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QUESTION. — 

 I expect to 

 buy about 24 

 colonies of hy- 

 brid bees on more 

 or less crooked 

 frames in movable 

 frame hives, trans- 

 fer into new hives 

 and frames and re- 

 queen with pure 



Italian queens at the time of transferring. Kindly 

 tell me how I may do this and also save the brood 

 that is in the old hives. F. C. Wilson. 



Wyoming. 



Answer. — The manner of transferring will 

 depend entirely upon how badly the combs 

 are criss-crossed in the old hive. If one is 

 able to remove such frames, he may place on 

 the old stand a new hive with an entrance 

 guard and a frame of young larvaj. The lat- 

 ter shdTild be placed in the center of the 

 hive, and the remainder of the hive filled 

 with frames of drawn combs, containing 

 some honey, altho frames of foundation 

 m.ight be used if one intends to feed. The 

 cage containing the queen to be introduced 

 is placed over the frames of brood, or be- 

 tween two frames of honey. The frames 

 from the old hive are then shaken in front 

 of the new one, and the bees allowed to run 

 in thru the entrance guard. The queen, not 

 being able to get thru the guard, will be 

 found in front of the hive, probably right in 

 front of the entrance, vainly attempting to 

 get thru. She should he captured and killed, 

 and the entrance guard removed. The combs 

 of brood are then placed above the new hive 

 with a queen-excluding honey-board inter- 

 vening. At the end of three weeks, the 

 worker brood from the old hive will be 

 hatched, and the comb may then be melted. 

 Should it happen that the combs are very 

 badly built, so that it is impossible to re- 

 move the frames, the best plan is to place 

 the old hive of brood above the new hive, 

 which should contain a frame of larvae and 

 some honey, then vigorously smoke the colo- 

 ny until the queen and most of the bees go 

 below, when a queen-excluder may be placed 

 between. After the bees are quieted, perhaps 

 the next day, the queen maybe found and kill- 

 ed, and the new queen introduced, according 

 to the directions on the shipping cage. Three 

 weeks later the old combs may be removed 

 and rendered. If the weather is so cool that 

 there is danger of chilling the brood, the 

 above arrangement is very satisfactory, but 

 during a heavy honey flow, one would hardly 

 care to have a great quantity of honey stor- 

 ed in this old set of combs. In that ease, it 

 would be better to reverse the order and 

 place the new hive above. 



Question. — Will sorghum cane molasses be all 

 right to feed for stimulative brood-rearing ? If so, 

 should it be diluted with water ? Would it be bet- 

 ter to mix half molasses, half extracted honey and 

 dilute with water? J. K. Sledman. 



Tennessee. 



Answer. — As soon as" the bees are able to 

 fly several times a week, it will be safe to 

 feed sorghum cane molasses. For stimula- 



GLEANINGS I IS BEE CULTURE 



GLEANED by ASKING 



] 



E. R. Root 



TU 



March, 1918 



five brood rear- 

 ing, it should be 

 diluted with 

 from 5 per cent 

 to 10 per cent of 

 water. Mixing 

 it with honey is 

 a good plan. We 

 believe the pro- 

 portions of 1/3 

 lioiiey, 1/3 molasses and 1/3 water, would be 

 about right. Converting sorghum molasses 

 into bees will surely be worth while the 

 coming season. 



Question. — Will bees build up in the spring if fed 

 diluted maple syrup? If so, about how much should 

 it be diluted ? Would the skimmings, taken off while 

 cleansing the syrup, be just as good? 



Ohio. Earl C. Brockway. 



Answer. — Maple syrup diluted with not 

 raore than 10 per cent of water would be 

 fine for spring feeding. The skimmings, al- 

 tho not as good, may also be safely fed. 



Question. — In recent numbers of Gleanings is 

 mentioned a plan of wintering by standing the 

 frames on end. Now, at the time of unpacking, there 

 is quite a lot of larvje, all of them in their proper 

 positions. Might it not hurt them to change their 

 position by placing them on their sides? 



Ohio. , Houston Scott. 



Answer. — No. When transferring or patch- 

 ing old combs, the larvae are often placed in 

 any position that chances to be most con- 

 venient. Whether they rest on their backs, 

 fronts or sides seems to be quite immaterial. 



Question. — The last of January, it was very 

 warm here and so we looked thru some of the 

 colonies we thought might need stores, and in half of 

 them we found brood. There was brood in all 

 stages, some colonies having as many as three 

 combs with patches of brood three inches in diam- 

 eter. These colonies have not been disturbed be- 

 fore this winter and therefore we cannot under- 

 stand the cause of this early brood rearing. Usu- 

 ally our spring doesn't begin until the last of 

 March. Weber Bros. 



Kansas. 



Answer. — Even in northern states, brood 

 rearing may start as early as January, if the 

 bees are disturbed in any way, or if a few 

 warm days occur. Such untimely breeding 

 is apt to result in the loss of the colony, for 

 the undue activity necessary for keeping up 

 the temperature of the brood causes quan- 

 tities of stores to be eaten, and if the wea- 

 ther turns too cool for a cleansing flight, 

 dysentery and death are like'.y to result. 



Question. — In regard to (he Demuth plan of 

 wintering, is there not an objection to standing the 

 frames on end? I have Danzenbaker hives and 

 when I inverted the frames, the honey ran out. 

 Don't the bees build the cells slanting downward? 

 And wouldn't this cause the honey to leak if the 

 frames were stood on end? 



Ohio. Will Sharpe. 



Answer. — One of the first advantages 

 claimed for the Danzenbaker hive was the 

 possibility of inverting the frames. Altho 

 there is a slight slant to the cells, !:he honey 

 should not run out when frames are stood 

 on end. If honey runs down the sides of the 

 frames, it has not been properly ripened and 



