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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



September 



stock. A select tested queen is one that is 

 supposed to be better than the average, but I 

 don't know by what rule she is selected. 



Swarms 



1. Should a swarm with a young queen be 

 hived on full sheets of foundation? 



2. I have some bees that I let swarm twice 

 this year. They are now filling the body of 

 their hive. What can I do with them? 



3. About how long after the last swarm 

 should I find eggs in the old hive? 



MICHIGAN. 



Answers — 1. A swarm with a young queen 

 is not so likely to build drone-comb as with an 

 old queen; still, the danger of drone-comb with 

 a young queen is enough to make it advisable 

 to use full sheets of foundation. 



2. Give them super room if they can do more 

 than fill their brood-chamber. 



3. Somewhere about ten days. 



at least half an hour after it begins to boil. 

 Then it is safe to feed to bees. It ie safe 

 food for humans without the boiling. 



2. It should be fed at the same time you 

 would feed any honey: if for winter use that 

 will generally be after the fall flow is over, say 

 some time in September. 



Excluder — Increasing 



1. Would it be all right to put a 1-inch ex- 

 cluder on the front of the hives and leave it 

 there during the swarming season, and not let 

 the queens out to swarm? 



2. How do you raise queens for your own 

 use? I mean how could I? 



3. I have some colonies with combs built 

 crosswise; could I use these for increasing? 

 Putting a queen in a new hive, moving the old 

 hive and catching about a pound of bees and 

 repeating in about two weeks again, I tried 

 this on a colony this spring and they did fine. 



4. What is a nucleus? 



5. Which would be the best, to increase, buy 

 a nucleus, or bees by the pound? 



6. Would it be a good plan to have a 2-iiich 

 ventilator on both ends of the body of the hive 

 close to the top that I could slip out in hot 

 weather? IOWA. 



Answers — You will find it unsatisfactory. The 

 bees would swarm until the first virgin emerged 

 and then they wou'd swarm some more, and if 

 you didn't give the young queen a chance to 

 fly you would have a drone-layer. 



2. You will find the plan I use for rearing 

 queens given very fully in "Fifty Years Among 

 the Bees." Also questions about queen-rearing 

 answered in "Dr. Miller's Thousand Answers." 

 The chief thing is to have queen-cells reared in 

 a strong colony of queenless bees, from eggs 

 laid by your best queen. 



3. Yes, your plan will work. Some make a 

 practice of keeping colonies in box-hives 

 merely for the sake of rearing swarms; allow- 

 ing the colony to swarm twice or more, then 

 building up for the winter. But in the long 

 run it is better to have bees in hives with 

 movable combs, and in some States it is against 

 the law to have any others. 



4. A nucleus is merely a small colony. It 

 may have only one comb, or it may have sev- 

 eral, and the combs may be small or of full 

 size. 



5. Sometimes one is best; sometimes the 

 other. If you can buy at or near home, a nu- 

 cleus is probably better. If you send a long 

 distance, buying bees by the pound is generally 

 preferable. 



6. Formerly that was used more than at pres- 

 ent, yet it can hardly do any harm, and in 

 very hot weather should be liked by the bees. 



Feeding Diseased Honey 



1. I have just transferred some bees from 

 box-hives into standard dovetailed hives and 

 have some three or four hundred pounds of 

 old combs and honey left which I would like to 

 feed back to them. This honey may be dis 

 eased, would extracting and heating it destroy 

 any germs that it might contain? If so, to 

 what temperature must it be heated? 



2. When would you start feeding the honey.' 



MICHIGAN. 



Answers — 1. Yes; add an equal quantity of 

 water to the honey; boil it in a closed vessed, 

 and see that it continues to boil vigorously for 



Transferring — Requeening; Swarms 

 — Sections — Danzenbaker Hive 



1. When transfelring by the "driving' meth- 

 od is it a good plan to set the old hive on top 

 of the new one with a bee-escape between, or 

 leading to the outside in front? If I put a 

 honey-board between the old and new hives 

 without a bee-escape will the bees all go back 

 to the old hive? Of course, the new hive is 

 filled with foundation. 



2. What do you think of transferring by 

 "driving" bees onto full sheets of foundation 

 in June and July. Is this too late? Or would 

 it be better to use only half sheets? 



3. How would it do to take a two-story hive 

 (with bees in it) and at the beginning of the 

 honey-flow brush off the bees in a second story, 

 and if brood is plentiful introduce a pure-bred 

 queen and put on a new stand? 



4. I have seven colonies which are in 10- 

 frame Danzenbaker hives. How would it do 

 to divide these in half and give each half a 

 new queen (pure Italian preferred) some time 

 in September? Or would it be better to re- 

 queen this fall and divide them next spring? 

 My idea was to increase my colonies and at the 

 s^me time get pure blooded queens when they 

 are cheapest. Could I get pure bred queens 

 this fall and keep them in small hives with a 

 few bees until next spring? 



5. What do you think of hiving swarms on 

 half sheets of foundation, and as soon as the 

 bees fasten it all around and begin building 

 comb in lower part of frame, to reverse the 

 frame, the idea being to keep them from build- 

 ing so much drone comb? Will this help? 



6. How would it do to wrap each section in 

 tissue paper to keep the bees from propolizing 

 so much? Or would this make "bad matters" 

 worse? 



7. Should comb honey in the sections be 

 worth more than same in shallow extracting 

 frames? The latter to be sold as "chunk" 

 honey? 



S. Can you tell me why the Danzenbaker 

 hive is not considered a good one in this part 

 of the country? ILLINOIS. 



Answers — 1. Putting the old hive above, 

 with the bee-escape under, is all right, only in 

 some cases there may be a little danger that the 

 brood in the old hive may not have quite so 

 good care. If there be a queen-excluder be- 

 tween the two stories, and there is plenty of 

 room in the old hive, the bees will mostly go 

 above, but gradually they will work down 

 where the queen is. 



2. Full sheets are better, unless you want a 

 lot of drones, and "^uly in a good season is 

 none too late. 



5. It will do, only there is danger that many 

 bees will return to the old stand. It will be 

 better tto put an excluder between the stories 

 a week before, keeping the queen in the lower 

 story. 



4. Better wait till next year than divide in 

 September. But August may do, provided you 

 feed if there is no late flow. Keeping a queen 

 over winter in a weak colony may succeed, and 

 it may fail. Better go slow and sure. 



;). I don't believe it would work. 



6. I hardly believe it would pay; but there's 

 no law against trying it. 



7. In most markets it would probably sell for 

 more in sections. 



8. I suppose it's the same in your section as 

 in other sections, and I'm not sure as to the 

 reasons, but likely because it is troublesome to 

 handle the frames without killing bees, and 

 with frames so shallow there is more danger of 

 pollen in sections. 



2. Is it absolutely necessary to put starters 

 in the super to induce bees to go above to 

 work? 



3. Should bees go above before the brood- 

 chamber or brood-frames are full? 



INDIANA. 



Answers — 1. Supers may be put on as soon 

 as the swarm is hived, provided a queen-ex- 

 cluder is used to prevent the queen from go- 

 ing up into the super; otherwise you should 

 wait two or three days for the queen to get a 

 start in the brood-chamber. 



2. It is better, but not absolutely necessary, 

 for after the brood-chamber is well filled a 

 strong colony may commence work in a box 

 that is absolutely empty. 



3 No. and they are not likely to do so. 



Bees Won't Enter Super — Wiring 



Frames — Brood Combs Filled 



With Honey 



1. Am having trouble getting my bees to go 

 in the supers. I run for both comb and ex- 

 tracted honey. I use full sheets of foundation, 

 both in frames and sections. What ought I to 

 do? 



2. In using either single wall or telescope 

 hives which is the best to use under the cover, 

 domestic or wax cloth with the enamel side 

 outside? Some say the wax cloth causes the 

 hive to sweat 'Dn the inside, 



3. Which is the best way to fasten founda- 

 tion-comb in wired extracting frames in the 

 small groove at the bottom side of the top-bar, 

 or doesn't it need to be fastened at all in the 

 small groove where it is fastened to the wires? 



4. My bees did not swarm this summer, and 

 since the larva have all hatched out they have 

 filled all of the brood-combs with honey. Why 

 have they stored honey in the brood-combs so 

 early in the season? MISSOURL 



Answers— 1. Bait the bees up by putting 

 into each extracting-super at least one frame of 

 drawn-comb, and in the section-super at least 

 one section (preferably in each center) that 

 was filled or partly filled the previous year and 

 then cleaned out by the bees. If you have 

 nothing but foundation to put in super, put a 

 brood-comb from the brood-chamber into the 

 super until the bees begin work on the adjoin- 

 ing frames of foundation, and cut a piece out 

 of a brood-comb to put in a section. 



2. It doesn't matter very much which, but 

 the bees are not so likely to gnaw the enameled 

 cloth. The sweating doesn't cut any figure. 

 Many, however use no cloth of any kind, pre- 

 ferring to have a wooden cover directly over 

 the top-bars, with a beespace between. 



3. Even if wired, it should be fastened at 

 the top. Some prefer to fasten with the wedge 

 that is furnished with the frame, and some pre- 

 fer to fasten with melted wax and rosin, half 

 and half, 



4. It looks as if the storing instinct had run 

 away with them. Extract some of the combs in 

 the brood-chamber that contain no unsealed 

 brood, and the bees may change their minds 

 and start to brood-rearing again. 



Putting Supers on Swarm-Starters 



1. How long after a new swarm has "been 

 hived must we wait before we put the super 

 on? 



When to Handle Bees— A Weak 

 Colony 



1. Is there any time of the year that you 

 don't dare handle bees? Have been told that 

 if you handle them in July and August they 

 will eat up all the honey they have. 



2. What book would you advise me to get on 

 bees? I am just a beginner in beekeeping and 

 have the book "First Lessons in Beekeeping." 

 Is it sufficient for a beginner? 



3. I purchased two colonies of bees from 

 Texas and also a two-frame nucleus this spring. 

 One colony is not storing honey in the super; 

 the other has been for about three weeks. 

 What's wrong with the first colony? 



NEBRASKA. 



Answers — 1. As a general rule it is all 

 right to handle bees any time when they are 

 flying freely, provided there be any reason for 

 handling them. No reason why they should not 



