280 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



•> I have seen snakes in bee-hives, but I 

 doubt their doing any harm to the bees. // 

 the snake should take the bees, my guess 

 would be that he would not take the honey. 



Untested Queen — Observation Hive — Frame 

 Spacing 



1. Is wild raspberry a good honey yielding 

 plant ? 



2. Is an untested queen mated ? 



3 What would be the best way to start a 

 one-frame observation hive? 



4. How often, and what is the best way to 

 renew a one-frame observation hive? Would 

 it be all right to give the bees a new frame 

 with foundation in it ? 



5. Could I take two frames and place one 

 above the other in an observation hive to 

 give the queen more laying room ? 



6. Should the bottom-board be painted all 

 over, that is on the inside also, or would the 

 paint affect the bees ? 



7. My bees are located about one-half mile 

 east of Lake Michigan. Would the bees 

 gather more honey if they were a couple of 

 miles farther east ? 



8 Are there any frames that space iM 

 inches from center to center ? Michigan. 



Answers.— I. Excellent. 



2. Yes, and she has begun laying, but her 

 bees have not yet hatched out. 



3. Take a frame of brood with queen and 

 adhering bees and put it in the hive, brush- 

 ing into it also the bees from another frame. 

 Fasten the entrance for two or three days, 

 so the bees cannot return to their old home. 

 and if it is hot it is better to put the hive in 

 a cool cellar until time to open the entrance. 



4. There is no need of any renewal so long 

 as there are neither too few nor too many 

 bees to cover properly the frame. There is 

 some danger of the bees absconding if you 

 should give a frame of foundation, but if 

 the bees become too strong you could give a 

 frame with very little brood in it. If they 

 become too weak, exchange their comb for 

 one containing more sealed brood, 



5. Yes. 



6. It is not usual to paint the inside, but it 

 would not hurt the bees. 



7. Like enough they would, if the honey 

 plants are equally distributed over the land, 



8. Thousands of frames are so spaced. 



Royal Jelly- 



-Robbing^Beekeeping Schools — 

 Location 



1. What is royal jelly ? 



2. Does a young queen always emerge 

 from the cell before the old queen leaves 

 with a swarm, and does the queen lead a 

 swarm or come out behind and drive the 

 swarm out ? 



3. What is the best way to unite bees, in 

 the parent hive to prevent them from 

 swarming again after they have just swarmed 

 or just when they are preparing to swarm ? 



4. In speaking about the bottom-board in 

 the May issue in your answers, what do you 

 mean by bottom rack ? 



5. I went to my apiary a few days ago and 

 found my bees were robbing one of my colo- 

 nies of bees. I looked on top of the hive 

 that was being robbed and found a queen. 

 Do queens ever leave the hive after they 

 have mated except when they swarm, or is 

 this a rare thing ? 



6. Is there any way of telling the age of a 

 Queen by looking at her ? 



7. What would it cost me to join the State 

 Beekeepers Association of Illinois or the 

 National Beekeepers' Association, and of 

 what use are they ? 



8. If a swarm of bees goes over in my neigh- 

 bor's orchard, am I allowed according to 

 to law to hive the swarm ? 



9. Are there any schools that 1 could at- 

 tend to learn more about beekeeping, and if 

 so which one would be the nearest and best 

 for me to have had some experience in bee- 

 keeping? 



10. Which one of the three Pacific States 

 is the best for beekeeping. Washington. 

 Oregon or California, and in what part ?j 



Illinois. 



Answers.— I. Royal jelly is the cream-like 

 food the nurse-bees feed to the larvae in 

 queen-cells for about five days, from the 

 time the larva hatches out of the egg until 

 it is sealed over. 



?. The old queen leaves with the swarm 



a week or so before the first virgin queen 

 emerges, and she may be among the first or 

 the last, or anywhere in the middle of the 

 swarm. 



3. You can return the swarm and kill the 

 old queen and destroy all queen-cells but 

 one. 



4. It is what its name implies, a small rack 

 that prevents the bees from building down 

 comb, and yet allows much ventilation. 

 You will find it fully described in " Fifty 

 Years Among the Bees." 



5. A laying queen is never supposed to 

 leave the hive except with a swarm Your 

 finding a queen on top of the hive was an 

 unusual occurrence. It is possible that the 

 colony was overcome by the robbers in a 

 badly demoralized condition, and that the 

 queen rushed out of the hive with the bees. 

 And maybe that wasn't the case at all. 



6. No. although as you become experienced 

 you will see a difference in the appearance 

 of an old and a young queen. The difference 

 is hard to describe; but I might say the 

 young queen is fresher looking, perhaps be- 

 cause of fuller plumage. 



7. By paying $100 you can become a mem- 

 ber of the State Association, and by paying 

 $100 you can be a member of the State and 

 the National Association. By becoming a 

 member you receive a valuable yearly re- 

 port: you are shoulder to shoulder with 

 other beekeepers in using an influence to 

 obtain advantages from the State and fed- 

 eral government that could not be obtained 

 without organized effort. If freight rates 

 on honey are unjust, no amount of effort on 

 your part individually will have any effect 

 toward righting it. but they may listen to an 

 association of beekeepers, and the addition 

 of your name to swell the membership will 

 increase the influence of the association. 



8. Yes, and if you do any damage by it 

 you must pay for it. 



9. The subject is taught at the Agricultural 

 College at Ames, Iowa, in charge of an ex- 

 cellent man. Prof, F. Kric Millen. 



10. More honey is produced in California, 

 but there are good locations in the other 

 two. Imperial Valley, Calif, is one of the 

 best localities, but a poor place for you if 

 you are looking for a new locality, as the 

 ground is fully occupied. 



Selling Other Peoples' Honey 



1. Would it be lawful for one to buy honey 

 in the market, re-label it with one's own 

 labels and sell it to consumers locally ? 



2. Or simply destroy the original label and 

 sell without label to local consumers ? 



Missouri, 

 Answers —I. I don't suppose you would 

 be likely to get into any legal trouble; but 

 if your label reads " Produced by "there is 

 a possibility of it. At any rate it would 

 hardly be good business policy. 

 2. There could be no trouble from that. 



Fertilizing Queens 



I recently picked up a copy of Mr. Frank 

 C. Pellett's book on beekeeping, and noticed 

 therein a statement that Prof. Francis Jager, 

 of Minnesota, has published in some issue of 

 the magazine "Science," an account of his 

 successfully fertilizing a queen bee in con- 

 finement. Would you kindly give me a brief 

 description of the means used by Prof. 

 Jager. Washington. 



Answer.— I have no information as to par- 

 ticulars, and have not been very much in- 

 terested in the matter, for in private con- 

 versation with Prof. Jager I understood that 

 it was hardly a thing for common use. 



attacked by persistent robbers, only there 

 is no excitement, there being at all times 

 several hundred dead bees in or near the 

 entrance to the hive. 



This commences in April and continues 

 all summer. On cold or rainy days, when 

 there is no flight the killing goes on just the 

 same, the entrance sometimes becoming 

 nearly full of dead bees, and on other days 

 there is at all times two or three bunches 

 fighting on or near the entrance, with dead 

 and dyin? bees scattered all about. 



Have just two colonies affected this sea- 

 son so far. and there were two last season. 

 Of those last season I tried requeening with 

 no success towards curing the disease, and 

 then late in the season I united one of them 

 with a queenright wild swarm, and they are 

 apparently all right this year; the other 

 died in midwinter with plenty of sealed 

 honey still in the hive. 



The brood and young bees are in nowise 

 affected; it being all mature bees that are 

 affected. Kansas. 



Answer.— Looks a good deal like paraly- 

 sis. If it is. the affected bees have a tremb- 

 ling motion, perhaps shiny in appearance, 

 and the other bees seem to be pulling and 

 dragging to get them out of the hive. As far 

 north as you are the disease is not likely to 

 amount to much, disappearing of itself. I 

 am sorry to say I know of no sure cure for 

 it. although many cures have been offered. 



Paralysis. 



I have 40 coloniesof beesand some of them 

 are affected with a mania or disease to kill. 

 I would like to have some advice on this. 

 They act exactly as a Strong colony would if 



Cyprians— Re-Stocking 



1. I have one colony of pure Cyprian bees 

 Would you advise stocking up with them ? 



2, Are black and Italian bees crossed as 

 good producers of honey as pure Italians or 

 goldens ? 



3 Last spring I lost one colony of bees; 

 they had plenty of honey, were sheltered 

 from north winds, and did not have foul- 

 brood nor black brood. Can you tell what 

 was the cause? 



4. Would an untested queen and a quart 

 of bees make a strong colony in a good sea- 

 son ? 



5. Why are the Cyprians great for swarm- 



6. What kind of a bee would you advise 

 to stock up with ? Iowa. 



Answers.— I. Cyprians have the reputa- 

 tion of being the Grossest bees ever brought 

 into this country. If your bees live up to 

 that specification it will be advisable to 

 change the blood. 



2. The first cross may be as good as the 

 pure stock, and in some cases better; but 

 after the first cross there is deterioration, 

 and the bees become poor. 



3. I don't know. Might be a bad queen, or 

 anyone of a number of things. 



4. Yes, if started as early as .Tune. 



5. I don't know; I didn't know they were 

 specially noted as great swarmers. although 

 they are noted as building a large number of 

 queen-cells. 



6. Probably Italians would be as good as 

 any. 



Rearing Queens. 



I am trying to rear queens for my own use. 

 but have had bad luck. Can you you tell me 

 why I fail. I take a strong colony and have 

 them queenless for four days, then 1 give 

 them grafted cells to work on. When the 

 cells have been sealed one or two days I 

 transfer them to a wire cage and hang them 

 in a big frame to hatch. 1 he trouble is they 

 don't all hatch at once and they die in a day 

 or two. 1 always have candy in one corner 

 of the cage. What is my trouble ? 



Subscriber. 



Answer,— You say you transfer cell to 

 cage when the cell has been sealed one or 

 two days. It is not well to cage a cell so 

 soon. Leave it in care of the bees just as 

 long as possible. The object of caging is so 

 that there will be no chance for the first 

 virgin that hatches to tear open the other 

 cells. So there is no need to cage a cell 

 until within a day or so of hatching. Then 

 they will be more vigorous and likely to live. 

 If 1 understand correctly, the young queens 

 die in the cage when only a day or two old. 

 I am not certain why that is, if they are vig- 

 orous, unless it be that they are caged in a 



