726 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Nov. 14, 141 1. 



shine, and all the heat comes from the 

 bees. 



HIVING A SW.\RM WITH A NUCLEUS. 



" When a swarm issues with a clip- 

 ped queen, if the hive with the clipped 

 queen be removed and replaced by a 

 hive containing a nucleus, will the re- 

 turning swarm kill the queen in the 

 nucleus?" 



W. L,. Coggshall — If you get foreign 

 bees with a strange queen, they will 

 kill it invariably. 



Dr. Mason — That is, if it is a swarm 

 that has gone out, and they come back 

 to a nucleus that has a queen, will they 

 kill that queen? 



\V. L. Coggshall — Strange bees are 

 quite apt to kill another queen. 



Mr. Betsinger — My opinion is that 

 they wouldn't kill the queen, for the 

 very reason that the nucleus wouldn't 

 let them. 



Mr. Wilcox — My experience is that 

 they will not, nine times out of ten. 



Mr. West — If I had swarming that 

 way, with a nucleus, after removing 

 the old colony, when the swarm re- 

 turns I would shake the nucleus bees 

 off on the ground and let them return 

 with the swarm. When the swarm is 

 returning the old queen has been 

 caged, and removed. Shake the 

 nucleus — bees, queen and all — and let 

 them all run in together, and all is 

 well. 



Mr. McEvoy — I don't think you can 

 do any better if you talk a whole after- 

 noon to discuss the question. 



Mr. Tyrrell — I would like to ask if a 

 little smoke applied to that nucleus 

 wouldn't produce the same effect as 

 shaking the bees? 



Mr. Wilcox — Before the others re- 

 turned I have often poured them down 

 from the hiving-box, smoked thfe 

 nucleus and united them with weak 

 swarms. 



Mr. Heise — When that swarm re- 

 turns, having lost their queen, there is 

 very little fight in them. They will 

 accept almost anything — glad to get a 

 home. 



Dr. Mason — If Mr. Betsinger is cor- 

 rect in that matter, and the nucleus will 

 protect the queen, and you smoke that 

 nucleus, that takes the protect out of 

 them, doesn't it? 



KNOWING WHBTHER A VIRGIN OUEKN IS 

 PRESENT. 



" How can I tell whether there is a 

 virgin queen in a hive if I cannot find 

 her?" 



F. J. Miller — There is no way that 

 I know except to wait a few days and 

 look for larvae or eggs. 



W. L. Coggshall — You will see the 

 bottom of the cells polished out where 

 the brood-nest is. 



Mr. Cook — Place a frame of brood in 

 it and wait three days. 



Mr. Davidson — They make a queen- 

 less noise. 



Mr. Benton — Watch the entrance 

 just at sundown after they have lost 

 their virgin queen and they will be 

 running excitedly about seeking for 

 the queen. I want to ask Mr. Cogg- 

 shall if the bees begin to polish out 

 these worker-cells before the time ap- 

 proaches for the queen to begin laying 

 eggs. They will begin to remove the 

 honey and polish out the cells, but they 

 will not do it until near the time she is 

 about to lay. The point would be, I 

 suppose, not to lose any time waiting 

 for that time. 



W. L. Coggshall— That would give 

 you warning that she is there. 



SELECTING LAKV-li FOR OUKEN-RE.^RING 



" When a colony is made queenless 

 will the bees, in their haste to rear a 

 successor, select larvae too old to se- 

 cure the best results?" 



Mr. Davidson — I think it is very sel- 

 dom that the bees select that kind of 

 larva;. I have noticed it only a few 

 times in my experience with bees, that 

 they have selected larva; too old. I 

 have seen some hatched out about the 

 ninth day and it didn't look as well as 

 it would if reared from younger larva?. 

 I think that it is very seldom that the 

 bees make that mistake. 



Mr. Benton — I agree with Mr. David- 

 son. The conditions under which they 

 do select rather too old larvje seem to 

 be when the colony is weakened by 

 anj' means; for instance, it is a small 

 colony, or what might be called only a 

 nucleus, but a colony in good condition 

 and gathering honey rapidly, will 

 rarely make a mistake and get the 

 larvae too old. 



Mr. West — In regard to removing a 

 queen from a colony of bees, I have an 

 apiary of about 80 colonies that about 

 June 1 and about the time the swarm- 

 ing begins, I remove the queens from 

 these colonies of bees and on about the 

 10th day I again remove all the queen- 

 cells that are started in that apiary. I 

 save the choicest cells for rearing 

 queens, and from those cells I rear 

 young queens which are replaced 

 again in those colonies about four days 

 later. We do that to control swarming. 

 We have other objects in view, and 

 through several years of selecting our 

 best cells in that way, we rear about 

 as many queens again as we need, and 

 we make a selection again by using the 

 best queens according to our judgment. 

 I have never had better results in any 

 apiary than I have had by getting my 

 queens in this way. 



HOW LONG TO REAR A QUEEN? 



" How long from the laying of the 

 egg to the emerging of the queen?" 



Mr. West — 16 days, generally. 



Mr. Betsinger — It varies from 15 to 

 17. The largest colonies getting the 

 most honey will produce queens that 

 will mature quicker than smaller colo- 

 nies with less honey. 



Mr. West — If colonies are in a nor- 

 mal condition and everything favor- 

 able it will not vary from 16 days. 



Mr. Benton — It is a question of con- 

 tinuity of heat in the hive, and I agree 

 with Mr. Betsinger in the main. The 

 time varies one wa}' or the other for 

 a number of hours. It may be less 

 than 16 days or a little more than 16 

 days, but in a well-developed colony 

 where the heat is continuous, I think 

 the average time is about 16 days. We 

 find the worker-bees sometimes come 

 out in 19 days and very commonly in 

 continuous heat in the latitude of 

 Washington they emerge on the 20th 

 day from the time the egg is laid, show- 

 ing it is due to steady heat which de- 

 velops more rapidly. 



YIELD OF HONEY PER COLONY'. 



" Which will give the greatest yield, 

 a colony and its swarm, or the same 

 colony if it does not swarm?" 



Mr. Hershiser — It depends entirely 

 upon how early in the season you get 

 the swarm. 



Mr. Greiner — It depends also upon 

 how it develops. If you have a late 

 flow I should say the swarm and the 

 mother colony will produce the most 

 honey, every time. 



Mr. Betsingsr — It depends largely 

 upon who has hold of the helm. 



Mr. McEvoy — It depends a good deal 

 on how you manage the business. 



Mr. Betsinger — I will say to those 

 bee-keepers who can get the most 

 honey out of a colony of bees that does 

 not swarm, they have something to 

 learn. 



A Member — In tny locality they 

 would say no swarming. Keep them 

 together. 



Mr. Niver — I have always contended 

 that I like Carniolan bees because they 

 would swarm. The more they swarm 

 the better. An Italian colony will 

 stop breeding at the time of a honey- 

 flow, and at the end of a late honey- 

 flow, which comes about July 20 with 

 us, if they stop breeding for a month, 

 and we haven't got a good, big colony 

 to commence the buckwheat with, we 

 don't get much honey. 



W. L. Coggshall — We get more from 

 the increase and the colonies divided. 



Mr. Greiner — Would that apply to 

 your colony through two or three 

 swarms? 



Mr. Niver — Perhaps that is stating 

 it a little strong. When you get sec- 

 ond and third swarms you are weaken- 

 ing your colonies all around. I always 

 like the Carniolan bees because they 

 swarm. 



Mr. McEvoy — Couldn't we divide this 

 question up a little? When the honey- 

 flow ends early and they have no 

 buckwheat, how can I manage the bus- 

 iness to get the most honey from one 

 colony? 



Mr. Betsinger — We have on record 

 colonies producing from 600 to 800 

 pounds — single colonies. Now, then, 

 was there ever more honey produced 

 from a first mother colony and its in- 

 crease — extracted honey? 



Mr. McEvoy — Was there buckwheat 

 in that localit)'? 



Mr. Betsinger — A moderate supply 

 of everything right through. 



Mr. Benton — ^I think, perhaps, it 

 might be interesting in this connection 

 to speak of the practice in Carniola 

 itself. It is a great buckwheat coun- 

 try. There are mi'es upon miles of 

 buckwheat there. The whole practice 

 of the bee-keepers there is to stimulate 

 their colonies to the utmost in the 

 spring and right through the swarm- 

 ing season by feeding them — feeding 

 them at times when I wouldn't think 

 of feeding at all; when the bees are 

 still gathering they rush them forward 

 by great stimulation. The point is to 

 get them to cast t%vo or three swarms 

 from each colony, to get them into 

 condition for the buckwheat harvest, 

 and they get excellent results, and bet- 

 ter, I think, than they would by pre- 

 venting the swarming, in that region. 

 The largest yield on record was where 

 there was considerable swarming — 

 seven or eight colonies taken from 

 one — and all got in condition for a fall 

 harvest, not a buckwheat harvest; that 

 is, of Mr. B. F. Carroll, of Texas, 

 which was 1,000 pounds. 



Mr. West — The question depends 

 upon so many circumstances. If we 

 have but a very few bees in the apiary 

 and they are strong and well-to-do in 

 the early spring, let them swarm and 



