July, llilil. 



24:t 



r-4^a^-<Q ^^ 



American ^qh Journal 



<^^:i 



took them into the cellar. I fed them 

 all winter. They seemed to do well 

 until aloMR in February, when one 

 colony had diarrhea, and finally died. 

 The other colony died in March. 



1. Do vou think my bees were robbed 

 in the fall ? 



2. Does the old queen leave the hive 

 before the young one leaves the cell ? 



■i. Can I use, for a new swarm, old 

 combs that are slightly moldy at the 

 bottom .'' 



4. I have some old combs that are all 

 worker-combs e.xcepting one end of 

 one comb that is about two inches 

 wide by five inches long, which is 

 drone-comb. Isthis drone-combenough 

 for one hive? 



5. Is June 1^> too late to save a swarm ? 

 If it is, do you kill the queen that leaves 

 the hive and return the bees to the hive 

 they left? 



6. I have a large space of ground 

 that I want to put in flower beds. 

 What kind do you advise me to put in ? 

 There is a little white flower they use 

 for border. Does it yield nectar, and 

 do you know the name of it? Do the 

 gilliflower and gladiolus yield honey ? 



7. Can I use the shallow extracting 

 frames in .the Langstroth hives ? The 

 brood-chamber is fitted with a cover 

 8 inches deep, or must I use supers to 

 these hives ? [Mrs] Chas. White. 



North Prairie, Wis. 



1. They were probably robbed. 



2. When a prime, or first, swarm is- 

 sues, the old queen goes with the 

 swarm, and the swarming takes place 

 generally about the time the first queen- 

 cell is sealed, and the young queen will 

 not emerge from her cell until a week 

 or so after the prime swarm issues. In 

 the case of an afterswarm, a young 

 queen goes with the swarm, and an- 

 other young queen or several of them 

 are ready to emerge about as soon as 

 the swarm has left. 



3. Yes; but there is a little danger that 

 the swarm may not be willing to stay 

 on such combs unless it be induced to 

 do so by the presence of a comb con- 

 taining some brood. But if you give 

 the moldy combs into the care of a 

 strong colony for a few days, they will 

 be cleaned up so that the swarm will 

 promptly accept them. They can be 

 put in the brood-chamber of the strong 

 colony, or in a hive-body under or 

 over the hive. 



4. Yes, or more than enough. 



.5. No, it is not too late, although if 

 the season should be poor you may 

 have to feed for winter. If you wish, 

 however, you can kill the queen, return 

 the swarm, and destroy all queen-cells 

 but one. 



6. All the flowers you are likely to 

 raise in a flower-bed are not likely to 

 amount to much unless you have half 

 an acre or more. Mignonette is one 

 of the best. The little white flower 

 used for borders may be sweet alyssum, 

 on which bees may be seen at work; 

 but whether they get much from it is 

 another question. Stock (or gilli- 

 flower) and gladiolus are likely not of 

 much value as honey-plants. 



7. The orthodox depth of the frame 

 for a Langstroth hive is 9}s inches, and 

 it will not be satisfactory to use one 

 very much shallower. You will need 

 supers, although you may use as a 



super a hive-body the sami- size as the 

 brood chamber if you use in it combs 

 of the same size as those in the brood- 

 chamber. 



^^-•-m^ 



My First Experience With Bees 



While I was visiting my daughters, 

 at Orchards, Wash . in 11)13, I bought 

 some hives in the flat, with the idea of 

 beginning beekeeping. The putting up 

 of the first hive was a Chinese puzzle, 

 but after that the others went together 

 quite easily. Our first swarm was 

 bought of a neighbor and brought 

 home the first week in July. 



After a few weeks I placed another 

 hive on the first, with starters in the 

 frames. Before the first of September 

 both were solid full of comb honey. 



Our principal wild honey plants were 

 fireweed. salal, mountain mulberry, 

 spirea, blackberry, wild gooseberry, 

 syringa, vetch and lupine. Vetch is 

 wild in western Oregon and Washing- 

 ton, and grows everywhere. I found 

 five diflEerent varieties. One a tiny 

 dwarf only a few inches high with a 



single lavender blossom. Another va 

 riety climbed on the bushes higher 

 than my head, and had a large cluster 

 of dark purple blossoms. One variety 

 had a yellow blossom. The summers 

 are very pleasant, there being no rain 

 from the middle of June until October; 

 from the middle of December until the 

 middle of March it rains «// the time. 



Orchards is a township of prune or- 

 chards, and is 14 miles from Portland, 

 Oreg., which is farther north on the 

 map than Portland, Maine; Imt the 

 winter that I was there (1913) the roses 

 bloomed until the middle of February, 

 then there was a freeze which stopped 

 them a few weeks. In April they 

 bloomed as they do in Connecticut in 

 June. 



Western Oregon and western Wash- 

 ington are noted for their large fir 

 trees. Unless the land has been cleared 

 it is stump land, and nearly everything 

 has a background of large spindles and 

 stumps with a heavy tangle of brush 

 and undergrowth. 



[Mrs.] E. p. Flint. 



Rockville, Conn. 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



Dr. C C. Miller. Marengo. II",. 



He does not answer bee-keepiae questions by mail. 



Data for United States Agricultural Department 



I. United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture asked me to fill out a sciiedule pertaining 

 to condition of colonies in tiiis township. 

 There are two questions I do not under- 

 stand, nor where to get the data for the 

 honey-plants, and what the percent was be- 

 fore this year. The questions are as follows: 

 "Condition of honey-plants compared with 

 normal condition at this season," and 



sence of sufficient data, you can only guess. 

 With regard to the first question, you can- 

 not measure the condition of the honey- 

 plants in feet and inches, nor yet in pints 

 and quarts. But il you have been on the 

 watch for several years— if you haven't vou 

 may be able to learn something about it 

 from others— you can tell whether you think 

 the present condition is better or worse 



CHP:.SrER KEISTER IN HIS APIARY AT CLARNO. WIS, 



" Condition of colonies at this time com- 

 pared with normal strength and health at 

 this season." 



2. Would it hurt bees to give them a frame 

 of moldy comb without any honey in the 

 comb? Will they clean it out ? Illinois. 



Answers.— I. No great wonder you should 

 find it somewhat troublesome. In the ab- 



than the average. If only half as good, then 

 of course it is 50 percent. If about a fourth 

 better than the average, then it is 12s per- 

 cent, and so on. 



Much the same way as to health and 

 strength of colonies. If colonies are just as 

 healthy as usual, then of course they are 100 



