May. 1913. 



American Vae Journal 



times ball a queen when they are disturbed, 

 but if left quietly alone they generally re- 

 lease her. Some have thought that the bees 

 ball her to protect her. 



2. Likely it will answer, although a greater 

 space between walls is generally used; say 

 2 or 3 inches. But doubling the space be- 

 tween walls will by no means double the 

 protection. 



Requeening 



1. 1 amthinUingof trying thefollowing plan 

 this season: I \vill find and destroy the old 

 inferior queen and introduce a sealed cell 

 lin a cell-protector) at the same time i re- 

 move the old queen. Can this be done 

 safely? Or had I better «-ait about placine 

 the cell until two or three days after remov- 

 ing the old queen? ,, , -, 



2. If I wait until the colony has cells of its 

 own started, is there not danger that the 

 first queen hatched will swarm in the same 

 manner as an after-swarm, and make me a 

 lot of trouble in that line ? Indiana. 



Answers.— I. Very likely your plan will 

 succeed. Waiting two or three days would 

 make the bees more willing to accept a cell, 

 but in a West cell-protector the cell ought 

 to be safe anyhow. The cell ought to be 

 well advanced. Then if it does not hatch 

 out all right, it will pay to have on hand 

 other cells so that you can destroy all 

 "wild" cells [those that the bees start on 

 their own brood), and give another cell of 

 good stock. 



2. Yes. if there is a good flow of honey, 

 killing the queen will almost certainly re- 

 sult in a "singer-swarm;" that is. a first 

 swarm with a virgin queen. 



after having been on the same spot for 50 

 years. At a guess I should say that 50 colo- 

 nies might be enough for the place you 

 mention. 



5. Full, very full. In a 4M section I use a 

 top-starter 3% inches deep, and a bottom- 

 starter Js-inch deep. 



6. Yes. 



7. Excluders are not needed, because shal- 

 low extracting-frames are used. 



8. This happens only when the bees have 

 been crowded for room below and have 

 found the supers empty. Then the queen 

 takes up her abode above, and the entire 

 colony moves to the super. To avoid this, 

 you should not give a super to the bees 

 when there is no honey crop. Such an oc- 

 currence is very rare anyhow. 



Use of Extractors 



1. I read in the Journal that when clover 

 starts to bloom to transfer all the brood- 

 frames except one to the super, leaving the 

 queen below and placing an excluder be- 

 tween. Do you think it would have any 

 effect on swarming or the honey harvest ? 



2. We seldom see pollen in the extracting 

 frames. Do you think changing the frames 

 would cause it to be brought up more than 

 it should be ? , , , ., 



3 Do you think it a good plan to put oil- 

 cloth around the hives, leaving an air-space 

 between hive and cloth during hot weather ? 



4. How many colonies would you think 

 best to keep in a country where they raise 

 mostly corn, having little or no pasture 



'and? _ , ,, L . r 



=. Do you use starters or full sheets of 



foundation in your sections ? 

 b. Do you use T-tins in all your section 



7. Does Mr Dadant use excluders ? If not, 

 do the queens use the supers ? 



8. Sometimes we find the brood-frames 

 empty, all having gone up into the supers. 

 Wethought.it might be ants, but we fight 

 them, and there are only a few left. Would 

 it help to put oil-cloth over the brood- 

 frames, as I just don't like to use excluders ? 



Iowa. 



Answers.— I. It would have a great deal to 

 do with swarming. With many bee-keepers, 

 swarming is entirely prevented by putting 

 all but one frame of 'brood above the ex- 

 cluder just before time for .swarming. The 

 colony being thus left undivided does fine 

 work harvesting. But some have reported 

 the plan a failure. 



2. Likely more pollen would be carried 

 up for a week or so, but after that the bees 

 would empty out instead of carrying up. 



3. Some protect the supers in this way to 

 prevent the bees from deserting them dur- 

 ing cool nights, but it is doubtful if it would 

 be a good thing for the hives. 



4. I don't know. That's one of the very 

 hard things to find out, I don't even know 

 what is the best number for my own apiary 



Newspaper Plan for Uniting Swarms 



1. How do you work the newspaper plan 

 for uniting two swarms ? 



2. I have never seen it tried, but I presume 

 one of the queens would have to be de- 

 destroyed. What would be the proper way 

 to manage it ? 



3. Would you approve of the plan of using 

 two brood-chambers, one on top of the 

 other, to enlarge the brood-nest with 8-frame 

 dovetailed hives? I do not wish to keep 

 more than t> or 8 colonies, but I would like 

 to keep them strong. Nebraska. 



Answers.— 1. It is a very simple matter. 

 Take a sheet of common newspaper, spread 

 it over the top-bars of the one hive. Of 

 course the bottom-board will be under the 

 lower hive, and the cover over the upper 

 hive. There will be no sort of entrance or 

 opening into the upper hive, and no bee can 

 get out of it until the bees gnaw a hole 

 through the paper. Within a day or so they 

 will gnaw a hole in the paper big enough for 

 a single bee to pass at a time, and the bees 

 will pass through and mingle so slowly and 

 quietly that there will be no quarieling, 

 gradually tearing away more and more of 

 the paper. In a few days or a week you can 

 put all the frames of brood in one story. 



2. If there is any choice of queens, kill the 

 poorer, otherwise the bees will take care of 

 that matter themselves. It is better if the 

 lower hive remain on its old stand. 



3. Decidedly. It often happens that before 

 the clover harvest is over, a good queen will 

 be hampered in a single 8-frame hive, and 

 then it's a good thing to add the second 

 story. But if you are working for comb 

 honey, you should reduce to one story at 

 the time of putting on supers. That can 

 hardly be said to be reducing the room of 

 the colony— merely giving the room in the 

 super in place of the brood-chamber. 



nearly all die in one and not in the other in 

 winter, and that would make a difference in 

 the amount stored the next summer. 



2. Not if the single-walled hive is well 

 packed. 



Tfie "Put-Hp" Plan 



I do not understand the "put-up" plan as 

 per page 167-8 of " Fifty Years Among the 

 Bees." On page 168 you say, " The cover is 

 put On the supers, and the ' put-up ' hive is 

 filled with brood, and is placed over all ' 



If I were to do this I would put a solid 

 board over the supers. Then I suppose you 

 mean to place the brood-chamber of the 

 " put-up ■ hive directly over all. But there 

 would not be any place for the bees to get 

 out. 



Should a queen-excluding board be over 

 the supers .■' Or if a solid board, would I 

 have to arrange the brood-chamber on top 

 so as to leave an entrance for the bees to get 

 out.' Pennsylvania. 



Answer.— You have it straight until you 

 say, " I suppose you mean to put the brood- 

 chamber of the 'put-up' hive over all." I 

 think the whole thing will become clear if 

 you note that I do not say " brood-chamber," 

 but that the "hive" is placed overall, and 

 then remember that ordinarily when we talk 

 about a hive we mean not merely the brood- 

 chamber or hive-body, but the bottom- 

 board along with it. 



To be specific about it. the lower hive has 

 placed on it the super, or supers, and these 

 are covered up just as they would be if no 

 other hive was to be placed over. Then on 

 top of this is placed the put-up hive with its 

 bottom-board and its cover. This, you will 

 see, leaves an entrance for the bees in the 

 upper hive, just as there would be if, instead 

 of being put up. it were set on a stand down 

 on the ground. There is no possible com- 

 munication between the two hives, and if a 

 bee goes from one hive to the other it can 

 only do so by going out at one entrance and 

 going in at the other. 



Double and Single Walled Hives 



I am going to begin bee keepine this spring, 

 and as I desire to start right. I want to ask 

 you for an opinion. 



1. Do the double-walled hives produce 

 more honey than the single walled ? 



2. Are bees wintered out-of-doors better 

 in the former hive than in the latter? 



Pennsylvania, 



.Answers.— I. No; and in general it may 

 be said that differences in hives are more 

 for the convenience of the bee-keeper than 

 for the bees. Looking at it in another way. 

 however, if two hives stand side by side, 

 one with double walls and the other with 

 very thin walls entirely unprotected out 

 doors in a very cold climate, it might be 

 said that more honey would be produced in 

 one than the other, because the bees might 



Stanley Queen-Nursery 



I want to ask about the Stanley nursery 

 for queens. I have Dadant. Hutchinson and 

 Root on bees, but none of them have any- 

 thing about it. I would like to know where 

 one can be procured or how made? lam 

 anxious to have one. Pennsvlv.\nia. 



Answer.— The essential part of a Stanley 

 queen-nursery looks like a cartridge shell 

 for a gun. The shell is made of excluder- 

 zinc, and is 2 inches long, with an inside 

 diameter of H inch. The perforations of 

 the zinc run transversely. It is simply a 

 piece of excluder-zince 2.36 inches long and 

 2 inches wide, rolled up into cylindrical 

 form and soldered together. The two ends 

 are closed by common gun-wads. The work- 

 ers have free entrance to the cylinders, 

 while no queen can enter to make an at- 

 tack. In the little experience I had with 

 them I found that the young queens were 

 sometimes killed by getting caught in the 

 slots, but not often. We have, on the other 

 hand, the advantage over other nurseries 

 that the workers can have free access to 

 the cells, and it is claimed, especially in 

 Europe, that the close contact of the work- 

 ers has a very importannt influence on the 

 occupants of the cells. A number of these 

 cartridges — I think 48— may be contained in 

 an ordinary Langstroth brood-frame, and be 

 put between the brood-combs in a hive. 

 They can probably be had from the inventor. 

 Don't hesitate to ask all the questions you 

 like. You are quite right in thinking that 

 the answers may be of benefit to others. 



30 



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