238 



GLEAN INGS' IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1918 



strong by uniting or giving hatching brood. 

 It is not necessai'y to melt up the combs or 

 otherwise treat the colonies or hives as in 

 the case of American foul brood. Cells from 

 a vigorous strain of Italians can be given 

 immediately after dequeening, as it will be 

 ten days before the queen will lay. (2) The 

 method given with the queen-cages sent out 

 with the queens is generally successful for 

 introducing. The smoke method as recom- 

 mended by A. C. Miller also gives excellent 

 results. But beginners sometimes fail in ap- 

 plying it properly; hence we recommend the 

 cage method. 



Questions.^ — (1) I have an opportunity to buy a 

 small apiary of about 70 colonies of bees in rather 

 good hives. What do you think is a fair price? (2) 

 A great part of the time, I shall be on the road, 

 and therefore unable to look after the bees. Would 

 it be profitable to hire a man v^ho understands them, 

 to vrork on the farm and take care of my colonies ? 

 What wages should such a man receive? (3) Do you 

 think it would be profitable for me to buy theise bees 

 or would it be a better plan to buy bees by the 

 pound? Russell T. Spencer. 



Ohio. 



Answer. — (1) Without having seen the bees 

 or hives, it is very difficult to state a fair price 

 for them. A colony will be worth anywhere 

 from $5.00 to $10.00, altho all will depend 

 upon whether the hives are modern, standard 

 ones, upon the strain of bees, age of queens, 

 the amount of drone comb, and whether the 

 combs are criss-crossed. In buying, one 

 should be certain the bees are not diseased. 

 In general, we never advise beginners to 

 start with a large number of colonies. It is 

 far better to begin with two or three, and 

 tlien gradually increase to the desired num- 

 ber. (2) Altho away from home so great a 

 share of the time, it would still be possible 

 to manage the bees yourself, if you could be 

 at home one day in the week. We do not 

 think that hiring another man to take care 

 of the few colonies would prove satisfactory, 

 besides we believe that you would enjoy the 

 work yourself. As to wages, we cannot an- 

 swer that question, so much depends upon the 

 locality and the man himself. (.3) We believe 

 that the best plan would be to buy two or 

 three entire colonies or else to buy three- 

 pound packages. 



ANSWKRS BY C. C. MILLER. 



Questions. — -(1) What is the best way to transfer 

 packages of bees to hlveis ? (2) To help brood-rear- 

 ing, had I not better pack the hives until the wfea- 

 ther gets quite warm? (3) Do you use granulated 

 sngar or brown sugar for syrup? (4) I have full 

 sheets of foundation in Langstroth wired frames. 1 

 wish to increase as fast as possible with safety. Shall 

 I be able to obtain increase by buying two-pound 

 packages of lees, purchased not later than July 15 ''. 

 (rt) What do you think of taking the queens away 

 about June 15 so as to enable the full force of bees 

 to gather honey, instead of a lot of them wasting 

 their time feeding brood that will never be of any 

 use to the beekeeper? (6) For the week or ten days 

 that the queens are removed, why not use them in 

 starting now colonies? F. O. Donnoll. 



Minnesota. 



Answers. — (1) Something depends upon 

 whether or not you have at least one frame 



of brood to give the bees. If you have not, 

 then open the package sufficiently to dump 

 out the whole of the bees at once. But it 

 is very much better to have the brood. In 

 that case no such large opening is needed, 

 and you can trust to the bees to come out of 

 their own accord. Put your frame or frames 

 of bees in the hive at one side, set the pack- 

 age of bees in the hive beside the brood, with 

 the opening toward the brood, cover up and 

 let the bees take their time to come out. If 

 there is not room in the hive for the package, 

 set the package over the frames, opening 

 downward, and set an empty hive-body over. 

 (2) Yes, the packing will help if it is cold, 

 but it 's not very advisable to begin opera- 

 tions till it is pretty warm. (3) Only granu- 

 lated for winter; at other times it doesn't 

 matter. (4) Yes, if the season is good. If the 

 season is poor you can partly make up for it 

 by feeding. (5) Theoretically it looks like a 

 fine scheme. Practically, at least in my lo- 

 cality, it has never seemed to be advisable 

 to stop the queen 's laying except when help- 

 ful to keep down swarming. (6) At any time 

 when the queen is temporarily removed from 

 her colony, it is well for her to be laying in a 

 nucleus. 



Questions. — (1) Would you advise the purchase 

 of double-walled hives for this part of the country ? 

 I live in Illinois and have no bee-ceJlar. (2) Which 

 is the better size section box to use, the 4x5x1% 

 or the 414 x4 1/4x1%? (3) Would you advice me 

 to use the shallow frames or the full depth frames 

 for extracted honey ? If I used the 4x5x1% sec- 

 tion super and the shallow frames, the super bodies 

 would be interchangeable. (4) Should I use starters 

 or full sheets of foundation for section honey boxes ? 

 If so what style of a foundation fastener is the 

 best for fastening the full sheets? (5) I have noticed 

 in Gleanings that people having three-banded and 

 leather colored Italians for sale each claims their's 

 is the better. Which do you think is the better for 

 me to buy? I intend to buy queens for divided 

 colonies. Gordon Bell. 



Illinois. 



Answers. — (1) I think I should prefer sin- 

 gle-walled hives, using outside protection for 

 winter. (2) I prefer the latter, as do most 

 beekeepers. (3) There are advantages and 

 disadvantages, either way. If you are going 

 to keep only a few colonies, it may be well 

 to have only full-depth frames; with a large 

 number it may be better to have shallow 

 frames. A good plan may be to try part of 

 your colonies with shallow frames now, and 

 that will help you to decide which you pre- 

 fei' to use when you increase your colonies. 

 There would be some advantage, of course, 

 in having interchangeable supplies. (4) Use 

 full sheets, by all means; it will be money in 

 your pocket. I am not familiar with all the 

 fasteners, but the Daisy does excellent work. 

 (5) I think the majority of beekeepers pre- 

 fer the leather colored three-banders, and so 

 do I. 



Question. — Can I use paraffine for fastening foun- 

 dation in frames? Clyde L. Moore. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — Paraffine melts at so low a tem- 

 perature that we should much prefer to use 

 beeswax for fastening foundation in frames. 



