So 



March, 1910 



American Hee Jonrnal 



combs to pieces. Leave them till the bees 

 have cleaned them out and have iiractically 

 stopped workiiiK on them. If you take them 

 away sooner, it may start rohbine if they are 

 anywhere near the hives. They will not be 

 so nice as fresh sections, or as if cleaned out 

 m the fall, before candied, but thev mav do. 

 fc-xtracting combs may be cleaned out' the 

 same way. only you need not be so particular 

 about small entrances unless the combs are 

 new and tender, 



2. Extracting combs may work all right 

 that way; but there is too much danger that 

 sections would not all be emptied 



Untested or Tested Queens. 



Which is more profitable, to purchase un- 

 tested queens at $1.00 each in June, or to get 

 a tested queen for about $3.00 and increase 

 from her stock? Illinois. 



,. ^.^.^"'^''- — It depends something on the re- 

 liability of the testing, and upon your hurry 

 lor increase. If you can be sure the tested 

 queen is superior, and are not in a hurry 

 about increasing, take her. If the testing 

 means that she is of the same stock as the 

 3 untested, only that her worker progeny 

 shows she has mated all right, then take the 

 three. 



Comb-Foundation for Wired Frames. 



Is it necessary lo put in full sheets of 

 foundation in wired Hoffman frames, or can 

 I put in just half a sheet, or a third of a 

 sheet (cut the other way) on each side, and a 

 starter for the center? Will the bees finish 

 up these frames, and which way is the best? 



Sagin.\w. 



Answer. — It is not absolutely necessary to 

 put in full sheets. The bees will build out 

 the combs if foundation is put in either way 

 you mention, or even with a starter only half 

 an inch deep. But I never felt I could afford 

 to put in less than full sheets, for otherwise 

 entirely too such drone-comb is likely to be 

 built, and in the long run that is expensive 

 business. 



Granulated Honey in Hives in Win- 

 ter—Why Did Bees Die? 



1. My bees have had one flight since De- 

 cember 8, and that was January 19th. I ex- 

 amined them yesterday (Jan. 20), and found 

 the combs that were not capped, full of granu- 

 lated honey. What is the cause? 



2. I further found 5 colonies dead with 

 plenty of honey in the hives, the bees being 

 all bunched in a pile and stuck f.i^t in tlie 

 combs. What is the cause? Kentucky. 



Answers.— 1. The character of the honey 

 may be to blame. It may have been gathered 

 late, not ripened, and so left unsealed, 

 when It would granulate. Some kinds of 

 honey are worse than others in this respect. 

 Ihen there may have been honey-dew. 



2. Again, it may be the character of the 

 honey, or honey-dew. That's the most likeiy 

 guess; although sometimes bees starve with 

 plenty in the hive, the cluster being at one 

 side of the hive and the honey . in the other 

 the honey in the cluster being used up and 

 the weather too cold for the bees to leave the 

 cluster to reach the honey in the combs 



Management for Much Honey and 

 Little Increase. 



I have 200 colonies of bees in 10-frame 

 hives with movable combs. I run for both 

 comb and extracted honey, using the strong- 

 est colonies for comb honey early in the sea- 

 son, and finishing up the season with ex- 

 tracted honey. I want to get all the honey 

 t can and increase as little as I possibly 

 can, next season. I use queen-cxcludcrs on 

 all extracting hives. When queen-cells are 

 "/^-M- "^ontainiig eggs or larvae, I thought 

 ot killing the old queen, and in 8 days destroy 

 all queen-cells but one, and give plenty of 

 room for storing. 



.i.''i.^'" "''? y°""8 queen occupy the hive 

 tne balance of the season without swarming 



2. Is there danger of clogging the brood- 

 nest with honey as the bees hatch out, so 



o' ^^v ^°""S queen will not have room? 



3. Will the bees store as well after the old 

 queen is removed ? 



4. Do you approve of this plan? 



Minnesota. 

 Answers.— 1. I think there would be no 

 swarming before the next season. 



2. The likelihood is that as fast as cells 

 ^" \" empty by emerging young bees they 

 will be filled with honev. But when the 

 young queen gets to laying they will be 

 emptied for her. 



3. I'm not sure whether they will from the 

 time the old queen is removed until the young 

 queen hatches, but as soon as the latter is 

 out of her cell the bees will hustle. 



4. That's the hardest of your questions. If 

 you can be sure m every case that the young 

 queen will get to laying, then I approve the 

 P'^in "^mpliatically. I think some might have 

 trouble with swarms leaving when the young 

 queens take their wedding-flight. Vou might 

 not have that trouble. Of course, you need 

 not be told that in killing queen-cells S days 

 after removing the queen you might be too 

 late if the larva? were too far adanced. There 

 IS also the possibility that the only cell left 

 might prove to contain a dead larva. Not much 

 danger, but such a thing has happened. On 

 the whole, you will probably do well to try 

 the plan. For the extracting colonies you 

 might try the Demaree plan. When the sea- 

 son has begun, but before swarming, put all 

 the brood over the excluder, leaving the queen 

 below, with empty combs or foundation 



Method of Swarm Prevention. 



Did you follow the same method of swarm 

 prevention in 1908 as you describe in your 

 book.' If any modifications, kindly state them, 

 l-an this plan be successfully carried out 

 where a person has clover, buckwheat, and a 

 fall flow? I run for comb honey. 



Indiana. 

 ic^'*^'^';i'i~I" J.^OS, the plan given on page 



J-?' J .^"'"'y ^'^'"■^ Among the Bees" was 

 modihed m this way: Instead of putting sev- 

 eral frames of foundation in the lower story 

 a comb containing the least amount of brood 

 was left, or else from another colony a 

 frame was obtained which contained very lit- 

 tle brood and was mostly filled with pollen 

 and honey. This frame was put in the lower 

 story at one side, and next to it were put 

 2 empty frames— not even the sign of a 

 starter in them. That was the only variation 

 in the treatment. The object was to make sure 

 the queen would not desert, for she would not 

 leave this established comb as she might the 

 empty foundation. The empty frames without 

 any starter were to discourage building as 

 much as possible. 



In some cases a colony that showed ad- 

 vanced preparations for swarming had its 

 queen killed or removed, and 10 days later 

 all cells being destroyed, the colony received' 

 a young queen that had been laying but a 

 short time. 



The plan here first mentioned is, I think 

 as safe against swarming as any that leaves 

 the old queen with the colony; the second 

 plan as safe as any I know of. 



Either plan works here where there is clover 

 and a fall flow, although there is no buck- 

 wheat. I should not feel afraid, however 

 that a buckwheat crop would make any trouble' 



Wants More Dark Honey — Disinfect- 

 infecting Hive-Tool. 



1. I got honey from white clover, raspberry 

 sumach, etc., beginning about June 1, and 

 asting until about July 15. This honey is 

 light and nice-looking. Then about August 

 1. the buckwheat begins to yield. Sometimes 

 *.""<! >s not much of a break between the 

 light honey-flow and buckwheat flow. I always 

 leave a super on during the slack time so 

 bees do not forget that there is an upstairs 

 to the hive, but the best I can do, I have 

 some sections that don't get finished until the 

 buckwheat opens, and then they are finished 

 out with buckwheat, making two colors of 

 honey m the same section, that docs not look 

 well, or sell well. In fact, everybody wants 

 dark or buckwheat honey, and I have very 

 few calls for light honey, and none at all for 

 mixed. I run mostly for comb honey and 

 sell It mostly by peddling with a wagon. I 

 wish you would describe a plan by which I 

 could get the bees to keep more of the light 

 honey and give me lots of buckwheat honey 

 or some way to get nearly or quite all buck- 

 wheat instead of so much light and mixed 

 honey. If I can not do this I would like, at 

 least, to avoid the sections of two colors, if 

 possible. If I could get some light honey 

 inixed in with the dark gradually, so as not to 

 give two colors, it might sell fairly well. How- 

 ever, I don't know. 



2. If I get a hive-tool or anything used in 

 bee-work in contact with foul brood, how can 

 1 disinfect It so that I am safe in using it to 

 uncap healthy brood, or anything I might 

 want to do with it? As you've had a good 

 l"?"^ ^"Shting yours, I'll try lo do likewise. 

 It s liuropean. Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— I'm afraid I can't help you very 

 much. To turn the early honey into the 

 buckwheat crop is beyond me, unless in the 

 torm of extracted honey. Vou could extract 

 some of the early honey, or keep it in combs. 

 Alter the buckwheat harvest closes, you could 

 extract from the brood combs all the honey 

 which would be chiefly buckwheat, or if sonie 

 white honey was present it would merely ^ 

 lighten the buckwheat a little. Then you ■ 

 could supply the bees for winter with the ~ 

 white honey you had saved. I doubt if it 

 would pay. 



But the thing you most .dislike, the spotted 

 sections, white honey in the center and filled 

 with buckwheat, you certainly can avoid. You 

 can take off all sections at the close of the 

 white flow, let the bees rob out those partly 

 filled and put them on again when the buck- 

 wheat How begins. You say you leave a 

 super on during the slack time "so bees do 

 not forget that there is an upstairs to the 

 r u ,."/"•,"'<= bees don't need anything 

 of the kind to keep them from forgetting I've 

 tried It and I know. When the buckwheat 

 How begins they will start on those sections 

 that have been robbed out just as promptly 

 as if they had staid on the hive all the time 

 Come to think of it, I don't see why you 

 couldn t swap your white sections with some 

 bee-keeper who has buckwheat but prefers 

 white. Most bee-keepers prefer the white. A 

 small advrtisement in a bee-paper ought to find 

 some one with whom you could make a profit- 

 able trade. 



Bee-Keeping as a Business. 



1. Would you advise a young man to follow 

 bee-keeping as a profession? I have 23 colo- 

 nies at present, and like it very much. 



2. What preparation would you advise' I 

 have "A B C of Bee-Culture," and take' two 

 bee-papers. Would you advise working with 

 an expert apiarist for a time? 



3. I am 19 years old and have completed a 

 preparatory course for college. Do you know 

 of an agricultural college which has a course 

 in bee-keeping connected with it? We have a 

 first-class State Agricultural College, but it 

 has no course in bee-keeping. 



New York. 

 Answers.— 1. I would hardly advise any one 

 to enter upon bee-keeping as a life-work until 

 he has become quite thoroughly acquainted 

 with the business. He will then be able to 

 decide the question for himself more satis- 

 tactonly than can any one else for him 



2. Vou seem to have a pretty good idea of 

 what IS to be done. Study and practise are 

 the things needed, adding more books, attend- 

 ing conventions, and if you can work under 

 the superintendence of a good bee-keeper, all 

 the better. 



3. .-Vgricultural colleges with courses in bee- 

 keeping are scarce, and I am sorry to say 

 1 can not now give a list of them. There 

 was a fine course in Michigan, but I think 

 it has gone into a decline since Prof. Cook 

 left there and went to California, where I 

 think he has started one. One has been es- 

 tablished, I think, in the Ontario Agricultural 

 College, at Guelph, Canada. 



A Hive Question— Honey without 

 Separators. 



1. I would like to have your opinion of the 

 hive I will describe. It is made of white pine 

 lumber, 21 inches by 2 feet 2 inches. This is 

 merely an outside shell. Inside is placed a 

 brood-chamber with 10 frames. This allows 

 space of about 4 inches all around the brood- 

 chamber. As the brood-chamber is not deep 

 the hive looks rather queer— a large affair 

 with a small box inside is what it looks like, 

 the sections during the summer are placed 

 upon the brood-chamber and so tiered up 

 This IS wholly a home-made hive which I 

 purchased of the wife of a successful bee- 

 keeper in our town, after hi.s death. I regret 

 to say that I never spoke with him so I can 

 not say whether the hive is valuable or not 

 (Jn account of his death the bees were sold 

 cheap, and I ventured to buy 3 colonies which 

 was my sl.irt in the bee-business. I now have 7 

 colonics all hived in the same kind of hives, 

 (Colli ill Nfii on /laji^e V7.) 



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