 

 swarming if the old queen had remained. Bees seem to be 

 more reckless about swarming with a virgin than with a 

 laying queen. 



2. The young queen is probably all right. Even when 

 you think all the drones are killed off, a few are still likely 

 to be flying until cold weather actually comes. Indeed, 

 they are sometimes allowed to go into winter quarters. 



Fall Transferring. 



I have several colonies of bees, purchased in box-hives, 

 and I want to transfer them to dovetail hives. Would you 

 advise me to do so immediately, or would it be preferable to 

 wait until spring ? California. 



Answer. — You will probably do well to wait till spring. 



An Introducing and Swarming Experience. 



1. I had a colony swarm a week ago (June IS,) and when 

 I hived them everything seemed to go all right. But, alas, 

 towards evening they killed their queen, so I let it stand a 

 day and I introduced a laying queen. But they killed her, 

 too, so I was almost crazy, because it was a valuable queen. 

 So I got a little hybrid queen, laid her above the frame for 

 a day, and then I put her in an introducing-cage, but they 

 would not eat her out. So I let her out myself, and she 

 went to laying. Now the point is this : Yesterday they 

 cast a big swarm. What was the object of their swarm- 

 ing? They had the old queen with them, because she was 

 ''lipped. They have five sealed queen-cells. They had 

 supers on, and lots of ventilation, and they had not worked 

 in the super very much. 



2. Do you think they will go right to business ? There 

 was a flow from basswood and button-ball. Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. When a strange queen is 

 introduced, either because the bees are not quite satisfied 

 with her, or for some other reason, they very often start 

 queen-cells, and when these cells are sealed they sometimes 

 swarm. But if I understand you correctly, these cells were 

 in the hive of the swarm, and they were sealed within a 

 week after the swarm was hived. This could not be, unless 

 you gave a frame of brood to the swarm, in which case cells 

 were probably started at once when the brood was given. 

 Of course, these cells were not started from the egg, but 

 over larvie already there, and cells being called post-con- 

 structed or emergency cells. 



2. Very likely they will now settle down to business. 



Queenie Jeanette is the title of a pretty song in sheet 

 music size, written by J. C. Wallenmeyer, a musical bee- 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. 



