April, 1911. 



American Vae Journal 



spring, or let them swarm the natural 

 way? 



2. Would I get any honey next fall by 

 doing so? 



3. Which kind of bees gather the most 

 honey ? 



4. My bees are Italians. Axe they con- 

 sidered the best for honey in the long 

 run? MissouRi. 



Answers. — i. Until you have more ex- 

 perience it may be as well to trust to 

 natural s-warming. But as some of them 

 may be slow about swarming, you might 

 at least divide one colony for the sake of 

 the practise. 



2. I don't know anything about your 

 fall flow, but whether j'ou have a good 

 fall flow or not, if it is a good year you 

 ought to get a good yield from the sum- 

 mer flow, provided you manage the natu- 

 raJ swarms properly. When a swarm is- 

 sues, hive it and set it on the old stand. 

 That will throw all the flying force into 

 •the swarm, and with such a strong force 

 the swarm ought to store a nice crop, if 

 there is anything to store. 



3. Hard to say. Probably hybrids. But 

 it is not considered good practise to try 

 to continue hybrids. However, if you try 

 to keep pure Italians you will likeJy have 

 hybrids enough. 



4. Yes, the majority of bee-keepers try 

 to keep Italians as nearly pure as they 

 can. 



any difference whether you feed i, 2, or 

 3 parts of water to i of sugar, only if you 

 have 3 parts it makes more to evaporate. 



Plain and Bee-Way Sections 



Are plain sections as good for shipping 

 purposes as the bee-way sections? 



California. 



Answer. — ^In the plain sections the seal- 

 ing coines out flush with the surface of 

 the wood, so there is a little more danger 

 of breakage in putting the sections in the 

 shipping-case, and especially in taking 

 them out. 



Early Spring Feeding of Bees 

 When is the proper time to feed in or- 

 der to stimulate breeding, so as to have 

 lots of bees early enough. but not too early, 

 in this latitude (northern New Jersey) ? 

 What feeder would you recommend? How 

 is the Alexander feeder? New Jersey. 



Answer. — ^There are a few localities in 

 which there is such a dearth between the 

 first yield and the white-honey harvest 

 that brood-rearing ceases. In such a lo- 

 cality it pays to feed so as to keeip up 

 brood- rearing. My locality is not one of 

 them, and I do not think it wise to feed, 

 except to make sure that the bees have 

 abundant stores. I suppose your locality 

 is like mine, and the wisest thing is to 

 see that your bees have abundance, and 

 then let them severely alone. You may do 

 harm by meddling. 



Feeding Bees During Nectar Dearth 

 From about July loth to Sept. ist, there 

 is not much here for the bees to get, and 

 sometimes not anything. The last of 

 September and the first of October we 

 have a good honey-flow. Now I would 

 like to know the cheapest way to feed 

 during this dearth so as to have the bees 

 ready for the fall flow. Is it best to put 

 1, 2 or 3 of water to i of sugar? Do 

 you know anything that would do, and 

 that is cheaper than granulated sugar. 

 This is for feeding in summer, and not 

 for winter. North Carolina. 



Answer. — You will proliably find little 

 economy in feeding anything else than 

 granulated sugar, unless you have some 

 dark honey. Like enough it will not be 

 necessary to feed at all, for even if the 

 bees gather very little it takes very little 

 to keep up breeding. Doubtful if it makes 



Control of Queen Fertilization 

 — Cyprians 



1. On page 193 (1910), American Bee 

 Journal, in regard to ''Control of Queen- 

 Fertilization," has the plan been worked 

 out? Was it a success or failure? If suc- 

 cessful, what is the plan? 



2. Have you had any personal experi- 

 ence with Cyprians? If so. describe the 

 hustling qualities, comb-cappings, com- 

 parative siize of bee, color (full), longevi- 

 ty, and disposition of the pure bee. 



New Mexico. 



Answers. — i. (See another page for re- 

 ply to this question by Mr. C. O. Smith. 

 — Editor.) 



2. I never had but one colony of Cyp- 

 rians, and as that was several years ago 

 I can only tell about them as I remember 

 them. In industry, comb-capping, and 

 size, they did not especially differ from 

 Italians, if at all. t do not recall whether 

 they differed dn color, and I know noth- 

 ing about their longevity. They have the 

 reputation of being very cross, but did not 

 distinguish themselves in that way. The 

 most notable thing about them was that 

 they would start the largest number of 

 queen-cells of all the bees I e\er knew. 



Italianizing Bees 



1. Wlhich of the Italian strain of bees 

 do you think are the best honey-gather- 

 ers — 3-band, golden, or red clover? 



2. All of my bees are black or hybrids, 

 and I wish to rear some queens. How 

 can I get them mated purely ? Can I rear 

 some pure drones and close all of the hy- 

 brids colonies with excluders, and let only 

 pure drones be at liberty? 



3. When a hybrid or black swarm is- 

 sues can I catch the hybrid queen and 

 drop in an Italian without introducing 

 her in a cage? 



4. What is the best time of the year to 

 Italianize? Virginia. 



Answers. — i. You may get a queen in 

 either class that will be good, but on the 

 whole the 3-banders are as dependable as 

 any. The red-clover bees can hardly be 

 said to be a class by themselves, for in 

 any class of bees you are likely to find 

 here and there those that will work on 

 red clover. The trouble is that if you get 

 a queen of that kind you are not at all 

 sure that her royal progeny will be like 

 her. 



2. It is not at all certarin that you can 

 make sure of pure fertilization in any 

 way. Your plan may work if there are 

 no other drones within 2 miles. 



3. That would probably work sometimes, 

 but perhaps oftener fail. 



4- Other things being equal, there is no 

 better time than toward the close of har- 

 vest, but if I had poor bees I wouldn't 

 want to wait till tlien to get in better 

 stock. 



Why Did They Die?— Drones in 

 Winter 



1. I purchased an Italian queen last 

 September and introduced her to one of 

 my best young colonies, and in a few 

 weeks her bees began to show up fine. In 

 October a young black queen was carried 

 out of the hive, and on Nov. 6 a black 

 queen came out of the hive late in the 

 evening and flew away, and the yellow 

 bees seemed to be increasing all the time. 

 They lived until the last of February and 

 then died leaving an abundance of stores. 

 What was the cause? 



2. What lis the cause of drones being in 

 the hive in February? They fly out every 



warm day. The colonies are extra-strong. 



Illinois. 



Answers. — i. It is just possible that 

 there is some mistake about those 2 black 

 queens. At any rate, their presence or 

 absence does not help out in answering 

 the question as to what caused the death 

 of the bees. Without any more informa- 

 tion I can not even make a reasonable 

 guess. It is possible that diarrhea may 

 have been tlie trouble, in which case the 

 frames and combs would be badly daubed. 

 It is possible, also, that the colony may 

 have become queenless somewhat early, 

 and that then the numbers rapidly dwin- 

 dled away, leaving too few bees to keep 

 alive. If the colony became queenless 

 early in October, there might be the two 

 young queens you saw, which being reared 

 so much out of season could easily be so 

 dark that you would call them black, the 

 queen you saw Nov. 6 being lost on her 

 wedding-flight. Even then, one would 

 hardly expect the colony to peter out so 

 soon ; but I can't make any better guess 



2. It is to be feared that the colony is 

 queenless. A queenless colony will retain 

 its drones through the winter, although 

 sometimes a queen-right colony will have 

 drones in winter, but only a few. 



American Foul Brood 



If a colony that has a few cells of 

 American foul brood in it swarms, and 

 that swarm is put into a new hive con- 

 taining frames with full sheets of foun- 

 dation, will it be in danger of having 

 American foul brood later on? or ds it 

 necessary to use something like the Mc- 

 Evoy treatment? Michigan. 



Answer. — Yes, it is in danger; but that 

 "later on" must not be carried too far. 

 If the disease does not appear in the first 

 batch of brood, you need not expect it 

 "later on." But if there are, as you say, 

 only a few diseased cells in the parent 

 colony, the probability is that the swarm 

 will be healthy. 



Spring Management of Bees — Yellow 

 Sweet Clover — Feeding Bees 



1. I have 50 colonies of bees, 100 acres 

 of alsike clover and 200 acres of white 

 clover, and some locust and fruit-trees 

 within a mile of my place. Will that be 

 pasture enough ? 



2. We have some warm days in Febru- 

 ary, and I saw drones flying about. Is 

 that common at this season of the year? 



3. My bees have plenty of stores. How 

 soon would you put on supers? 



4. My apiary is in northern Kentucky. 

 I have yellow sweet clover to sow. How 

 soon would you sow it? 



5. I have some waste honey, and I aim 

 feeding the bees the honey outdoors on 

 some wide boards. Is that as good as 

 feeding in feeders? 



6. Will spring feeding forward rearing 

 young brood? 



7. There are very few bees in my neigh- 

 borhood. Do you think it best for me to 

 put t'hem in out-apiaries? Kentucky. 



Answers. — i. Yes, unless there are other 

 bees to divide the spoils with yours. 



2. No, and there is some danger that a 

 colony has not the right kind of a queen 

 if many drones fly so early. 



3. No matter how full of stores a hive 

 may be, no need to put on supers until 

 the harvest is on. If your first surplus 

 is from white clover, no need to put on 

 supers till after you see white clover in 

 bloom. Another way is to put on supers 

 when you see the bees putting bits of 

 white wax along the tops of the brood- 

 combs. 



4. Sow it as early as the farmers in your 

 region sow the earliest grasses or grains. 

 ■ 5. Fully as good or better, if your neigh- 



