1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



135 



Weitht of Sections—Foulbrood— Size ot Hiv) 



1. What should a section of honey weii:h 

 some say from lo to 13 ounces for a pound ? 



2. Kow can you tell when bees have foul- 

 brood ? What time of the year do they get 

 it and how can it be cured P 



3. Would a hive 17 inches long and 12 inches 

 wide be large enough for an average colony ? 



Iowa. 



Answers— t. The Colorado rules require 

 a section of fancy honey to weigh, with the 

 wood, I3>^ ounces; No 1. 12 ounces, and No. 

 2, II ounces. 



2 Write to Dr. E. F. Phillips. Department 

 of Agriculture. Washington, D. C , and he 

 will send you a number of pages that will 

 give you full information. 



3. That is a little smaller than the 8-frame 

 Langstroth, which is generally considered 

 hardly large enough. 



Flowers for Pollen 



What varieties of garden flowers are best 

 suited to furnish pollen and nectar for 

 bees ? Oklahoma. 



Answer.— Mignonnette and sweet alyssum 

 are good, but unless you plant by the acre 

 it will not amount to much. 



Swarming — Requeening 



1. Will cutting out the queen-cells in the 

 brood-chamber about every ten days during 

 the summer prevent swarming and induce 

 the bees to make more honey P 



2. My bees are a cross between the black 

 and yellow species. They are not very good 

 workers, and the swarms that issue are 

 small. I wish to change to pure Italians Do 

 you advise the pound package of bees or 

 requeening with Italian queens ? Would the 

 young queens be pure Italian P 



Quebec. Canada. 



Answers. — I Killing queen-cells every 

 ten days will delay swarming, at least for a 

 time; in some cases it will prevent it alto- 

 gether; but generally the colony will swarm 

 sooner or later in spite of cell-killing. 



2. The result will be the same whether you 

 get a queen in a queen-cage or in a pound 

 package, only with the queen-cage you run 

 the risk of introducing. The young queens 

 you rear from your new stock will be pure 

 if they meet pure drones, otherwise not. 



Increase— Swarm Prevention— Superseding 



1. I have now four colonies which I hope 

 to carry over winter. I would like to in- 

 crease these to eight, preferably by the 

 shaken swarm plan, but I am at a loss to 

 know how to treat the old colony so that 

 they will rear a good queen from the cells 

 that were started before the shaking was 

 done. But suppose they do not get the 

 swarming fever, what then ? Wouldn't it do 

 just as well to divide the colonies sometime 

 in May, following the plan you gave to 

 " Pennsylvania," in answer to question No 

 3, page 245 of the American Bee .Tournal for 

 July, I«i6? 



2. If I follow this plan, will that end the 

 swarming for the year? Will they gather 

 as much surplus as if they had been shaken 

 instead of divided P I might watch and wait 

 for signs of swarming until it was too late to 

 make the increase by division. 



3. If I increase by shaking, wouldn't there 

 be a good queen reared in the old colons- if I 

 do not shake clean, but leave some of the 

 bees on the frames ? 



4. My bees are in the country six miles 

 from here, and I do not see them every day. 

 I had but one colony last year, and this col- 

 ony swarmed about the middle of May. 

 when there was no one there to hive the 

 swarm, and it got away. I did not know this 

 until about four days after the swarm came 

 out. Not knowing what to do then to pre- 

 vent any afterwarms. I let matters take 

 their own course, with the result that there 

 were more swarms when I was not there, 

 and all left for the woods. In spite of this 1 

 got about 40 pounds of fine honey from this 

 colony, mostly in shallow extracting frames 

 What would have been the proper course to 

 pursue in order to prevent any afterwarms. 

 when I got there about four days after the 

 first swarm issued ? 



5. How do you tell when the bees are gath- 

 ering honey, and when the flow ceases ? It 

 is easy with pollen but not with honey. 



6. I bought two colonies last summer, and 



I find that some of the brood frames are not 

 wired. Two of the com'ps fell out of the 

 frames while looking over them. I would 

 like to replace these frames with others 

 that are not wired. When would be the 

 best time to do this so as not to interfere 

 with brood-rearing ? I will have to use new 

 frames with full sheets of foundation, as I 

 have no drawn combs. 



7. How can I tell, when queen cells are 

 found in a hive, whether there is to be 

 swarming or superseding ^ 



H If. when superseding, the bees build 

 more than one queen-cell is there any dan- 

 ger of swarming P 



g. I sometimes find turban-shaped enlarge- 

 ments of cells in the hives. Ate these 

 the beginning of queen-cells or an indica- 

 tion that the bees are in a swarming humor ? 



10. I always thought that the longer a col- 

 ony was without a queen the more readily 

 they would accept one when introduced, but 

 after reading that editorial, " The Meanest 

 Colony." etc., on the first page of Gleaningj 

 for July I. loib, I am all at sea. If I should 

 find any of mine queenless at any time I 

 wouldn't know what to do. 



n. I can buy some S-frame hives with 

 supers for $1.00 each, all in good condition. 

 Would you advise doing this or would it be 

 better to get nev/ lo/rami hives at about $5.00 

 each ? 



12. If I give a queenless colony a frame of 

 brood with larva less than three days old 

 and they start several queen-cells, will 

 there be any swarming, or will the first 

 queen out destroy the other cells ? 



13. What will happen to a colony that has 

 a laying worker in the fall and is left in 

 that condition until ipring? 



14. How can I. as advised, use the strong- 

 est colonies or those that swarm the least, 

 for the crop, and at the same time breed 

 from them, so as to build up all around. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— I. It will be all right provided 

 the colony is strong enough in May. If not 

 very strong then, wait until June. 



2. You cannot reply upon it for an abso- 

 lute certainty, but the likelihood is that 

 there will be no swarming. It isn't neces- 

 sary to wait for signs of swarming; some- 

 times a strong colony goes through the whole 

 season without offering to swarm. The im- 

 portant thing to watch for is the proper 

 strength. 



3. When you shake and put the brood in a 

 new hive on a neiu stand, even if you leave 

 quite a force of bees on the combs, there 

 will be no field bees coming into the hive 

 for two or three or more days, hence no 

 honey coming in, and the bees will be in a 

 discouraged condition, in no mood to rear a 

 good queen 'You can, however, take the 

 queen away with two frames of brood and 

 adhering bees, putting her on a new stand, 

 then a week later shake your swarm, leav- 

 ing nearly all the bees with the queen on the 

 old stand, and on the new stand (where the 

 queen has been during the previous week) 

 all the brood but one. But instead of shak- 

 ing off the bees you must brush them off the 

 combs, for the shaking would ruin the 

 queen-cells. However, it will be all right if 

 you leave at least one frame without shak- 

 ing, provided it contains one or more good 

 cells. 



4. If the queen had whole wings, and the 

 swarm absconded with her, and you got 

 there four days later, you might at that time 

 kill all cells but one You might also, on 

 that fourth day after swarming, take all but 

 two frames of brood with adhering bees, and 

 put them in a new hive on a new stand, be- 

 side the old one. Then a week later, when 

 there would no longer be any young queens 

 left in the cells (they would have emerged 

 or else been killed) you would return to the 

 old hive all the brood and bees you htd 

 taken away 



5. It is hard to say for certain whether a 

 given colony is gathering or not at a given 

 time. But there are some things by which 

 you may make a pretty good guess. When 

 honey is yielding abundantly, you will see 

 the bees flying in and darting out of the 

 hives like mad, appearing in the greatest 

 baste. They are likely to be much crosser 



when no honey is coming in. One of the 

 best signs that the flow has ceased Is to find 

 the bees suddenly become very cross. They 

 will also be more listless about flying in and 

 out of the hives. 



6. Notwithstanding the apparent incon- 

 gruity, the best time is when the bees are 

 most busily engaged at brood-rearing 



7 You cannot be sure about it. If you find 

 a dozen or so of cells at a time when bees 

 k'enerally swarm, ycu may be pretty sure 

 that the bees have thought of swarming. If 

 you find not more than three or four after 

 swarming is mostly over, you may guess that 

 supersedurc is intended. 



8. Yes, an increased flow of honey or some- 

 thing else may induce the bees to swarm 

 when otherwise there would have been 

 superseding Conversely, a check in the 

 honey flow, or something else, may turn the 

 bees from swarming to superseding. 



Q. They are the beginnings of queen-cells, 

 called cell-cups; but may be found in the 

 hive almost any time of year, having no ref- 

 erence to swarming. 



10. Do iust the same as you would have 

 done if you never had seen that editorial, 

 only now you know that when bees are 

 queenless a long time they become some- 

 what reconciled to their queenless condi- 

 tion and resent the intrusion of foreign 

 royalty. So when you find a colony queen- 

 less, generally you will move just as oon as 

 you can to supply the deficiency. 



11. All depends upon the relative value 

 you place upon working with the two kinds, 

 and what is to be your future course. If you 

 intend to continue using the smaller hives, 

 by all means take advantage of the offer at 

 $1.00. If you expect afterward to use the 

 larger hive, it might hardly be worth while 

 to take the smaller as a gift. 



12. That depends. If it is swarming time, 

 and the colony strong, you may expect 

 swarming; otherwise not. 



13. The bees may be all dead by spring; if 

 not, there will bea few of them, and it would 

 be better if they were all dead. Only when 

 you say a laying worker, you should under- 

 stand that a large number of laying workers 

 are likely to be present. 



14. I am a bit puzzled to know when you 

 were advised to use your very best queens. 

 ahvavs, for the crop. When a queen has es- 

 tablished her reputation for superiority in 

 any given year, it's a good plan the years 

 after that to keep her in a nucleus, so as to 

 let her live as long as possible, without ex- 

 pecting her bees to help on the surplus. 

 However, it's no trick at all to keep her in a 

 strong colony, working its best on the har- 

 vest, and at the same time to breed from 

 her. All you need to do is to take from her 

 a small amount of very young brood, to be 

 used in rearing queens in other strong colo- 

 nies made queenless for a time. 



To Incite Swarming 



My bees do not swarm until after the com- 

 mencement of the honey flow, which com- 

 mences about July 10. Could I in anyway 

 cause them to swarm before that time. Here 

 we have very little fruit bloom and some 

 dandelions. If lean cause them to swarm 

 before the honey flow I can get much more 

 honey. I run for comb honey. Nebraska. 



Answer.— If there is at any time a dearth 

 of a week or more, when there is no pastur- 

 age for the bees, you might feed during that 

 time. You might also get some of thecolo- 

 nies to swarm earlier by giving them sealed 

 brood or bees from other colonies. Of 

 course you can have recourse to artificial 

 increase by any of the methods given in your 

 bee-books. I am somewhat skeptical as to 

 your getting more honey by having swarm- 

 ing earlier. 



