390 



November, 1916. 



American ^ee Journal 



the frames and the cover put on for about 

 20 minutes or less when every bee will be 

 driven down in the brood-chamber, or even 

 out of the hive if left too long, and if the 

 cloth is left on the super not a robber bee 

 will touch it. Do you think this method in- 

 jurious to the bees or brood if used care- 

 fully ? ,, _,., 



8. Do tl.e 4X5 plain sections sell as readily 

 as the i't\iy» beeway section on the city 

 honey markets, quality and grade of honey 

 being equal? lNi,>uiRER. 



Answers.— I. If you will look through re- 

 cent numbers you will find your questions 

 as to races mostly answered. It should be 

 understood that these three kinds cannot be 

 classified as exactly distinct and separate 

 in their characteristics. There are varia- 

 tions in all three. Indeed it should be said 

 that 3-banders and leather-colored are not 

 to be counted as two classes, for when we 

 speak of leather-colored we mean 3-banded 

 Italians of a darker hue. and when you say 

 3-banders you no doubt mean the lighter- 

 colored. You will find good. bad. and indif- 

 ferent in all three. You may have leather- 

 colored that are poor, and you might get 

 goldens better, and vice virsa. On the whole 

 I should in general consider that the good 

 characteristics you mention are more likely 

 to be found in the leather-colored than in 

 the others, although the beauty of the gold- 

 ens is not a thing to be despised. 



2. I think not. 



3. Yes. if you get a good strain, although 

 some of them are likely to be a little tender. 



4. Other things being equal, your best plan 

 would be to get at least one pure queen of 

 the kind you started with, breeding from 

 her and weeding out all poorer stock. Hav- 

 ing already part of that blood, it will be 

 easier to get the whole of that kind. You 

 can. of course, change all into goldens. but 

 you're hardly so sure of good stock. 



5. Do both. Get a pure queen early, and 

 breed from her so as to introduce her daugh- 

 ters late in the season, and any time when 

 there is any need of a new queen. I am not 

 entirely certain what you mean as to 

 " hybrid drones." If you get a pure queen, 

 her daughter's drones will be pure. It's not 

 so important about a drone's mother, but 

 he should have a good grandmother. 



6. Some sprinkle flour on a few bees of the 

 swarm, and then watch which hive the 

 fioury bees enter. If yourqueensare clipped 

 you can nearly always tell from which hive 

 a swarm came by watching to which hive it 

 returns. 



7. I hardly think so. 



8. When the 4x5 sections first made their 

 appearance, much was said about their 

 bringing a higher price, and possibly they 

 did in some markets. Possibly that is still 

 the case, but in markets that I know about 

 the common 4Jix4/i have rather the prefer- 

 ence. 



How to Get Rid of Moth Larvae 



1. I would like to know what to do with a 

 colony of bees that is troubled with moth; 

 since early in the season I have seen the 

 bees carrying out moth larva and web. but 

 thinking they would be able to clean the 

 moth out I left them alone until I saw that 

 something would have to be done, so today, 

 Sept. 14, 1 transferred the bees into a new 

 hive. There was not much honey or brood 

 in the old hive, but there certainly was a lot 

 of moth larvae. After I found the queen and 

 put her in the new hive the bees followed, I 

 then turned the combs out on a board and 

 let the chickens clean out the larva. 



2. Would mothballs in the hive have done 

 any good early in the season, or can you sug- 

 gest anything that could have been done ? Do 

 you think it is possible for me to save this 

 colony? Michigan. 



1. If you put in enough moth-balls you can 

 keep out the moth, but you will drive out 

 the bees; so don't try moth-balls. The thing 



to do is to have colonies so vigorous and 

 strong that they will not let the moth get the 

 upper hand. Italians are away ahead of 

 blacks in fighting the moth; so Italianize 

 your stock and you need pay no attention 

 to the moth unless you have a very weak 

 colony. On your part, you can do something 

 to help. If a colony is weak, don't let it 

 have more combs than it can cover, and 

 strengthen it as soon as you can. If you care 

 to take the trouble, you can dig the big 

 larvae out of the combs. With a pin or wire 

 nail, pick open one end of the burrow of a 

 larva, then beginning at the other end pick 

 open until you drive the larva out of the 

 hole first made, when you can wreak your 

 vengeance upon it Another way is to 

 squirt kerosene or gasoline upon the mis- 

 creant with a sewing-machine oil-can. 



2. If the colony is strong enough, and there 

 is a strong fall flow, it ought to make out; if 

 the flow is not enough you will have to feed. 



Room for Queen- 



-What Kind of Hives for Comb 

 Honey ? 



1. I run entirely for extracted honey and 

 have been giving the queen free access to all 

 the supers above the brood-chamber, some- 

 times two and three supers. The queen lays 

 in all the supers now, and when I examine 

 each colony every seven days, and have to 

 go through all supers to examine the brood. 



2. If I put on an excluder and keep the 

 queen below, is the brood-chamber of an 8- 

 frame hive large enough for a prolific queen; 

 if not, is a lo-frame hive large enough ? 



3. For comb honey do you use 8 or 10 frame 

 hives? 



4. A large beekeeeper told me that he uses 

 8-frame hives exclusively for comb honey, 

 and that he takes out one frame on each 

 side and puts a dummy in their place, 

 and only allows the queen six frames for a 

 brood-chamber and says that is enough. 

 What is your opinion of this ? 



5. iio you think golden bees are immune 

 from European foulbrood ? 



6. Do you think golden bees are as good 

 honey gatherers as other bees ? \Vhich do 

 you prefer ? I want to requeen this fall. 



Iowa. 



Answers — i. Wouldn't it lighten the job if 

 you didn't go through your hives quite so 

 often? Don't you think ten days will do as 

 well as seven ? 



2. During the heavy harvest eight frames 

 will accommodate most queens, provided 

 she keeps them all well filled with brood. 

 Some queens will do this, and some will 

 leave the two outside combs for honey and 

 pollen, with quite a circle of honey in the 

 other frames. A lo-frame hive is safer. 



3. Eight-frame; but if I were a beginner 

 anew I should do some studying about hav- 

 ing a larger hive. 



4. Perhaps his queens are satisfied with 

 only six combs; I think mine would strike. 



5. I don't believe any bee is entirely im- 

 mune, although some are more nearly im- 

 mune than others. I would take my chances 

 on leather-colored Italians, although some 

 goldens may be just as good. 



A. Taken as a whole. I think the leather- 

 colored will excel, although some goldens 

 may be just as good. There are good and 

 bad in both. 



Faulty Queen 



On June 14 I took three frames of brood 

 and ripe queen cells for a start and closed 

 the entrance 24 hours. July 4 I gave a frame 

 of brood with queen-cell, having found evi- 

 dence that they were queenless. July 26 I 

 gave them a frame of brood, there being no 

 queen present. August 3 1 gave a frame with 

 brood and bees, from a desire to keep the 

 colony in fair strength. August 27 1 found 

 unsealed brood. September 2 I found sealed 

 brood, apparently drone-brood in worker- 

 cells (and a few worker brood), two sides of 

 one frame well covered and a small quan- 

 tity on two other frames. There were two 

 sealed queen-cells and one or two unsealed. 



The sealed cells were cut out and and the 

 queen taken away. She was a small queen 

 and a very slow mover, but I could not see 

 any defect about her. 



This day I have ordered an untested 

 queen to put in this hive. 



1. Do you call this a drone-layer ? 



2. If so. how do you account for a few nor- 

 mal worker cells ? 



3. What would have hatched from those 

 queen-cells ? 



4. Will this colony be likely to accept a 

 laying queen ? 



5. How should this colony have been man- 

 aged from July, when they were found to be 

 queenless? Illinois. 



Answers.— I. I hardly know. Usually the 

 term "drone layer " is applied to a queen 

 which produces drone-brood only. A queen 

 that has a small proportion of drone brood 

 in worker-cells is generally called a failing 

 queen, but when this happens with a queen 

 when she first begins to lay, I know of no 

 name for her except to call her a poor 

 queen. In the present case there was so 

 small a proportion of worker-brood that she 

 was certainly a " poor" queen, and it would 

 be hardly out of the way to call her a drone- 

 layer. 



2. As already hinted, faulty queens run all 

 the way from having only a small proportion 

 of drones in worker-cells up to those which 

 produce no worker-brood at all. This queen 

 just happened to be one of those that have 

 mostly drone-brood. 



3. Possibly queens; likely nothing; for 

 when bees try to make a queen out of drone- 

 brood, the drone seems never to hatch out, 



4. Perhaps, but the chances are not the 

 best. 



5 The best thing would have been to unite 

 it with a normal colony, starting a new 

 nucleus; or, to take away all combs with 

 adhering bees (giving them to other colo- 

 nies), then put in the hive one or two frames 

 of brood with adhering bees. The field-bees 

 would then return to give heart to the new 

 comers. 



Destroying Moth 



I have several hives that are infected by 

 grubs from the eggs of millers I would 

 like to know if there is any way by which I 

 could kill these grubs and eggs without 

 spoiling the combs for the*ees ? Iowa. 



Answer.— The easiest and best way to 

 have such combs cleaned up is to give them 

 to a strong colony of bees, and for this pur- 

 pose Italians are greatly superior to blacks. 

 Another easy way is to leave them outdoors 

 through the winter, for freezing destroys 

 both larvse and eggs. If neither of these 

 ways is available, and you want to get rid of 

 the larger larvae at once, take a small oil- 

 can, such as used for sewing-machines, and 

 squirt a little gasoline on the miscreant. 

 You may fumigate the combs with sulphur, 

 but this does not destroy the eggs, and so 

 must be repeated in perhaps two weeks. 

 Carbon disulphide will destroy eggs as well 

 as larviT?. Tier up the combs in hive bodies. 

 an empty body on top. and in this put a 

 saucer and pour it half full of the liquid and 

 cover up quickly. 



Worms in Hive 



I am sending an unfilled section of honey 

 as a sample to show what has destroyed the 

 colony of bees that it was taken from. 



I examined all the hives yesterday, and 

 was surprised to find this colony destroyed 

 and all full of eggs, and these worms in the 

 sections and brood-chamber. All of the 

 honey is gone, and nothing but the comb left. 

 There are a lot of web in the space 

 between each frame full of dead and live 

 bees. I'he sections were all full of honey, 

 mostly capped about six weeks ago. 



1. What kind of an insect or worm is it, 

 and what is its name ? 



2. If the bees from another colony would 



