November, 1916. 



391 



American He^ 



rob that hive and carry the honey back to 

 their hive, would tliey gel infested with it. 

 too? 



3 Could I clean the sections and let them 

 be filled next year, as the combs in some of 

 them loos to be in Kood condition ? 



4. Has this worm Kotten into the hive and 

 compelled the bees to leave, and then some 

 other bees robbed the honey ? Illinois. 



Answers-i. It is the wax-moth {Galleria 

 melUmclla), called also bee-moth, which is 

 found almost everywhere where bees are 

 kept. 



2. No. 



3. Yes. 



4. The moth did not take full possession 

 until the colony became very weak. You 

 will probably always find more or less of the 

 larv« of the wax-moth in your hives as long 

 as you keep bees, but thty are not likely to 

 make any great trouble so long as colonies 

 are strong, especially if you have Italians. 

 Black bees give up more readily. In the 

 present case the likelihood is that the col- 

 ony became queenless and weak, and then 

 the moth was allowed to have its own way. 

 Have Italians and only strong colonies, and 

 you need pay no attention to the moth. 



Worms Again 



I have one colony of bees in an 8-frame 

 hive, which gathered no honey this summer. 

 They started building one com bin the super, 

 but that s as far as they got. I looked them 

 over and found them full of those white 

 worms. What are they, and what do they 

 do. and what should I do ? Minnesota. 



Answer.— The white worms you found are 

 the larvae of the wax-moth, but they are not 

 the cause of the trouble, and only came in 

 because of the defenseless condition of the 

 colony. See reply to " Illinois." 



Honey for Winter 



1- On Sept. 12 I took off a super about one- 

 half sealed over. I stored it, placing paper 

 above and below; tried to get it about air 

 tight. On Sept. 23 I reopened it and found 

 several small white worms; some in the 

 comb looked like the bee-moth worm. What 

 was It and what caused it ? 



2. Will the bees store enough honey in the 

 hivebody to run them through winter, if the 

 super IS left on until freezing weather ? 



3. Which are considered the better, golden 

 or leather-colored Italian bees, for honey 

 gatherers? Missouri. 



Answers.— I. They are the larva; of the 

 wax-moth, that came from eggs laid while 

 the super was on the hive. See answer to 

 "Illinois." 



2. If extracting combs are in the super it 

 is uncertain. If sections containing honey 

 are left on until freezing, there is little 

 doubt that enough honey will be in the 

 brood-chamber for winter. 



3. The best goldens are better than the 

 poorest leather-colored, and vice versa. On 

 the whole the leather-colored are generally 

 preferred. 



Uniting Colonies— Dummies 



I. I expect to unite quite a number of col- 

 onies, and when it will come to making up 

 what is to be the final brood-chamber? I 

 feel a little in doubt about where to place 

 the frames with honey, viz.: half and half 

 at each side and others in the middle, or all 

 on one side and .the frames on the other, or 

 h(rw? 



I?' ^91* much better, if at all, are dummies 

 that fill up exacllv a space analogous to a 

 frame, even so that the bees can fly up be- 

 tween, or just anything to fill the space not 

 occupied by frames? The Question about 

 dummies, is especially so as to; use some 

 with ami swarm operations, and also when 

 a super is over the colony. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— I You can hardly go wrong to 



arrange the combs in any kind of order. To 



get enough honey in the hive it is not likely 



that you will have any combs entirely 



empty, neither is it likely that they will all 

 be entirely full. So with any sort of arrange- 

 ment there will be some empty space in the 

 lower parts of the combs, enough to accom- 

 modate the bees, although some hold that 

 bees really need no such empty space. 

 When bees are left to their own devices 

 they usually have the outside combs fullest, 

 and a hemisphere of empty cells centrally. 



If you want to be particular about it you can 

 try to imitate this. 



2. It doesn't matter at all, just so the bees 

 are not allosved to build in the vacancy. But 

 at any time when no Queen is in the colony, 

 only a single dummy is needed, and that 

 next to the frame or frames present, for 

 bees rarely build comb in a queenless col- 

 ony. 



Reports And ^ Experiences 



Pound Packages 



Have you any data on how far bees in 

 pound packages can besuccessfully shipped 

 by express ? I do not believe they can be 

 successfully shipped from California to 

 Illinois, and I base this belief on two experi- 

 ments. Last year I ordered two one-pound 

 Eackages from one of the largest dealers in 

 ees in that State. The bees came in the 

 latter part of Tune, a little late to be sure, 

 and were practically all dead, so that I 

 simply turned them all out on the ground 



The California firm agreed to duplicate 

 the order this spring, and did so. the two 

 one-pound packages arriving June i, but. as 

 before, the bees were, I should say, gs per- 

 cent dead. 



I cannot blame the concern which shipped 

 the bees, as they are certainly up-to date in 

 their methods. In order to acquire this 

 knowledge I paid $3 00 for bees and two ex- 

 press charges of J1.37 each. On the other 

 hand I have received from Texas half a 

 dozen pound packages of bees, and in each 

 instance they arrived in fine condition. My 

 experience, therefore, leads me to think 

 that while bees may stand a thousand mile 

 trip by express they are very likely to suc- 

 cumb when the distance is doubled. 



Glen Ellyn, III. Suescri.ser. 



[It is our opinion that properly packed 

 bees ought to readily stand the trip from 

 California to Illinois. If others have had 

 experience along this line, we would like to 

 hear from them.— Editor.] 



Influence of Nurse Bees 



I noticed on page 14 of the January num- 

 ber. " The Influence of the Nurse Bees Upon 

 the Young Bees." I had a very cross black 

 colony in my home yard, I made a 2 frame 

 nucleus out of it. and put it away back 

 where no one was passing. 



The old colony reared a young queen, and 

 she was very prolific, kept the hive boiling 

 over with bees all the time, so I reared a 

 grandaughter from them, and now all three 

 generations are tame and very prolific. 



At first it was not safe to pass through my 

 yard without a veil. Now I can open any 

 hive any time without a veil. The bees are 

 not always to blame for their behavior. The 

 handlingof them is more important. 



Havelock, N, C. P. Schaffhauser. 



Season Report for Bee Journal 



Sweet clover is the main reliance here, 

 and from some cause there was none 

 this sear where it had formerly been abun- 

 dant, and no where has there been as much 

 as usual, so the yield has varied more than 

 usual, some getting very little surplus and 

 others a better crop than for years. 



My own crop was fine, as sweet clover 

 was fairly plentiful and more cleome than I 

 have ever seen before. I am now in the 

 flush of a fine fall flow from Spanish-needle, 

 the tirst in seven or eight years 



Weather throughout has been favorable 

 for honey gathering, but swarming has been 

 very much less than usual. I only had two 

 swarms from 80 colonies. Louis Macey. 



North Platte. Nebr. 



Bitter Honey 



the supers in spring. While keeping beei 

 in the South I have more than once had a 

 similar experience. The brood-chamber 

 would be solidly packed with this bitter- 

 weed honey; then the next spring, when 

 new honey and new pollen started brood- 

 rearing with a rush, much of the bitter 

 honey would be carried up into the supers 

 and mixed with the new honey. It required 

 only a very small quantity to spoil the flavor 

 of the new crop, as it has about the most 

 bitter taste of anything bitter I ever had the 

 misfortune to get into my mouth. Even the 

 combs that have contained bitterweed 

 honey for any considerable length of time, 

 will impart a "bad taste" to new honey 

 that may be stored in them. 



It will pay " Tennessee" to extract all bit- 

 ter honey remaining in the hives at the be- 

 ginning of the spring flow, for otherwise he 

 will surely have trouble with it. 



lam sure the honey from peach bloom is 

 not bitter. We have hundreds of acres 

 here, and the bees work it continuously 

 from beginning to ending of the blooming 

 period and the honey gathered at this time 

 is always of fine flavor. 



I have never known the bees to work 

 either black gum or dogwood sufficiently to 

 prove what the honey is like. 



J. D. Yancey. 



Port Columbia. Wash.. Nov. 22. 



Yellovy Sweet Clover Fine 



Our bees have done quite well here this 

 season. We had 35 acres of our mammoth 

 yellow bloom and six acres of white sweet 

 bloom. For about three weeks the bees did 

 not accomplish very much on the yellow 

 bloom. It was too rainy. It bloomed for 

 over two months, and they stored away a 

 fine lot of honey. I think before many years 

 the Flathead Valley will be quite a honey 

 country, for many are beginning to plant 

 yellow clover; that is bound to be the com- 

 ing hay crop. If a wet spell of weather sets 

 in afier it is cut. it comes out of it in better 

 shape than any other hay crop I am ac- 

 quainted with, and for quantity and quality 

 it cannot be beaten, alfalfa not excepted. 

 J, D. Kaufman. 



Kalispell, Mont., Oct. 2. 



I think "Tennessee," in American Bee 

 Journal for November, igis, has hit upon the 

 cause of his trouble with bitter honey in 



Fine Crop 



I commenced with 11 colonies this spring 

 and increased to 18 and caught five swarms, 

 so I have 33 now. My best colony, the one 

 that I did not divide, stored over 150 pounds. 



i sold 57fe pounds of comb honey at 15 cents, 

 and iiiQ pounds of extracted at 10 cents a 

 pound. I'hey averaged me a little over 134 

 pounds per colony, spring count. Prospects 

 are fine for a good crop next year, so far. 

 White clover is fine. C.W.Dale. 



Sedalia, Mo. 



The English Routed by Bees 



Many a time, in the present European war. 

 bees have proven their fighting qualities. 

 Here is an older example, copied for " Forty- 

 one Years in India;" 



"All the troops were advancing. Lord 

 Roberts was employed for a little time 

 within an enlosure at Alambagh, when he 

 heard great confusion, as of a panic among 

 his troops on the plain. Getting on the roof. 

 he looked out over the plain and saw the 

 soldiers flying in every direction. There 

 was no firing, and the enemy nowhere to be 

 seen, but evidently something serious had 

 happened to throw the men into such con- 



