American Bae Journal 



August, iQoS. 



■ i ker tu kci'p tlie fire from going out? 



-'. When is the best time, and what is the 

 liroccss of getting a swarm of bees out of a 

 nailkcg and into a modern hive? Iowa. 



Answers.— I. Try old rags of any kind of 

 cotton doth. First put a little loosely in the 

 smoker, light it and let it blaze up; put a lit- 

 tle more on and keep blowing till it gets a 

 good start; then fill up and it will not be 

 likely to go out till it burns out. When the 

 smoker is not in use it will burn better to 

 stand upright. Hard-wood chips from the 

 woodpile make excellent fuel also. Almost 

 anything is better than newspapers. 



2. Let the bees swarm; hive the swarm 

 m a proper hive and set it in place of the 

 nail-kcg, the latter close beside the swarm, 

 and in 2i days give the bees in the keg 

 a good smoking, cut the combs out of the 

 keg and add the bees to the swarm. Then 

 you can melt up the old combs into wa.x. 



Requeening — Wiring Frames. 



T. I have a number of colonies -which I wish 

 to requeen in July or August. Suppose I find 

 some which have queen-cells preparatory to 

 superseding the queen. Can I safely introduce 

 a queen? If so, would it oe any better than 

 letting the colony rear a queen? 



2. I wish to wire some 7-inch extracting 

 frames. How many wires should I use in 

 each frame? lowA. 



-Answers.— I. It ought to be a little easier 

 to introduce a queen where the bees think of 

 superseding their old queen then where a 

 vigorous queen is present that the bees have 

 no notion of superseding. But I would de- 

 stroy the cells. 



-!. Three horizontal wires will be enough. 



Getting Bees to Work — Daisies. 



I h: 



olonii 



. -- I think are Ital- 

 ians and the others are little blacks. I pur- 

 chased them both last spring. The Italians 

 stored a little in the super last summer, but 

 both Italians and blacks have gone- on a 

 strike. Both colonies sent out large swarms, 

 otie the 8th of May and the other the 15th. 

 What is the trouble, and how will I be able 

 to get them to work? White clover is in 

 full bloom, and weather is favorable. 



i. Part of my bees are in box-hives, and 

 part in frame-hives. I secure more honey from 

 the box-hives than from the frame-hives. Why 

 is this? 



3. Do wild daisies produce nectar? 



Missouri. 



Answers.— I. They are probably doing fair 

 work. As they sent out "large" swarms, that, 

 left the mother colonies too weak to do 

 much for a while, and verv likely the swarms 

 have a good deal of room to fill up in their 

 hives before showing much work in supers. 

 If you put in the .super part of a comb they've 

 been working on below, that may hurry them 

 up about starting in the super. 



1'. There may be a difference in the strength 

 of the colonies or a difference in the size of 

 hives. 



3. I don't know; I doubt it. 



Non-swarming Secrets. 



Mr. \V. F. Fritzo. of Minnesota, has been 

 using a non-swarming secret for 14 years. He 

 keeps queens, bees, and supers together, and 

 his bees do not cast a swarm. His neighbors 

 all corroborate his statements. I have visited 

 him and believe what he claims. He proposes 

 to sell it to the members of the National Bee- 

 Keepers -Association for $1.00 a head. The 

 money can be placed in the hands of N. E. 

 France or the editor of the American Bee 

 Journal. They can deposit it in a bank, and 

 then if the bee-keepers are satisfied, he wants 

 the money; if not, the money can be re- 

 funded. What do you think of his proposi- 

 tion? He is not sure whether it is the same 

 as Davenport's. He does not know Mr. Da- 

 venport. MiNNIiSOTA. 



.\.VSWER. — Several times it has happened that 

 .some one has offered a secret for sale to bee- 

 keepers, but I don't know that such offer has 

 been accepted in any case. Whether it would 

 be in thi^ c.ise I can not say. 



Superseding Queens. 



I have several very poor queens and one 

 extra-good one, and 1 want to supersede the 

 poor ones with queens reared from my best 

 one. I have the loframe s-ctional hives 

 How would this pl.in work? 



Cage the queen in No. 4— the best queen— 

 until the bfcs start queen-cells. '1 lien place 



the second-story, which would contain most of 

 the queen-cells above an excluder, putting a 

 story of empty combs in its place, and re- 

 leasing the queen below the excluder. Would 

 the bees in a strong colony go ahead and fin- 

 ish the cells. Then when the queens were 

 nearly ready to come out of the cells, place 

 a cell in the lower story of the hives con- 

 taining the queen I want to supersede, placing 

 an excluder above, and, of course, putting 

 the old queen above the excluder, and when 

 the new queen was mated and had com- 

 menced to lay, remove the old queen and the 

 excluder. 



There is honey from alfalfa coming in 

 nearly all summer. Last year the bees stored 

 honey in the supers up to October 23. Conse- 

 quently the bees are always in a good humor. 

 And I think the plan would work here if it 

 would work anywhere. Idaho. 



.\nsweb. — You can easily tell by trying; but 

 I m afraid your plan will not work out to 

 your satisfaction. When 9 queen is caged, 

 the bees are not so prompt to start cells, nor 

 will they start so many, as when the queen 

 is removed. Neitjier does it always work to 

 have a young queen separated from an old 

 one by an excluder; although it may work 

 better for you than it has done for me. 



Straight Brood-Comb Without a 

 Frame. 



A few weeks ago one of my colonies 

 swarmed, and at the time I was too busy to 

 give the swarm proper attention. It alighted 

 on the limb of a cherry-tree just out of reach. 

 I placed an empty hive containing 4 brood- 

 combs just under this swarm and shook the 

 bees off the limb. Some of them clung to 

 the hmb, so I put the cover on the hive and 

 left it there until the next night, when they 

 had all gone in. I carried the hive to the 

 apiary and set it beside the others, but did 

 not put in the other 4 brood-frames then, 

 and had so much to do that I forgot to put 

 them in at all. Last Saturday I removed the 

 cover from the hive and found that the bees 

 had built comb in which they had reared 

 brood and stored honev. There were 4 dif- 

 ferent combs, and one of them could not 

 have been any more even if the bees had had 

 a frame of brood-foundation on which to 

 work, and it was almost full of brood. Is not 

 this something unusual, i. e., such a straight 

 comb under the circumstances? 



I am sending you sample of the brood- 

 comb. The dark spots in some portions of it 

 make me think that possibly it is not just as 

 it should be. Is there anything the matter 

 with it? Chicago. 



Answer. — No, it would have been unusual 

 if the bees had not built a straight comb 

 parallel to the old comb. They would do so 

 for the sake of having the proper spacing be- 

 tween the two combs. 



Sample of comb has not come to hand sev- 

 eral days after your letter. Probably Uncle 

 Sam has been careless with it. But I'm not 

 an expert in bee-diseases, and suspected sam- 

 ples better be sent to Genera! Manager N. E. 

 France, Platteville, Wis. 



Italian Differences — Bee-Way Sec- 

 tions. 



1. What is the real difference between the 

 leather-colored 3-banded Italians and the 

 5-banded golden Italians? I have worked 

 with each and can hardly distinguish one from 

 another. I have Moore's strain of 3-banded, 

 and a very good strain of goldens, and some- 

 times can not distinguish by looking at them. 



.!. Is not the first cross between Italians 

 and blacks better than either pure strain? 



3. Why is it that Carniolans are not kept 

 so much as other kinds of bees? Are they 

 cross? 



4- Is there any preference in the market for 

 cither 4]^ x 4% plain or bee-way sections? 



5. What is the best way to unite a swarm 

 direct from the tree with a weak colony? I 

 have just shaken in front of the hive, hut 

 many are at first killed at the entrance of the 

 '"vc. Ohio. 



Answers. — i. There ought tp be just the 

 difference indicated by the names. 2 more 

 bands on the 5-banded than on the j-bandcd. 



2. Very often; but you can not rely on 

 great constancy. 



3. I suppose the majority of bee-kceners 

 think they can get better work from the Ital- 

 ians. One objection th.it has been made to 

 the Carniolans is that while one can easily tell 

 Italian blood bv the yellow hands, the differ- 

 ence between Carniolans and blacks is not so 

 plain, and a little black blood in Carniolans is 

 hard to detect. 



4-. It has been claimed that more could be 

 obtained for the plain; but that is certainlv not 

 true in all markets, and it is possible that in 

 some markets where the plain has had the 

 preference on account of novelty, there may 

 be no preference. 



5- Perhaps if you had shaken the bees off 

 the combs at the entrance, so that the two 

 lots of bees would run in together, there would 

 have been less trouble. If one lot has an old 

 queen and the other a virgin, they do not 

 unite so well. 



A Beginner's Questions. 



1. After transferring a colony from an old 

 hive to a new one and introducing a differ- 

 ent queen, how can I tell whether they ac- 

 cept her or not? 



2. By giving them full sheets of founda- 

 tion in brood-frames, how soon can I put on 

 supers with full sheet foundation in sections? 



3. When you are changing the strain of 

 bees, IS It necessary to save any of the 

 drones of the old race and put them in the 

 swarm with the new queen? 



4. What is meant by the bees "balling 

 a queen" in introducing? 



5. How many times does a queen mate? 



6. What is meant by fertile queen? 

 I am just starting to handle bees. 



Nebrask.\. 

 Answers. — i. Look a few days later and 

 see whether eggs are present. 



2. Sections may be put on in 2 or 3 days, 

 or as soon as the queen has made a start at 

 laying in brood-frames. 



3. No. 



4. Very much what the word indicates: 

 hostile bees will grab hold of the queen at 

 different parts until there are bees all about 

 her, then other bees will seize those that 

 h.-ive hold of the queen, until there is a ball 

 of them as large as a hickory-nut or larger. 



5. Once for life; but some cases have been 

 reported in which a queen mated the scconil 

 time. She may, however, make several flights 

 before mating. 



6. A queen that has met a drone. .\ nor- 

 mal laying queen is a fertile queen. 



Queenless Colony and Pollen — Nu- 

 cleus Queen. 



1. Will a colony of bees that is queen- 

 less carry in pollen ? 



2. Is there any way to tell if they aie 

 queenless without opening the hive? 



3. If in transferring a nucleus to a hive 

 one should accidentally drop the frame con- 

 taining the queen, and she should fly away, 

 would she return to the hive, or be lost? 



Maine. 

 Answers.— I. Yes. you will find an extra 

 amount of pollen in a queenless colony, be- 

 cause more is carried in than used; hut 

 gradually they carry in less and less, and the 

 loads are smaller. 



2. No certain way that I know of. 



3. She would be likely to return to the 

 location she had marked at her last flight. 



Queenless Swarm. 



On May 5, I dequeened a colony as tlicv 

 almost invariably refused to build queen-cells 

 for me, and as orders began coming in faster 

 than I could fill, 1 dequeened this colony 

 with some others. This one then built cells 

 and everything went well. I removed all 

 grafted cells to the nursery cages, and gave 

 them a new lot of cells, which they accepted. 

 These were capped, and on the 21st, just ift 

 days after decjueening, they swarmed, and 

 having my hives numbered and a rerord of 

 each, I was puzzled, thinking a virgin had 

 got in wrong. I moved the old hive to a 

 new stand, placed a new one there and 

 hived the so-called swarm, placing a zinc en- 

 trance-guard over the entrance. Then 1 placed 

 a sealed (juecn-ccll in the hive, left it alone 

 for about 5 days, when on examination 1 

 found the queen-cell all right, and no sign 

 of a queen, nor did 1 see one on hiving 

 them. The virgin is out now, but not laying 

 yet. 



Now can you tell me what made them 

 swanii ? 'I'hc swarm and old colony have 

 each a (|ucen now, and arc doing nicely. 



Nt>ne of my neighboring bee-keepers ever 

 heard of a ijueenlcss swarm from a quvenless 

 colony. 



I have taken this method before and never 

 had one even want to swarm when fed heav- 

 ily and crowded for room. 



PENNSYI.VAXIA. 



Answer.- It is possible there may have 

 virgin in the case, and that while out 



be^ 



