September, 1908. 



American Hee Journal 



above will be filled with surplus honey. That 

 is, they will do so if, and after, they have 

 filled all the space in the hive below. If you 

 set the old hive over the new, then when 

 they are crowded down for want of room above, 

 they will occupy the lower hive for their 

 brood-nest, and you will have tne unper hive 

 filled with honey, providing the upper hive 

 is not too large for the amount they will gather. 

 If you prefer to have your surplus in new 

 combs rather than in the old combs, you can 

 put empty room above, cutting 3 Uole or holes 

 in the top of the old hive, so the bees can go 

 up; then next year you can hive the first swarm 

 in a good hive, and 21 days later cut up the 

 old hive. 



Absconding Swarms — Transferring 

 Bees — Hunting Bees. 



1. A year ago last spring I bought 2 colonies 

 of bees in box-hives. Last year they did well, 

 having 4 good, strong swarms, but this year 

 all but the first absconded. Swarm No. 2 I 

 put into the hive 3 limes before they stayed. 

 No. 3 went away without clustering. The 

 others left the hive the next day after being 

 hived. 1 followea them up and they went to 

 the woods in hollow trees. I would like to 

 know what is oest to do. I have standard 

 frame-hives with foundation starters in them. 



2. Is there any way to make bees cluster? 



3. When and how should bees be trans- 

 ferred from trees to hives? My bees are 

 Italians and are in box-hiv.s. all but this 

 year's swarm. 



4. What is the best way to hunt wild bees? 

 Is there any better way than to line them? 



New Jersey. 

 Answers. — i. The usual cause of abscond- 

 ing is heat. See that the hive is shaded, if only 

 by an armful of fresh-cut hay on top, w;cighted 

 down by a stick of firewood, and it will be a 

 help to shower it with water. Give abundance 

 of ventilation. Besides having the entrance as 

 large as possible, let there be a large opening 

 above, shoving the cover forward so as to 

 leave an inch space for 2 or 3 days. In ad- 

 dition to this you might give a frame of brood. 

 Bees don't like to lose so much of a start 

 toward house-keeping. 



2. I'm not sure there's any easy way to make 

 them cluster, unless to sprinkle them with 

 water; but I don't believe you can stop them 

 from clustering. At least 99 times out of too 

 they'll cluster of their own accord. 



3. Cut the tree and split it open; then trans- 

 fer as you would from a box-hive. 



4. There is probably no better way than to 

 line them, if indeed there is any other way. 



Virgin Swarms. 



I do not wish to criticise or set myself up 

 as a critic in anything pertaining to bees, but, 

 if permissible, I would like to say a few 

 words in reply to your answer to "Virginia,' 

 page 215, in regard to so-called virgin swarms. 

 In your answer you say they are not at all 

 common. They are very common in this "neck 

 of the woods." In fact, I always look for 

 my early swarms to swarm in from 4 to 5 

 weeks after hiving, if we have any honey- 

 flow to amount to anything, and I find my 

 bee-keeping neighbors all have the same diffi- 

 culty. To illustrate, I will give you the dates 

 of a few of my first swarms this season, with 

 date of virgin swarms. I clip my queens so 

 that any swarm I do not wish to hive in an- 

 other hive I can take the queen away frorfl, 

 and run the swarm back into the »"ld hive 

 again. 



June 18, No. 84 swarmed. I hived it in 

 No. 120, on old combs, and put on super. 

 They swarmed out June 23. I run them 

 back and put on another super, i dey swarmed 

 out again June 27, 28, and 30. I run back 

 again with old queen each time. Then I 

 took a notion to know what was inside of the 

 hive. I found both supers well started. One 

 nearly half full. The outside brood-combs 

 were pretty well filled with honey. There was 

 some in all the others. There was some brood, 

 but not a large amount. There were 8 capped 

 queen-cells, and 3 not yet capped. They surely 

 could not have swarmed for want of room. 

 It was only 13 days from the day the swarm 

 was first hived. '1 iie soonest I ever had a 

 virgin swarm before was 19 days. This year 

 I had 2 in 13 days. Now I will give you a 

 list of 5 or 6 others: 



June 6, No. 8 swarmed; hived in No. 15; 

 virgin swarm July 7. , . ,, 



June 13, No. I swarmed; hived in No. 13; 

 virgin swarm July 7. ...,..,„ 



June 15, No. 67 swarmed; hived in No. 83; 

 virgin swarm July 2. 



June 19, No. 2 swarmed; hived in No. 12; 

 virgin swarm July 8. 



'June 20, No. 3 swarmed; hived in No. 11; 

 virgin swarm July 3. 



And to cap the climax, June 15, No. 17 

 swarmed, hived in No. 9, swarmed out every 

 day for 6 days, then 1 changed hives, and 

 gave them No. 31 with super. They went to 

 work and in a few days 1 gave them the sec- 

 ond super. They sent out a virgin swarm July 

 13, and the old colony No. 17 swarmed July 

 20, with young queen reared in the hive, the 

 first young queen reared in the parent colony 

 that 1 ever had lead off a swarm after rear- 

 ing brood. She left the hive in about the 

 same condition as to brood and honey as an 

 ordinary prime swarm, and a super about 2-3 

 full of honey. 



'Two years ago I tried "shook swarming" to 

 see if that would make any difference. I 

 shook six swarms, and every one of them 

 sent off virgin swarms within 25 to 36 days, 

 so that did not help me out anv. My bees 

 are hybrids — common blacks and Italians mixed, 

 with Italian predominating. Why do they 

 swarm worse with me, or rather in this locality 

 than elsewhere ? 



Of course, with virgin swarms I kiways have 

 to kill the old queen and run the swarm 

 back, then cut queen-cells to hold them to- 

 gether, for it would never do to let them 

 separate at that stage of the game, and that is 

 the way I treat all swarms after winter losses 

 are made up, which nearly requeens the whole 

 yard every year. Minnesota. 



Answer. — I know only what I have learned, 

 and it seems I have a good many things to 

 learn yet. I am very glad to get this letter, 

 for after reading it I'm not as ignorant as I 

 was before. Now don't ask me why there is 

 so much difference in different localities; I 

 don't know. In nearly 50 years' experience 

 I'm not sure I ever had but one virgin swarm, 

 and that was this year. A stray swarm came 

 to me some time before May 25 — that's very 

 early for this localitv — and I clipped its queen, 

 counting that no further attention needed to 

 be paid to it on the score of swarming. July 

 14 I noticed that it was very weak in bees, 

 and on opening the hive I found no brood but 

 some sealed brood, and the remains of several 

 queen-cells, a virgin queen being present which 

 began laying a few days later. I suppose a 

 virgin swarm had issued with the clipped 

 queen: she was either lost or destroyed, and 

 a swarm issued with the first maturing virgin 

 queen. I hardly expect to have another virgin 

 swarm in the next 40 years, but 1 don't want 

 to move into your neighborhood where virgin 

 swarms are all the fashion. 



Some Queen Questions. 



I will first give extracts from my note-book, 

 which I started on purchasing an apiary from 

 a neighbor who had let the bees run them- 

 selves for a few years. I brought the bees 

 home on April 17, from his cellar. Bad weath- 

 er prevented me from going through them till 

 May 6. 



No. 13. May s — good, brood in 3 combs, near- 

 ly full. 

 May 20 — external indications, not pro- 

 gressing. 

 May 30 — queenless, all brood hatched. 

 No. 16. July I — swarmed, put in 13, on old 

 stand, leaving 16 close be- 

 side. 

 Tuly 20 — looked for eggs. O. K., bees 

 balled queen; poured a lit- 

 tle syrup on them. 

 July 23 — queen-cells; one capped. 

 I. Do queens sometimes suddenly stop lay- 

 ing and yet the bees do not recognize that 

 they are failing and supersede, while there are 

 eggs and larva; in the hive; or what happened 



to No 



13 s qu 



Is it not most unusual for a cell to be 

 capped so quickly after loss of queen? 



3. What ought I to have done when I saw 

 the bees balling the queen, other than I did, 

 pour a little warm syrup on them and close 

 the hive? Honey was coming in fairly well, 

 and I did not use smoke — just a whiff over the 

 tops of the frames. 



4. Would you use a cell from a colony under 

 like circumstances? ' Manitoba. 



Answers. — i. I doubt that a good queen 

 ever stops laying when the workers want her 

 to lav. Indeed it is a common thing in the 

 fall for a queen to continue laying when the 

 workers no longer hatch the eggs. The nueen 

 of No. 13 may have been accidentally killed 

 May 6, or, as sometimes happens, the bees may 

 have balled and killed her after you had the 

 hive open. 



2. Yes; and yet it was not so very much 

 out of the usual. The cell was capped 3 days 

 after the queen was balled. If it is 5 daj;3 

 from the time the egg hatches till the cell is 

 sealed, and if the bees selected a larva 2 days 

 old. then in 3 days it would be sealed. 



3. You did the right thing. When bees 

 ball their own queen, if the hive be quickly 

 and quietly closed, rarely does any trouble fol- 

 low. If you want to be so careful as to guard 

 against the rare case that sometimes happens, 

 you can cage the queen and let the bees liberate 

 her by eating out the plug 01 candy. 



4. Yes, if the stock was good. 



May Be Starved or Chilled Brood — 

 Comb Foundation Splints. 



1. We have 2 new colonies of bees. The 

 brood from half to full grown is dead. The 

 younger part of the brood and comb look all 

 right. "There is some honey. What is the 

 matter? What will cui.: them? It has been 

 wet all spring here. 



2. Why do they carry out the young of all 

 ages? 



3. What is best to put over top-bars tor 

 winter and summer? 



4. What do you mean when you sav splints 

 in foundation?" Missouri. 



Answers. — i. It mav be starved brood. It 

 is possible that it is nothing more than chilled 

 brood; although that is not so likely at this 

 time of year. There is some reason to fear 

 it may be that dreadful scourge, foul brood. 

 I am not an expert on bee-diseases, and your 

 best course, if you are a member of the 

 National Bee-Keepers Associa on, is to send 

 a sample to General Manager N. E. France, 

 Platteville, Wis. If you are not already a 

 member, send along a dollar to become one. 

 It will be well for you to become a member 

 anyhow, even if you have no disease. 



2. It may be from starvation. It may be 

 because the wax-worm has been at work on the 

 brood-combs. 



3 That depends somewhat upon the con- 

 struction of vour hives. A large proportion 

 of hives nowadays are made with only about Vi 

 inch between top-bars and cover. These need 

 nothing over top-bars but the cover. With 

 a deeper space, cover with sheeting, enameled 

 cloth, gunny sack, etc. 



4. You probably know that wires are used 

 to prevent foundation sagging in brood-frames, 

 and to hold it in nlace. Well, in place of 

 wires little sticks of wood, 1-16 inch square, 

 running from top-bar to bottom-bar, are used. 

 These are called foundation-splints. 



Hives — Moving Bees to Cellar Them. 



1 I have 8 colonies in lo-frame hives, and 

 this winter intend to build new hives for next 

 season's increase. Do you think I would finu 

 any advantage in using 2 cases containing 

 frames sH inches deep for a brood-chamber, 

 and a case of the same style for surplus 

 (section) honey, or would you advise me to 

 stick to the regular lo-frame hives? 



2. I must move my bees about H mile to 

 cellar them next winter. Last winter I hauled 

 them on a wagon and put them in without a 

 flight, and they wintered well. Do you think 

 I could move them to a location close to the 

 cellar before time to put them in winter quar- 

 ters, without loss? If so, when would you 

 advise me to do it— after the surplus honey- 

 flow, or a little before time to cellar them? 



3 If I moved them all but one colony at 

 this time of the vear, would not the bees re- 

 turning to the old location all be saved bv the 

 remaining colony left on its old stand? 



Maine. 



Answers.— I. Doubtful, especially as you 

 would have two sizes of frames and hives on 

 hand. And yet it would hardly cost anything 

 to make the experiment; for, after trial, it 

 you should prefer the deeper hive, you could 

 use the shallow ones for extracting. bome 

 of our best producers do that very thing— use 

 deep brood-chambers and shallow extracting- 

 chambers. . , t. . 



2 You would probably have no loss by mov- 

 ing them after they had ceased to gather, but 

 early enough so they will have a flight before 

 going into the cellar. It might be all right to 

 haul them and put them into the ""ar !■?: 

 mediately, without any flieht, but Im afraid 

 it does harm, at least sometimes. 



3. Yes, but the moved colonies would be 

 terribly depletei 



Introducing Queens. 



I receivea an Italian "ueen a few days ago 

 in a large Benton cage. Having no other 

 introducing cage. I placed the cage with the 

 queen between the top-bars of 2 frames, re- 

 moving one frame in order to make place for 

 ti.o cage. I placed it with the wire side down. 

 In 30 hours I removed the old queen and also 

 removed the pa^er covering from the candy. 

 In 54 hours the bees had removed the candy. 



