350 



American ^qc Jonm^d 



October, 1913 



of the brood-combs a piece of brood or 

 honey and put it in a central section. If 

 that will not start them to work, you may 

 know that they are not strong enough to 

 store in super, or that there is not enough 

 for them to store. 



Moving Bues Back Home for Winter 



We have had a very dry summer here (150 

 miles south of Chicago since May i. The 

 clover pasturage burnt out long before the 

 bees got any surplus from it. and only this 

 week have we had any rain to bring things 

 out. About June i. I looked around and 

 found that the prospects were very good 

 about 60 miles north of me. Consequently. 

 I moved almost all of my bees 65 colonies) 

 to this location, and got tangled up with the 

 best clover flow I ever saw. Except for the 

 last two or three weeks there has been 

 plenty of rain. Since there has been no 

 rain here up to now. do you think the pros- 

 pects justify me in shipping those bees back 

 home this fall ? 



As I understand it. clover has to have one 

 year to grow before it can be counted on for 

 a satisfactory yield. It is surely killed out 

 now, and what we have must come up from 

 the seed this fall. However, after the ex- 

 ceedingly dry year of :oii, I had a good sea- 

 son in 1012. although the flow was unusually 

 late in starting. I think the bees are now 

 situated among honest people, and I don t 

 believe they would be molested during the 

 winter. What would you advise? 



Illinois. 



Answer.— It I understand correctly, the 

 real question for decision is whether you 

 can count on clover next year in your south- 

 ern location, or whether yournorthern loca- 

 tion will be, as it was this year, greatly supe- 

 rior. Of course in the latter case it will be 

 advisable to leave the bees where they are. 

 I am sorry to say I don't know enough to an- 

 swer. I know it is said that clover must be 

 a year old or older before.it yields nectar ; 

 but I don't put entire faith in that view. It 

 would not surprise me if you should find, 

 upon close investigation, that the plants 

 from which your bees have gathered such 

 a big yield of nectar were less than a year 

 old. I doubt if you can tell a year ahead 

 whether your northern or southern location 

 will be the better. It is likely that you can- 

 not tell until next spring whether clover is 

 more abundant north or south, and even 

 then it is quite possible that more nectar 

 will be produced in the place where clover 

 is less abundant. So you see it is a mere 

 matter of guessing, and I can't guess any 

 better than you can. .Sorry. 



Taking Off Honey 



1. When is the best time to take honey 

 from the bees, at noon, in the morning, or in 

 the evening? 



2. How can I kill bees and save the honey ? 

 I have 2 little swarms that are not worth 

 keeping. 



3. How can I get the bees separated from 

 the honey after it is taken off ? Iowa. 



Answers.— I. That depends somewhat on 

 circumstances. Generally bee-keepers take 

 comb honey from time to time as fast as 

 each super is tinished and sealed, or nearly 

 so. In that case most of it is taken during 

 the season that bees are busy at work, and 

 it is better to operate while most of the 

 gatherers are abroad in the Held, and not so 

 early in the morning or late in the evening. 

 If, however, bee-escapes are used, they are 

 put on toward the after part of the day and 

 the honey taken before the middle of the 

 next day. 



Much the same thing may be said about 

 taking extracted honey, although some of 

 our best practitioners do not take their ex- 

 tracted until the close of the season for 

 each kind of honey. Of course, it is also 

 true that the last of the comb honey is taken 

 at the close of the flow At such times 



there may be some gain by getting at work 

 pretty early in the day. before robbers are 

 much on the wing. 



But after all this is said, it should be 

 added that those who are in the business 

 extensively do not pay much attention to 

 the time of day. but work away any time of 

 day. or the whole day. just as suits their 

 convenience. 



2. The usual way to kill bees is with the 

 fumes of burning sulphur. But if each of 

 those colonies is too small to be worth sav- 

 ing, you may be able to make one fair colony 

 out of the two. Or. you could add each one 

 to some colony that would be the better to 

 be a little stronger. Nowadays it is not 

 usually considered good practice to kill 

 bees. 



3. There are various ways of getting bees 

 out of surplus honey. Some°use the Porter 

 bee-escape. Some drive part of the bees 

 out with smoke, then pile up the supers on 

 the ground and set a Miller escape on top of 

 each pile. Some simply brush them off the 

 extracting combs. For a small quantity you 

 can put the honey in a large box. put a 

 sheet over it. and turn the sheet over from 

 time to time as the bees collect on it. 



Eggs ttiat Will Not Hatcfi 



About a month ago I sent for a queen-bee. 

 She came apparently in first class condition. 

 I introduced her to the bees right away, lib- 

 erating her from the cage in about 40 hours. 

 She seems to be in normal condition. She 

 lavs eggs all right, but they will not hatch. 

 This is the first case of this kind I ever saw. 

 There is lots of honey in the hive, and quite 

 a number of bees, but they are getting fewer 

 all the time- I want to save my bees if pos- 

 sible. Illinois. 



Ansvner.— Sometimes a queen lays eggs 

 but the bees do not hatch them. Close ob- 

 servation will likely show that at the close 

 of the laying season, eggs may be found in 

 the hive at least a few days after any very 

 young brood is present. That shows that 

 the queen lays, but the workers pay no heed 

 to the eggs. But in the season when other 

 colonies are rearing brood right along, and 

 honey coming in freely, if eggs do not hatch 



out, the trouble is with the queen, and the 

 only thing is to kill her. Such cases are ex- 

 ceedingly rare, but they do sometimes oc- 

 cur, I have had one case of the kind, and I 

 think only one. 



Stiipping Bees and Inspection 



Do I have to have my bees inspected be- 

 fore I can ship them ? They are free from 

 foul brood? Ohio. 



Answer.— I don't think there is any re- 

 quirement to have them inspected unless 

 you ship them out of the State. In that case 

 it depends upon the law of the State into 

 which you ship. Some States require in- 

 spection, and others do not. Whether they 

 have foul brood or not has nothing to do 

 with the case; if the law requires inspec- 

 tion, all bees shipped into the State must be 

 inspected 



Queeniessness — " Prowling Stock " 



1. I have a colony of black queenless bees. 

 I bought 2 colonies this summer, and these 

 black bees had foul brood. I took away all 

 their combs and put them in a new hive, but 

 they never built any combs at all. although I 

 found a colony by the roadside and united 

 the two. I took two frames of brood from 

 the other colony that I bought and put into 

 this hive, but they have not built any queen- 

 cells. 



2. Sometimes 'when I take off the lid there 

 is a worm crawling on the underside of the 

 lid about an inch long and one-fourth inch 

 thick, gray color. Can that be some of the 

 larv^ that got out of some cell, or is it some 

 other prowling stock ? 



3. There are quite a lot of small ants run- 

 ning in and out of the hive. Will they do 

 any damage to the bees ? 



4. The upper half of the two frames I put 

 into this hive have sealed cells. Do they 

 contain honey or brood ? They have a light 

 color. The caps are protruding a little. 



Nebraska. 



Answers— I. It is doubtful that those bees 

 are of value enough to fool with, seeing they 

 are mostly old. and it so late in the season. 

 They might be united with some other weak 

 colony were it not that they might carry the 

 disease with them. 



2 That worm is not an escaped larva from 

 one of the cells of brood, but "prowling 

 stock " of another sort. It is the larva of 



By fsiNf; AN .■Vfundasce of Water. A. F. Foster Claims 

 Without Using Pressure. 



He Gets .■Vll the Wax 



