316 



September, 1916. 



American ^ee Jonrnajj 



the matter into your own hands, and divid " 

 artificially. Full instruction for this will be 

 found in Dadant's Langstroth and other 

 eood bee books. 



3. You can't. You can. however, make 

 something of a guess if the bees hang out 

 somewhat idly when other colonies are busy 

 at work. 



4. At a rough guess, about a peck and a 

 half. This while the bees are loosely clus- 

 tered; for when they settle down quietly in 

 a hive and cool off. the cluster will shrink in 

 size. 



5. Put in the super a section that has been 

 partly or wholly built out. Even any old 

 piece of comb will do. 



6. She looks like a nice Italian aueen, but 

 you never can tell from looks. You can de- 

 cide only from her worker progeny. If they 

 all have three yellow bands you may decide 

 the queen is pure. 



Keeping Sections of Honey 



What I am most interested in at the pres- 

 ent moment is the best method to keep sec- 

 tion honey. Ever since 1 have kept bees I 

 have fumigated with sulphur about ten days 

 after I took the honey off. which makes an 

 endless job Is there any shorter way ? 



Prospects were never better, but a good 

 shower would help the white clover. Linden 

 is iust in bloom, but is about three weeks 

 late for this locality. Missouri. 



Answer —Years ago I sulphured my sec- 

 tions soon after taking them off the hive, 

 and then again about two weeks later. For 

 years I have not fumigated them at all. The 

 only thing I have done to make the differ- 

 ence is to get in Italian blood. Like enough 

 there is too much black blood in your bees, 

 and blacks are inferior at keeping the bee- 

 moth at bay. 



Eggs Don't Hatch 



On May 6 a queen hatched, and on the 12th 

 she began to lay quite freely, but the eggs 

 do not hatch. I have failed to find the 

 larva in any stage at any of the frequent 

 examinations. The queen is a fine looking 

 one and quite active. Theeggs are deposited 

 very regularly and there is plenty of honey 

 coming in. What is the matter ? 



Kansas. 



Answer.— I don't know the answer. I had 

 one queen of the same kind, and I think 

 only one, and I have read of some others. 

 The eggs just don't hatch, although every- 

 thing appears all right, and I don't know 

 why. Fortunately you're not likely to have 

 another such case in your lifetime. 



Cleaning Old Combs— Building Up— Swarming 



1. How can old combs having larva and 

 dead bees in them be cleaned up so they 

 can be made into foundation ? 



2. At the beginning of the honey flow, be- 

 fore my bees started in the supers, they 

 were very gentle, but after they started 

 work in the super they would sting me, 

 when I opened the hives despite the smok- 

 ing I gave them. Is there a reason for this ? 



3. I have a few small hives of bees which I 

 would like to build up. If I put frames of 

 brood in them from larger colonies, would it 

 be safe to add also the adhering bees ? 



4. I have kept my bees from swarming so 

 far by cutting out queencells. I would like 

 for them to put up all the honey possible, 

 and then swarm. How soon shall I stop cut- 

 ting out queen-cells to let them swarm in 

 time to gather stores for their winter use ? 



Missouri. 



Answers.— I. Clean them up what you can 

 conveniently, brushing off the dead bees, 

 arid then melt up dead bees and all; and 

 when the melted mass cools, having plenty 

 of water with it, you wijl find the impurities 

 separated from the wax. 



2. 1 don't know why there should be the 

 difference, bui I know that sometimes bees 

 are much worse at stinging than others Of 

 course, when the flow stops suddenly, and 



bees have nothing to do but to defend their 

 homes, we expect them to be cross, but 

 sometimes they are crosser with a full flow 

 on than they are at others. There seems to 

 be more complaint than usual this year. 



3. You can give the adhering bees if you 

 do not give too many at a time. If, for in- 

 stance, you have a weakling with only two 

 frames of brood, and you give it two more, 

 with adhering bees, you will jeopardize the 

 queen; but you may feel pretty safe if you 

 give only one brood with its bees. The point 

 is that in giving the bees they should not be 

 more than half as many as those already in 

 the hive. But if you make the bees queen- 

 less two or three days previovsly. then you 

 may add all you like. 



4 Don't you woi"ry; those bees will swarm 

 in time enough in spite of all your cell cut- 

 ting. There may, however, be some excep- 

 tions, and what timeyou should stop cutting 

 depends on how late your flow is. In some 

 places there are years when a swarm in 

 July would not store enough for winter use. 

 while in others a September swarm might 

 make good. 



Uniting — Artificial Increase 



Have just read your book. "Fifty Years 

 Among the Bees," and think it is the best 

 book I have ever read. What would be your 

 opinion of uniting swarms coming off at the 

 beginning of the honey flow and keeping the 

 number of colonies good by artificial in- 

 crease? New Hampshire. 



Answers.— I suppose your idea is to unite 

 two swarms so that the combined force will 

 be stronger for storing. If your bees cannot 

 be persuaded not to swarm then you will 

 gain in surplus to unite two swarms, for the 

 combined force will store more honey than 

 would the two kept separate. Exception, 

 however, must be made in places where 

 there is a heavy flow late, for in such places, 

 especially if the swarming be early, you will 

 get more surplus by keeping the swarms 

 separate. 



A Boy's Questions 



1. When transferring bees from a box to a 

 hive, and when adding the bees in the old 

 box to the hive, would an entiance guard be 

 necessary so as to keep the queen out ? 



2. Would a queen-excluder be needed for 

 producing comb honey ? 



3. Last summer I heard a noise in the hive 

 that sounded like burnt paper. Do you 

 know what it was ? Subscriber. 



Answers. — i. No; I don't know of any rea- 

 son why you should want to keep the queen 

 out. 



2. No. I never use any. But if no excluder 

 is used it is quite important to have the sec- 

 tion quite filled with worker foundation. 

 Otherwise the vacant space will be filled 

 with drone comb, and the queen is likely to 

 come up and lay there. 



3. It was probably nothing but the noise of 

 the bees. It is interesting to put one's ear 

 against a hive in the still of the evening and 

 listen to the various sounds made by the 

 bees. Some of them sound like little 

 squeals, and some a good deal like the 

 crackling noise of burning paper. 



fa 



Miscellaneous 



1. When you take off your comb honey 

 supers, and the season is about over, do you 



)ut on other supers? The swarms are too 

 .arge to shut in the one story, and it seems 

 that if given a super many of them would 

 gnaw the full sheets of foundation down 



2. I shook three of my swarms that had 

 cells capped over on empty or wired foun- 

 daiion. leaving an outside comb on each 

 side, then set the brood on top over the 

 queen-excluder for three or four hours I 

 then carried the top hive away and gave 

 them a queen-cell. In a few days they 

 swarmed for three days in succession They 



came back the first and second time, but the 

 third time they would have gone if I hadn't 

 sprayed water on them. I then put on a 

 drone-trap, and a few days after I saw a ball 

 of bees like a walnut on the outside of the 

 trap. I examined it. and found the young 

 queen trying to get into the hive but couldn't, 

 so I clipped her wing and let her in How 

 she got out through the trap I don't know. 

 Why did they swarm that way; they had 

 two full sheets of foundation in the lo-frame 

 hive that hadn't done any work ? 



3. One swarm had cells started, so I cut 

 them out and filled the hive with full sheets 

 of foundation with the exception of one 

 frame with brood, which I put in the middle 

 with the queen, then put the brood on top 

 over the excluder and in eigh' days cutout 

 all cells. In a few days they ^warmed, but 

 as the queen was clipped they came back. I 

 carried the top hive away and gave them a 

 cell. Why did they swarm ? Was it because 

 I didn't put ihe queen below soon enough ? 



4 I have a swarm that was shaken early in 

 June, queen clipped and brood taken away; 

 they worked in the sections, but today they 

 swarmed, making the second time they had 

 tried it. Of course, thev came back What 

 is the cause, and will they keep on until they 

 kill the queen ? 



5. If they supersede their queen, when do 

 they generally do it. and do they build more 

 than one cell ? 



6. After a cell is capped, how long is it un- 

 til the prime swarm issues? 



7. Three of my lo-frame hives are painted 

 a dark green. One had a very large swarm 

 of hybrids with ib sections nearly ready to 

 take off. so I gave another 28 on top and 

 lifted the bottom or tilted the hive up to 

 look for cells and found none. Abbut 2:00 

 o'clock in the afternoon and about 7;oo 

 o'clock in the evening I found honey over 

 part of the running-board with a pool on the 

 ground. I examined them and found one 

 outside the comb about half melted down. 

 The hive was setting in the hot sun with a 

 shade-board on top. and excelsior cover on 

 top of the cover. Bees clustered out in 

 front clear to the top of the third super. 

 some drowned. The .^a-inch entrance was 

 wide open. Was it because of the dark 

 paint or my working with them that caused 

 this? Other hives being within six feet of 

 them it must have melted in about an hour, 

 or I should say three hours, after I left them 

 or there would have been robbing started; 

 but nothing of the kind happened. 



8. Is it right to shake bees through the 

 queen-excluder in hunting for the queen? 

 It seems that part of my queens can hardly 

 be found to be clipped in any other way. 



g. How do you keep the wind from blowing 

 your hives over where they are tiered as 

 high as the bee journals picture them at 

 times ? Ohio. 



Answers— I. No supers are allowed on 

 the hives after the flow is over. If a colony 

 is so large that the hive is too small for 

 them, they can stay outdoors. Won't hurt 

 'em a bit. As soon as it is too cool for them 

 outdoors they can crowd into the hives, and 

 there will be plenty of room for them. 



2. If I understand correctly, you set the 

 brood-combs with a full complement of bees 

 on a new stand. Their first business was to 

 start cells, even if you had already given 

 them a cell, and being strong they were 

 ready to swarm as soon as the young queens 

 matured. The swarms were practically 

 afterswarms. just as would naturally be ex- 

 pected, for in the few days intervening be- 

 fore the virgins were ready to emerge the 

 colony had been becoming stronger all the 

 time. If. instead of leaving the bees over 

 the excluder a few hours, you had left them 

 for a week, there probably would have been 

 no swarming. 



3 I don t know. With the queen and only 

 one brood below excluder I should not ex- 

 pect swarming. But bees sometimes break 

 all rules. 



4. They may keep on until the queen is 

 killed, or they may give up. You might keep 

 the queen caged in the hive 10 days, then 

 kill cells and free the queen. Of course, 

 however, that would not tend to strengthen 

 the colony greatly. 



5. Superseding is generally done toward 

 the close of the season. Only one cell may 

 be started or there may be two or more. 



I 



