April, 1913. 



American "Bae Journal 



also run some risk that the young queen 

 may fail. 



3. I think that has been proven; but I can 

 not now cite the proof. 



4. Early in the season the former plan; at 

 the approach of swarming the latter. 



5. Use a solar wax-extractor. 



6. I tried that once, and the bees wouldn't 

 stay; swarmed out. In other cases, where 

 there was an excess of drone-comb, they 

 reared an excess of drones; but in some 

 cases they narrowed the mouths of the 

 drone-celis and reared workers. 



7. None to speak of; but the bees are 

 likely to find some little vacancy that they 

 can fill with drone-cells. Practically speak- 

 ing, however, there will be no drone-comb if 

 frames are entirely filled with worker foun- 

 dation. 



8. You can do as you suggest, or you can 

 wait until the bees swarm, hive the swarm 

 on the old stand, put the old hive close be- 

 side the swarm, 8 days later move the old 

 hive to a new stand, and 21 days after 

 swarming, when all worker-brood has 

 hatched out. break up the old hive and give 

 the bees to the swarm. 



0, Without any special care I should ex- 

 pect more from the 10 framer, because the 

 colony would likely be stronger. With spe- 

 cial management there may be no difference. 



Increase Without Swartning 



I have two strong colonies of bees; in each 

 hive the brood-chamber is a double lo-frame 

 brood-chamber, making 20 framts to each. 



Now, I wish to know what is the best way 

 to make" increase" of my bees ? I would 

 like to avoid the troubles of the usual 

 swarming, and yet increase my stock. 



Illinois. 



Answer.— Here is one good way : Operate 

 a little before the usual time of swarming in 

 your neighborhood; or, if you wish to take 

 a little more pains, operate after queen- 

 cells are started but before they are sealed, 

 for with tlie first sealing a swarm is likely to 

 issue. Set one of the stories on a new stand 

 putting in it all the frames of brood with ad- 

 hering bees, and leave the rest of the combs 

 and bees with the old queen on the old 

 stand. The hive on the old stand ought to 

 give a good surplus in a good year, and if 

 you want to make more sure of it you can 

 brush back into this hive the bees from 

 half the combs of the other hive. There is, 

 however, some danger of aswaim as soon 

 as the first young queen emerges. You can 

 prevent this by destroying all queen-cells 

 but one. Or, you may prevent it by dividing 

 the brood into two parts, providing you want 

 the increase. 



It may be still better first to put all the 

 brood in the upper story, with an excluder 

 between the two stories and the queen in 

 the lower story. Then, a week later, move 

 the upper story to a new stand. In this 

 case there ought to be no danger of swarm- 

 ing. 



Improving Stock 



I. I would like to know of some simple way 

 to improve my bees, without taking too 

 much time from my other bee-work. 1 pro- 

 duce both comb and extracted honey, but 

 mostly extracted. lam surrounded by box- 

 hive bee-keepers; no chance to get very far 

 away from all of them. My bees are nicely 

 marked Italians, but I do not know how 

 they will compare with the best strains in 

 the country. They were brought here years 

 ago. and natural swarming has scattered 



them all over the country. There has been 

 no new blood introduced since the start. 



2. Will you tell nie some simple way in 

 which I can keep a record of my bees— I 

 mean a record of queens, etc.. to see if 

 there is any improvement in them' 



3. Where could I get Alley's book on 

 queen-rearing? Montana. 



Answers— L The matter is quite simple. 

 Keep track of what your bees accomplish, 

 especially those that are better than the 

 average, and then breed from the best. If 

 you continue this year after year you will 

 not fail of results, even if inferior bees are 

 all around you. It is possible, however, that 

 even the best of your bees are not very 

 good, and in that case it will pay well to 

 send off to some reliable breeder for a bet- 

 ter queen. 



2. I use a cheap blank book, giving to each 

 colony its place, and enter there the impor- 

 tant items, especially the amount of honey 

 each colony yields. That matter I keep in 

 a spot on the page by itself, so that at any 

 time I can glance at it and tell just wliat the 

 colony has done. This credit may be made 

 in the apiary at the time the honey is taken 

 off. For instance, this credit may appear: 

 24, 24. 24, 15. That means I took away 24 sec- 

 tions each time at three different times, 

 and the equivalent of 15 sections at the last 

 time, makings? sections in all. 



3. It is out of print, but you will find the 

 Alley queen-rearing method in "The Hive 

 and Honey Bee," latest edition. 



Removing Winter Protection in Spring— Keeping 

 Queens Among the Bees 



1. I have aways hesitated to remove the 

 winter protection chaff tray, etc.) in the 

 early spring in order to examine colonies. 

 As you advocate to take the bees out when 

 hard sweet maple is in bloom, would this 

 also be a good signal to go by for removing 

 the winter packing, or, if not, what would 

 be? 



2. I have always been puzzled how to keep 

 a lot of queens when not having immediate 

 use for them. You stale on page lit about 

 the maximum length of time one could keep 

 queens in cages without danger to their lay- 

 ing powers. I suppose while so caged they 

 do not lay any eggs. Even the interruption 

 in laying while queens are in the mails is 

 said to be harmful. 



3. Suppose one has 3-frame nuclei, could 

 the seven best frames of a colony be added 

 to the nuclei without danger to the nu- 

 clei and queens 'i Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— I. If you will look again you 

 will see that it is the soft maple, not the 

 hard, that usually gives the signal for taking 

 bees out of a cellar. The hard maple blooms 

 a little later. Taking bees out of a cellar is 

 a different affair from taking away the 

 wrappings of those that have been wintered 

 outside. My bees have no wrapping after 

 being brought out, but some think it pays to 

 give them protection after that time. At 

 any rate, if my bees were outdoors and well 

 packed. I would hesitate about unpacking 

 them at the time of maple bloom unless I 

 thought there was danger of their being 

 short of stores, and even then it might be 

 worth while to return the packing until 

 about the time of fruit bloom. 



2. In the case you speak of. the queens 

 were kept in small cages in a small 

 colony. This was in the spring when there 

 was no heavy laying yet. and I doubt it the 

 queens were at all injured by being kept 

 from laying. My guess would be that a 

 queen, or a number of queens, might be thus 



kept safely for a month, perhaps two 

 months, in a queenless colony, or a queen- 

 right colony if the bees would feed her. In- 

 deed, she might be kept in a candied cage if 

 the bees did not feed her, only in that case 

 bees having a queen of their own might be 

 hostile to her, and this nervous irritation 

 might be bad for a queen. I am not sure 

 that it has ever been claimed that the 

 cessation from laying was an injury to 

 queens sent through the mails. It doesn't 

 hurt a queen to remain all winter without 

 laying. Nor is it likely she is injured by 

 ceasing to lay in a dearth long continued. 

 She may be injured by being jarred and 

 frightened in the mails, by -w/i/Av/ cessation 

 from laying, and especially by being flung 

 about when heavy with eggs. 



3. Yes. if the bees had been queenless 

 long enough to be thoroughly aware of 

 their queenlessness. say two days. It would 

 be still safer if the bees were taken from 

 different colonies. 



Brood Combs 



What do you do with the brood comb after 

 it is a few years old ? Do you take it out or 

 leave it in for a life time ? Texas. 



Answer.— I have never taken away a comb 

 from the bees merely on account of its age, 

 no matter how old. So long as a straight 

 worker comb remains in good condition I 

 would rather have it than a new comb. One 

 reason for that is that the bees themselves 

 perfer the old comb. Give them an old 

 black comb side by side with a new comb or 

 a frame filled with comb foundation, and 

 they will always choose the old comb first, 

 either for brood or honey. At least that is 

 the way my bees have done. 



Many others, however, think it well to 

 have the combs renewed every few years, 

 some even going so far as to renew them 

 every 2 years. Especially do they urge this 

 in regions where foul brood prevails. The 

 time preferred for this renewal is in the 

 spring or early summer, the combs taken 

 away being melted. 



Cement Hives— Swarms— Preventing Them— Win- 

 ter Entrance and Packing 



1. I intend to make chaff hives with out- 

 side walls of cement Ji inch thick, and in- • 

 side walls of lumber >« inch thick. The 

 dead air space is to be filled with dry saw- 

 dust. Do you think this hive, with a cement 

 bottom and lumber roof, will answer for 

 summer and winter ? 



2. If I kill the queen to a swarm which 

 has Settled on a tree, will the swarm return 

 to the parent hive ? 



3. Last summer a swarm returned to a 

 hive before I could get it. I had planned to 

 establish a new colony with this swarm, but 

 it went back into the parent hive. I sus- 

 pected the queen was too young. What was 

 the reason the swarm returned ? 



4. I'o prevent swarming. I will shove the 

 pile of supers back so as to make an open- 

 ing of !4 inch for ventilation along the front. 

 Will this prevent swarming and affect the 

 storing of honey ':' 



5. Which is the better, thin boards or bur- 

 lap placed over the brood-chamber for win- 

 tering? Straw or leaves are to be placed 

 above. 



6. Should the thin boards be made tight or 

 have a hole cut in the center ? 



7. Should the entrance be 1x5 inches, with 

 a wire-cloth in it to prevent mice entering ? 



Indiana. 

 Answers.— I. I don't know, but from what 

 little I have read I am afraid you will not 

 like it. Better try it on a small scale, and 



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