Am<erican Hm -Joornal 



September, 191 1. 



and honey, and ''nothing doing"' in the 

 supers. Advice given is to uncap the 

 honey in the brood-chamber. Most of the 

 sections have bait-comb in them. I have 

 no uncapper. so I have run a hook over 

 the capped honey and considerably dis- 

 turbed it. Now, how about being as sure 

 as possible that in these hives with clog- 

 ging-up brood-frames (with honey') there 

 will be enough bees growing in Septem- 

 ber or August so as to have the colonies 

 winter all right? Is there such trouble 

 in producing extracted honey? What 

 would I better do? Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — Running a hook over the 

 sealed surface ought to have somewhat 

 the same effect as uncapping, but is 

 probably not so good. If you have no 

 regular uncapping-knife, a common butch- 

 er-knife will do fairly good work. When 

 the surface has merely been scratched I 

 have known the bees to repair the cap- 

 ping, not taking up any of the honey. 

 But if the knife cuts down to the honey, 

 they are bound to take up some of the 

 honey before they can do anything at 

 repairing the capping, and if everything 

 is full below they are to a certain ex- 

 tent compelled to deposit the honey above. 



If a good fall flow comes, that may 

 start an increase of brood-rearing, and 

 the bees may empty some of the honey 

 from the brood-chamber into the super. 

 If no fall flow comes, there is danger, 

 as you suggest, that brood-rearing will 

 be so limited that the colony will not be 

 so strong for winter. Yet there is this 

 crumb of comfort in the case, that if 

 there is nothing for the bees to do in the 

 field they will not grow old so rapidly, 

 and will not die off so fast, so that, after 

 all. they may not be so very weak for 

 winter. 



With extracting-combs there is less in- 

 clination to cram the brood-chamber, yet 

 if the bait-sections be as fully drawn out 

 as the extracting-combs the difference 

 should be very little, unless it be that ex- 

 tracting-combs that have been used as 

 brood-combs have greater attraction for 

 the bees than a comb that has never had 

 anything but honey in it. 



Bees Bothering Watering-Trough — 



Insuring Bees — Amount of 



Stores for Winter 



1. We have an apiary where an irri- 

 gating ditch runs right along in front of 

 the hives, but the bees go over to our 

 neighbor's, about 80 rods away, and get 

 water from their watering-trough, and 

 they annoy them very much as the stock 

 can hardly get any water to drink on ac- 

 count of the bees. What could we do 

 to help out our neighbor? 



2. Is there any fire insurance company 

 that will insure bees in Arizona? We use 

 brush sheds for shade. 



3. How many frames of honey of the 

 Hoffman size should I leave in the upper 

 super, to winter on? I did not take out 

 any honey below this year. Arizona. 



Answers. — i. When the bees have 

 formed the habit of going to a certain 

 place for water, it is a very hard thing 

 to get them to change to some other 

 place. If the trough is not too large, it 

 may be covered up by boards, sheets, or 

 otherwise, opening it only at certain times 

 in the day to let the stock drink. After 

 a few days the bees will give it up. Pos- 

 sibly you may be able to make the place 

 offensive for bees while still all right for 

 the four-footers. Put the carbolic acid 

 or kerosene on the edges of the trough 

 where the bees stand to get the water. 

 Of course there is the danger that in 

 doing this you will get some of the stuff 

 in the water, so the stock will not drink it. 



As in so many other things, preven- 

 tion is better than cure. In the spring, 



when bees first begin to get water, do 

 all you can to prevent their getting a 

 start in the wrong place, and to start 

 them in the right place. In a sheltered 

 place where the sun will keep it warm, 

 put a tub or pail of water, throw over it 

 some cork-chips such as grocers get as 

 packing in kegs of grapes, and you will 

 have a watering-place where no bees will 

 drown, and all you will need to do will 

 be to fill up occasionally with water. 

 Once started there, thev will be likely to 

 continue. 



One would be likely to think the bees 

 would prefer the near-by irrigating ditch 

 to the water-trough farther away. But 

 bees do not object to a considerable dis- 

 tance, and it is possible that the trough 

 gives better footing for the bees, and that 

 the water in it is warmer than in the 

 ditch. 



2. I don't know. Perhaps some of your 

 local insurance agents can tell you. 



3. If I understand you correctly, you 

 want to know how mch honey you should 

 leave above besides what is in the lower 

 story. There is no need to have any 

 above. There is room in the brood-cham- 

 ber for all the stores needed for winter. 

 There should be about 30 pounds of honey 

 in the brood-chamber for outdoor winter- 

 ing, and 20 to 25 pounds for cellaring. 

 In a well-filled brood-comb you will have 

 5 or 6 pounds of honey. 



A Beginner's Questions 



1. Is it necessary to examine the bees 

 every week or oftener, taking out every 

 frame (or just one or two), to see how 

 they are doing? 



2. If I find a great amount of drone- 

 comb and cut some of it out, will the 

 bees fill up the space with worker-brood? 



3. Should the wax and propolis between 

 the frames be taken off every time the 

 hives are examined? 



4. If a colony is preparing to swarm, 

 will splitting it up, taking the queen and 

 half the bees and brood-frames away, 

 leaving the other half with one or two 

 queen-cells on the old stand (filling both 

 halves with frames with full sheets of 

 foundation), prevent swarming, and be as 

 successful ? 



5. Do bees "lay off" work a week be- 

 fore swarming and do nothing but eat 

 honey? If so. would I save this by the 

 above method? 



6. What is "green" or "unripe" honey? 

 Is not honey good to eat as soon as it is 

 capped over? 



7. Is it a good idea to arrange the 

 hives in a row on a plank facing the 

 south ? 



8. Should a colony be let alone as much 

 as possible when it is storing honey? 



Iowa. 



1. No. On the contrary, disturbing 

 them with no object in view except 

 curiosity to see how they are getting along 

 is at least to a slight extent objection- 

 able, as it hinders their work. But if 

 one has some special object in view, there 

 may be enough gained greatly to over- 

 balance all the harm. 



2. Generally the vacant space will be 

 filled again with drorie-comb, especially 

 if there be no other drone-comb _in the 

 liive. If, however, the drone-comb be 

 cut out at a time when a young queen 

 has just begun to lay, worker-comb is 

 likely to be built. Or, if the colony be 

 weak, worker-comb will be built. If you 

 cut out drone-comb you can put in the 

 hole a patch of worker-comb or of 

 worker- foundation. 



3. No, you are doing unusually, well if 

 you attend to it once a year. 



4. If there is more than one queen- 

 cell left on the old stand you will be 

 likely to have a swarm when the first 

 young queen emerges. Leave only one 

 cell ; or, perhaps better still, leave the 



old queen on the old stand where most 

 of the bees will be, killing all queen-cells 

 on that stand, and put the other hive 

 with most of the brood on a new stand. 



5. They take no such vacation as you 

 suggest. There may be a let-up for some 

 hours, and you may see bees laden with 

 pollen among the swarming bees. 



6. Green or unripe honey is that which 

 has not been in the hive long enough to 

 become sufficiently evaporated. Generally 

 it is sufficiently ripened when sealed, but 

 there are exceptions. Fortunately the ex- 

 ceptions are rare. 



7. Depends upon circumstances. If 

 there is no need to economize room, it is 

 better not to have more than 2 colonies 

 on the same stand. 



8. Yes. and at all times, unless there 

 be some good reason for disturbing them. 



Italianizing — Swarming — Backward 

 Season 



1. About July 1 2th. I determined to 

 Italianize a colony of hybrids. I pur- 

 chased a valuable queen, made the hive 

 queenless. waited two days for them to 

 start queen-cells, then I destroyed all cells 

 and caged the queen. (To be sure that I 

 had destroyed all cells, I shook the bees 

 from each frame, so I could get a better 

 view.) In due time they liberated her. 

 and m.y being "Johnny-on-the-spot" no 

 doubt saved her, for when I looked into 

 the hive (I did so very quietly), they 

 w'ere balling her. I smoked the ball after 

 removing from the hive, and again caged 

 the queen. The second time they took 

 kindly to her. No2v there is a dearth in 

 the flow of honey, and on looking into 

 the hive I find they have no honey. The 

 new queen has started to lay a few eggs 

 (and I have started to feed half-and-half 

 sugar and water.) Now my main question 

 is this : I have found two queen-cells 

 again, one capped and two started. (I 

 destroyed them). Now. how did they get 

 these cells ^ Do you think the bees are 

 not satisfied that she is laying, and have 

 a sort of supersedure fever, and have 

 used some of her own eggs to build these 

 cells? I know that I removed all cells 

 before. 



2. A swarm issued on July 12th. The 

 parent colony was moved to a new stand 

 and in time a virgin hatched. This col- 

 ony is doing fine, and the virgin was 

 purely mated, but the old queen and the 

 swarm which I put into the new hive on 

 the old location (I clip the queen's wings), 

 is not doing very well. I put in 8 frames 

 of full sheets of foundation and in a 

 '■cry short time they drew out 4 frames. 

 The others haven't been drawn out yet. 

 Well, to make a long story short, I found 

 last week a queen-cell started, and so I 

 waited for the outcome. A few days 

 ago, out came a fine virgin. I looked 

 in the hive every night for 4 nights and 

 Miss Virgin looked fine, and the old queen 

 was there, too. Tonight (July 27,) I 

 looked again, and found the old queen 

 and more eggs than I had seen before 

 for a good while. When I picked up 

 about 3 frames I discovered a ball of 

 bees. I smoked them and found Miss 

 Virgin in the center, dead as a door-nail. 

 This hive also ran short of honey, so I 

 started to feed. Now what was the 

 trouble? Did the old queen stop laying 

 because there wasn't much stores and 

 then the bees think she was getting too 

 old and tried to supersede her, or what 

 was the trouble? She was bought with a 

 3-frame nucleus this year, and was sent 

 to me as a last year's queen. Now did 

 the bees ball and kill the virgin, or did 

 the old queen meet her and kill her? 



3. The season has been very backward 

 here in New Jersey, and I want to get my 

 colonies built up for the fall flow. We 

 have an abundance of goldenrod, wild as- 

 ter, Spanish-needle, and a little buck- 



