GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1918 



eggs and young larvas, and watch develop- 

 ments to see whether or not they will start 

 queen-cells, thus showing their queenless 

 condition. Of course, if they have been 

 queenless for some time, it is possible that 

 they now have laying workers, and this 

 might account for the destruction of the 

 queen that you introduced. To dispose of 

 the laying workers, about the best plan is 

 to distribute the combs, with adhering bees, 

 to other strong colonies, exchanging for 

 good frames of brood with the bees, taking 

 about two from each colony. You will then 

 have, instead of the worker colony, a good 

 colony of brood and bees to which it will 

 be perfectly safe to introduce your queen. 

 Another method that is sometimes employed 

 is simply to take the hive several rods 

 away from the apiary and shake the bees 

 onto the ground and then return the hive 

 to its original location. The workers will 

 return to the hive, but the laying workers 

 can not find their way back and will be lost. 

 A queen can be introduced then more safely. 

 If laying workers are present in the hive, 

 you can determine this by noticing the way 

 the eggs are put into the cells. If they are 

 placed irregularly, some of the eggs being 

 placed on the sides of the cells, and i:>erhaps 

 several eggs placed in a cell and nothing 

 in the hive but drone brood, they without 

 doubt have laying workers. The work of 

 a drone layer would have much the same ap- 

 pearance, but there would be apt to be less 

 brood and the eggs would be more likely to 

 be placed at or near the bottoms of the 

 cells. 



Question. — Please give me some information in 

 regard to tlie most efficient way to advertise honey 

 to grocers and consumers. B. M. Woodring. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — About the best advertisement 

 that we know of is a fine grade of honey. 

 It always sells itself. You might, perhaps, 

 be interested in giving lectures in the high 

 schools in your own town and the neighbor- 

 ing towns, at the same time giving samples 

 of honey and various things macie with 

 honey. It would also help considerably if 

 you could get the domestic-science teachers 

 interested in the use of honey, perhaps giv- 

 ing them free samples with some good honey 

 recipes. Another effective way of getting 

 your honey before the public is to advertise 

 by roadside signs or thru the local papers 

 or enter your honey at the various fairs in 

 your locality. An occasional display of hon- 

 ey and bees at some local grocery is also a 

 great help. 



Question. — Could you tell me what is the matter 

 with my bees? They are killing all their queens. 

 After the queiens have filled their hives with brood, 

 then the bees kill them. Most of the queens were 

 young ones. My brother is having the .same trouble 

 with his queens. M. G. Freeman. 



Michigan. 



Answer. — We can not be ci-rtain of tlie 

 cause of the disappearance of your queens 

 and those of your brother. It may be that 

 when you removed the supers from the 



hives the queens were above and you smok- 

 ed them down below; the bees may have 

 been more or" less demoralized, especially if 

 a little robbing were going on at the time. 

 Under such conditions we should expect 

 that many of the queens would be balled. 

 Another possible 'explanation might be that 

 you handled the colonies at an unfavorable 

 time. If handled when the bees are very 

 cross, they are quite liable to ball their 

 queen. 



Question. — In case of a cross colony how long 

 may a queen be left in the introducing cage when 

 it is put into the hive? Would any harm result by 

 leaving her caged five days before giving the bees 

 access to the candy ? Geo. W. Meyer. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — If the colony of bees is unusu- 

 ally cross, and you have had difficulty in in- 

 troducing, you may leave the queen caged 

 for as long as eight days. By that time she 

 will probably begin to lay eggs in the cage. 

 If you then allow the bees access to the 

 candy, they will not be apt to ball the 

 queen when liberated. 



Question.- — I shall appreciate it very much if you 

 will give me your opinion as to the quality of honey 

 extracted from brood-combs in comparison with that 

 from combs free from brood. 



Mississippi. J. W. Carpenter, Jr. 



Answer. — Of course no one should extract 

 from the brood-chamber, using combs that 

 have brood in them, but there are many 

 beekeepers who in the spring allow the 

 colonies two stories for brood-rearing, and 

 then later shut the queen down into one 

 story. Now, those frames above that have 

 had brood in would not be quite as clean, 

 nor result in quite as nice honey as those 

 combs in which no brood was raised that 

 year. Still, the difference is so slight in 

 nice new combs of this kind that we should 

 never hesitate to extract them along with 

 the other honey; but, if old dark combs are 

 used that have long been used in a brood- 

 chamber, you may notice a perceptible dif- 

 ference in the color of this honey. How- 

 ever, as we have said, if combs are used but 

 a short time in the brood-chamber, and then 

 used for extracting, the dift'erence in color 

 of the honey will never be noticed, and, 

 more than that, we believe this is a good 

 plan, because the cocoons add so greatly to 

 the strength of the cells. We should pre- 

 fer to have all of our super combs used for 

 a short time in the brood-chamber in order 

 to make them good and strong for extract- 

 ing. 



Question. — A colony of my bees swarmed with a 

 virgin, and I tried to return them; but every time 

 I dumped a load in front of the hive they would 

 return to the cluster. At last they became 

 angry and started to sting, so I left them in the 

 cluster. Every time I try to get them they become 

 angry. They are building combs on the tree about 

 three feet from the ground. Will you please tell 

 me what to do with them, and the reason of their 

 staying in the cluster instead of absconding? 



Massachusetts. Albert Waugh. 



Answer. — Tlu- loiisoii tliat the colony was 

 so cross every time you tried to shake them 



