March, ir,[r. 



American Hee Joornal 



eral. I had a chance to talk with him, 

 and he told mc that soon after he moved 

 he got well, and has not had any symp- 

 toms of rheumatism since. Xow I have 

 another patient who owns a large dry 

 goods store in Springfield, III. He wants 

 the horizontal treatment from the bee. 

 I am hesi/tating a little, for bee-stings are 

 dangerous to some people, and I might 

 "get my foot in it" if it should work the 

 wrong way. I thouglit I would better ask 

 your advice in regard to the practice. 



Answer. — There is no great likelihood 

 that you will get into serious trouble ap- 

 plying stings lor rheumatism, if you begin 

 as moderately as 2 stings in a week. 



Hiving Swarms — Feeding in Spring 



1. When a swarm is hived on an old 

 stand and the parent colony moved to new 

 location, will any oi the aueen-celU be 

 destroyed by the bees, or will this be left 

 for first emerging virgin to do? 



2. I have a choice colony which I want 

 to stimulate, beginning early in the spring, 

 till it swarms, hiving the swarm on the 

 old stand ; then divide the parent colony 

 into 2 or 3 parts, giving to each part 

 one or more of the queen-cells. Can this 

 be done with good results? and will the 

 small colonies build up strong by fall ; 

 that is, if the season is favorable? 



3. How many days after the swarm is- 

 sues should I divide? 



4. Some of my colonies will need to 

 be fed during April. Is it possible to 

 feed a colony say 10 pounds of syrup 

 on a warm day, by placing a pan (with 

 float) in an empty super over the colony? 



5. What thickness should the syrup be 

 made? Virginia. 



Answers. — i. The cells will be de- 

 stroyed after the emergence of the first 

 virgin. 



2. The probability is that feeding early 

 in spring to stimulate will not "pan out' 

 as well as you expect. As a rule, if 

 abundant supplies are in the hive, the 

 bees will build up as fast if left entirely 

 alone, and sometimes the attempt to 

 stimulate works just the other way. Even 

 so, in a good season, as many as two 

 swarms might build up into good colonies 

 by fall. Hardly more, and the season 

 must be good at that. 



3. About 7 or 8 days". 



4. Yes. 



5. For that time of year half-and-half 

 will be all right. 



Doubling Number of Colonies — Jerk- 

 ing Supers Off 



1. Can I double my colonies this spring, 

 without buying any, and have them strong 

 enough to go into supers when white 

 clover comes in bloom, which, in this lo- 

 cality, is from June ist to loth? 



2. If it can be done, how would you 

 do it? 



3. If the above plan is not feasible, give 

 me your best ior increasing without cut- 

 ting in too much on the honey crop. 



4. Can you jerk the supers clear oflf 

 the Marengo bees at one yank, like they 

 do from those Texas bees? I know from 

 hot experience you can't do it with Penn- 

 sylvania bees. (I think I hear Mr. Scholl 

 say it's in the "breed" of the manipula- 

 tor.) When I first commencefl keeping 

 bees I tried emptying the supers of bees 

 by shaking, then by "shooking," then 

 smoking, then more shaking, and sweating, 

 and frc'iuently drop the super and "beat 

 it" for a friendly clump of elders hard by. 

 Now when I want to remove the super 

 with the aid of a little smoke I quietly 

 adjust a Porter escape, and rest while 

 the Porter does the rest. How they do 

 save your old back! Pennsylvania. 



Answers. — i, 2 and 3. If you will al- 

 low me to answer your first 3 questions 



in a bunch, I would say that increase must 

 be at the cost of crop, but you may ac- 

 complish what you probably want in this 

 way : Start queen-cells in your best col- 

 ony ; about 8 days later take from each 

 colony all but one frame of brood witli 

 adhering bees, and put it in another hive 

 on another stand, leaving the queen with 

 one frame of brood on the old stand. Fill 

 up both hives with frames of foundation, 

 and a day or two later give a sealed cell 

 to the queenless part. If you start before 

 about the time for swarming, you will 

 have poor queens. If you wait later you 

 run the risk of having swarming. Yet 

 that might not be such a veo' bad thing. 

 Indeed, you might do worse than to de- 

 pend upon natural swarming. Then as 

 each colony swarms, put the swarm on 

 the old stand with the mother clonoy cJose 

 beside it, and a week later move the old 

 colony to a new stand. 



4. I never was very successful in shak- 

 ing bees out of supers, yet I can do some- 

 thing at it by striking the super on the 

 ground on one end, or rather on the 

 lower edge of one end. But I don't often 

 do that. 



Mice in Hives — Detecting Foul 



Brood — Dividing for Increase — 



Locating an Apiary 



1. On Jan. 28, fjii, I bought my part- 

 ner's share of the bees, and on opening 

 the hive I found a mouse-nest in it. I 

 thought that ver>- strange, having never 

 heard of it before. Have you any mice 

 in your bee-hives? The colony is a strong 

 one, and I thought the bees would keep 

 the mice out. It never destroyed any 

 comb while it was in there. 



2. The bees are in an old box-hive. I 

 am going to transfer them in the spring. 

 When would you advise me to do it? 



3. Would you advise me to give them 

 full frames of foundation in the brood- 

 chamber ? 



4. How can you tell when the bees have 

 foiil brood ? 



5. Do you think it good to divide them 

 about July ist? I am working for an in- 

 crease ? 



6. We have 2 lots, on one there is a 

 peach orchard. Would you keep bees 

 on that side, or near the house where 

 you could watch them ? 



I take the .\merican Bee Journal and 

 think it is a fine paper for bee-keepers. 



Illinois. 



Answers. — i. Yes. indeed, I've had 

 mice in hives, and they have not always 

 been as considerate as yours, for they have 

 sometimes gnawed the combs. You can 

 keep them out by having the entrance 

 closed with wire-cloth having 3 meshes to 

 the inch. That will bar mice, but allow 

 bees to pass. 



2. Nowadays a favorite way is to wait 

 till they swarm. Hive the swarm in a 

 modern hive, set it on the old stand, and 

 as you are working for increase set the 

 old hive at once on a new stand. Twenty- 

 one days from the time the colony 

 swarmed — when all the worker-brood will 

 be hatched out — transfer the old colony 

 to a new hive, giving it frames of founda- 

 tion, unless you prefer to cut out the 

 straight combs from the old hive and 

 fasten them into frames. 



3- Yes. 



4. By the appearance of the brood. If 

 you find dead brood in the brood-combs it 

 will be well to send a sample to Dr. E. F. 

 Phillips, Agricultural Department, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, and he will tell you, with- 

 out charge, what the trouble is. 



5. Yes, or a little sooner if they have 

 not already swarmed naturally. You can 

 divide any time after honey is yielding 

 well if the colony is strong enough. 



6. Other things being equal, I should 

 keep them wnere they are most readily 

 seen. 



Two Laying Queens in a Hive — Re- 

 queening Hybrid Bees — Sumac — 

 Prevention of Swarming 



1. Will two or more laying queens in 

 one hive prevent swarming, as told by 

 Alexander? 



2. If so, how do you get two queens 

 in one hive? 



3. The bees won't liberate a queen from 

 a cage as long as there is a good laying 

 queen in the hive. 



4. How would this do? Remove the 

 queen, place a follower in the middle of 

 the hive, with frames on either side, and 

 introduce a queen to each side? Of course, 

 the follower would then be removed and 

 all passage over the tops of the frames 

 prohibited until both of queens are re- 

 leased. 



5. I have a colony of hybrids. I tried 

 to requeen them but it wouldn't work. As 

 long as there is a lar^a in the hive they 

 will start queen-cells. Could I wait until 

 brood-rearing ceased and then introduce 

 the queen? Could I throw them on 

 foundation and then introduce her. I 

 know of a case of this kind where, when 

 the queen was introduced with the bees 

 on foundation, she was allowed to de- 

 posit eggs until there was larvae in the 

 hive, when she was promptly killed, and 

 the bees proceeded to rear one for them- 

 selves. 



6. Does sumac yield honey? I removed 

 some honey this season that had a green- 

 ish tinge. The comb fairly melted in the 

 mouth. It is capped white. Could this 

 have been sumac? The bees worked on 

 it steadily for a week. 



7. In the November issue some one 

 wrote from New Jersey saying he had a 

 plan for the prevention of swarming. Do 

 you know any more about it. as to whether 

 he gave it to some bee-paper, whether 

 it is a success, and what paper he gave it 

 to. etc.? New Jersey. 



Answers. — i. I think the plan did not 

 pan out well afterward. 



2. You can get two queens to stay to- 

 gether in one hive, provided one of them 

 is quite old, by the tisual way of intro- 

 ducing. 



3. 'They will in this "locality." 



4. It might work, but as soon as the 

 queens got together there would likely 

 be a death in the family, unless one of 

 them was quite old. 



5. Bees are sometimes exceptionally 

 stubborn, but it is possible that in either 

 of these cases there might be success with 

 liberal feeding. 



6. Sumac is a fine, honey-plant in some 

 places, but I don't know the appearance 

 of the honey. 



7. I have heard nothing further about it. 



Dadant & Sons, of Hamilton, 111., have 

 sent us a copy of their annual catalog 

 for 1911. It contains 52 pages, 6 of 

 which are devoted to instructions to 

 beginners in bee-keeping. The rest of 

 the catalog describes the various bee- 

 supplies they have for sale. Dadant & 

 Sons have been in the bee-supply and 

 comb foundation manufacturing busi- 

 ness since 1863. In 2 more years they 

 will have been in business just .W years, 

 which length of time has been repre- 

 sented by 3 generations of the Dadant 

 family; and there is a 4th coming on. 

 We congratulate Dadant & Sons on 

 their long and honorable career, and 

 hope that they will at least round out 

 the lOOth-year'mark. 



