January, 191 [. 



American l^oe JominA} 



that it is better not to have such, in 

 which case there is nothing to do with 

 a thing you do not have. But how can 

 laying workers be avoided ? As they 

 come about through a colony being 

 hopelessly queenless for a longer or 

 shorter period, if we see to it that no 

 colony is allowed to become thus 

 queenless. we will never have such a 

 thing as laying workers. I have not 

 had a laying worker in either of my 

 apiaries during the past 10 years, and 

 if colonies, where a change of queens 

 is likely to occur, are properly looked 

 after at" about the time the new queen 

 should have eggs and larvae, there is 

 seldom need of ever having a laying 

 worker during a bee-keeper's lifetime. 



But what does " properly looked 

 after " mean ? An outside diagnosis 

 will generally reveal whether the new- 

 queen is there, has begun to lay, and is 

 a good one, by the " vim " of the bees 

 going to and from the entrance. If 

 they are hustling out, and going in 

 rapidly with water and pollen, together 

 with honey; if the flowers are yielding 

 nectar from two days to a week after 

 the queen is expected to start her 

 "brood-nest," then it is safe to con- 

 clude that all is well, without opening 

 the hive for the examination. How- 

 ever, if the bees appear more sluggish 

 in flight, congregate about the en- 

 trance of the hive in a sort of listless 

 way, with none carrying water, and 

 few carrying pollen, then we must open 

 the hive, which will generally result in 

 finding no brood, but instead a hope- 

 less, queenless colony, the outcome of 

 which will generally be laying workers, 

 unless such colony is immediately 

 looked after by giving it a frame or 

 two of brood from other colonies. 

 Upon giving this brood, one frame of 

 which should have eggs and small 

 larvs, it is best to wait 3 days before 

 trying to give them a queen, for 

 there is a possibility that the colony 

 may have a deformed queen, in which 

 case any queen given would be killed, 

 as the bees will, in nearly all cases, 

 hold to a queen which can not fly out 

 to mate, rather than accept the best 

 queen the apiarist can give them. 



When opening the hive 3 days later, 

 if queen-cells are found with royal 

 jelly and larv:e in them, you may know 

 that they are queenless, and proceed to 

 give them a queen at once. But if 

 none are found, which will be the ex- 

 ception rather than the rule, then you 

 must hunt out that which they are 

 holding to as a queen and dispose of 

 her before such a colony will accept 

 the one you attempt to give them. 



By diagnosing and looking over the 

 apiary once every two weeks in this 

 way during the breeding season, one 

 will very rarely be annoyed with laying 

 workers. 



But, suppose I have been negligent 

 in these matters, and already have lay- 

 ing workers, what then ? As a rule, col- 

 onies left long enough queenless so 

 that some of the workers are fed chyle, 

 and take on the part of motherhood 

 for the colony, such a colony will have 

 become so reduced in bees, and those 

 remaining become so old, with their 

 vitality much reduced, that it is better 

 to break up the colony, or unite the 

 bees with some weaker colony, which 

 uniting will generally incite the queen 



of such weak colony to more prolific 

 brood-rearing, which, in this way, will 

 help the weak colony to go into winter 

 with a larger number of young bees, 

 which gives a little profit from the 

 colony having the laying workers. 



But suppose that I wish all the colo- 

 nies possible — is there no way of sav- 

 ing such a colony ? Yes, many plans 

 have been given, some of which work 

 quite well. If the colony has not been 

 queenless too long, so that there is 

 quite a large cluster of bees with a 

 prospect of many of these living -1 or 5 

 weeks, put 2 worker-combs in an empty 

 hive, and with them one of honey. Set 

 the colony having the laying workers 

 from its stand, and after having placed 

 a laying queen in an introducing cage 

 between the comb of honey and the 

 one next to it, put the hive having the 

 3 combs where the colony stood, clos- 

 ing it up. It is best to do this in the 

 middle of any day when the bees are 

 flying freely, so that enough bees will 

 go into this hive to look after the 

 queen properly before night comes on. 



Having this prepared hive on the 

 stand the laying worker colony occu- 

 pied, place that colony about one foot 

 away from its old stand, with the en- 

 trance back about one foot to 18 inches. 

 Leave them thus from 3 to 5 days, 

 when you will find the queen in the 3- 

 frame hive out and laying, with nearly 

 all the bees with her, as nearly all the 

 field-bees will leave the original laying- 

 worker hive, and, returning, will enter 

 the hive containing the 3 combs and 

 caged queen. 



After the queen has been laying long 

 enough so that larvjc are hatched, the 

 combs can be set from the laying- 

 worker hive in that containing the 

 queen, leaving out the 3 having the 

 most drone-brood (from the laying 

 workers) in them when the work is 

 done, and a fairly good colony will be 

 the result, if the bees were not too 



nearly worn out before you commenced 

 with them. 



But suppose the bees were well worn, 

 and I want to save the colony — what 

 then ? The colony can be saved even 

 then, but it is a question of quite a lit- 

 tle work, and the weakening of other 

 colonies. The first thing you will want 

 is a good queen in an introducing cage. 

 Set the colony with the laying workers 

 off as before, and on its stand place an 

 empty hive with the caged queen. Now 

 go to any colony which can spare 

 them and get 2 combs of brood with 

 all the adhering bees, being sure that 

 you do not get the queen, setting these 

 combs in the empty hive. Now go to 

 another colony and get 2 more combs 

 of bees and brood from that, placing 

 them beside the other 2, and placing 

 the caged queen between the 2 combs 

 last brought and those already in the 

 hive. If you still have another colony 

 which can spare 2 combs of brood, get 

 these, with their adhering bees, putting 

 one of these on either side of the 4 

 already in, when the hive is to be 

 closed. 



If this work is done in the middle 

 of the forenoon, the most of the bees 

 from the laying-worker colony will be 

 over with the queen and brood by 

 night, so that there will be no loss of 

 brood by the older bees ibrought with 

 the combs of brood) returning home. 

 The next day take 2 combs from the 

 laying-worker colony to each hive 

 sparing the combs of brood the day 

 before, putting them in there so as to 

 give each the full complement of combs 

 again, when those remaining are to go 

 in with the the new colony formed on 

 the laying-worker stand, which com- 

 pletes the job, as soon as the queen is 

 liberated and found laying. If you can 

 give the 6 combs of bees and brood, 

 this colony will be as good as any for 

 winter, but it will be seen that it is 

 done by making other colonies less 

 prosperous. Borodino, N. Y. 



Dr. Milleris 



Answers^ 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, III. 



He does not answer bee-keeping questions by mail. 



Spraying During Fruit-Bloom — Honey a 

 Clean Food — Banat Bees 



1. Is there any law to prohibit spraying 

 during fruit-bloom in I'ennsylvania ? 



2. Is. or is not. lioney a clean food ? Some 

 of my neighbors claim it is not fit to eat. as 

 bees work on all rubbatie and around closets. 



V Is the Hanat bue a new race of Ijees 

 brought from some other country, or is it 

 iusta cross with some of our native bees ? 

 Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— I. I think not. 



2. In the rare cases when bees work on 

 garbage, it is to carry it to the brood apart- 

 ment for the brood. None of it goes into the 

 surplus honey, which comes from the flow- 

 ers, and so is the cleanest kind of food. 



3. They are counted a separate race. 



Bees Wintered Outdoors 



I. I winter my tices on the summer stands. 

 and have the inside of the super covered 

 with burlap, also a roof over them. The 

 hives face the south. The bees come out 

 every day and die or freeze outside of the 



entrance. We have snow and cold weather 

 here. What is the cause ? 



2. Should the hives have ventilation on 

 top of the frames ? 



3. Do bees sweat if covered too warm ? 



Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— I. It is possible that something 

 is wrong with the food, causing dysentery. 

 It is also possible that there is nothing seri- 

 ously wrong. Bees are dying off more or 

 less all the time in winter, and the mortality 

 may not be excessive. It may be that the 

 bees are enticed out by the bright sun shin- 

 ing in at the entrance, and if snow is on the 

 ground they may sink into it, never to rise 

 again. Some think it advisable to put a 

 board or something of the kind in front of 

 the entrance, so as to darken it. Yet when 

 a day comes warm enough for bees to fly 

 freely, the board should be removed for that 

 day. 



2. Hardly ventilation; yet there should be 

 a passage over the frames so the bees can 

 get from one comb (o another. 



:i. They are more likely to sweat when too 

 cold, if you may call it sweat. Moisture is 

 coming from the bees all the time, and if the 

 walls of the hive are cold, the condensed 



