1917 



AMERICAN BFF JOURNAL 



171 



be the best Hold on. Doctorl Cant 



afford to publish the rest of that!— C. P. D. 



::. The trouble beitan when you nave that 

 super to the swarm. That looked better to 

 the bees than the foundation in the brood 

 chamber, so they went rik'ht up and began 

 housekeepint; there. Next time eitiier put 

 a queen-excluder between the brood cham- 

 ber and the super, or else don't give the 

 super to the swarm until the queen has 

 made a fair start at layintr below, say tliree 

 days or more. 



Large or Small Hives? — Swarming 



1. 1 would like some information on bees. 

 A few friends of mine take three, and some- 

 times as hich as six. brood-chambers and 

 stack up on each other, but I cannot see any 

 advantage doing tliat way. If there is I 

 would like to know it. 



2. I use the 8-frame brood-chamber, I2 

 inches deep, but most of them are tH and lo 

 inches. Which is the best ? 



3. Would you get a larger swarm from a 

 i2-inch hive 'han you would from a g5^ or lo 

 inch in swan ling time ? 



4. I have a few small brood chambers, and 

 as a rule they swarm two or three times dur- 

 ing the summer season until they are weak. 

 Can I put on an extra super, take the swarm 

 and queen away and put them back in the 

 same hive, or will they stay, as the swarm is 

 very small? Illinois. 



Answers.— I. In working for section honey 

 you will find it the case in a good season 

 that the bees will be working in 3. 4. and 

 even up to 8 supers before all the sections 

 are sealed in the first super. It is somewhat 

 the same way with extracting supers, and 

 some of our best beekeepers leave all on 

 until the close of the harvest. 



2. The larger hive may be the better. 



3. The larger hive is likely to give the 

 larger swarm. 



4. After they have swarmed it will not 

 work to give them an extra super and return 

 the swarm; they will swarm out again. Still, 

 if you keep returning the swarm each time 

 it issues, after a week or so only one young 

 queen will be left in the hive, and then they 

 will swarm no more. 



Repairing Combs— Danzenbaker Hives 



1. I have some brood-combs that the mice 

 got into and chewed holes in the center of 

 the combs: some are clear through while 

 others are only as far as the midrib. Will it 

 be all right to use them in the brood-cham- 

 ber this spring ? 



2. Will you tell me the real need of havine 

 a bottom-board, one side being deeper than 

 the other ? 



3. When my new hives arrived. I found 

 that after I had put them together I had 

 some pieces left; they are a little more than 

 K of an inch wide by ii inch thick; some are 

 16M inches long and others i8>» inches long. 

 What are they for ? I purchased Danzen- 

 baker hives. 



4. Do you consider the Danzenbaker hive 

 a practical hive, or had I better get the regu- 

 lar Langstroth on the start and save the 

 changing later. New York. 



Answers.— I. It will be all right to use 

 them, only you should know that wherever 

 the midrib is gnawed away the bees will be 

 pretty sure to build drone-comb. You can 

 prevent this by using one or more of the 

 combs to cut up into patches to fit in the 

 holes. Or, you can fit foundation into the 

 holes. Let the foundation be '/e or 'A inch 

 larger than the hole, cut away the cells down 

 to the midrib on one side, have the founda. 

 tion quite warm and soft, and press it down 

 into place. 



2. I invented the reversible botto m-board 

 although sometimes another name has been 

 attached to it ; my object was to have a deep 

 space in winter that would not be clogged 

 by dead bees, and a shallower space in sum- 

 mer, so the bees would not build down. But 

 I have not used the reversible bottom-board 

 for years, preferring a bottom-board two 

 inches deep for the year around, using a 



bottom-rack in summer to prevent the bees 

 from building down. 



3. I don't know; perhaps to fill the spaces 

 to prevent the bees getting in behind the 

 frames. 



1. I think most beekeepers will agree with 

 me in preferring Ihe Langstroth, 



Laying Worker 



I looked over my bees to find how they had 

 wintered, and found that my best colony 

 had brood in one frame of the super, al- 

 though there was plenty of room in the 

 brood chamber. 



This brood was raised and capped like 

 drone-brood, but was in worker-size cells. 

 One cell had three eggs in it. What is the 

 cause of this? Subscriber- 



Answer.— It is either a case of laying 

 workers or a drone-laying queen, and the 

 three eggs in a cell looks like laying workers 

 Anyhow, if there is no normal worker-brood 

 in the hive, the case is hopeless, and the 

 best thing is to unite the colony with an- 

 other, preferably a weak colony with a good 

 queen, yet there is a danger that bees with 

 laying workers may antagonize the queen, 

 so the safer way will be to distribute the 

 combs and bees to several colonies. They 

 are probably of little value, being old. 



book upon the subject. " Doolittle's Queen 

 Rearing;" and if you care to know how I 

 rear queens, you will find it fully given in 

 my book. " Kifty Years Among the Bees. " 



3 There is generally some risk about in- 

 troducing queens, no matter how long the 

 colony has been qneenless. Indeed, after 

 the colony has been queenless a long time 

 there is more risk than after the first few 

 days. The queen is generally put in an in- 

 troducing cage, and the cage maybe given 

 immediately upon the removal of the old 

 queen, the bees eating the candy and re- 

 leasing the queen within a day or so. but it 

 is perhaps safer to wait a day or so before 

 putting the cage in the hive. It may be still 

 better to give the cage as soon as the old 

 queen is taken away, but keep her fastened 

 for a time, planning to have the bees free 

 her not sooner than three days or more. 



Keep Grass Down^Queen Rearing— Queen 

 Introduotion 



I. I am thinking of covering the ground 

 with several inches of soft coal cinders 

 where I place my bees in summer, and 

 stamp it down smooth and hard to keep the 



Extractor— Giving Bees Old Combs 



1. I keep 12 to 15 colonies of bees, and wish 

 to know if it would pay me to have an ex- 

 tractor ? I have the protection double- 

 walled hive, and use a super that takes 

 both the 4x5 section and shallow extracting 

 frame nicely, and I use both. too. 



2. I have some brood-frames whose combs 

 have been partly destroyed by moths, and I 

 wish to know how best to use these. Shall 

 I put them into use and take the chances on 

 drone-comb, or cut out the remnants of 

 comb, and put in full sheets of foundation ? 



Illinois. 

 Answers.— I. It would probably pay to 

 have an extractor for a less number than 12, 



THIS IS THE TIME FOR OPEN AIR DEMOMSTRATIONS-HENRY 

 OF SOUTH DAKOTA. HANDLING BEES FOR VISITORS AT A 



BEHRENS. 

 FAIR 



grass from growing. Do you think there 

 would be anything objectionable about it ? 



2. I have never had any experience with 

 queen rearing, and would like to try my 

 hand at it another summer for my own yard. 

 What plan do you think best for me to fol- 

 low in this location— I have 65 colonies ? 



3. How long is it necessary to have a col- 

 ony queenless before it is safe to give them 

 a laying queen or a ripe queen-cell ? 



Wisconsin. 



Answers.— I. I know of no objection, but 

 think the idea a fine one. 



2. That's too big a subject to tackle in 

 this department, which is only intended to 

 supplement, but not to take the place of, a 

 book of instruction. Beside what you will 

 find in your bee-book, you can find a whole 



unless you produce comb honey exclusively 

 2. If a frame is less than half occupied 

 with worker-comb, cut out all and fill anew 

 with foundation; if it has not very many 

 holes or patches of drone-comb, fill up these 

 places with patches of worker-comb or 

 foundation. 



Dividing— Good Bee-Book 



I. I am a beginner in beekeeping, and the 

 thing that bothers me is how to divide my 

 colonies instead of letting them swarm. In 

 the March number of the American Bee 

 .Journal, in answering a question of how to 

 divide you say. " Take from a colony all but 

 one of its frames of brood with adhering 

 bees, put them in a new hive on a new stand, 

 leaving the queen on (he old stand with the 



