100 



March, 1916. 



Italics) being thie frames containing brood. 

 That's where the brood may happen to be 

 in a strong colony first time it is overhauled. 

 When I return the frames to the hive they 

 are likely to occupy this position: i. o. lo, 2, 

 J.J.S.b. 7. 8. Thus, although not a single 

 brood occupies the same place in the hive as 

 before, yet it occupies the same relatii'c 

 position. It is of some importance that 2 

 and 8 remain next to the frames containing 

 brood, since they are likely to contain pol- 

 len, and at any rate that's the way the bees 

 had it arranged. As to i. q. and 10. it doesn't 

 matter about their order. 



Some one may ask why I change the place 

 of the brood at all. I want the brood-nest 

 changed so that brood shall begin in the 

 frame next to the outside frame farthest 

 from me. Then the next time I overhaul I 

 don't need to lift out all the frames to know 

 how many contain brood, but after lifting 

 out I and g, if I find brood in 10 I needn't go 

 any farther, for I know there is brood in all 

 the rest except the outside one. 



The rule to have the frames of brood 

 maintain the same relative positions is not 

 so iron-clad as to have no exceptions; but 

 there must be some good reason for the ex- 

 ceptions. 



J. There is no Hoffman hive, but the Hoff- 

 man frame is used in the dovetailed hive, 

 which is as good as any for either comb or 

 extracted honey unless it should be to have 

 a hive still larger than the lo-frame dove- 

 tailed. The Hoffman frame was one origi- 

 nally with wooden shoulders on the end- 

 bars for self-spacing; but it has been 

 changed more than once, being now a frame 

 with metal spacers. It is a good frame, and 

 perhaps more in use than any other, its pop- 

 ularity being, however, due more I think to 

 its being pushed by manufacturers than to 

 its real merits. For my own use I prefer the 

 Miller frame; although I do not think many 

 others use it. 



i. I don't know. Like enough the lo-frame 

 dovetailed or something still larger. 



4. It is more generally in use than any 

 other section, and the fact that it is so in 

 spite of the most strenuous efforts of manu- 

 facturers to push others ahead is pretty 

 strong evidence that it is really the best 

 section there is. 



5. Watch for the Queen as the swarm is- 

 sues (she may be among the first or any- 

 where to the last . cage her. set the hive off 

 the stand and put the empty hive in its 

 place. By the time you have done this the 

 swarm will begin returning, or it may be a 

 quarter of an hour before it returns. When 

 the bees begin entering the new hive, let the 

 Queen run in with them and the thing is 

 done. It is the easiest way there is to hive a 

 swarm, for it hives itself. 



6. A " good yield " is a comparative affair. 

 What is a good yield in one place may not 

 be in another, and what is a good yield one 

 year may not be so another. You averaged 

 about J36 sections and 23 pounds of extracted 

 honey for each colony, which would be 

 equivalent to something like 170 pounds of 

 extracted. This with •;! percent increase 

 sounds good for almost any time and place. 



American Bee JournaTi 



cells with several eegs. some none, hit and 

 miss. Two or three cells looked as if she 

 had dropped the eggs from the top of the 

 cell, for they were scattered all the waj 

 down on one side and over the bottom of 

 the cell. I closed this hive and moved to 

 the one next to it, where I found another 

 queen just as large, just as yellow, and I pre- 

 sume just as worthless as the other. In- 

 stead of killing I spared them to see what 

 they would do in 1916. I was led to with- 

 hold judgment until I had ample proof of 

 guilt, by an incident of 1882 I had a very 

 yellow colony of bees to cast a swarm in 

 September. There were several queens 

 and I wanted to save them all, which I did. 

 One with about a half gallon of bees settled 

 to themselves. I hived them in empty 

 combs. She laid so sparingly that I went 

 to the hive the third time to kill her, but my 

 nerve failed me. Her brood was so fine, and 

 I, as cranky then as now. resolved to let 

 her go over to see what she would do next 

 year, as in this case. . 



The next year, to my great surprise, she 

 proved to be the most prolific and best 

 queen in the yard. According to the book I 

 had been reading she ought to have been 

 killed in '82. but kept for a breeder in 83 

 Remembrance of this incident induced me 

 to keep the two bogus queens referred to. 



Illinois. 



Answer.— It's a good bit like gambling to 

 keep a queen of that kind, for while she 

 ?nav turn out to be a good queen the chances 

 are against it. 



Size of Hive 



1. Do you think anS-frame hive has enough 

 room for a good queen ? 



2. Do you think you can get more comb ana 

 extracted honey with the 8-frame hive ? 



3. When vou ship to a distant market do 

 they return the shipping-cases ? Illinois. 



Answers.— I. No. there are times when 

 some queens will keep a dozen frames well 

 filled with brood. Not for very long, how- 

 ever. With such a queen you can get along 

 very well by giving her a second story as 

 soon as she needs it. and then reducing to 

 one story as soon as the full harvest is on. 



2. No. 



3. No. 



Bees in Florida 



1. Do bees work the whole year in central 

 Florida? 



2. Is this State better for bees than more 

 northern States; that is. does one get a 

 larger flow of honey ? 



3 Are bees more susceptible to diseases 

 in warm climate than cold ? In looking 

 through the Bee Journal I don't find a word 

 about bees in Florida or any one advertising 

 from that State. Iowa. 



Answers.— I. Yes and no. They may fly 

 every week in the year, but there is much of 

 the time when they do not work because 

 there is nothing for them to do. 



2. There are localities where fine crops 

 of honey are secured, but on the whole no 

 better than farther north. 



3. I don't know; probably not much differ- 

 ence. Paralysis is much worse in the South, 

 diarrhea in the North. 



Poor Queens 



I have two queens out of the same brood 

 of cells that mated so near the same time 

 that I could not tell the date of either. 

 There was. however, not more than three 

 days difference, if any. The first of these I 

 examined to see if she was mated, and the 

 first thing I saw was sealed drone-brood. I 

 was just in the act of killing her. when I saw 

 sealed worker brood. Further examination 

 showed that she had behaved in egg produc- 

 on very similar to a fertile worker. Some 



Divisible Brood-Chambers 



I have always thought of trying the divisi- 

 ble brood-chamber hive, but there is one 

 thing I do not understand about it. I once 

 asked a beekeeper what he thought of it, 

 and he answered that he considered it 

 wrong in principle. I am unable to find any- 

 thing wrong about it. It is said the small 

 brood-chamber does not give sufficient 

 room for the queen. 



Now I absolutely failed to see why two 

 half sized brood-chambers, one on top of 

 the other, should not give the queen just as 

 much room, unless it is meant that the hori- 

 zontal division in the center acts as a fence 

 or check to the queen, which she is unwill- 

 ing to pass, and thus comfines her to one 

 division. I have heard of apiarists in my 

 own State, however, who use the divisible 

 brood hive, and are said to be very success- 

 ful. Texas. 



Answer.— I am uncertain whether you 



want my opinion of the divisible brood 

 chamber hive or as to the question whether 

 a qaeen will go freely from one section or 

 story of the hive to another, so it may be 

 best to answer both. The hive with divisi- 

 ble brood chamber was introduced years 

 ago by James Heddon. and pattented by 

 him. He made me a present of the right to 

 use the hive, but I never thought enough of 

 the hive to make me believe it worth while 

 to try it. Yet I know that good work can be 

 done with a hive of that kind; I merely 

 think that on the whole there is no special 

 value in the divisible feature. Now as to 

 the queen going back and forth— or up and 

 down — across the bottom-bars of the upper 

 frames and the top-bars of the lower frames ; 

 I have used the dovetailed hive with Lang- 

 stroth frames in two strories. and the 

 queen seemed to have no difliculty in going 

 back and forth; at least she kept a brood 

 nest going in each of the stories, and this in 

 spite of the fact that my top-bars are much 

 thicker than the top-bars generally used in 

 divisible-chamber hives. I have thus used 

 them many times. So I do not believe that 

 this feature offers valid objections to the 

 system. 



Which Yields the Most Honey, White or Yellow 

 Sweet Clover?— Stingless Bees 



1. Does white sweet clover yield more 

 honey than yellow sweet clover ? 



2. Will sweet clover grow in the shade ? 



3. Are stingless bees found this far north ? 



Indiana. 

 Answers.— I. I don't know, but I don't 

 suppose there is any material difference. 



2. Yes. but if too much in the shade it will 

 not yield much nectar. 

 3 No; they belong in the tropics. 

 / 



Two Story Hives 



1. Many beekeepers place a full depth 

 super or hive-body on top of the brood- 

 chamber, and place part of the brood- 

 frames, which are filled with brood and 

 covered with bees, in the top super. These 

 frames taken from the brood-chamber are 

 replaced by frames with full sheets of comb 

 foundation. This method gives the bees a 

 great deal of room, and they often have two 

 bodies full of frames filled with brood by 

 the time the clover crop comes. Now if the 

 above is practiced, and the bees have both 

 bodies full of brood at the time the clover 

 comes, what is done with the hive-bodies, 

 are they left this way and supers put on the 

 two or are they separated ? 



2. If empty comb is saved by putting them 

 in an empty hive-body and a good strong 

 colonv is put over these, can these combs 

 be taken from the bees at any time we wish 

 to use them ? 



3. If the queen should go down and lay in 

 these combs, and they would be filled with 

 brood at the time wken a new swarm comes 

 could these combs be given to the new 

 swarm or what would you advise doing with 

 them ? 



4. In using starters in sections, is it better 

 to use a piece ^Vi inch at the top and fa at 

 the bottom, or is there a better way to use 

 starters ? Iowa. 



Answers.— I. For extracted honey the 

 two stories may be left or one may be taken 

 away; for comb honey it is usual to reduce 

 to one story. 



2. Yes. 



3. Yes. they can be given to a swarm, and 

 generally it will be an advantage. 



4. fs is all right for the bottom, but 3!* is 

 better for the top. 



i EAT HON EY^ 



I KATURfS own SWEET- AlOS DIGESTIOh 



Over a million stickers like the above 

 have been sent out in two years. 



