last; cage lier; move the Iiive a few feet from 

 its stand and set the empty hive in its place, 

 putting the caged queen at the entrance. In 5 

 minutes the swarm may return, but more likely 

 15 (I've known a swarm to stay out an hour, 

 but that's extremely rare), and the bees will 

 enter the empty hive of their own accord. 

 Any time while they are going in, or after 

 they have gone in, let the queen run in at the 

 entrance. Then you can set the old colony 

 close beside the swarm, unless you prefer it to 

 swarm again. 



2. I don't know whether they need salt. Not 

 because I think they need it, but to keep the 

 water from smelling bad, I put salt in their 

 watering-tub. 



3. Preferences differ; I prefer the bee-way. 



4. Three horizontal wires. Not certain just 

 what is best distance; perhaps this: upper wire 

 I'A inches oelow the top-bar, next ij-^ farther 

 down, then 2 inches farther down. 



5. Generally full instructions for introducing 

 come with the queen, which will be something 

 like this: Put the cage between the combs or 

 directly over them, not allowing the bees to get 

 at the candy; 3 days later remove the old queen 

 and give the bees access to the candy so they 

 will liberate her. 



6. Doubtful if there's any danger. I don't 

 know that bees work on potato blossoms. 



7. You can get them from the A. I. Root 

 Co., ready made. 



Transferring Bees from Box-Hives. 



I have about 25 colonies of bees. They 

 have been out on shares for S years, and for 

 the last 4 years they have not increased any, 

 and my one-half of the honey was not enough 

 for my family of seven. So I thought I 

 would take thera home and see if they will not 

 furnish enough honey for the family. I have 

 never handled any bees, and would like some 

 information. I find that some of the hives have 

 lath nailed across instead of frames, and those 

 that have frames have not enough, and the 

 bees have built the comb in all shapes, so there 

 is not a hive that I can get tne frames out of. 

 How can I get them in shape, or will they be 

 all right as they are? Some of the bees are 

 in old store boxes. One of my neighbors ad- 

 vised me to make new hives and put frames 

 with starters '\<r^ them, and put them under the 

 old hives SQ-'that the bees would have to go 

 through the new hive to get to the old hive. 

 He said they would fill up the new hive with 

 brood-comb and fill the old comb in the old 

 hive with honey. What do you think of this plan ? 

 If it is not good please suggest one. 



Answer. — Yes, if you set a box-hive, or any 

 hive with crooked combs, over an up-to-date 

 hive, in any fair season the bees will build 

 down and occupy the lower hive, filling the 

 upper one with honey. But the honey will not 

 be in the most desirable shape, being in old 

 black combs. You can do another way. Wait 

 till the colony swarms. Hive the swarm in a 

 movable-frame hive furnished with worker- 

 comb foundation, setting the swarm in the 

 place of the old hive, the old hive close beside 

 the swarm, and 3 weeks later add the bees of 

 the old hive to the swarm, and melt up the 

 combs. 



Increase — Swarming — Taking 0£F 

 Supers, Etc. 



I am a beginner. 1 have 2 colonies of Italian 

 bees which came through the winter fine. About 

 June 1 I put a super on one that seemed 

 to be overflowing with bees. June lo, about 

 II o'clock, it swarmed and alighted in a little 

 basswood tree. I left it there i',4 hours. There 

 were still a few bees flying around it when 

 I cut the top off and shook the bees off in 

 front of a new hive that had starters of founda- 

 tion in. As soon as the bees were in I took 

 the hive and set it on the old stand, and left 

 it for about an hour. When I came back they 

 had left the hive and settled in another tree 

 where I left them (thinking I had not left 

 them long enough before) for an hour, when 

 I came back and they were gone. 



1. Why didn't tuey stay in the new hive.'' 

 What was my mistake? How do you get a 

 swarm into a hive? I would like to clip the 

 wing of the queen but don't know how to do 

 it, or where to hna her. 



2. I want to increase my colonies as fast as 

 possible. How can I do it without buying 

 (jueens or taking cells from another hive? What 

 is the best and cheapest way? 



3. Describe and tell how to know a queen 

 or drone cell from a worker-cell. 



4. Does it hurt the brood to open the hive 

 in cool, damp weather? 



5. Should the swarm be left where it settled 

 until there are no bees flying around it? 



About 



Answers. — i. 

 probably, wa 



t time should the supers be 

 fall in order to get the colo- 

 strong for winter? 



"Xew Subscriber." 

 ^"our most serious mistake, 

 not having stuuied carefully 

 some good bee-book in advance. That one 

 swarm would have paid for several books. Your 

 next most serious mistake was in waiting 2 

 hours to hive the swarm when it came out the 

 second time. At this distance one can not be 

 sure why the swarm came out after being 

 hived, but it is a pretty safe guess to say it 

 was on account of the heat. When a swarm is 

 first hived, it is well to shade it in some way, 

 if the hive is not already in the shade, and 

 abundant ventilation should be given by raising 

 the hive from the bottom and by leaving the 

 cover partly off — no harm to have the cover 

 shoved forward so as to leave a space of an 

 inch for the first 2 or 3 days. Also, some 

 give a frame of brood to the swarm to hold 

 them. 



2. Perhaps natural swarming may suit you 

 best. You may hurry up the swarming, as well 

 as to make some colonies swarm that would 

 not do so if left to themselves, by proceed- 

 ing in this way; When a colony swarms, set 

 the swarm on "the old stand. Remove the old 

 hive, and set it on the stand of some other 

 colony, removing this later to a new place. 

 In about 8 days, more or less, a swarm will 

 pretty surely issue irom the old hive again. 

 You will set this swarm in place of the old 

 hive, setting the old hive in place of some 

 other colony, this latter to be set in a new 

 place. In 1, 2, or 3 days, a swarm will likely 

 come from the old hive again, and you will 

 treat it in the same way as the others, and so 

 continue as long as any swarms issue. You 

 see that when you put the old hive in place 

 of some other, it gets the flying force from 

 the one that is removed, and being thus 

 strengthened, it is likely to swarm so long as 

 any extra queens are left. 



3. Lay a rule on the cells. If they measure 

 5 to the inch, they are worker-cells; if 4 to 

 the inch, they are drone-cells; if larger, they 

 are queen-cells. 



4. There is danger of chilling the brood if 

 it is too cool for bees to fly freely. 



5. No; just as soon as nearly all the bees 

 have settled, so that you are sure of the 

 queen, the sooner you hive the swarm the bet- 

 ter. 



6. Comb-honey supers ought to be taken off 

 as fast as the sections are finished; extracting 

 supers as soon as the harvest is over. 



Dented Queen — Difference in Bees — 

 Perhaps Bees Deserted. 



1. i have 3 colony of bees which had an 

 elegant queen. The colony increased so fast 

 that I was afraid it would swarm. One day 

 my friend and myself looked into the hive, 

 but to our surprise we found 3 or 4 empty 

 combs and a patch of unsealed brood about 

 as big as your hand. The other frames con- 

 tained the nicest-looking sealed brood you ever 

 saw. I sent for a queen. In a little over a 

 week she arrived. We found the old queen 

 was there, and to us she looked as if her 

 abdomen was not straight with her thorax. 

 \V^hat was the matter with that queen? 



2. During fruit-bloom I clipped the queen's 

 wings and in a few days I looked into the 

 hive, but noticed no unsealed brood, and 3 

 queen-cells. I think the bees balled her after 

 clipping. I looked in several days later and 

 noticed that the queen was out of the cell, 

 and that the hive was very populous. I then 

 waited until I was sure the new queen was 

 laying, but from the appearance of things 

 when I looked, I concluded they had swarmed 

 out. There were a good many bees in the 

 hive, so I sent for a queen. I ran the bees 

 through an excluder, but found no queen. My 

 bees are over a mile from where I live. Why 

 did they swarm out when there was nothing 

 for the remaining bees to rear a queen from? 

 Did they think I would give them a queen, 

 or what did they think? 



3. There is Something the matter with my 

 other colony. When it came through the win- 

 ter it was very weak, and in early April I got 

 a tested queen from the South for the colony. 

 Now (the middle of June) there are 4 frames 

 with no brood or honey in them. The other 

 frames contain brood, and most of them are 

 full. ^Iy friend got a queen at the same 

 time, at the same place, and put it in a col- 

 ony as weak as mine. Now that colony has 

 stored nearly a superful of honey. What is 

 the matter 'with that queen? The bees in- 

 creased quite a little and then stayed about 

 the same in strength. I use the Danzenbaker 

 hive. Do you suppose what J. E. Crane says 

 in June 15 Gleanings, on page 747, has any- 

 thing to do with it? 



4. My friend had a very large Italian col- 

 ony. He put a hive-body full of empty comb 

 on the hive which the bees were in, with a 

 queen-excluder between. In a few weeks he 

 shooic the bees and queen into the top one, and 

 put on a super. He looked all through the 

 hive-body with the brood in. but was positive 

 there were no queen-cells. He put this on a 

 weak colony. The next day the bees swarmed 

 out. They left a lot of bees in the hive, but 

 they did not have any brood to make a 

 queen of. He put in a frame of brood, and 

 they made some queen-cells. Before he did 

 anything with them they had 2 hive-bodies with 

 the queen in the lower hive. Afterwards, they 

 had a hive full of empty comb with a super. 

 He uses the Danzenbaker hive. Why did those 

 bees leave the hive? The swarm alighted in 

 the top of a 30-foot oak which was in his 

 neighbor's yard. I sawed the limb off, but the 

 bees went back on another limb in the top of 

 the tree, and as he did not want to spoil the 

 tree, he had to let them go. 



5. My neighbor has about 25 colonies of 

 bees, and the other day 2 swarmed. He did 

 not know which hive they came out of, so he 

 hived them and set them any place. The next 

 day there was about a quart of bees in each 

 hive. He did not know whether the queen 

 was in with that quart of bees or not. Dia 

 the most of the bees go back to the old loca- 

 tion, or what became of them? Inw.v. 



Answers. — i. Hard to tell. Some accident 

 may have befallen her. There may have been 

 nothing that hindered her from still doing good 

 service. I have known a number of queens 

 with abdomens dented, or a little crooked, that 

 were good queens. 



2. There being more than one queen-cell, the 

 first young queen that emerged went oft with a 

 swarm; then when the second queen emerged, 

 she may have been lost on her wedding-trip. 



3. Yes, it is poss..>le. as Mr. Crane says, that 

 there is a difference in the vigor of the bees. 

 There may have been more difference, too. than 

 you supposed, in the first place, in the strength 

 of the 2 colonies. Then there may have been 

 some other reason that I know nothing about. 



4. If I imderstand. the bees swarmed after 

 all their brood was taken away. It seems like 

 a case of desertion, the bees leaving because 

 in some way dissatisfied with their premises; 

 only in that case one would hardly expect them 

 to leave a lot of bees in the hive. Perhaps, 

 however, the bees left in the hive were those 

 that were in the field at the time the swarro 

 left. 



5. Yes, they may have gone back. 



iipbrfsaiHll 

 4experieiice$l| 



Bees Husiinig ivluw. 



I am very busy now. Bees are doing splen- 

 didly on white and alsike clover, with bass- 

 wood just opening. G. M. DooLiTTLK. 



Borodino, X. Y., July ;. 



Hopeful Bee-Keepers. 



Bees wintered better than usual with me. 

 The clover prospects are also better than us- 

 ual and I am hoping for a fair honey crop. 

 Bee-keepers always hope. While the season 

 here is about a week behind the normal, it 

 has not been very cold since the first of April, 

 and nothing has had a back-set. 



Orei, L. Hebshiser. 



Kenmorc, N. Y., May 14. 



Brood-Rearing in Winter — Bees Win- 

 tering on Full Combs of Honey. 



Noticing the discussion on page 170, between 

 Messrs. Byer and Poppleton, I can scarcely re- 

 frain from "butting in" the least bit. In regard to 

 brood-rearing in winter — while mine has been 

 wholly out-door experience — it has been the 

 most common experience to find capped brood 

 in March, and not uncommon in the month of 

 February. My bees are wintered in what is 

 known as the "chaff hive." 



In regard to bees not wintering so well on 

 full combs of honey or nearly so, as on dry 

 combs to cluster on, also referred to by Mr. 

 Byer, I would like to "chip in" just a word. 

 It has been pretty well agreed among North, 

 em bee-keepers, I think, that it's pretty a.m- 

 cult to freeze a colony of bees if they are 



