242 



July. !!li:! 



American IBae Journal 



the moth being in the sections when taken 

 from the hive. I brimstoned the sections 

 perhaps two weeks after they were taken 

 from the hive, and then two weeks later to 

 kill the little fellows that had not yet haPChed 

 out at first fumigation. Then there was no 

 further trouble. Italian blood was the cure 

 for that, for since introducing Italians I 

 have not needed to fumigate. It is possible. 

 however, that even with Italians there may 

 be trouble in your climate. If so, the sec- 

 tions should be treated with carbon disul- 

 fide as soon as convenient after being taken 

 from the hives. That kills eggs as well as 

 larvae, and no second fumigation will be 

 needed. Then after that there should be 

 no trouble if the sections are kept in a room 

 preferably ventilated and more or less ex- 

 posed to the heat of the sun. 



Keeping Old Combs 



Is there any way to keep old combs until 

 enough accumulate to pre5S ? It seems to 

 be quite a task to keep them from the moths 

 without keeping them in an air-light box 

 with bisulfide of carbon. Could 1 keep ihem 

 in a barrel with water ? Louisiana. 



Answer.— I have very little trouble keep- 

 ing combs, but it may be very different in 

 your southern climate. If a colony dies in 

 winter, the combs are practically certain to 

 become wormy when weather becomes 

 warm enough, or if a comb is taken from a 

 colony, it is the same thing. But if that set 

 of eggs and larva; .ire gotten rid of. the 

 combs will not very likely be disturbed 

 if they stand in a hive all summer long, espe- 

 cially if spaced apart pretty well. In a cel- 

 lar they are ^afe. after fumigation, all sum- 

 mer long, and even if not fumigated, the 

 "worms" will develop very slowly in the 

 cellar. 



But it may not work that way with you. 

 You might keep them as you suggest in a 

 barrel ol water after being fumigated with 

 carbon disulfide, but a barrel would hold 

 only a few combs. You could, however, 

 warm them in the sun or otherwise and 

 then mash them down into balls, in which 

 shape a barrel would hold a lot. Or. you 

 could out the balls in tightly sealed paper 

 bags. Also you might have a solar extractor 

 into which you would throw pieces of comb 

 as fast as they accumulate, saving the slum- 

 gum, which would take little room, until you 

 were ready to press it. 



TransierrinE 



.■\n uncle has 4 colonies of bees in bo.\- 

 hives. equal in size to a 12-trame Langstroth 

 hive. He wanted them transferred, and 

 offered me the strongest colony ot the 4 it 1 

 would transfer them. 



1 am an enthusiastic beginner, and like all 

 enthusiastic beginners, likely to have ovei- 

 confidence. The first thing to uo was to 

 make a neat little forcing box. and tlien 

 gently lift the box hive from its stand and 

 carrv it about a rod, as per directions, and 

 turn it upside down, placing the forcing box 

 on top. I was greatly elated, for scarcely an 

 angry bee Hew out. Now came a period of 

 drumming on the old hive, and anxious 

 glances at the watch, with an occasional 

 peep into the box. We drummed for an 

 hour, then carefully raised the forcing box 

 and looked in. and, lo' there was about a 

 dozen bees in the forcing box. The rest 

 were clustered, part on top of the co.-nbs 

 and part between the combs near the top. 

 Now the question is, why didn't they go up 

 into the forcing box ? Will you please help 



n>e out ? ,.,,,, J L 



The uncle is rather old fogy, and when 

 the bees wouldn't enter the forcing box he 

 was ready with his "I told you so." which 

 somewhat discouraged me. While only a 

 beginner. I have had considerable expe- 

 rience with bees, but never transferred any. 

 I gathered up all my old bee journals and 

 books, and read everything I could find, but 

 other bee-keepers' experience seemed to 



fail on this stubborn colony. I propose to 

 try to drum them again, and if they won t 

 drum out. break the old hive open and cut 

 the bees and combs out together. 



Would you advise transferring them now. 

 comb and all. or during the while clover 

 fiow. and use Heddon's short method ? 

 Wouldn't the Heddon method answer the 

 same purpose as the shook cwarming pro- 

 cess ? Of course 1 would use full shfets of 

 foundation if I used the Heddon method. 

 West Virginia. 



Answer —It is quite possible that you were 

 too gentle in your drumming. Perhaps also 

 you did it in cool or cloudy weather. Some 

 say the bees go up better if the forcing box 

 be not closed down tightly, but merely rest- 

 ing on one edge and left about half open. In 

 either case, if the bees persisted in remain- 

 ing on their combs in spite of smoke and 

 drumming, you could proceed to cut open 

 the box and cut out the combs just as if you 

 had drummed out the bees, smoking and 

 brushintr them out of the way both before 

 and after cutting out the combs, which is 

 just what you say you propose to do. Yes. 

 the Heddon short plan is better, and has the 

 same effect as shaking a swarm. Still bet- 

 ter, in the opinion of many, is it to wait till 

 the bees swarm, hive the swarm in the risjht 

 kind of a hive, and 21 days later cut up the 

 old hive. 



Transferring Bees 



In the March number of the American 

 Bee Journal I read an article telling how to 

 transfer bees. I would like to transfer one 

 of my colonies, but I am lacking the hive- 

 body full of nice combs. As I am only a be- 

 ginner, what can I do ? Illinois. 



Answer.— You cannot very well use the 

 plan just as given by Mr. Wilder, as there 

 are to be combs in the empty hive above to 

 attract the bees so they will go up of their 

 own accord. To be sure, you can use frames 

 filled with foundation, but the bees will be 

 much more slow about going up into these. 

 But you might drum the bees up. and when 

 nearly all the bees are in the upper lii\e put 

 the excluder between the two stories. Then 

 in 3 or 4 days you can see whether the queen 

 has laid any eges above. But I will tell you 

 what you can do that will be ahead of the 

 empty combs. I take it that although you 

 have no empty combs you have one or more 

 colonies in movable-comb hives. Well, get 

 a frame of brood from one of these, replac. 

 ingitwith a frame filled with foundation, 

 and put this in your upper story filled out 

 with foundation. As soon as you find eggs 

 above but not until after 3 days, for it will 

 be 5 days before all the eggs hatch that you 

 took with the brood; slip in your excluder. 



Queens from Queen-Celts 



In dividing strong colonies and making 

 new ones by placing young brood in a hive 

 and setting it in place of a strong colony, 

 when is the best time lo give a new colony 

 queen-cells? Last season I made several 

 divides. A few days after I discovered in 

 the first one 6 or 8 fine queen-cells which I 

 carefully cut out and placed in other new 

 hives. A few weeks later I discovered those 

 colonies were queenless and dwindling. 

 Apparently the queen-cells had been torn 

 out. and in the fall nearly all those colonies 

 were dead and filled with moths. Utah. 



Answer.— To rear queen-cells you should 

 take a time when everything is favorable for 

 brood-rearing, and they should be reared by 

 nurse-bees that are in the humor for rearing 

 queen-cells. A worker changes from a 

 nurse-bee to a field-bee when about 16 days 

 old. I gather from your letter that you put 

 young brood in a hive and set it in place of 

 a colony which you removed to a new stand. 

 The returning field-bees would occupy the 

 brood-comb, and in their desperation would 



start Queen-cells. But feeding young bee 

 is not the business of bees who have grad- 

 uated from nursing to field-work, and of 

 course you could not expect good work from 

 them. If you had taken from a colony its 

 queen you would have found these bees thus 

 made queenless would have made a differ- 

 ent job from that made by field-bees alone. 



Less Distance Between Frames 



I suggest that instead of the jo-frame hive 

 being made wider. Ihat the fiamesbemade 

 i-i** of an inch narrower, which would leave 

 ?8 of an inch more extra room than there is 

 now. So as not to greatly decrease the 

 space between the tc»p-bars it would prob- 

 ably be good to haie the top-bars at least 

 i-?2 of an inch narrower than they now are. 

 I believe frames i 5-it' inches wide would be 

 plenty wide enough. California. 



Answer.— I diin't believe you would like 

 the plan If you had loose-hanging frames 

 it might do. and in that case there would be 

 no need to make frames any narrower. But 

 nowadays fixed-distance frames are mostly 

 in use, and i-H from center to center is as 

 little as ought to be allowed. Indeed some 

 prefer i!i. You say, "I believe frames i 5-J6 

 inches widewocld bewideenough." Ishould 

 say so! I think nc one has them wider than 

 I'A. Evidently yoii mean the space from 

 center to center, ard.as already said, I don't 

 think you would be satisfied with less than 

 i-i If you should try t. better try it on a 

 very small scale. 



Transmitting European Foul Brood in Honey 



Are the germs of European foul brood 

 transmitted by honey, or. in other words, 

 would a frame of sealed or unsealed honey 

 with no brood from an infected colony in- 

 fect a healthy one - Illinois. 



.\NS\vER —I ///////(■ it wojld in some cases. 

 I i/wzcthal in some cases it does not. I would 

 have little fear of surplus honey from an in- 

 fected colony I woulc not feci quite so 

 safe about a brood-conib. even if it con- 

 tained no brood With American foul brood 

 the case is different, flowever. in either 

 case I should prefer both honey and combs 

 that had never beer, within a mile of a foul- 

 broody hive. 



Removing Brood to Prevent Swarming 



I have 3 colonies of bees I made my start 

 last spring with one Two of my colonies 

 are extra good, win good laying queens. 

 They are now very strong. The other colony 

 is not so strong, and vi^ry 11 -tie brood at this 

 date. "This being a siray swarm. I fear the 

 queen is old I can sirengthen it with other 

 brood, yet I would like to requeen. 



1. When my 2 strong colonies make queen- 

 cells preparing to swarm, could I divide 

 them equally and give the weak colony a 

 frame with one of tlie queen-cells ? 



2. If I remove the old queen before giving 

 the queen cell, would the bees destroy the 

 cell ? 



3. How would this plan work with the 2 

 strong colonies: Take Irom each 3 frames 

 of brood and adhering bees, and place the n 

 frames in a new hive, adding 2 frames of 

 foundation? Would the 6 frame nucleus 

 make a good colony ? 



4 If I should do this would it prevent the 

 strong colonies from swarming as much as 

 equal dividing? What 1 want is to keep 

 down swarming with as little increase as 

 possible. Nebraska. 



Answers— I. Yes, givine the comb with 

 queen cell would be all right; as to the 

 division see the other answers 



J No. but you must remove the old queen 

 at least a day before giving the cell. 



3. It would make a good colony for winter 

 —of course with the understanding that one 

 or more queen cells are present— but it 

 would amount to little or nothing for sur. 

 plus l-oney. unless from a good late flow-, as 



