1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



315 



had srvi-ral claims anil t>n invcsliga- 

 tion found tilt- American pint was but 

 47,5 cc, ciiiial to about 680 grammes. 

 The paper bottle is a good package, 



clu-ap and rapidly lilled. Attention 

 has to be given to the bottoms, as 

 they soinetimes get unstuck. 



JUAN CHRISTENSEN. 



Dr. Millers ^ Answers^ 



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



Dr. C. C. Miller. Maken(;o. Il\. 



He does not answer bee-Ueeoint questions by mail. 



It is inferred that all readers have access to the hcuk "A Thousand Answers to Beekeejiing 

 Questions." This will avoid duplication in answering, as the book contains answers to practically 

 all questions ordinarily asked on beekeeping. Subjects not specifically treated, or which are not 

 clear to the reader will be further explained in this department at the request of any subscriber. 



Swarming 



1. I had a swarm issue July 2. Hived on 

 starters in a clean hive they drew out 6 combs 

 to a depth of 3 inches, then they left. What 

 was the --eason? 



2. Why is it that only 3 of my 6 colonies 

 swarmed this year? They aU had 1-year-old 

 queens. 



3. Would a grape row 5 feet high, 10 feet in 

 front of the hives, cause the bees to leave? 



4. Are five-banded bees darker when young 

 than later on? ILLINOIS. 



Answers — 1. It may have been too hot for 

 them. You should shade them in some way, 

 and give abundant ventilation by raising the 

 hive or leaving them partly uncovered. 



2. There may be a difference in strength, 

 and some colonies just naturally swarm more 

 than others. 



3. I do not see why it should. 



4. I think not. 



Rocky Mountain Bee Plant 



1 have a lot of waste land and am thinking 

 of planting or sowing on this Rocky Mountain 

 bee plai.t (Cleome integrifolia) for its honey 

 production. What can you say of the cleome 

 as a honey plant, and would it thrive well in 

 this locality ? Also, where can I obtain seed 

 of this plant? PENNSYLVANIA. 



Answer — From the little experience I've had 

 with this plant, I should expect it to grow 

 with you, but have some doubt as to great re- 

 sults from it. 



Inspectors — SwarniG Leaving 



1. Is there an apiary inspector in Kansas?. 



2. I have some weak colonies. I am going 

 to unite them. I& it necessary to kill one 

 queen? 



3. When my be swarm they cluster and 

 leave before 1 get ready. What can 1 do to 

 make them stay longer? KANSAS. 



Answers — 1. Geo. A, Dean, Manhattan; also 

 S. J. Hunter, Lawrence. 



2. No, unless there is a choice of queens ^nd 

 you kill the poorer. 



3. Drench them with a stream of water. 



Ants — Several Eggs in a Ceil 



1. I have my hives in pairs and have oil- 

 cloths as inner covers. Ants made their nest 

 between inner cover and roof of No. 1. Every 

 time I look through it I shake the ants off. I 

 did that about three or four times, then they 

 didn't come back. Then I looked into No. 2 

 and found a swarm of them there. Was that 

 the same swarm that was in No. 1, or was it 

 another i-ne? If it is the same swarm, how can 

 I get rid of them? 



2. Last spring i had a queenless colony. I 

 gave it a frame of brood and it reared a queen. 

 They do not have very much brood in each 

 frame and sometimes two eggs in one cell. 

 What i the reason for her doing this? 



3. On page 84, February number, there is a 

 photograph of Mr. Bocock and the editor, 

 which is the editor? I am a new subscriber 

 and haven't a picture of him alone. 



ILLINOIS. 

 Answers — 1. It is quite possible that the 



same colony of ants shifted from one hive to 

 the other. It is said that sprinkling borax 

 over the cloth will drive the ants away. A bet- 

 way is to dispense with the cloth and have 

 a one-fourtb-inch space between the topbars 

 and cover. XL t will allow no hiding place for 

 the ants to be where bees cannot get at them. 



2. Putting more than one egg in a cell may 

 be a bad habit of a rather poor queen. It may 

 also happen with a very good queen when the 

 force of bees h so small that the queen is re- 

 stricted in her territory. 



3. Listen to their talk for a minute and you 

 can easily tell which is which. The editor 

 talks with a French accent, Mr. Bocock with 

 an English one. The Frenchman is at the 

 left, 



Preventing Afterswarms 



I had a swarm conic out today from a colo- 

 ny with a clipped queen. I immediately began 

 looking for the queen in front of the hive, but 

 could not find her. The bees did not cluster, 

 but circled around about five mii.utes and re- 

 turned, clustering a little on the outside but 

 going in about as fast as they came out. In 

 about ten minutes, when most of them were in, 

 I opened the hives and found the queen on 

 a frame. I took this frame, with all bees and 

 queen and put it in a new hive with frames 

 and full sheets of foundation; moved the old 

 hive away and put i ew hive in its place. I 

 took each frame frr>iu the old and shook the 

 bees in front of the new. This shaking took 

 about three-fourths of the bees from the old 

 to the new hives. I then put the old hive on 

 a new stand about five rods away. I am anx- 

 ious to know if I did right, or if there is a 

 better (easier) way under like circumstances. 

 Treated in this way am I likely to have after- 

 swarms? OHIO. 



Answer — You management was good with 

 one exception. You say you shook the bees 

 from the combs. That would greatly endanger 

 the queen-cells on the combs. You should 

 have brushed the bees from the combs. You 

 may or may not have afterswarms, depending 

 on the strength of the mother colony and per- 

 haps, also, on weather and harvest. A little 

 different management would make for safety 

 against afterswarms. Instead of setting the 

 old hive live rods away, set it close beside the 

 swarm, almost touching. Then, a week later, 

 move the old hive to a new stand. The field 

 bees woul leave the old hive and join the 

 swarm, so weakening the old colony that there 

 would be no afterswarm. 



Drones From Virgins — In Swarms 



1. Are the sons of virgin queens perfect 

 drones and able to mate? If so, can they 

 transmit to the next generation the same vigor 

 as if they were themselves the sons of mated 

 queens? 



2. While it is, I believe, exceptional foi 

 drones to be found in *'first swarms," do they 

 accompany "second" or succeeding swarms, 

 which, of course, are headed by virgin queens? 



SCOTLAND. 



Answers — 1. I know of no reason why the 



eggs of a virgin queen that lays should be in 

 any way different from the unimprcgnatcd eggs 

 of the same tjuccn if she had mated. And yet 

 I have a feeling that -'rones from a virgin are 

 not up to the mark, perhaps because there may 

 be some doubt about the vigor of a queen that 

 fails to mate. Such queens generally do not 

 lay at all, hut turn up missing. 



2. Is it exceptional to find drones in "first 

 swarms?" At any rate it's quite the thing to 

 find them in afterswarms. 



Dzierzon Theory 



1. I am sending you, under separate cover, 

 a sample of bees which I would like to know 

 the kind. I found them working on red clover. 



2. In the July American Bee Journal I saw 

 where French bee journals condemn the dis- 

 coveries of Langstroth and other men. Which 

 is it, ('ocs the queen lay '1 the same kind of 

 eggs, or does she lay some worker and some 

 drone eggs? ILLINOIS. 



Answers — 1. I'm not an entomologist, but 

 feel safe in saying that the insects are flies; 

 the particular kind I don't know. 



2. Don't you mean Dzierzon instead of 

 Langstroth? At any rate, the Dzierzon theory 

 is still generally accepted, which is that all 

 the eggs in th ovaries of the queen are of 

 the same kind, those that are fertilized in the 

 act of laying producing workers or queens, and 

 those that remain unfertilized producing 

 drones. 



Bees Dying 



Is ent south and got some bees this spring 

 (Italians). What ails them? The ground is 

 strewn with bees crawling away from the hives. 

 You can see lots of them ten to twelve rods 

 away. There doesn't seem to be any shiny 

 bees as you usually see when bees have paraly- 

 sis; they seem to be all right, only they can't 

 fl- MINNESOTA. 



Answer — Paralysis is the only thing I can 

 think of. but it may be something else. If it 

 continues there will be no harm i ntrying the 

 cure advocated bv Mr. LeStcurgeon — feed 

 them some fresh, pure food. 



Uniting 



1. I tried uniting two colonies on a standard 

 eight-frame hive and the other in a common 

 box with seven frames. I took the box with 

 seven frames and put it on top of the stand- 

 ard hive, without the floor. I put two sheets 

 of newspaper between. Is the method all 

 right? 



2. What should I do with the seven frames 

 that are in the box on top? 



3. I have ten hives now, but do not want 

 over five or six. Could I do the same with the 

 extra hive as I did with No. 1? If I do, what 

 time of the year is be-t? Sweet clover is just 

 started blooming now, the main crop for bees 

 here. COLORADO. 



Answers — 1. Yes. only I find it enerally 

 does as we'l to use only one thickness of news- 

 paper. 



2. If they are of the same size as your 

 other frames, you can use them in any hive 

 where they are needed ; if they are of odd 

 sizes, leave them where they are until the brood 

 has hatched out with a queen-excluder between 

 the two hives, and making ure that the queen 

 is in the lower hive. Then when the brood is 

 hatched out you can melt up the combs, unless 

 you prefer to transfer them into frames of 

 regular size. 



3. Yes, you can unite in the same way, and 

 a good time is near the close of the harvest. 



Tested and Select Tested Queens 



What is the difference between a tested and 

 a select tested queen? 



INDIANA. 



Answer— As generally used, a tested queen 

 means one that has been laying more than 3 

 weeks, and bee worker progeny all show the 

 three yellow bands that indicate pure Italian 



