206 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



ered in the basket to the empty hive 

 that is permanently located a distance 

 away on the opposite side of the apiary. 

 Turn over carefully and empty close 

 in to the hive being very careful not 

 to cause a flight of bees. The longer 

 a swarm is clustered the less liable it 

 is to take flight, but it should be hived 

 as soon as possible after clustering. 



When clustered too long they are liable 

 to send out scouts and get a new loca- 

 tion of their own selection, and when 

 they do start you are liable to lose 

 prime swarms. In my prime swarms 

 are my profit, as they naturally work 

 with greater vigor and give the desired 

 results. — M. H. Mendleson, in Califor- 

 nia Cultivator. 



Dr. Miller's '^.Answers* 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



Dr. C. C. Miller. Marengo, II-.. 



He does not answer bee-keeoine Questions by mail. 



Putting Bees in a Hive Wliere Bees Have Died 



I have one colony of bees in a 2-story 8- 

 frame hive. The bees died about three 

 weelss ago. I thinii they had diarrhea. 



I Would it be all right in the spring to 

 put three pounds of bees with a queen in a 

 hive and let them clean it out ? 



2. Would it be better to make two hives 

 out of the one two story hive and put three 

 pounds of bees with a queen in eacii hive ^ 



3. There is plenty of honey in the hive, but 

 it is beginning to mold. Would this Itill the 

 new queen ? , 



4. What is it that makes the comb in the 

 frames moldy ? , , f 



5. Could 1 in any way stop the combs from 

 further molding? Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— I. Yes, brush off the dead bees, 

 scrape off any filth on top-bars or elsewhere 

 and the bees will do the rest. 



2. Yes, provided you want to have the addi- 

 tional colony. 



3. No. 



4 Mold. It is a minute vegetable growth 

 favored by warmth and moisture. 

 5. Put them in a dry, sunny place. 



Destroying Queen-Cells— Transferring— When to 

 Extract 



1 When cutting out queen cells do you 

 cut them all out or do you leave one ? 



2 I have three stands of bees in box-hives, 

 can I take the bottom out of the box-hives 

 and place them on too of standard hives ? 

 How long will it take the bees to make their 

 home in the standard hives? Would it be 

 all right to place a queen excluder between 

 the two hives about three or four weeks 

 after they commence to work in the lower 

 hive and could I leave the queen excluder 

 on until all the young bees are out of the 

 the top hive, then take it off ? Can I transfer 

 these bees this way without danger ol a 

 swarm ? , , , , 



3 Will it pay me to change from comb to 

 extracted honey when I can get 15 cents a 

 pound for either ? 



4 How long should comb honey be sealed 

 over before 1 can extract it. without danger 

 of it becoming granulated ? Illinois 



Answers.— I. Cut out all when your object 

 is to prevent or delay swarming. If you are 

 doing it to prevent afterswarms, then leave 

 one. 



2. If the box-hive be small, the bees may 

 begin work in the lower hive within a week. 

 If it be large enough it may take a month. 

 Don't wait three or four weeks, but put the 

 excluder between the two stories just as 

 soon as the queen is in the lower story, and 

 three weeks later all the worker brood will 

 have emerged. With this management there 

 would be no swarming. 



3. Yes, indeed. 



4. Except in rare cases honey may be ex- 

 tracted as soon as all sealed, although it is 

 better to wait longer. 



air. settled on the branch of some tree. 

 What bothers me is to tell what hive they 

 emerged from, for when I get them hived 1 

 want to out them back on the old stand. 



2 I have read somewhere that in order to 

 unite two swarms of bees or to introduce a 

 queen to them a good plan is to wet them 

 thoroughly with a fine spray of water to 

 which has been added oil of peppermint, so 

 that they will have the same odor, and there- 

 fore, will not be able to detect any strangers 

 among them. Now in using this method how 

 would I reach all. or nearly all. of the bees 

 with the water ? Would you take the cover 

 oft and spray over the racks and let what 

 would run down among the racks ? 



Michigan, 



Answers.— I. You can generally tell pretty 

 well by looking at the entrances of the dif- 

 ferent hives, even if you don't look until the 

 swarm has settled. Few bees will be seen 

 starting for the field, and you may see some 

 very young bees crawling on the ground not 

 far from the entrance. If you fail in that, 

 go ahead and hive the swarm, setting it tem- 

 porarily two rods or more from its old 

 stand. Take a pint or so of the bees of the 

 swarm, dump them on the ground some two 

 rods away from the swarm, and quickly dust 

 them with fiour. and hurry to watch for 

 floury bees entering their old hive. If you 

 are suspicious, but not certain, of some 

 colony, open the hive and look for sealed 

 queen-cells and a scarcity of bees, and also 

 for a small proportion of the brood unsealed. 



2. If you try that plan, take peppermint 

 essence, not oil. and it will be well to 

 sweeten the water. Yes. take off the cover 

 and spray over the top bars. If the bees 

 scattered around are not considerable in 

 number, it is not necessary to spray them. 



so. can you give his address ? Missouri. 



Answers —Just between you and me I'll 

 tell you that there's a whole lot of things 

 about bees that I don't know very much 

 about, and this foulbrood business is one of 

 them. I don't know for sure just how Euro- 

 pean foulbrood is first brought into a hive, 

 whether in the honey or whether a bee that 

 brings honey from a diseased colony brings 

 spores on its feet or brings them in the 

 honey. But after the disease is once in a 

 hive I think it's continued, not by the honey, 

 but by the nurses eating the juices of the 

 diseased larvae, and I knoiv that a cure gen- 

 erally follows if there is a break of sufficient 

 length in the rearing of brood. 



1. Yes, on the page you quote it certainly 

 looks as if the queen carried the disease, 

 and so would continue it in her own colony. 

 In spite of that, if I had a mild case, and the 

 queen was valuable. I'd try caging her ten 

 days. 



2. I don't know anything about the water 

 treatment personally, and have no fixed 

 opinion. 



3. I do not suppose it has. 



4. Yes. He is M. E. Darby, of Springfield. 



Foulbrood 



How to Trace from Wherj a Swarm Issues- 

 Uniting 



I. I keep some bees, and when they swarm 

 I hardly ever see them until they are in the 



In October last, when arranging my bees 

 for winter. I noticed in colonies Nos. 2 and 

 3 a few cells of brood affected. There being 

 only a few and at the close of season, it did 

 not bother me very much. The past winter 

 being very severe, little if any brood was 

 reared before the latter part of P'ebruary. 

 Havingleft them plenty of stores it was the 

 only attention 1 gave ihem only to listen at 

 the entrance to tell if all were quiet. Being 

 unable to make an examination before 

 March 24. 1 found at this date No, 3 robbed, 

 leaving a few cells of affected brood, show- 

 ing the queen had begun to lay. Numbers i. 

 4. b and 10 brought to their hives this disease 

 from No. 3. I am sure. 



1. If this disease is transmitted in the 

 honey how can a cure be effected by remov- 

 ing the queen until all brood is hatched and 

 the bees clean house? Is not the affected 

 honey there still? In the American Bee 

 Journal for April. 1QI5. on page 12Q. paragraph 

 4. it reads as if the disease was transmitted 

 by the queen also. Would you recommend 

 requeening in my case, where the disease 

 has only a weak start ? 



2. What do you think of the water treat- 

 ment for foulbrood as described on page 173. 

 May. IQI5. of this same Journal ? 



3. Has this been tried out by many ? 



4. Is there an inspector for this State ? If 



Cutting Out Drone-Comb 



When is the best timeof year and the best 

 time of day to cut out drone comb, and how 

 can it be replaced with worker foundation ? 

 Pennsvlvainia. 



Answer.— The best time is a matter 

 largely of the beekeeper's own convenience. 

 Other things being equal, there is no better 

 time in the year than spring or early sum- 

 mer, after bees are in full flight and before 

 the combs begin to be filled with honey. It 

 doesn't matter about the time of day, unless 

 you have to do with combs that contain 

 brood, in which case it should be in the heat 

 of the day. Generally, however, it can be 

 managed so that you will have no brood in 

 the combs to be mended, and little or no 

 honey. 



To replace drone comb with worker foun 

 dation. cut out the drone-comb, and then on 

 one side trim away the cells so as to expose 

 a margin of perhaps one-fourth inch of the 

 septum. Cut your patch of foundation to 

 fit the hole and cover the exposed septum 

 Unless the day or the room is very warm, 

 you must in some way heat the foundation 

 so that it shall be warm and soft, and then 

 press down quite firmly the edge of the 

 foundation upon the margin of the septum. 

 Instead cf using foundation it may be still 

 better to use patches of worker-comb just 

 large enough to fit quite snugly into the 

 holes. 



Color of Carniolans— Putting on Supers 



T. I noticed in the March American Bee 

 Journal that you say theCarniolan is ablack 

 bee, and in an article in the April Bee Jour- 

 nal by Frank Rojina. it is stated that the 

 Carniolan bee is in color silver or light gray. 

 Now, who is right ? 



2. When is the best time to put supers on 

 the hive ? Indiana. 



Answers— I. If you expect to find Car- 

 niolans the color of the print on this page, 

 you will find yourself mistaken. Equally 

 mistaken will you be if you expect them to 

 be in color silver, looking just like a new 

 siver dime. But if you will compare them 

 very carefully with what are called black 

 bees, you will find there are bands inclining 

 to the color of silver, allowing one tosay 

 they are silver color. Strictly speaking, 

 what we call black bees are very far from 

 being black. And if you will look again you 

 will see that I did not say that Carniolans 

 are black, but that they ' are so much like 

 the blacks in appearance that it is hard to 

 distinguish them." And that's true, too; for 

 unless you look closely and carefully you 



