June, 1913. 



American IBae Journal 



down to the bottom-bar by the aid of foun- 

 dation splints. 



4. Sure. She fertilizes all but the drone- 

 eggs. 



5. Yes. provided bees mature from the 

 transferred etigs. 



Sealed Cavers— Re-stocking 



I am a young bee-keeper. I had 7 colonies 

 last fall, and put all of them under cover on 

 the south side of a shop. I thought they 

 would be good and strong in the spring, but 

 when I set them out last week I found only 

 2 alive. These are good and strong, f had 

 sealed covers on them, but they looked as if 

 they had been pretty damp. They all had 

 plenty of stores except one. 



1. Do you think the dampness killed them? 

 What plan \vould you suggest for me to take 

 next winter '^ 



2. I want to get more bees on the combs 

 than I have now. Would it be best to order 

 them by the pound from some of the south- 

 ern States ? Please advise me which is the 

 best way to stock up. as I am very anxious 

 to have a small apiary. Illinois. 



Answers.— I. Likely the dampness had 

 much to do with it. With only a single 

 thickness of board for a cover, it would get 

 quite cold, and the moisture from the bees 

 would condense on it and fall in drops on 

 the bees. To avoid this, have a super or 

 some kind of a rim over the hive, and have 

 this filled with rags, crumpled newspapers, 

 planer shavings, or something of the kind: 

 this filling resting on burlap which is directly 

 over the frames. Even with the covers just 

 as you had them, you could pile a lot of 

 packing on top of the covers, and this would 

 help a great deal, for it would make the 

 sides of the hive colder than the cover, and 

 the moisture would settle on the sides in- 

 stead of on top. It would be a good plan for 

 you to find within lo or 20 miles experienced 

 beekeepers who winter successfully, and 

 find how they winter. 



2. That depends upon what you can buy 

 them for near home. Find out what that is. 

 and the., compare with what they would 

 cost from the South. If you find it better to 

 buy near home, then you can use your empty 

 hives for swarms. 



Number of Frames in a Super— Miscellaneous 

 Questions 



1. How many frames would you advise 

 [Hitting in a lo-frame extracting super in or- 

 der to get nice, thick combs, using full 

 sheets of foundation ? I think it is easier to 

 uncap thick combs. Will not bees build 

 brace or bur combs if the extracting frames 

 are too far apart ? 



2. Which would be the best way to put in 

 screws on the bottom-board so you can get 

 the best results out of the bottom-board 

 when using hive-hooks, and arrange it so 

 you can always have the bottom tight 

 against tlie body so you can use an Alexan- 

 der feeder uuderneath at the end of the 

 hive, and so either side of .the bottom-board 

 could be used, leaving the feeder under the 

 hive the wFiole season ? Which are better, 

 hive-hooks or hive-staples ? 



1. What kind of foundation is best to use 

 in the extracting frames ? 



4. Will a virgin queen sting a person who 

 is handling her ? S. Dakota. 



Answers.— I. Either q or 8 frames will 

 work well. No trouble with combs built be- 

 tween in either case. If only 8 frames are 

 used, it will increase the space between 

 combs only about '3 inch, and bees will 

 not start an extra comb in so small a space. 



2. I have had almost no experience with 

 hive-hooks, and a great deal with staples. 

 The staples work well. Whether the hooks 



would work enough better to pay^tor the'ex- 

 tra expense I don't know. 



3. If you use shallow extracting-frames. 

 you can use light brood foundation, only 

 you must be careful about turning the ex- 

 tractor too fast while the combs are new. 

 Indeed you can use light brood with full- 

 depth frames if you turn the extractor 

 slowly, extracting only a part of each side 

 and then reversing. 



4. No. 



Advantage of Two Supers 



How much of a disadvantage is there as to 

 supers in comb-honey production, when 

 from lack of numbers of same only one is 

 on a hive, and that being fjll. the hive is 

 without a super for say 2 or ? hours, that it 

 takes to empty the super and put in new- 

 sections ? Two hours may seem long for 

 that, but an account should be taken that 

 there may be more than one hive to be re- 

 lieved, and that one makes one thing of 

 emptying all, supers, cleaning and fitting 

 and then replacing all. This compared with 

 having two supers, so that while one is off 

 the other remains on. So doing, of course, 

 the colonies, for the few hours that the su- 

 pers are re organized, are out of work ex- 

 cept in the brood-chambers. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer.— I have some doubt whether 

 there would be any appreciable difference 

 bet\veen putting on the empty super at the 

 time of taking off the full one and a delay of 

 2 or 3 hours. During that delay the fielders 

 would keep right on at work, only there 

 would be a little coneest«on in the brood- 

 chamber. But I would count either way 

 wasteful; that is. I would count it wasteful 

 to let a good colony have only one super at a 

 time to work on. In the heart of a good 

 harvest I would count it a poor colony in my 

 apiary that would not be working on 48 to 72 

 sections at a time. Each colony will have 4 

 supers oflener than b. and sometimes a col- 

 ony will have as many as 7 supers at a time. 



Cell-Protectors and Nurseries 



1. In rearing queens, do you use cell-pro- 

 tectcrs ? If so. give the plan. I am told by 

 a bee-man that by using them I can hatch 6 

 to 10 in one nucleus, that the bees will feed 

 them, and that I can then turn them out one 

 at a time and remove as fast as they are 

 mated. If you don't like that plan how 

 would it do to hatch them, then put them in 

 the queenless hives and nuclei to mate? 

 Will not the queenless colonies accept them 

 while virgins ? 



2. What kind of a cell-protector do you 

 think is the best? How many days before 

 hatching should they be put over the cells •" 



Kentucky. 

 Answers.— I. Let us be careful to dis- 

 criminate between a queen-cell protector 

 and a nursery. The West queencell pro- 

 tector protects all of the cell except the tip. 

 The workers will not tear open the tip end 

 of a Queen-cell. but the protector does not 

 hinder the young queen from emerging and 

 running at large in the hive. On the other 

 hand, no virgin can get out of a compart- 

 ment of a nursery, nor can any bee get into 

 it. except in the case of the Stanley nursery, 

 which allows the passageof workers but not 

 queens. I have never made much use of 

 queen-cell protectors, and they cannot be 

 used in the w-ay you say, for any or all 

 queens can get out of the protectors and kill 

 each other. I have made a good deal of use 

 of the Miller nursery, and a queen-nursery 

 can be used in the way you mention, at least 

 to a certain extent; that is, the virgins can 

 be allowed to emerge from their cells, and 



you can remove them as you wish. But they 

 cannot be mated, and must be removed and 

 put in a nucleus or full colony to be mated. 

 The workers cannot always be relied upon 

 to feed the virgins in the nursery, but you 

 can provide them with queen-candy. A 

 queenless nucleus or colony will accept a 

 virgin with proper precautions, but not 

 always so readily as it will accept a laying 

 queen. 



2. I know of only one kind of cell-protec- 

 tor, the West, and I like the Miller nursery 

 best, as might be supposed. The manner of 

 use is very simple: The riper the cell is 

 when confined the better, and I have some- 

 times put in the virgins after emerging from 

 their cells. Of course the cells must be cut 

 from the comb before being put in the nur- 

 sery. A nursery is merely a convenience to 

 hold the cells or virgins until they are 

 wanted, and a virgin can be thus held 10 

 days or more, but the shorter the time the 

 better. 



A Good Location 



How many colonies can I keep in one yard 

 and about how much comb or extracted 

 honey could I get in one year, in this loca- 

 tion, if my bees had good care ? 



I will name 10 of the most important 

 honey-plants: Pussy willow, fruit blooms, 

 raspberry, rock maple, vine maple, wild 

 raspberry, wild blackberry, white and red 

 clover, dandelion and fireweed. The fire- 

 weed lasts from the middle of Inly until 

 frost, and the rock maple grows from 6 

 inches to 4 feet in diameter. It sounds like 

 a swarm when the bees are working on the 

 two. Besides these fiowers I have named 

 there are 20 or more which the bees work 

 o".-. Bee-pasture lasts from April 15 to the 

 middle of September. 



There w'ere many wild bees here, and I 

 have found as many as iiswarmsin oneday- 

 but now they are pretty well cleaned out. 

 Washington. 



Answer.— That's a fine list of honey- 

 plants, and if the white clover, wild rasp- 

 berry are abundant, you ought to have no 

 trouble in keeping too colonies and getting 

 in a good year 100 pounds of comb honey or 

 150 of extracted per colony. But that is on 

 the supposition that they have the best at- 

 tention, and not merely attention at swarm- 

 ing time. 



Questions About Queens • 



1. Is there any way to tell how good the 

 queen is in a weak colony, during brood- 

 rearing? 



2. Is there any way to tell whether queen- 

 cells are built for swarming or for super- 

 seding.-' 



3. If a young queen is given to a colony in 

 the spring, will swarming be retarded, and 

 if so. to what extent ? That is. how much 

 more crowding will they stand, or the re- 

 verse r Arizona. 



Answers.— I. No. She may lay enough 

 eggs to keep a weak colony supplied, but 

 not enough for a strong colony. Yet even in 

 a weak colony a very poor queen may not 

 keep the cells filled with eggs in an orderly 

 manner, but will skip more or less cells. 

 Even in a strong colony you cannot tell how- 

 good a queen is merely by looking at her 

 brood. The most prolific queen is not by 

 a'ty means always the best. To learn how 

 good a queen is you must wait to see how 

 much honey her bees will store compared 

 with others. 



2. No. But you can often make a good 

 guess. Ifio. 12. or more are started, it is a 

 pretty safe guess that swarming is contem- 

 plated, especially if at the usual time for 



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