212 



July, 131 1. 



American Hee Jonrnal 



it hard, will it be safe to feed back to the 

 bees? If so. how long must I boil it ? Must 

 I mix water with it ? If so. how much ? I do 

 not want to take any chances in feeding it. 

 The honey-flow will soon be over here, and 

 I will need the honey to buildup the colo- 

 nies. This is the first year we have had a 

 good honey-flow for 4 years. 



2. I thoroughly boil all the hives and supers. 

 I use a T-super with solid separators. Will 

 it be safe to use the separators again if not 

 boiled, or if boiled ? 



3. I make my hive-covers of 2 pieces. I can 

 not get lumber wide enough for one piece. 

 The crack between the 2 pieces is over the 

 center of the hive, so it is difficult to keep 

 them from leaking. They are made of ;'s- 

 inch pine. If I cover them with tin, and 

 keep them painted, will that make them too 

 warm? They work all right, except the 

 leaking. Kentucky. 



Answers.— I. Spores have been known to 

 grow after being kept at a temperature of 

 212 degrees for 2ii hours. So it may be best 

 to boil the honey for 3 hours. If you try to 

 boil the undiluted honey, you will find the 

 outside part may be boiling for some time 

 while the central part is still comparatively 

 cool: also there is much danger of burning. 

 So it is best to use half as much water as 

 honey, and perhaps better still to use equal 

 parts, and let it continue to boil 3 hours 

 after it begins to boil. 



2. I would not be afraid to use the separa- 

 tors without boiling. 



3. The tin will not make your hive-covers 

 too warm. There is another way you might 

 like to try. which will be cheaper. Paint the 

 cover, and immediately, while the paint is 

 still wet. cover the crack with a piece of cot- 

 ton-cloth about 3 inches wide, bedding the 

 cloth down in the paint. When dry, paint 

 over the cloth and all. 



Colors and Markings of Bees— Saving Queen-Cells 

 — Nucleus 



1. I have a tested queen I bought last 

 spring. I introduced her to a colony of 

 hybrids or blacks, and she was accepted by 

 them; all her workers were s-banded and 

 showed up nicely, but I notice now that 

 about half of the workers are tailed off 

 solidly black. Why is this ? 



2. When you have say a half-dozen queen- 

 cells in a hive, how do you manage to hatch 

 and save all the queens ? 



3. Is there any difference in color of the 5- 

 banded Italians and golden Italians? If so. 

 what ? 



i. What do you mean by " nucleus ?" Say 

 2 or 3 frames of brood and bees — is this what 

 you call a nucleus ? 



5. How small an amount of bees with 

 queen can be developed into a good colony ? 

 Tennessee. 



Answers.— I. I don't know why there 

 should be any change. Are you sure the 

 same queen is present ? The bees may have 

 superseded her. and her daughter, mating 

 with a dark drone, would have darker 

 workers, 



2. There is no way in which you can safely 

 keep a number of queen-cells in the same 

 hive except to imprison them in a queen-nur- 

 sery or in queen-cages. Any number can be 

 kept up to the time the first one hatches out. 

 and then she will make it her business to 

 slaughter her baby sisters in their cradles. 



3. So far as I know, they are the same. 



4. Yes. a very small colony, consisting of i. 

 2. or 3 frames of brood and bees is called a 

 "nucleus." 



5. That depends. Given a season long 

 enough, and a single frame of brood with 

 enough bees to cover it might build up into 

 a colony before winter. But that would be 

 quite exceptional. Beginning at the time 

 when nuclei are usually formed, it would 

 generally need 3 frames of brood and bees to 

 be safe; and then it might be a failure if the 

 season should be poor. 



Why BiHer Honey ? 



As I have never seen anything in the 

 American Bee Journal about bitter honey, I 

 wish to ask a fewquestions about the causes 

 of bitter honey. In this locality we some- 

 times have an early honey-flow which is 

 very bitter, from some cause or other. The 

 old-time bee-keepers claim it is from hoar- 

 hound blossoms, but I have not decided 

 whether it is from hoarhound or not. as 

 chinquapin and wild grapes are in bloom 

 the same time as the hoarhound. The honey 

 has a taste that resembles the smell of chin- 

 quapin blossoms. So I laid to the chinqua- 

 pin the cause of the honey being bitter. 



The bees worked extensively on chinqua- 



pin and wild grapes this season, which is 

 not common in this section. But they always 

 work well on hoarhound every year. So if 

 it is hoarhound that is the cause, why is it 

 that the early flow is not always bitter every 

 year? My bees worked well on hoarhound 

 last year, and there was not even the slight- 

 est bitter taste in the honey. This makes it 

 look as if it might be something else. 



Probably some one more experienced in 

 bee-keeping will give the reason why the 

 honey is bitter. 



Probably it is the dry weather that is the 

 cause, for it was dry this year when the 

 hoarhound was in bloom. Does any one 

 know whether wild grapes or cliinquapin 

 yield bitter honey? Can any one say 

 whether hoarhound blossoms yield honey 

 that is bitter ? Arkansas. 



Answer.— I don't know enough about the 

 matter to help out any. but this will bring 

 the question "before the meeting" so that 

 we may get some information from some one 

 who is informed. Naturally one would 

 rather expect hoarhound honey to be bitter, 

 but it does not always follow that a plant of 

 a certain flavor will produce honey of the 

 same flavor. The honey having the odor of 

 chinquapin would point to chinquapin as 

 the source of the bitterness. I don't know 

 anything about chinquapin honey. If it is of 

 mild odor, then the evidence is pretty 

 strong against it. But if the odor of chin- 

 quapin honey is very strong, then it might 

 be that a very little chinquapin honey added 

 to hoarhound honey would give the odor, 

 while the hoarhound would give all the bit- 

 terness. 



A Beginner's Questions 



1. I had a colony of bees destroyed by 

 moth on account of its being queenless. 

 When I saw the bees could not. or would 

 not. get the best of the moth, I took out all 

 the frames and saved about 4 which the 

 moth had not touched. I shook the bees on 

 the ground, and in less than 15 minutes they 

 were with the colony next to where they had 

 been. Did you ever have bees unite that 

 way ? 



2. When a colony becomes queenless, 

 what is the best way to requeen ? Give them 

 a sealed queen-cell or a frame of brood, or 

 what would you do ? 



3. In taking a frame of brood from some 

 other colony and replacing with a frame 

 with full sheet of foundation, do you think it 

 would set back the bees ? 



4. And would it keep them from swarming 

 a little longer ? 



5. When a colony is weak, how do you get 

 them good and strong? 



(1. Which month in the fall do you think is 

 best for feeding bees in this part of Iowa ? 



7. What plan do you consider best to in- 

 crease artificially? Kindly name page in 

 " Forty Years Among the Bees." 



8. What is a nucleus? Is it also called 

 " queen-cell ?" 



0. On page 266. in " Langstroth on the Hive 

 and Honey-Bee," is a cut of queen-cells— 

 rudimentary cell. In seeing this in a frame 

 of comb, does it look as though there is a 

 worm in the cell ? 



10. Is there no way to tell when the first 

 swarms will come off ? 



11. Do bees usually hang out before swarm- 

 ing ? low-A. 



Answers.— I. I'm not sure I ever had a 

 colony unite with its next neighbor when 

 brushed on the ground, but I have had them 

 do it without being thrown on the ground. 



2. A cell just ready to hatch will gain 

 about 12 days over giving a frame of brood, 

 and a laying queen will be about 10 days bet- 

 ter still, so if I hadn't the laying queen I 

 would prefer the cell to the frame of brood. 

 If it was very early in the season. I would 

 unite with a weak colony having a good 

 queen, rather than to give the frame of 

 brood. 



3. That depends. Early in the season, if 

 the colony has only 3 or 4 frames of brood it 

 would set them back very much. In the full 

 flow it would make little difference to a 

 strong colony. 



4. It would have a tendency that way. 



5. Let them alone until some other colony 

 or colonies have become quite strong. Then 

 swap one of the frames of brood of the 

 weak colony for one that is nearly all sealed 

 from a strong colony. Or. take from a strong 

 colony a sealed frame with adhering bees, 

 and give to the weakling. Or. shake on the 

 ground in front of the weak colony the bees 

 from a frame of brood, and the young bees 

 will crawl into the weak colony while the 

 older bees will fly back home. Either way 

 may be repeated in a week or 10 days. 



6. In August or September if there is no 

 fall flow. In October if there is a fall flow. 

 But when there is a fall flow there is gen- 

 erally no need to feed. 



7. It depends upon circumstances. Gen- 

 erally, perhaps the. nucleus plan is best — 

 "Forty Years Among the Bees," page 268 — 

 although increase without nuclei {page 260J 

 has its advantages. 



8. A nucleus is a baby colony, having bees 

 enough to cover one to 3 frames of brood. 

 The plural of nucleus is nuclei; one nucleus, 

 two nuclei. A nucleus is never rightly called 

 a queen-cell. 



Q. The rudimentary queen-cell referred to 

 is so little advanced that it is almost cer- 

 tainly entirely empty. When it is a little 

 farther advanced an egg will be found in it. 

 and not till 3 days after the egg is there will 

 there be found anything that looks like a 

 worm. 



10. Yes; look for queen-cells in the hive. 

 If you find eggs in them, you may expect a 

 swarm inside of 8 or days, and the prime 

 swarm will issue about the time the first 

 cell is sealed. 



11. Sometimes, and sometimes not. A col- 

 ony may hang out without swarming, and it 

 may swarm without hanging out. 



Producing Section Honey — National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association 



1. How can I make a success in producing 

 section honey? Mt bees do network well 

 in sections. This year I used extracting 

 frames and sections alternately in the hives. 

 The extracting frames would be full and 

 capped, and now 2 weeks later the sections 

 are just ready to remove. The extracting 

 frames were replaced, and are full again 

 and ready to extract. Under such condi- 

 tions does it pay to bother with the sections 

 atall? 



2. Of what practical benefit is theNational 

 Bee-Keepers' Association to the small bee- 

 keeper ? I was a member during 4 years, 

 but aside from getting a copy of the Annual 

 Report I was unable to see that it was of any 

 benefit to me. so I quit. These Annual Re- 

 ports are good, of course, but each succeed- 

 ing copy largely duplicates its predecessors. 

 I would resume membership if I could see 

 that the National Association is effective. 



Illinois. 



Answers.— I. "Under such conditions" I 

 wonder that your success with sections was 

 as great as it was. You probably know that 

 it is generally estimated that about 50 per- 

 cent more extracted honey per colony can 

 be obtained than of comb. And you know 

 that bees will begin to fill honey in drawn- 

 out comb when they will hesitate about 

 starting work on comb foundation. That's 

 the reason that " bait-sections" are used to 

 get the bees to start work. As I understand 

 it. you alternated sections with drawn-out 

 combs. The bees begin to fill the drawn 

 combs, and having room enough in these 

 they saw no need to do much on the founda- 

 tion until the comb was filled and they 

 needed more room. After a start is made 

 in the super, if you take away the extracting 

 combs, you will be likely to find that the 

 bees will do better on sections. Even then, 

 it may be that you will do better with ex- 

 tracted honey, depending upon your market 

 and other things. 



2. A good many years ago a bee-keeper in 

 Wisconsin was sued by a troublesome neigh- 

 bor, with the charge that the bees drove the 

 sheep out of the neighbor's pasture. A num- 

 ber of us chipped in a dollar each to help 

 the beekeeper stand the cost of the suit, 

 and that was the real beginning of the pres- 

 ent National Association. The Association 

 has helped out many a bee-keeper who has 

 had troublesome neighbors, and been sued 

 by them, and there is no telling how many 

 others would have had trouble if it had not 

 been for precedents established by the As- 

 sociation. Nowadays bee-keepers have lit- 

 tle fear that suit will be brought against 

 them, obliging them to move their bees or 

 give up bee-keeping. All that is largely due 

 to the National Association, and all bee- 

 keepers have the benefit of it. The Asso- 

 ciation has done a little in the line of gen- 

 eral advertising to help the honey market, 

 and there is now a project on foot to do 

 much more in that direction. The great 

 trouble is that so many bee-keepers hesitate 

 to pay a dollar for the general good unless 

 they can at once get back two dollars for it. 

 If all would heartily unite, it does not seem 

 a very wild notion to believe that in the 

 near future every dollar paid into theNa- 

 tional treasury would bring back ten. if not 

 many times ten. 



