June, 1908. 



American Hee Journal 



pretty rapidly before the cool weather, but 

 it seems as if half of them were gone now. 



2. Would it help them any to give them a 

 frame of brood and eggs.' Would they destroy 

 them when they haven't been used to any? 

 I mean when a colony for some reason or other 

 has no brood for 2 or 3 weeks, would it do to 

 give them a frame? Wouldn't the good for- 

 tune come too suddenly? Oklahoma. 



Answers. — i. I can only guess. My guess is 

 that the feed you gave that swarm was robbed 

 out, and then the swarm issued as a hunger- 

 swarm, hoping to better its condition by join- 

 ing the bees in another hive. These latter 

 resented the intrusion and fell upon the in- 

 truders, because they came with empty honey- 

 sacs. 



2. It is hard to see what harm could come 

 from giving a frame of brood. A sudden 

 accession of good fortune might be too much 

 for one of the human race, especially one 

 with a weak heart; but bees have more sense, 

 or perhaps stronger hearts. 



Wintering on Granulated Honey — 

 Shipping Nuclei by Freight. 



ally 



ell he 



stores 



gathered in the fall, but last winter the honey 

 nearly all granulated in the combs, with the 

 liquid portion fermenting, causing the loss oi 

 half of the colonies by diarrhea: while some 

 colonies with the same kind of honey, which 

 did not granulate, wintered fair. What caused 

 the trouble? 



2. Would 3 frames of brood with 2 pounds 

 of bees, in a light shipping-box, with 3-inch 

 space below the frames, and wire screen on top 

 and bottom, crated 20 boxes to a crate, to be 

 shipped 1,300 miles by freight, be all safe with- 

 out water? 



.3. If not, how much water would be re- 

 quired ? 



4. How much honey would they require? 



5. Would it be a success if shipped that 

 far? 



6. If you had a chance to start anew, which 

 section would you use, the 4j4 x 4'/i plain or 

 bee- way? Wisconsin. 



Answers. — i. Some peculiarity of atmos- 

 pheric conditions; which is only another form 

 of saying I don't know. 



2. Doubtful. 



3. I don't know just how much; not a 

 great deal, probably, but without any they 

 might suffer. A sponge as big as your fist 

 when filled would probably be enough. 



4. I would guess not less than a pound of 

 honey. 



5. It ought to be; but there might be a big 

 difference in shipping. To send them by ex- 

 press in a cool time would be quite different 

 from sending by slow freight in the hottest 

 season. 



6. Beeway. 



Preventing Swarming — Queens and 

 Excluders. 



I am very much pleased with your prevent- 

 iiig-swarming plan, page 70, and answer to 

 •"Texas," page 119, and would like to ask 

 some questions. 



1. What do you mean by, "I have never 

 tried the plan until cells were started?" Do 

 you wait until you see eggs or larvae in the 

 cells, or do you apply the plan as soon as the 

 bees build new queen-cells, others being empty? 



2. Suppose you do not know the age of 

 your queen, and you are uncertain if she is 

 beginning to fail. How do you know if there 

 will be swarming, or simply superseding of the 



?ueen, the colony being nevertheless strong? 

 n such uncertainty do you also apply the 

 plan ? 



:t. Is there any danger of the queen killing 

 herself in attempting to cross the excluder in 

 order to get into the brood-chamber, this last 

 being placed above the hive-body? 



4. What becomes of the sealed brood placed 

 above the excluder? Will it die, or do you 

 believe the bees will take care of it? 



California. 



Answers. — i. Some of my colonies, each 

 year, make no offer to swarm, and these I 

 do not want to interfere with. So long as 

 there is any danger of swarming, I look 

 through each colony about once in 10 days, 

 and see whether thev have made any prepara- 

 tion for swarming. If cell-caps are tound with 

 no eggs in them, I pay no attention to them. 

 If no larvs, but eggs only, are found in the 

 cells, they are destroyed, but the colony not 

 treated, for sometimes the bees will give up 

 without starting any more cells. Even if very 

 small larvae only are present, sometimes de- 

 stroying them will end the matter. But when 



eggs or very young larvae are destroyed, very 

 often at the next round, 10 days later, good- 

 sized larva; (4 days old or older) are found, 

 showing that the bees are very much in earnest 

 about swarming. At any rate, whenever such 

 well-advanced larvs are present, the colony is 

 treated. I don't mean to say that the plan 

 would not work, even if no queen-cells were 

 started, but 1 would rather not treat it if 

 not necessary. 



2. I don't know of any way to be entirely 

 certain whether swarming or suoersedure is 

 meant by the bets, so I keep on the safe side, 

 and call it all swarming. However, I don't 

 think supersedure often takes place at swarm- 

 ing time; it's generally after all swarming is 

 over. 



3. I never knew of trouble in that way. 



4. The danger is rather the other way, 

 namely, that enough workers may not stay 

 down-stairs with the queen. Not a particle 

 of danger that the brood will be neglected, 

 for as soon as the story of brood is set over 

 the excluder the bees will begin to climb 

 into it. 



Requeening — Danzenbaker and Sec- 

 tional Hives — Pollen in Sections — 

 Where Heartsease Grows. 



1. For a bce-kecper having 15 colonies of 

 blacks ana Italians, and intending to double 

 the number by fall, would you advise the 

 purchase of a good breeding queen? Or do 

 you think it would pay to requeen all colo- 

 nies from the breeder, if purchased, by get- 

 ting an increased yield of honey? 



2. Are the queen-cells reared under the 

 swarming impulse not better than those reared 

 under the plan given to "Maine," page 153? 

 Are the queens not likely to be more pro- 

 lific? 



3. What are your objections to the Dan- 

 zenbaker hive? I nnd it much better for 

 building up in the spring tnan the dove- 

 tailed. 



4. What are your objections to the sectional 

 hive, such as is used by Hand, Scholl, and 

 others? 



5. Are you ever bothered with pollen in 

 sections? What do you do to prevent it? 



6. Where does the heartsease grow in your 

 locality, in waste places or in cultivated fields? 



Answers. — i. I would strongly advise pur- 

 chasing a good queen to breed from, unless 

 you already have such a one. If I understand 

 your second question, you want to know wheth- 

 er you can buy a breeder, introduce one of the 

 queens you rear from her into a given col- 

 ony, and have a larger yield from that col- 

 ony on account of the change. It wouldn't 

 make as big a difference as you might sup- 

 pose. In some cases it might even lessen the 

 yield; for you might make a failure of intro- 

 ducing, and have the colony for a time 

 queenless. In any case, it would be pretty 

 well along in the season before you could 

 rear and introduce a queen, and unless your 

 harvest is late the bees for it would mostlv 

 come from the old queen. But the next season 

 ought to show a difference. 



2. I Qon't think there is today as much 

 faith in swarming-cells as in former years. 

 There was a sort of idea that swarming was 

 natural, and that no queen was so natural 

 or so good as one reared in a swarming-cell. 

 But superseding is just as natural as swarming, 

 and a man who allowed his bees to swarm 

 naturally might have in his apiary just as 

 many queens reared one way as the other. 

 No, I don't believe swarming queens are bet- 

 ter or more prolitic than those reared by the 

 plan recommended to "Maine." Of course, one 

 could rear very poor queens by rearing out of 

 season or from poor stock, but one should use 

 the best stock and take the time when a good 

 flow is on, or else feed. Doubtful, however, 

 if feeding is quite so good as the natural flow. 



3. One objection is that it takes too much 

 time to handle: another that with a frame 

 so shallow there is too much pollen in sec- 

 tions. 



4. I have had no experience with sectional 

 hives. It never seemed to me they had enough 

 advantages to make me want to change to 

 them. Possibly if I were using them en- 

 tirely I might think them the best in the 

 world. 



f;. I have never had much trouble with pol- 

 len in sections, provided they were over 

 frames as deep as the Lansstroth. I do 

 nothing to prevent it except to have the sec- 

 tions entirely filled with foundation. I don't 

 use queen-e.xcluders. and I try not to have 

 much drone-comb in the brood-chamber, so if 

 I should use small starters in sections the 

 bees would build drone-comb in them, inducing 

 the queen to go up to lay drone-eggs, and 



that would help to bring up pollen. 



6. In cultivated fields, mostly in corn-fields. 



Honey in Brood-Nest — Unpainted 

 Hives — Bee-Eating Birds. 



1. I know enough of bees to be certain 

 that to have the brood-nest half-fijled with 

 honey is ruinous to the colony. This lan- 

 guage can not be made too strong. How 

 can we best prevent it? I am not going to 

 make suggestions. Treat it as fully as you 

 well can. To mc it is ot more importance 

 than to prevent swarming that we read so 

 much about. 



2. Is it true that you consider that bees 

 do best in mipainted hives? I experiment a 

 good deal and if the bees really do best in 

 the hives not painted, I think I have only 

 last week discovered one of the reasons. I 

 have concluded that water-tight covers are re- 

 sponsible for Keening the hives wet. Any of 

 the waterproof materials available for covers 

 for keeping out rain, are cold, and by con- 

 densing the moisture from the bees inside the 

 hives do more harm than all the rain that 

 would fall on a properly-arranged porous out- 

 side covering. I made 2 covers of "paroid" pa- 

 per roofing, laid on a dry-goods box 8 inches 

 deep, and large enough to slip down easilv 

 over a hive. I put half-inch strips inside of 

 the top of these covers, and on these laid 

 paroid roofing, so as to leave a half-inch air- 

 space under the cover. On Monday, May 4, 

 ice formed and when lifting these covers at 

 noon you might almost wash your hands 

 condensed water hanging upc 

 was a new cover of cotton 

 woolen felt on one, and mi 

 other, and a fj-inch flat Root 

 over these on 

 and 



them. There 



1 1 of coarse 



felt on the 



c-bound board 



the paroid cover, 



der the paroid of the hive 



..'ith the most quilts. The middle of the yi 

 board was wet as if dipped in water, and 

 the water of the upper quilts of the other 

 might almost have been wrung out if I had 

 tried to do it. I took off the 3 wet quilfs 

 and put a ^ board in their place, and laid 

 f^ x H strips of pine on top and the paroid 

 cover over all, and still the water hung on the 

 inside of the paroid cover next day, when ice 

 formed, although less than the day before. I 

 contemplate using no paint on hives in the 

 future, except on the corners, and none but 

 gable covers of rough boards. If in a locality 

 where two 10 or 11 inch boards can be got 

 out of the board center of a big log without 

 the heart — that is, one board only about 2 

 feet wide out of the heart of each log — ■ 

 they will be much less likely to split with the 

 sun, like the split shingles we used to get 

 50 years ago. A '/j-inch groove plowed J4- 

 inch on from the eoge on the under, lower, 

 projecting edge of the roof boards, ^-inch 

 deep, would carry off all drip. 



3. Is the bird called the phebe, that in 

 country places, persists in nesting near or 

 under the cave or gable of a house a de- 

 vourer of bees? A pair of them reared a 

 family near mv bees last year, and I believe 

 killed thousands of them. A half dead or 

 bare apple-tree near the line of flight of the 

 bees was a convenient resting-place for the 

 birds from which they seemed to take the 

 bees as they passed, and the nest was not 

 found until the young birds flew. 



4. Does the chickadee also feed on bees? 

 I have treated them as pets and fed them, 

 sometimes out of my hand. They seldom come 

 near in summer, but in cold weather when 

 insects are scarce they come for food, and late 

 in the fall, I noticed thetn, as I thought, 

 picking up recently dead bees. Whether they 

 killed any I was unauie to determine. 



5. Why is the American Bee Journal not 

 printed in a uniform size with the best of the 

 other bee-papers, which are all of convenient 

 size? Novice. 



Answers. — i. You are quite right in your 

 view, if you refer, as I suppose you do, to 

 the early part of the season. Toward the 

 close of the season it's a nice thing to have 

 the brood-nest three-fourths filled with honey. 

 I'm not sure that I know anything more than 

 you do about keeping honey out of the brood- 

 nest, for just now only two things occur to 

 me that can be done to accomplish it. The first 

 is to have olentv of room, easily accessible, 

 outside the brood-nest, so the bees will not be 

 forced to store in the brood-nest. Even witn 

 oceans of room outside of it, the bees will 

 still store in the brood-nest if the queen fails 

 to occupy it, so the second thing to do is to 

 furnish each colony with a queen so vigorous 

 that she will resist all encroachments on her 

 domain. 



2. I am inclined to believe bees do best in 

 unpainted hives. One reason for that belief 

 is that G. M. Doolittle thinks so. Besides, be- 



