August, 1SI13, 



American Hea Jonrnal | 



therein the beeless brood. In the course of 

 an hour or so enough bees will have gone up. 

 when you take the brood away with no risk 

 of taking the queen. Of course, you can 

 shake back part of the bees if more have 

 gone up than you want. 



2, So far as losing the queen is concerned. 

 I think it makes very little difference. Even 

 if it were the other way. and there should 

 be just a little more danger of losing the 

 queen when sitting, I should still prefer to 

 have a comfortable seat. A person of youth 

 and vigor may stand it towork all day stand- 

 ing up. but he can stand it at least a little 

 better to sit down. I think I am lasting 

 longer because I made a practice of sitting 

 in my younger days. But I think the queen 

 is a little bit safer when you are sitting. 



3. Left to itself, the mother colony with a 

 lot of queen cells will be likely to send out 

 one or more after-swarms. If there should 

 be a cessation of the honey-flow, that might 

 discourage further swarming. There is no 

 such thing as a virgin failing on her wed- 

 ding-trip and a younger sister taking her 

 place. When the first virgin emerges from 

 her cell, she makes it her business to slaugh- 

 ter all her baby sisters in their cradles be- 

 fore making her wedding-trip. If the work- 

 ers allow this, there will be no more swarm- 

 ing. If the workers stand guard over the 

 royal youngsters and prevent the young 

 queen from killing them, then she will issue 

 with a swarm. The thing for you to do is 

 to move the old hive away just a little be- 

 fore it is time for the second swarm to issue. 

 Never mind about that right-angled business. 

 When the prime swarm issues put it on the 

 old stand with the mother close beside it. 

 Then a week or so later move the mother 

 close beside it. Then a week or so later 

 move the mother to a new stand lo feet or 

 more away. That will deplete the mother 

 of all its field-force, and the workers will 

 feel so discouraged that they will allow the 

 oldest virgin to finish the others. 



European Foul Brood 



We would like very much to have you give 

 your experience with Kuropean foul brood. 

 We find that the blacks get it the worst in 

 the [najority of cases. We have been re- 

 queening with Italians the past two years, 

 but that does not seem to help much; our 

 home yard, where we have the best blood, 

 seems to be the worst. 



The disease appears about May i in this 

 locality in a few old cells; mostly those that 

 are capped over. About May 15. we find a 

 few bad cases where the white larva; has 

 died, and from May 15 up to July i there are 

 very few if any colonies that do not show a 

 few diseased cells. We may go through a 

 colony and find only a few cells, and within 

 the next 10 days all the brood will be dead. 

 It is worse this year than we ever saw it be- 

 fore. We have had a light, slow honey-flow 

 since the first of May. 



We are practicing your plan mostly, mak- 

 ing the colony queenless for 10 or 15 days, 

 then giving a ripe cell or virgin. But where 

 the case is bad the bees will not clean up 

 before the queen commences to lay. Even 

 if they do the colony will not build up in 

 time for the honey-flow, and the next year 

 they will catch it as quickly as the rest. 



We divided one colony that did not show 

 any disease, leaving three frames of larvae 

 andqueen on the old stand. The brood and 

 bees we set to one side and gave a queen 

 from a diseased colony, and while it shows 

 a few cells, it is strong enough to work in 

 the super. Thecolony with the three frames 

 of brood and the queen took the disease 

 and had to be treated. 



None of the colonies are "boiling over" 

 with bees as they should be. We have 

 about 000 colonies to care for. and it looks 

 rather discouraging. Any help you could 

 give us on this matter would be greatly ap- 

 preciated Idaho. 



Answer.— I can add very little to what 1 

 have already given in this Journal, unless it 

 be to emphasize the importance of having 



colonies strong, and to add to that the im- 

 portance of being very prompt in treatment. 

 You are quite right that European foul 

 brood is a very persistent disease, and yet 

 for your encouragement I may say that I am 

 getting good crops of honey from colonies 

 that have shown the disease. To be sure, it 

 takes very little European foul brood to pull 

 down the yield of honey, yet at the same 

 time I can refer you to 2 colonies that were 

 affected this year, from each of which I took 

 3 supers of 24 sections each before July 10. 

 with 5 supers still left on each, and others 

 have done nearly as well. The 4 or 5 supers 

 left on the hives in these cases are crammed 

 with bees, unless it be the top one, which 

 may not yet be occupied. 



You say you " may go through a colony and 

 only find a few cells, and within the next 

 todays all the brood will be dead." Don't 

 wait that to days, but treat as soon as you 

 find a few cells. In my apiary a colony that 

 shows a single cell of the disease is at once 

 treated. 



You say. " None of thecolonies are boiling 

 over with bees as they should be." It's your 

 business to make them strong, if you have to 

 unite three into one all over the apiary. 

 You'll gain by it in the long run. If you can- 

 not get them strong enough in a single story, 

 then use two stories or more. 



You say you are practicing my plan mostly 

 of "making the colony queenless for 10 or 15 

 days, then give a ripe cell or virgin." If you 

 will look up my later writings, you will find 

 that is not my plan. The way you are doing 

 leaves the colony without a laying queen. for 

 2oor2S days, which depletes the colony un- 

 necessarily without any compensating good. 

 I think I get as good results by leaving the 

 colonies 8 or 10 days w-ithout a laying queen. 

 If the case is at all bad, and the queen is not 

 vigorous. I kill her. and at the same time 

 give a virgin just hatched or a ripe cell, so 

 that in 8 or 10 days from the time the old 

 queen stopped layingthe new one will begin. 

 But I rarely treat a colony in that way now. 

 for I don't allow a case to get very bad, and 

 the queen will generally be still vigorous. If 

 a case is found early in the spring. I wait 

 until the honey-yield is on. but after that I 

 don't wait after a single diseased cell is 

 found. I cage the queen for 8 days, and that 

 is all there is of the treatment. But there 

 is no use to fool with a weak colony. 



Here's the whole thing in a nutshell; 

 When the How is on, make the colony slraiie. 

 leave its days without eggs being laid in the 

 hive, and in most cases the cure will be 

 complete. 



Not Working in Supers 



I secured a colony of bees this spring. 

 They have swarmed nicely, so I now have 3 

 colonies. The fields are full of white and 

 red clover, but still my bees are not gather- 

 ing honey. What can be the cause of this? 

 Would you advise new queens ? 



Wisconsin. 



Answer.— When bees throw their ener- 

 gies into swarming it interferes with their 

 storing. If your colony had turned its 

 whole attention to storing instead of send 

 ing out those 2 swarms, you'd have had a 

 tidy amount of honey. But with its force 

 divided up into three parts, you may get 

 little from either of the three. But you 

 might have had one swarm and still a fair 

 amount of honey. Here's what to do next 

 time: When the prime swarm issues, hive 

 it and set it on the stand of the parent col- 

 ony. settii\g it close beside the parent. 

 About a week later move the parent away 

 to a new stand. That will throw all the 

 field-bees of the parent into the swarm, and 



the swarm being thus strengthened ought to 

 do good work on the harvest if it is a year of 

 good harvest. Of course, it is possible be 

 side all this that you might have better 

 stock. That's a thing I can't guess about. 

 But it would be a safe venture to risk a dol- 

 lar for an untested Italian queen, and then 

 you could see whether the new blooa would 

 do better than the old. I might add by way 

 of postscript, that if you ever get your bees 

 trained so that they will never think of 

 swarming at all. you can count on a good 

 deal more honey. Let me hasten to add 

 that I have never been able to get all my 

 bees into that way of thinking. Yet there 

 are some of them each year that never start 

 a queen-cell, and they are the ones that give 

 bumper yields. 



Prime Swarms Return to Parent Colony 



My prime swarms invariably, after I hive 

 them, eave the hive and return to the par- 

 ent colony. 



My hives are all new and up to date, and I 

 can t account for this. If you can cast a 

 little light on this subject it will be appre- 

 ciated. Minnesota. 



Answer.— That's just the way my bees do. 

 and it's a good deal better than to have 

 queen, bees, and all going off to return no 

 more. The reason my bees do so is because 

 the queens' wings are clipped so they can- 

 not go with the swarms, and when a swarm 

 finds out the queen is not along there is 

 nothing for it to do but to return to the old 

 home Of course, I don't know anything 

 about it, but as you have things "all new 

 and up to date." my guess would be that you 

 have lately begun bee-keeping, and have 

 bought colonies with queens whose wings 

 have been clipped. If that isn't the right 

 answer, then I don't know what is the an- 

 swer. It occasionally happens, where 

 queens are not clipped, that a swarm re- 

 turns because something has happened to 

 the queen so she cannot fly, but to have it 

 happen "invariably" with whole wings is 

 something beyond me. 



Bees Carrying Out Young Live Bees and Larvae 



Why do bees bring out young live bees and 

 larvae, and can anything be done to stop it '' 

 Has the weather anything to do with the 

 case ? Nova Scotia. 



Answer.— It is the work of the larva- of 

 the wax-moth, generally called wax-worms, 

 and the weather has nothing to do with it. 

 About the only remedy is to keep strong 

 colonies of Italian blood. Indeed, a rather 

 weak colony of good Italian blood will keep 

 the moth at bay. 



California Privet—Alfalfa In the East 



1. Can you tell me if California privet is a 

 honey-producing plant, and. if so. whether 

 it produces a good quality of honey ? 



2. Also, does alfalfa yield honey in the 

 East ? I have seen it stated several times in 

 prominent farm journals that alfalfa gives 

 no nectar in the East. 



3. Where can I obtain the most co.-nplete 

 list of honey-producing plants ? 



I want to take this occasion to congratu- 

 late you on your Journal. It improves with 

 each issue, and it is a great pleasure to 

 pei use its pages. New Jersey. 



Answers.-i. I don't know. Who can help 

 us out ? My guess is that it doesn't amount 

 to much, merely from the fact that little or 

 nothing has been said about it. 



2. I think the rule is that east of the Miss 

 issippi river alfalfa never yields any nectar 

 to speak of. Alfalfa grows finely on mv 

 place, and occasionally I have seen a few 

 bees on.the blossoms, but never to amount 

 to anything, and I think this is generally so 

 east of the Mississippi. Seems tome, how- 



