136 



April, 1916. 



American Hee Journal j 



drone but the shiny thorax. 



2 F"rom the picture. Mr. Wallter seems to 

 have three stories under the excluder, but 

 no information is given as to what is in 

 them. 



Mr. Wallter's idea is not merely to have 

 an opening above the excluder through 

 which bees may pass out. but more espe- 

 cially through which they may pass in. so 

 that they may be saved the journey from the 

 lower entrance clear up to the super, and 

 in order to make them enter this upper en- 

 trance he places in front of the hive a board 

 slanting at 45 degrees. I don't know iust 

 how well this will work, but I should be 

 afraid that the bees would carry into the 

 super pollen that they would leave better 

 below the excluder. 



Telescope Cover 



Would you consider a telescope cover. I2 

 inches in depth to allow 3 inches of packing 

 over brood-frames, sufficient protection 

 against cold after removal from cellar in 

 early spring, where we have frequent snow 

 and frost ? Nova Scotia. 



Answer.— Yes; it ought to answer well. 



Getting Drawn Combs 



1. What is the best way to have founda- 

 tion drawn to have a supply of drawn comb 

 on hand when needed ? 



2. Why is the method used by foundation 

 makers to get nearly all the wax out of 

 slumgum better than the small presses sold 

 the beekeeper ? 



3. Do you have the book called Wax Craft 

 for sale ? Indiana. 



Answers. — i. Bees will draw out founda- 

 tion only as they want to use it to put some- 

 thing into it; and if you want drawn combs 

 that contain nothing, in other words empty 

 combs, you can have them filled in the ex- 

 tracting-super and then extract the honey 

 from them. 



2. I don't know very much about it prac- 

 tically, but I do know that I can't do as well 

 as those who do things on a larger scale. I 

 am not sure but in some cases live steam is 

 thrown into the mass. Perhaps, however, 

 the chief thing is that with a small press 

 using a small mass it is not possible to make 

 and keep the materials hot as it is when 

 there is a large mass. If I am wrong in this I 

 am ready to be corrected by Editor Dadant. 



3. Cowan's book. Wax Craft, can be had 

 from the office of the American Bee Journal 

 at Si. 00. 



Metal Covers — Clover, Etc. 



1. What is the best for telescope cover, 

 wood or galvanized iron ? 



2. What is the best for feeding in the 

 spring, diluted sugar or honey ? 



3 Which one of the sweet clovers is the 

 best ? Is there any difference in the color of 

 honey ? 



4 Which of the clovers is best for hog 

 pasture in southwestern Minnesota ? 



5. What is in the slough that bees gather 

 honey from ? 



6. Is it advisable to use the flax board un- 

 der telescope covers in winter and summer ? 



Minnesota. 

 Answers.— I. The metal seems to be grow- 

 ing in favor. 



2. The honey. 



3. I don't know that there's any difference 

 in the honey, but the white clover has the 

 advantage over the yellow that it comes 

 later, and so continues after white clover 

 is done. 



4. Alsike is good, yet some of the others 

 may be better. Farmers in that neighbor- 

 hood can tell you better than I. tWhite or 

 sweet clover is good.— Editor. 1 



5 Maybe heartsease; maybe something 

 else. 



6, It is considered an advantage. 



Value of Italians, Caucasians, Etc. 



1. How much would good Italian bees be 

 worth when the hives they are in are so 

 poor that they wouldhave to betransferred? 



2. 1 see in the American Bee Journal where 

 a man moved the hive a little and put an- 

 other with a frame of brood and the queen 

 in its place and let the field worKers go into 

 that one to prevent swarming Do you think 

 it would work ? 



3. What do you think of the Caucasian 

 bee as a honey producer ? 



4. What do you think of buying bees by 

 the pound ? New York. 



Answers.— I. The price of bees varies 

 very much. In some places you can get a 

 colony of bees in a good hive for $5 00, while 

 in others it may increase from thai up to 

 $10 or more. To find the value of a colony 

 such as you describe, it would probably be 

 a fair thing to find the cost of a good colony 

 in a good hive, and then from that deduct 

 about a dollar more than the cost of anew 

 hive without any bees. 



2. It will work satisfactorily if at the time 

 of making the change halt, or more than 

 half, the bees are brushed from the combs 

 taken away, leaving with the brood only 

 enough bees to keep it from chilling. 



3 Some prefer them to all others, while 

 most beekeepers prefer Italians. 



4. It is likely to be quite a step in advance, 

 since they can be thus sent by express at 

 much less expense than when shipped on 

 combs. 



Entrance Guards 



If an entrance guard be placed on a hive 

 in the early spring and kept on all summer 

 what would be the result? When they 

 swarmed what would become of the queen ? 



Kansas. 



Answeb.— To keep an entrance guard on a 

 hive all summer would be quite likely to 

 court disaster. It would lessen ventilation 

 to some extent. Drones could not get out 

 and would die in the hive. In most cases 

 the colony would swarm, and the queen not 

 going with them the swarm would return, 

 although it is possible it might unite with 

 some other swarm or go to some other hive. 

 This swarming might continue for several 

 days; then a young queen would emerge, 

 and in a few days would be the only queen 

 in the hive. Not being able to fly out to 

 meet a drone she would produce only 

 drones, if indeed she laid at all. The col- 

 ony would finish its existence by the death 

 of the last worker in a little more than two 

 months after the death of the old queen, un- 

 less robbers completed the job much before 

 that. 



Uniting — Granulation, Etc. 



1. I have 80 colonies in the cellar doing 

 well so far. I have some of Dadant's bees 

 I want to breed from; they are pure marked 

 Italians. I will let these swarm and use the 

 small swarms to Italianize my hybrids in 

 the fall, paper plan. Tell me how long to 

 leave them on top, how to get bees and 

 queen down, and what to do with the brood- 

 combs if there are any ? 



2. I run for extracted honey and have 

 combs and foundation. I do not want to in- 

 crease my hybrids, as I want the hives 

 heavy for winter and all the comb honey I 

 can get. Bees swarm here about June i. 

 I have scarcely any tame fruit bloom, but 

 some wild fruit bloom before clover, and 

 seldom any buckwheat. I have read of put- 

 ting queens down on one brood-comb and a 

 wire screen and queen-excluder between 

 them. Please tell me when to put the ex- 

 cluder on and in how many days to take the 

 screen out and when to cut out queen-cells ? 



3. I want to know how to manage a colony 

 when it swarms, as I want no increase from 

 my hybrids, but want the hives heavy in 

 the fall and full of supers ? 



4. Will honey extracted from combs three- 

 fourths capped granulate quicker than from 

 combs fully capped ? My clover honey gran- 

 ulates very soon after I extract it in the 

 honey house ? 



5. I have a }^-inch hole in the cover with a 

 cork in it, and when the temperature is up 

 to go degrees I take the cork out for ventila- 

 tion. Would you recommend it open in 

 winter in the cellar ? Ontario. 



Answers.— I. You will kill the queen that 

 you want to replace, and at the same time 

 out newspaper over the hive and set over it 

 the hive with the better queen. In five to 

 seven days the bees will be thoroughly 

 united, when you can take away the upper 

 story, although it will do no harm if you 

 leave it untouched for two weeks or more. 

 You will leave in the lower story the best 

 frames from both stories, and if you have 

 no use for the combs you take away you can 

 keep them over winter to be used the next 

 summer for swarms or any other way you 

 like, looking out that micedon't get at them. 



As you want to have your colonies sup- 

 plied with queens of the better stock it may 

 do no harm to suggest another way that ysu 

 might like. Take brood from colonies with 

 poorer queens and give to colonies with best 

 queens, making these last strong so that 

 they will swarm first. For instance, sup- 

 pose colony A has one of your best queens, 

 and B, C, and D have poorer queens. 

 Strengthen A by giving it sealed brood from 

 the others, so it will swarm first. When A 

 swarms, hive the swarm and set it on the 

 old stand, taking the old hive away and put- 

 ting it on the stand of B, and setting Bon 

 some new stand. The field bees of B will 

 unite with A, making A strong, and in some- 

 thing like a week or more it will swarm. 

 When it does, do as you did before, setting 

 the swarm in place of A, only this time set 

 A in place of C, setting C in a new place. 

 Perhaps two days later A will swarm again, 

 when you will set the swarm in place of A. 

 setting A in place of D, and setting D in a 

 new place. Thus you have improved queens 

 in the hives that took the places of all the 

 hives you have moved, and later on, if you 

 wish, you can kill any of the old queens and 

 unite, 



2. What you purpose to follow is the Dem- 

 aree plan. You will operate just before you 

 think there is danger of the bees swarming. 

 If you want to take a little more pains, you 

 can look for queen-cells once a week or ten 

 days, and operate as soon as you find cells. 

 No screen is used, just the queen-excluder, 

 the queen and one brood comb being left in 

 the story under the excluder, and the hive 

 filled up with frames filled with foundation. 

 Eight or ten days later destroy any cells 

 that may be found over the excluder. 



3. Kill the old queen and destroy all queen- 

 cells but one. Or, kill the old queen and 

 leave the cells. Then, beginning a week 

 later, go every evening after bees stop flying, 

 put your ear to the hive and listen to hear a 

 young queen piping. When you hear this, 

 go next morning and destroy ,/// queen cells. 

 Pay no attention to the queen, she is free in 

 the hive and will take care of herself. 



4. The honey in combs only partly sealed 

 is likely to granulate before that which is 

 more thoroughly ripened and all sealed. 



5. The ventilation is good both summer 

 and winter, and it would be no harm to have 

 two or three times as much. 



When Does Alfalfa Yield Honey? 



Does alfalfa yield honey the first year ? 



Illinois. 



Answer.— No. nor the tenth year in your 

 locality. At least alfalfa has never yielded 

 to amount to anything in my locality, and I 

 am within 25 miles of you. As a rule it yields 

 no honey east of the Mississippi. Where it 

 does yield, I //;/«/{• it is not until the second 

 year. 



