March, 1908. 



American l^ee Journal 



"If you follow the advice to close tlie 

 entrance to the exit of one bee at a 

 time, then do this way : Cover the whole 

 entrance with wire-cloth and punch a 

 small opening through the cloth by 

 working a pencil through. Though this 

 is not an infallible kink, it is nearly 

 always sucessful." 



A Fine February "Swarm." 



Editor York : — I thought I'd write 

 and tell you the good news. Wednes- 

 day, Feb. S, my wife gave birth to a 

 fine pair of twins — both girls — and I 

 tell you we"re proud of them. If you 

 can find a February swarm that beats 

 ours, trot it out. 



My bees in the cellar are wintering 

 splendidly. Geo. H. Rea. 



Rcynofdsville, Pa., Feb. 8. 



[We referred the foregoing to Miss 

 Wilson, as we felt that it properly be- 

 longed in the " Sisters " department. 

 Here is her comment. — Editor] : 



Two young queens in one hive ! Let 

 us hope they will get along more peace- 

 ably than young queens generally do 

 together; and that you may be able to 

 summer and winter them successfully 

 many years. 



Perhaps Queenless and Being 

 Robbed. 



I have 10 colonies. Last fall I bought 

 an e.xtra colony and the rest of my 

 bees are determined to rob that new 

 one. I think it is weaker than the rest. 

 Every warm day the yard is in a perfect 

 uproar. 1 have shut up the hive a num- 

 ber of times, then they try another hive. 

 Is there any thing I can do to prevent 

 robbing? I fear when warm days come 

 they will rob the whole yard. I thought 

 when winter set in that would end the 

 trouble, but no such thing. Every warm 

 day they are at it again. 



(Miss) Sar.\h Auchmoody. 



Highlands, N. Y., Route 4. 



Are you sure your new colony has a 

 queen? Bees are much more likely to 

 attack a queenless colony. If queen- 

 less, it might be worth while to unite it 

 with one of your ottter colonies, bui 

 usually a queenless colony that will not 

 defend itself is not worth fussing with. 



If it has its queen all right, try put- 

 ting an armful of hay or straw over 

 the entrance. Pile it up as high as the 

 hive in front and at the two sides, 

 but don't pack down too close. 



That wmU allow the bees belonging to 

 the colony to pass in and out, and give 

 them a much better chance to defend 

 themselves ; and at the same time it will 

 look to the robber-bees more like a pile 

 of hay in which they are not inter- 

 ested. 



Prevention of Foul Brood. 



At the Ontario convention. Miss Tre- 

 varrow read a paper on foul brood. She 

 frankly admitted that she had had no 

 practical experience with the disease, 

 so one might question her qualification 

 for writing on such a theme, but her 

 paper shows that she is by no means 

 an ignoramus on the subject. 



If it be true that "an ounce of pre- 



vention is better than a pound of cure," 

 then it is well to know the means she 

 has used to avoid acquaintance with 

 such an unwelcome guest. 



The gist of her means of prevention 

 is given in the following paragraph 

 taken from the Canadian Bee Journal : 



"I have been keeping bees for years, 

 and in that time my apiary has been 

 examined 4 times by foul-brood ex- 

 perts, although the inspector has visit- 

 ed it only once in an official capacity. 

 These years have given me 4 rules for 

 the avoidance of foul brood. They are: 

 To keep the hives clean, by renewal of 

 foundation ; to feed only pure white su- 

 gar syrup ; to keep the colonies strong, 

 and open to inspection. 'Easy rules,' 

 some will say; but sometimes one is 

 very loath to destroy a well-formed 

 comb, when blackness and old age are 

 its only apparent faults, and there is 

 quite a temptation to see what a weak 

 colony will do through the summer, 

 rather than reduce the size of the 

 apiary ; and who would not W sitate a 

 little at the thought of feeding all pure 

 sugar, with a stock of low-price honey 

 on hand that might be used if there 

 were no danger of contagion, while a 

 visit from the Foul Brood Inspector 

 would inspire as much antagonism with 

 some bee-keepers as is evinced towards 

 inspectors generally." 



Double-Wall Hives — Increase, Etc. 



I am a beginner. I bought 2 swarms 

 last June. The bees did not gather 

 enough honey for winter supply. I fed 

 them $2.00 worth of sugar. I keep 

 them outdoors in Telescope hives. Is 

 it necessary to use the double-wall hive 

 in this locality? 



How many swarms could I expect to 

 get from the 2 next summer? I would 

 not care to buy any more hives than I 

 need until I know I can make the bees 



pay- 

 Is it necessary to get 2 supers with 

 each hive? 



Last September the bees in one of my 

 hives threw out the young bees when 

 they were just about ready to leave 

 their cells. 



I noticed that one of the young bees 



had a crippled wing. Could it be that 



the whole brood was deformed? Would 



you advise me to get another queen? 



The comb foundation dropped out of 



one frame and the bees built the comb 

 into this from the next frame. Shall I 

 cut out the comb and give them new 

 starters? (Miss) Frieda Klein. 



Kansas City, Mo. 



Double-walled hives arc not neces- 

 sary ; but unless your bees are in a 

 place well sheltered by surrounding 

 buildings or other objects, all but on 

 the south side, you should give • the 

 hives some sort of protection, if it be 

 nothing more than to set some corn- 

 stalks around them. 



If it should be a very poor season, 

 you might get no swarms at all. In a 

 good season you may get 2 swarms 

 from each colony; and in a very good 

 season you may have more. But the 

 safer plan is to allow no more than a 

 single swarm from each colony, es- 

 pecially as you do not wish to invest 

 too heavily in hives at the start. .A.ny 

 swarm after the first is likely to be 

 rather weak, and any after the second 

 still weaker. 



You can very easily, and almost cer- 

 tainly, prevent any afterswarm in this 

 way : When the prime swarm issues, set 

 it in place of the old colony, putting the 

 old colony close besides the swarm. A 

 week later move the old hive 10 feet or 

 more away to a new place. The bees will 

 do the rest. That will give the swarm 

 all the field-bees to gather a good lot 

 of surplus, and the m-Other colony will 

 be weakened so it will give up swarm- 

 ing. 



If you work for extracted honey, you 

 may get along with one super for each 

 colon'/ that stores surplus, aUhough 

 more would be better. If you work for 

 comb honey you must have at least 2 

 supers for each storing colony, al- 

 though more would be better. 



The likelihood is that the casting out 

 of the young bees was on account of 

 the work of the wax-moth It may or 

 It may not be advisable to change the 

 queen' If a colony is strong it will be 

 likely to protect itself against the moth, 

 ahhough even quiie a weak colony will 

 do so if Italians. 



Un'ess the comb is so that you can 

 cut if away partly and fasten ic back 

 properly in place better cut out the 

 crooked part entirely, and put fresh 

 foundation in the frame at a time When 

 bees are gathering and building, put- 

 ling 'he frame centrally in the hive. 



,111 IIW»,LI».J,. lUWJ" tli'llllilllll 



anadian 



Conducted by J. L. BYEK. Mount Joy. Ont. 



An Old-Fashioned Winter. 



In notes for the January American 

 Bee Journal we commented upon the 

 very favorable weather for bees up to 



that date. Since the last week in Jan- 

 uary, however, we have been having 

 what some call an "old-fashioned win- 

 ter" — very stormy and very cold. Two 



