March, 1916. 



American ^ee Journal 



i In winleriiiB bees oulof-doors. does the 

 entrance have to be kept open or can [ let 

 the snow drift up and close it completely? 

 Will they run out ? lowA. 



Answers.— I. If you examine Italians, as 

 they come from Italy, you will find each 

 worker has three yellow bands, the first 

 band toward the head beins often quite in- 

 distinct, theother two quite distinct. There 

 are also Italians bred in this country wiih 

 more than three yellow bands, those with 

 live bands being called troldens. 



2. If I undertand correctly, when the small 

 side is up there is only H of an inch be- 

 tween bottom-bars and floor. That's too 

 small a space at any time, and I would 

 always use the larger side up. 



3. So long as the snow remains dry and 

 porous there is little or no danger from hav- 

 ing it close the entrance. But if it becomes 

 slushy and then freezes, there is danger it 

 may smother the bees. 



No Patent On tlie Dovetailed Hives 



Is the dovetail hive patented or are the 

 other hives patented? My object is this. I 

 can make my own hives and it will save so 

 much; then I would buy the sections. Is the 

 Hoffman brood-frame patented ? 



Virginia. 



Answer.— Langstroth took out a patent 

 that covered all movable-frame hives. 1 hat 

 patent expired years ago. There is no pat- 

 ent on the dovetailed hive. Indeed, there is 

 nothing patented in the way of hives or fix- 

 tures that are in use generally. I doubt, 

 however, whether one beekeeper in a hun- 

 dred can afford to make his own hives. It's 

 a very nice job to make a hive so that all 

 parts are perfect, and the large manufac- 

 turers have everything convenient to make 

 hives on a large scale, so they can sell them 

 at a lower price than the average beekeeper 

 can afford to make them for. 



How (Many Worlter Bees for the First Flow ? — 

 Where to Put Frames of Foundation in Hive 



1. As I understand, you experts tell us to 

 treat our bees so as to have the most possi- 

 ble workers for the first flow, of course, in 

 every way trying to obviate their forming 

 thf loafing habit or swarming fever, and 

 hei J comes thejanuarv Beekeepers' Review, 

 page s. and says among other things that 

 " We beekeepers think so much of our bees 

 that we almost kill them with kindness," 

 and that a colony with 20,ouo workers is bet- 

 ter for surplus honey than one W(th 35,000 

 workers. 



2. If you put five frames of foundation in a 

 body with five drawn combs do you put 

 them together in the middle of the body or 

 to one side, or do you alternate them with 

 the combs? Kentucky. 



Answers.— I. Not having the article to 

 which you refer, I do not know the connec- 

 tion in which it was said. But if it means 

 that a colony in harvest-time with 20,000 

 workers will store more than one with 35,000, 

 the bees being equally good in each case, 

 then it is certainly an error. For every 20 

 pounds stored by the weaker colony I should 

 expect not only 35 from the stronger, but 

 more likely 50. 



2. Something depends on circumstances. 

 Usually I would put the drawn combs at 

 one side and the foundation at the other. 



Wintering t Nucleus 



I. Is a two or three frame nucleus with a 

 young queen more inclined to brood-rear- 

 ing late in the fall than a full sized colony ? 

 I have wintered such nuclei in this 

 locality out-of-doors, but they are usually 

 short of stores in early spring, one having 

 starved already this winter. I leave as much 

 honey in each of their frames as the full 

 colonies have in each of theirs. Is it be- 

 cause they must eat more to keep warm or 

 do they use it in brood-rearing late in the 



fall? Should we leave more stores, com- 

 paratively, for the weak colonies than we do 

 for the strong? 



2. If we Icav cells to hatch in nursery 

 cages without cantly .ind remove those 

 hatched twice daily, will the lack of food 

 this long injure the young queens ? 



3. If we have the nursery frame in a queen- 

 less colony will the bees feed young queens 

 through the wire ? I have reared a good 

 many queens with no candy in cages. 



Indiana. 



Answers— I. I think such a nucleus is in- 

 clined to rear brood later than a full colony, 

 although I hardly know why. Late rearing 

 makes more winter stores necessary; and it 

 is also true that a weak colony needs more 

 stores proportionately than a strong one. If 

 colony A is twice as strong as colony B. then 

 colony B will use more than half the stores 

 A will — possibly three-fourths as much. 



2. Not much; perhaps not at all. 



3. Queenless bees will feed such virgins, 

 although there may be exceptions. I doubt 

 if it was a good thing to receive queens with 

 no candy. 



only, and here's a good way to prevent all 

 aflerswarms; when the colony swarms, sit 

 theswarmon the old stand and set the old 

 hive close beside it; a week later move the 

 old hive to a new stand 10 or more feet away. 

 The bees will do the rest, 



I advise you, s/iMis/y, to get a good bee- 

 book, such as Dadant's Langstroth. 



Questions About Queens 



1. What is the difference between a virgin 

 queen and any other queen ? 



2. Which is the best to buy to introduce 

 into colonies, untested or tested queen, and 

 what difference is there? 



3. Whicharethebest for gentleness, breed- 

 ing and honey gathering, goldens or Italians ? 



4. Is it best to buy queen with pound pack- 

 ages of bees ? What advantage is gained by 

 buying pound packages without a queen ? 



5. What method would you take in intro- 

 ducing a new queen into a new or an old 

 colony ? 



6. How can a beekeeper keep his bees 

 from swarming about the first of June ? 



Wisconsin. 



Answers.— I. Every queen is a virgin 

 from the time she is born until she meets 

 a drone, which meeting occurs high in air 

 outside the hive, generally when she is 5 to 

 10 days old 



2. A young queen begins to lay when she is 

 about lu days old, more or less, and as soon 

 as she begins to lay she may be sold as an 

 untested queen. Three weeks after she be- 

 gins to lay her worker progeny will begin to 

 emerge, and if the markings of her young 

 workers show that the queen has been 

 purely mated, she may then be sold as a 

 /t-.\7f(/ queen. Of course, the average tested 

 queen is worth more than the average un- 

 tested queen, but she must have a higher 

 price. Some think it better, instead of buy- 

 ing a single tested queen to buy two or more 

 untested ones, 



3. There are good and bad in both kinds, 

 but taken on the average most beekeepers 

 prefer 3-banded Italians. 



4. If you buy a pound of bees without a 

 queen, you gain just so many bees, some- 

 where in the neighborhood of 500a. If you 

 have all the bees you want, and merely 

 want to make a change in queens, then it is 

 better to buy the queen without one or more 

 pounds of bees. If you want to increase 

 your number of colonies, then it may be bet- 

 ter to buy bees with the queen, especially 

 as in the latter case you save the risk of in- 

 troduction, 



5. To tell all about introducing queens 

 would make a longer story than there is 

 room to tell here. II you buy a queen you 

 are pretty certain to receive with her in- 

 structions for introducing, and like enough 

 you will be told to kill the old queen and 

 put in the hive the introducing cage contain- 

 ing the new queen, allowing the bees to eat 

 out the candy that imprisons the queen, 

 thus liberating her. 



6. You can keep a colony from swarming 

 by taking from it all its brood but one. 

 Many prefer to let each colony swarm once 



Unfinished Sections 



1 '■. 'r*^?,^? ^ .number of sections left from 

 ast fall in all stages of completion I be- 

 lieved at that time they would be a big help 

 for next season's crop, and that the bees 

 woud finish them into a first-class article. 

 But I learn that such sections will not be of 

 a good color and are apt to granulate sour. 

 In order to use them up I would have to put 

 eight or ten in each colony Would it be 

 well to use them at that rate ? 



2, In my apiary of eight colonies I know 

 t lat six of the queens are young ones. Will 

 that fact tend to lessen the swarming im- 

 pulse ? 



,3- In buying queens would it be well to get 

 them from different breeders rather than 

 all from one breeder? My idea is that get- 

 ting a variety might give more chances of 

 finding the best strain for my locality, and 

 when the best strain was found I could build 

 from It in the future. New York. 



Answers.-i. Those that have no honey in 

 them will work all right, provided they were 

 not left on late enough in the fall for the 

 bees to cover them with propolis. If badly 

 varnished with bee-gluethe bees may utterly 

 refuse to use them. You wi 1 do well to let 

 the bees rob out those that contain honey. 

 If you set them out to be thus robbed with- 

 out any precaution, the bees will be likely 

 to tear the combs to pieces; so cover them 

 up in such way as to leave entrance for only 

 one bee at a time. Next time be sure that 

 the bees empty them in the fall. It makes 

 little matter how many you rive to each col- 

 ony to fill. 



2. The age of the queens may or may not 

 make a difference about their swarming. If 

 it is a bad season for swarming they may all 

 swarm alike; but if some of them fail to 

 swarm it will more likely be the youngones. 

 In other words, other things being equal, a 

 young queen is not so likely to swarm as an 

 old one. 



3 Yes, getting from more than one source 

 may increase your chances, unless you 

 know in advance which was best. 



Shifting Frames — Hoffman Frame— Good Yield 



1. You say in " Fifty Years Among the 

 Bees," in overhauling a hive the frames con- 

 taining the brood are to maintain their origi- 

 nal relative position. I use the m frame 

 hive. If I start taking out frames from the 

 side near me. say first, second, and third do 

 not contain brood and fourth does, do I put 

 in frame three (frame three belonging to the 

 last frame that did not have brood), and 

 then all frames containingbrood. and then 

 last the frames that do not have brood ? In 

 that case it would change the position, as it 

 would put the brood two frames closer to 

 one side 



2. Is the Hoffman frame good for comb 

 honey, also for extracted? Do you know of 

 a better hive ? 



3. If you were to start keeping bees what 

 size hive would vou buy for comb honey ? 



4. I use the 4 '/ix 4 '-4x1, '4 two bee-way sec- 

 tion Is this about the best section to use ? 



5. How do you hive a swarm that has a 

 clipped queen ? 



6. I had 22 colonies lasts pringand increased 

 to 42 extra good colonies by natural swarm- 

 ing, and had 3000 good sections of honey and 

 500 pounds of extracted. Do you think this 

 a good yield ? Iowa. 



Answers —I. Changing the place of the 

 brood in the hive does not necessarily 

 change the position of the frames contain- 

 ing brood ri'hitive to each other. Suppose I 

 am sitting at a hive, and i, 2, j. ./, /, 6, -, 8, 0. 

 10 indicates the frames in the hive. No. i be- 

 ing the frame nearest me, and ,-, 4. S, b. 7 (in 



