1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



42.3 



reverse a (iiiccn-tiap ;iL tlic entrance, or Urush 

 llic l)ccs into ;mi empty hive-body placed over 

 the hive, with an excluder between the two 

 stories. Of comsc in the latter case, bclore 

 putting the excluder over the hive you would 

 take out all the frames, carefully brush the 

 bees from one frame upon the other frames, 

 and put back into the htve this frame with no 

 . ecs. Then ou would put on the excluder and 

 the second story. When you have brushed the 

 bees from all of the combs into this upper 

 story, you can hasten the downward journey 

 nl the bees by usinj^ a little smoke. Of course, 

 when the bees have all gone into the lowei 

 story the queen will be left on the extkidcr. 



Bees on Shares — Advertising 



1 . Could 1 run liees on shares, and how 

 shouM t' e terms be? 



S. Would it be a good plan to buy bees with 

 a year or more of time to pay for them? 



3. Do you think it profitable to rent bees 

 or not? 



■1. Could I ^et what I wanted by advertis- 

 ing :" 



r>. With ten [lofTuian frames half full, or 

 nearly so, about how many pounds of ..oney 

 would there be in hive? 



Anwsers. — 1. In a good many cases bees 

 arc run on shares, sometimes satisfactorily and 

 sometimes not. There is no fixed rule as to 

 terms, out it is quite important that there he 

 a definite agreement in advance, and that it 

 ne made in writing. Otherwise there is danger 

 of misunderstanding and hard feelings. Gener- 

 ally one pi.rty furnishes location, bees, hives, 

 and tools, and pays for half the supplies, and 

 half of any sugar fed, and the honey is di- 

 vided equally. 



2. T think bees have been bought in that 

 way, and whether it would be a good thing for 

 you depends o.i whether you are an efficient 

 beekeeper in a gocd location. 



3. Sometimes, and sometimes not. 



4. Most likely. 



Ti. Somewhere in the neighborhood of forty 

 jjounds. 



Building Up With Nuclei 



I have at present twenty ^five colonies of 

 bees in 10-frame dovetailed hives, all of them 

 in strong condition^ both as to bees and stores 

 All have 1917 queens, 3-banded Italians. I 

 would like to have as many colonies as possi- 

 ble next summer — not just colonies, but good 

 strong ones that could store a fair surphic, say 

 fifty pounds. I have been figuring that I would 

 buy ten 1-ln packages of bees, to arrive about 

 April 1.'), and these I would use where needed 

 in order to bolster up any weak colony; then 

 get fifty more pound packages with queens, to 

 arrive about May 10. I would then use my 2..'. 

 colonies to help those pound packages build up 

 into strong colonies for the beginning of tht 

 white clover flow which begins here about 

 .tune 25 or July 1. After white clover comes 

 bascwood about July 1.5.; alfalfa also yields 

 good by that time Then comes sweet clover, 

 buckwheat and the fall flowers. Last spring 1 

 had ten colonies and sent for ten Idb. pack- 

 ages with queens. I ordered them to arrive 

 May 10. but it was May 28 when I received 

 them. I also made the sorry mistake of send- 

 ing for 10-lb. packages without nueens, and 

 those did not arrive until June .3. 'I then had 

 20 package to get in shape in a month's time, 

 and ten of them without queens. 



I used my ten strong colonies for helping 

 those queenless nuclei, but after a while I saw 

 I could not make it, so I turner] mv attention 

 to the other ten nuclei and got them in' pretty 

 good shajie (they averaged about T.S pounds 

 surplus eachj. Of course. I should have united 

 the queenless pound packages with the others 

 as ::o)n as they arrived, but I wa^ too selfish 

 for that. I wanted all. and figured I could 

 raise my own queena for them. I gave that up. 

 however, and I finally dumped those ten 

 queenless nuclei together and made three colo- 

 nies out of those ten. 



Do you think [ can get those 50 nuclei strong 

 enough by the 1st of July? If so, how would 

 you advise me to go at it? 



i.is is my second year with bees, started last 

 year with two swarms in July increased to 

 five same season, then bought five colonies 



early last spring, making ten colonics in April, 

 1017. 



Mease tell mc when you think I should get 

 the pound packages for best results (last spring 

 I took the bees out of the cellar on April .'>). 

 I tio not care if I have lo feed a good deal, 

 and will have p'enty of time lo look aftc,r them 

 well, just so I know how to go at it in the 

 right way. NORTH DAKOTA. 



Answer. — To start May 10 with fifty 1- 

 pound nuclei, with the aid of twenty-five colo- 

 nies, building them up into strong co'onies by 

 June 2^> or .. uly 1 is something of a feat, i ou 

 may do it, but there's a fine lot of chances 

 that you will not. Of course, the season wili 

 make a difference. But you can at least bring 

 part of then* up, and your policy will be to 

 strengthen only part at first, and continue aid- 

 ing others afterward. Then you will be all 

 right, whether you bring up the whole fifty or 

 jiot. In drawing brood and bees from the 

 strong colonies make it a lixed rule that in no 

 case will you draw enough to reduce a colony 

 to .i.:s tha . four brood. Don't give one orood 

 apiece to each of the fifty nuclei at the start, 

 but bring up as many as you can to the 

 strength of four or five brood, then later bring 

 up ethers, and so on. 



For best results it will hardly be advisable 

 to begin before bees can forage and fly well 

 daily. 



Colony Disappearing 



The strongest colony I own was all right dur- 

 ing the season and at the close of the honey- 

 flow in September I looked through it to see 

 how things were. To my surprise, I found 

 there was not a bee left nor the least bit of 

 honey in the frames. The colony next to this 

 one came through all right. Why would the 

 bees fly away? They had as much chance to 

 gather supplies as the rest. NEW YORK. 



Answer. — A fair guess would be that the 

 colony became queenless and dwindled down, 

 perhaps being robbed. 



"managing" to be done, but if there in the 

 Dadants can speak for thcmKlves^ 



Bees By the Pound 



1. If yon were going to order been Ity the 

 pound next sj)ring and you were sure of a cold 

 April and May, would you order I hem deliv- 

 ered early and feed them, or have ihcm de- 

 livered about the lit of June and chance get 

 ting any surplus? 



2. Could I put sugar syrup in drawn comb 

 to feed them on, or would I have to use a 

 feeder? • 



3. Would a 3-pound colony in a good sea- 

 son need supers if elivered the 1st of Junc'r 



Answers. — 1. Under the circumstances men- 

 tioned, I think I would wait till the later time. 



2. Either way; but if the season is good 

 they hardly ought to need feeding. 



3. y'cs, very likely. 



Miscellaneous 



1. On page 137 of Thousand Answers, ini- 

 cleus ]>lan of increase, do you have to cage the 

 cjueen when putting her with the two frames of 

 brood back on the old stand ? 



2. Will it be safe to leave comb-foundation 

 in wired frames where it will freeze? 



3. Please explain how you make your hot 

 toni-rack that fits in the bottom-board, and what 

 kind of entrance-block do you use? 



4. In using a flat top, the kind you use, ao 

 the bees fasten it down tight, and how do you 

 remove it without jarring the bees? 



5. How do the Dadants manage to kce|j the 

 queen from laying in the supers without using 

 an excluder? MISSOURI. 



Answers. — 1. No. 



2. I don't know any too certainly. I think 

 it would generally be safe, but with very hard 

 freezing it is possible there might be some 

 loosening of the wires from the foundation. 

 Who has had experience in this matter? 



3. The bottom-rack is in the form of a lad- 

 der, the cross-pieces or rungs being nailed upon 

 the two parallel pieces, with a space of half an 

 inch or less between each two rungs. The en- 

 trance-block is more properly an entrance- 

 board, for it is a thin board large enough to 

 cover the entire entrance and project upward 

 upon the front of the hive, where it is fastened 

 by two small nails partly driven in. At one 

 of the lower corners of the little board is a 

 hole about an inch square. 



4. Yes, the bees glue it shut. Opening it, 

 however, causes no jar unles: the weather is 

 very cold, and at such times hives are not too 

 often opened. 



5. Their deep and large frames give so 

 much room for the queen that there is little de- 

 sire to go e.sewhere, and if a queen should hap- 

 pen to go above, she is likely to say, "Why, 

 these upper frames are so shallow I don't like 

 them; guess I'll go back." So there's little 



Write it on the film — 



at the time 



Record the "Who, When, 



Where" on every negative. 



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C. O. BRUNO NAILING DEVICE 



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Manufnc^1^ed h-r C. O. B^UNO 

 1413 South West Street, Rock.'ord, Illinois 



I Am Ready to Book Orders Now 



for spring delivery for Italian bees in pound 

 packages at $1.40 per pound. Tested queens, 

 $1.2o. Untested, 90c, 6 for $5.00. Safe ar- 

 rival guaranteed. Free from disease. 



C. H. COBB, Belleville, Ark. 



