May, igti. 



American "B^c JomuA) 



I cut out all drone-comb in my inferior 

 colonies with success, replacing with work- 

 er-comb or foundation and allow no 

 drones to be reared in my own colonies? 



2. I have the Danzenbaker hives and I 

 propose to prevent excessive swarming, 

 as I do not care for any increase, by 

 shaking all or nearly all of the bees out 

 of the old colony, just about the time 

 they would naturally swarm, in front 

 of a new hive filled with full sheets of 

 foundation or empty combs as the case 

 may be, on the site of the old stand ; 

 placing the old colony, now almost bee- 

 less, on top of the new colony supers and 

 roof, facing another direction, contracting 

 the entrance somewhat, and gradually 

 turning the new hive around until the 

 end of 3 weeks, when all brood has 

 hatched out, and then shake the bees from 

 the upper hive on the ground in front of 

 the former "shook" swarm. Extract the 

 honey from the top hive, and pile it away 

 for use another year. Will it work, or 

 would it be better to set the old hive on 

 an altogether new stand, and at the close 

 of the honey harvesit, brimstone, and ex- 

 tract or pile the combs away for feeding? 



Ohio. 



Answers. — i. Your proposed cutting 

 out of drone-comb is a step in the right 

 direction, but not so very long a step 

 with other bees 'A to 2 miles away. But 

 to do anything beyond that step is not 

 easy, except to encourage drone-rearing 

 in pure stock by allowing or giving con- 

 siderable drone-comb and keeping the colo- 

 ny strong. Some have proposed putting 

 in cellar the hive containing the virgin, 

 and also the hive containing tnt drones, 

 bring them out after flight of drones as 

 over for the day, and giving thin syrup 

 or honey to induce flight. 



2. Either plan will work, but the first 

 probably better than the second. 



Italians or Black Bees — Honey and 

 the Teeth 



1. I notice that somebody speaks in fa- 

 vor of the Italian bees, but some others 

 prefer the black bees. I am an amateur 

 bee-keeper, have 2 colonies of common 

 black bees in lo-frame hives, and am run- 

 ning for extracted or chunk honey. Con- 

 sidering the dry summer, my bees did 

 pretty well with some sort of manage- 

 ment. Taking it to be the fact that my 

 bees are one and the same family — name- 

 ly, the queen in one colony is the mother 

 of the queen in the other colony — here 

 is the problem I want to question . On 

 the one side there may be danger of in- 

 breeding, but on the other side if I buy 

 and introduce an Italian queen there will 

 be the danger of hybrids. Sending away 

 for an Italian queen might in one way or 

 another be a poor job. As I believe, in- 

 breeding is bad ; and hybrid bees may also 

 be bad or objectionable because of tem- 

 per. \Vlhat have you to say in this mat- 

 ter? What am I to do about it? 



2. Somebody claims that honey is bad 

 for the teeth, and that it causes tooth- 

 ache. I would not believe it. but since 

 fall I have had plenty of honey to eat 

 and my teeth have been in poorer con- 

 dition than before. Have you anything 

 to say in reference to this? 



Wisconsin. 

 Answers. — I don't believe there is as 

 much danger on either hand as you sup- 

 pose. Unless neighbors' bees are 2 miles 

 distant from you on all sides, there is the 

 probability that your young queens will 

 meet drones from abroad. On the other 

 hand, if you introduce Italian blood, it is 

 not likely that you will increase the vio- 

 lence of the temper in your bees as much 

 as you suppose. The probability is that 

 what you consider pure blacks are hy- 

 brids, having at least some Italian blood 



in them, for it is somewhat doubtful if 

 pure black blood can be found in Wis- 

 consin at the present day. Of course I 

 can not say how good your bees are, but 

 the probability is that the itroduction of 

 pure Italian blood would increase your 

 crop of honey. 



2. I do not like to speak with too much 

 positiveness, but although honey or any 

 other sweet causes pain in teeth that are 

 out of condition, I doubt if the sweet 

 causes the decay. 



Hiving on Empty Brood-Combs — 

 Full Sheets of Foundation, Etc. 



1. Will bees hived on empty brood- 

 combs during a good honey-flow produce 

 as much comb honey in supers as they 

 would if hived on full sheets of founda- 

 tion? 



2. What is the best way to handle bees 

 in regard to room between the "white 

 honey-flow in June and July, and the buck- 

 wheat flow in August ? My bees are then 

 too strong to occupy an ordinary hive- 

 body, and if given new sections they de- 

 stroy the foundation and spoil the sec- 

 tions. Ohio. 



Answers. — ^i. Being sa-ved the extra la- 

 bor of building comb, they ought to do 

 more an surplus. I think they will, al- 

 though I have seen it stated that they 

 would not. Possibly that might be so 

 under some peculiar circumstances, but as 

 a rule I should expect a gain from the 

 full combs. 



2. I don't like to get into a quarrel with 

 you, but I am hardly ready to accept your 

 statement that your bees are too strong 

 to occupy an ordinary hive-body, and at 

 the same time destroy 'foundation in sec- 

 tions. Not but what that is true, too, but 

 I don't agree with your evident belief 

 that the bees need some super-room. If 

 they tear down the foundation in sec- 

 tions, they are not gathering anything 

 more than they need for their daily use. 

 and so need no super-room, 



"Can't have room to stay in the brood- 

 chamber?" Let 'em stay out, then. Won't 

 hurt *em a bit to cluster outside the hive 

 till it is time to put on sections for the 

 buck-wheat. This on the supposition that 

 you want the buckwheat stored in sec- 

 tions. Another way is to give them a 

 second story. If you haven't many extra 

 combs to put in second stories, one or two 

 combs in each story will be enough so 

 long as they are storing nothing, and 

 you need not be troubled with the thought 

 of the empty space in the upper story. 



Don't be worried about the character 

 of your questions. Any question is legiti- 

 mate that fairly belongs to bee-keeping, 

 and is not answered in the bee-keeping 

 text-books. 



brood-chamber. I believe only sealed 

 brood should go above the excluder, on 

 account of the bees building queen-cells 

 with young brood. Now the question is. 

 Will the bees go up and take care of the 

 brood, or will they stay below? If they 

 would go up and take care of the brood, 

 I don't see why the plan would not work. 

 I don't suppose I could work them all 

 that way. because I would not have enough 

 sealed brood to go around. I think it 

 ought to be done during fruit-bloom, and 

 I guess I would have to feed tliem be- 

 tween fruit-bloom and alfalfa bloom. 



Colorado. 

 Answer. — The bees will take care of 

 the brood above, only you would better not 

 shake off all the bees, for if you shake 

 all off they may be a little slow about 

 finding their way up. The plan will work 

 just as well if you shake the bees off half 

 the coimbs. It will be all right to put un- 

 sealed brood above if you kill queen-cells 

 in about a week in the upper story. If 

 you leave the sections under the brood 

 until sealing you will find the sealing dark- 

 ened. After a good start is made in the 

 sections, better set the brood down on the 

 excluder and the sections above the brood. 



Management for Extracted and 

 Section Honey 



I would like this year to have both 

 section and extracted honey. I have a 

 plan I would like your judgment on be- 

 fore I go ahead with it. My plan is, dur 

 ing fruit-bloom, to remove the bees from 

 their stands, putting in their places hives 

 filled with empty combs or foundation less 

 one with some brood, and iprobably an- 

 other with honey, which is to be left in 

 the center. Next is a queen-excluder on 

 the lower story, then a super for section 

 honey, and then put on the old hive with 

 the bees. Now fix the cloth in front of 

 the lower hive, and take the bees out of 

 the top hive, one frame at a time, and 

 shake them all on the cloth. Then put on 

 section supers as needed. In that way I 

 would have both section and comb honey 

 for extracting, as the bees would have 

 the top 'hive to fill after the brood has 

 hatched, besides the surplus in the lower 



Bees Enticed Out in Winter 



May, 1910, I bought i colony of bees 

 from a neighbor, and 2 weeks after I had 

 a large swarm from it. About 10 or 12 

 days later a second swarm issued, some- 

 what smaller than the first. A few days 

 later a friend 'phoned that he had found 

 a swarm and wanted me to come and get 

 it. I went and brought it home, which 

 made 4. I got about 120 pounds of comb 

 honey, and left the brood-chambers full 

 for them to winter on. They all seemed 

 strong and healthy. I built a large box, 

 about 8 or 10 inches larger, all over, than 

 the hives, and packed them m planer shav- 

 ings. About Feb. ist I discovered that the 

 inmates of the mother-hive had dysen- 

 tery. At noon, when the sun was shin- 

 ing, although the temperature was 10 

 degrees below freezing, they would come 

 out in large numbers to cleanse them- 

 selves, but would get benumbed before 

 thy could return, and fall to the ground 

 and die on the snow. On a mild day I 

 uncovered the hive and found no ice in it. 

 It was dry, and the bees came up over the 

 frames quite lively. I did not feed them 

 in the fall. They had nothing but their 

 own stores to feed on. and I can think of 

 nothing that could bring this condition 

 about. I have read 'my bee-books through, 

 but can find no answer. Kindly tell me 

 what in your opinion is the cause, and 

 what the remedy New York. 



Answer. — Hard to say. There seems 

 some inconsistency in 'having the bees dry 

 and clean, and yet coming out with diar- 

 rhea when it was 10 degrees below freez- 

 ing. It is possible, however, that they 

 were not really troubled with diarrhea, 

 but only enticed out by the bright sun 

 shining on the snow, a thing that may 

 easily happen with the thermometer at 

 22, or 10 below freezing. The remedy 

 for that state of affairs is to set a board 

 up in front of the hive as a blind to keep 

 the sun from shining in. The colony being 

 very strong, it is just possible that the 

 entrance was too small. It sihould hard- 

 ly be less than 6xJ| for a strong colony. 



The Miller Frame 



A Pennsylvania correspondent wants me 

 to send him a Miller frame in the flat, as a 

 sample. I have no frames in the flat, but 

 will tell how the Miller frame is made, copy- 

 ine from " Forty Years Among the Bees:" 



The frame is of course the regular Lang- 

 stroth size. nHxoVt. Top-bar. bottom-bar 

 and end-bars are uniform in width. 1% 

 inches throughout their whole dimensions. 

 The top-bar is '-» inch thick, with the usual 



