1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



281 



i>:irl of the liive where they are not kept 

 warm enouch. They should be in the 

 warmest part o( the hive, in the center of the 

 l.roodnest. or in the upper story over a 

 strong colony. 



If you see to this, and if the cells from 

 siart to finish have been in the care of a 

 stroni; force of bees. I know of no rea- 

 son why the young queens should not gen- 

 erally live in their cages for a week or more, 

 although it is always well to have each vir- 

 gin given to her own nucleus or colony iust 

 as soon as convenient. 



Young Queens Ten-Frame Hive— Increase 



1. Today (June n) f transferred a colony of 

 bees from a box hive to a standard movable 

 frame hive. For two weeks previous to this 

 1 could hear queens calling to each other 

 and so expected a swarm, but after watch- 

 ing for two weeks and no swarm. I trans- 

 ferred them, t found eight or ten Queen- 

 cells. but all but two had hatched What 

 became of the queens? 



2 Why did thev not swarm? I saw no eggs 

 in the combs when 1 was transferring them. 



3. Why were there no eggs? . . 



4. What are your reasons for giving pref- 

 erence to to frame hives ? 



5. What is thesimplest and most prohtable 

 method of increase ? , . j 



6. What do you consider the safest and 

 most certain way of introducing queens? 



Kansas 



Answers.— I. As you heard queens piping 

 and quahking it must be that the old queen 

 was gone and virgins were present. As the 

 bees did not swarm the virgins fought to a 

 finish as fast as they emerged, and only one 

 would be left. 



2. Probably the weather was so adverse, 

 or so little honey coming in. that they were 

 discouraged from swarming. IPerhaps they 

 swarmed and you did not see them.— Ed. 1 



3. The old queen was in some way gone. 

 and the young queen had not yet begun to 

 lay. 



The chief reason is that the larger hive 

 gives chance for a stronger colony, with 

 ordinary attention, and allows more stores 

 to guard against starvation in winter. 



5. For one with very little knowledge of 

 bees perhaps nothing is better than natural 

 swarming. One who has informed himself 

 by careful study of his bee-book can tell 

 better than I can which method of artificial 

 increase is better for him. 



6. The most safe and certain way I know 

 of is as follows; Find three, four or more 

 combs well filled with brood and put them 

 in an upper story over an excluder on the 

 hive of a strong colony. About eight days 

 later, when all the brood is sealed, put a 

 piece of wire-tloth over a strong colony and 

 place on this an empty hive body. Put in 

 this hive body your frames of sealed brood, 

 but be very careful to brush every bee from 

 these frames Put in the queen and cover 

 up tight. There will be no bee but the 

 queen in this story, but at once young 

 bees will be emerging from their cells, the 

 heat will arise from the colony through the 

 wire-cloth, and in short time the queen will 

 have quite a number of attendants that have 

 never known any other queen, and of course 

 will be friendly. Five days later set the 

 story on a new stand, and allow a small en- 

 trance. In a short time you will likely see 

 these s-day-old bees bringing in pollen, 

 although under ordinary circumstances 



bees do not carrv pollen until two weeks 

 old or older. 



Putting on Supers— Late Siwarms — Inspector 



I. Is it harmful to place two supers on a 

 hive at the beginning of the honey crop ? If 

 one is only put on when should the rest be 

 put on ? 



2 Can one put the supers on too early ? 

 Would there be any harm done if they were 

 put on say about viay i ? 



3. Does It pay to produce honey in extract- 

 ing frames instead of sections for one's own 



use? 



4. I have read that late natural swarms 

 should be returned to the parent hi^ve 24 

 hours after hiving them. How is this done ? 



5. What is the best material to use in a 

 smoker ? 



6 If one has two sources of honey crop 

 coming at different times, should the supers 

 with the first honey crop be taken off and 

 others put on for the second crop ? 



Answers.— I. The only harm that can 

 come from it is that it takes extra heat to 

 keep the extra super warm. The usual way 

 is to put one on. and when that is about half 

 filled, or at least well started, to put a sec- 

 ond one under the first. 



2, Yes. it does at least a little harm to give 

 supers much before they are needed, for 

 keeping warm the extra room retards build- 

 ing up. But it is still worse to be too late. A 

 good rule in your locality is to give the first 

 super as soon as you see the very first clover 

 bloom. 



3. That depends. If you are willing to pay 



considerable for something to make a nice 

 show on the table when company comes, or 

 for the little extra flavor in comb honey, 

 then have sections For every day use In 

 the home, take extracted because you eel 

 more of i(. 



4. Put the swarm in a dark cellar for 24 

 hours, then dump it down in front of the old 

 hive just as you would in hiving an ordinary 

 swarm. 



5. It is chiefly a matter of convenience. I 

 don't think I have ever found anything better 

 than hard wood cut into pieces about half 

 an inch square; but I haven't used it for 

 years because other things are more con- 

 venient. Just now I am using oak bark be- 

 cause it happens to be easily gotten. Next 

 year it may be cotton rags, oily cotton waste 

 or something else. Anything that gives a good 

 smoke doesn't go out easily, and lasts well. 



6. Yes. if the two kinds of honey are of 

 different values, as when buckwheat fol 

 low clover 



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American Bee Journal, Hamilton, Illinois 



