132 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



move them 1% miles. The weather was 

 cool, and as the distance was short I 

 put on an empty super and closed the 

 entrance. However, there were quite 

 a few bees dead when I released them, 

 although they were not confined longer 

 than an hour. Shortly after that they 

 seemed to have a sort of May disease ; 

 they looked greasy and had large abdo- 

 mens. I lost about half of the colony, 

 but the disease finally disappeared. 

 They were late in swarming, and as 

 my queen was clipped, I intended to let 

 the bees swarm but once. I hived the 

 swarm in a new hive on the old stand, 

 placing the old hive close beside it, 

 thinking to move it in seven days to a 

 new stand. 



Swarm No. 1 came out on Thursday 

 afternoon, and on Saturday morning 

 swarm No. 2 came out. I hived this 

 swarm in a new hive and placed the 

 old hive back. The same hive had a 

 third swarm three days later, but this 

 time I cut out all queen-cells and re- 

 turned the swarm with the virgin queen 

 to the parent hive. They did all right 

 for a while, then one morning I saw 

 swarm No. 2 was excited about some- 

 thing. After a search I found their 

 queen under the alighting-board which 

 was slightly raised at one end. She 

 appeared cold, and after warming her 

 up she seemed spry again, but refused 

 to enter the hive, although the bees 

 were willing to accept her. I gave her 

 some smoke and she went in, but soon 

 came out again and wandered off on 

 the gound, so I killed her and united 

 swarms No. 1 and No. 2. 



On Aug. 18 I moved to Mukwonago, 

 and had to move the bees, and as they 

 had their brood-chamber filled with 

 brood and honey, I thought I would 

 have bad luck in moving. I have the 

 Langstroth hives, and took off the 

 cover and bee-board, leaving an empty 

 super over the brood-chamber, closed 

 the entrance with a screen and tied 

 cheese-cloth over the super. We loaded 

 them and started off at 3:00 o'clock in 

 * the morning, getting there by .5:00. We 

 released them at once after giving them 

 a little smoke, and we did not lose a 

 bee nor a drop of honey. 



Number 1 and 2 stored about 25 

 pounds of honey in the super and 

 raised an immense swarm of bees. The 

 old colony did not store any and they 

 are lighter in bees than the other hives, 

 and before cellaring them I noticed 

 some of the bees had a greasy look and 

 quite a few died, and now in the cellar 

 they have died off twice as much as the 

 other colonies. 



1. Why did the afterswarm come out 

 so soon after the prime swarm ? 



2. Do you think it is bee-paralysis my 

 bees have, and will it again appear in 

 the spring ? Is it a disease that is in 

 the hive, and should the old hive be 

 destroyed ? 



3. Does an old queen rear larger 

 swarms than a young one ? 



4. Do you think my bees were lazy 

 or sick that they did not work ? There 

 were lots of sweet clover, goldenrod 

 and dandelions to gather from. Will 

 they do better next summer? 



5. Should I requeen or should I unite 

 the two swarms in the hive with the old 

 queen ? The young queen has nice 

 bees, all 3-banded and of good color. 

 Do you think it would pay me to try 

 her again, the old queen was a tested 

 Italian ? [Mrs.! C. White. 



Mukwonago, Wis. 



1. It is possible that when No. 1 was| 

 ready to swarm the weather was too' 

 bad, being cold and rainy, and this con- 

 tinued until the swarm came out about 

 six days later than it could have done 

 if the weather had been good, making 

 it only two days longer until the first 

 virgin was ready to go with the second 

 swarm. A delay of that kind often 

 happens, but it is rare that the delay 

 is so long. So rare that another ex- 

 planation is probable. The first swarm 

 occurred on Thursday. On Wednesday 

 or Thursday of the preceding week, it 

 may be that a swarm, unnoticed by you, 

 issued, and that the old queen was 

 unable to go with the swarm, or 

 was in some way lost, and the swarm 

 returned. Then when the oldest virgin 

 was ready, the swarm which you saw 

 issued, and two days later the second 



of the young queens issued with an- 

 other swarm. 



' 2. As you describe it, it is pretty sure 

 to be paralysis. It may appear again, 

 but likely not. Thehive is all right. 

 ' 3. If you mean does a 2 year old 

 queen have a larger swarm than a 1- 

 year old queen, no. If you mean does 

 the old queen that issues with the 

 prime swarm have a larger swarm than 

 the young queen that issues with the 

 second swarm, yes. 



' 4. Hard to tell. Possibly both. If 

 there is no paralysis this year, they are 

 .likely to do better, provided it is a 

 'good year. 



, 5. It would hardly be advisable to 

 unite the two colonies. As the swarm 

 was late the young queen didn't have 

 the best chance, and may do better this 

 year. 



Miscellaneous <^ News Items 



Prune Pollination.— Bulletin No. 274, 

 of the California Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station has for its title, " The 

 Common Honeybee as an Agent in 

 Prune Pollination." It is written by 

 A. H. Hendrickson. 



It appears that insects are extremely 

 scarce in the Santa Clara Valley at the 

 time that the prune trees are in bloom, 

 with the result that the crop is not so 

 large as it might otherwise be. 



Experiments were conducted with 

 trees entirely protected from bees and 

 other insects by netting, and with 

 others having adjacent to them plenty 

 of honeybees. The results were, as 

 usual; the bees' proximity resulted in 

 a much larger set of prunes, especially 



with the French variety. 



The best results will probably be 

 obtained by bringing in bees from out- 

 side and scattering them about the or- 

 chard with at least one colony to each 



acre. 



^ 



Nougat. — Three cups of granulated 

 sugar, l;^ cups of any kind of nut meats 

 (preferably English walnuts), -\ cup of 

 honey, -^j cup of hot water, and the 

 white of one egg beaten stiff. 



Boil the sugar, honey and water to- 

 gether until they make a rather hard 

 ball when dropped in cold water. Re- 

 move from the fire, pour in the beaten 

 white of the egg and beat briskly with 

 a silver fork. After beating a while, 

 pour in the nut meats and continue to 

 beat until it begins to make a hard 

 creamy mass, then pour into a buttered 



L. B. SMIIH. OF TE.\AS. GOT HIS START IN BEEKEEPING BY HUNTING 



BEE-TREES 



