American Bee JournalJ 



April. 1910. 



they are all right if they have not been on 

 when the bees were idle. It never seems to 

 do any harm to have them on a little too early, 

 but if they are left on after the harvest closes, 

 and more or less painted with propolis, the 

 only thing to do is to pull out the foundation 

 and mirlt it. 



It takes some degree of expertness to suc- 

 ceed witli the Daisy fastener, and some make 

 slow work of it. Possibly with enough practise 

 they would do all right. 



2. I'm afraid the sections would be darkened, 

 but if you would raise the super before the 

 bees began sealing any sections it might not 

 be so bad. 



3. Leave them piled up anywhere in doors 

 or out, so they will have the benefit of freez- 

 ing to kill any eggs or larvs of the moth. The 

 moth will not disturb them till the weather is 

 quite warm and bees are flying well, even if 

 left till in June. In fruit-bloom you can set 

 a hive-body filled with combs under a strong 

 colony, forcing the bees to go down through 

 the idle combs, which the bees will clean out. 

 When well cleaned out thus, I think you will 

 find that the swarms will prefer them to 

 foundation. 



4. Yes, you will do well to get swarms at a 

 dollar each, and if your neighbor gets so little 

 honey he may do well to sell swarms at that 

 price. From what you say about him he prob- 

 ably does not read many bee-books and bee- 

 papers. 



Introducing Queens — Keeping Queens 

 — Other Questions. 



1. Can I introduce an Italian queen in the 

 same cage in which she is mailed to me by 

 placing the cage on top of the brood- frames 

 for 3 days, and then set her free among the 

 bees? and should the old queen be removed 

 at the time the new queen is placed on top 

 of the frames in the cage? 



2. If you wanted to keep a queen for 10 

 days or 2 weeks, and didn't need her in the 

 hive, where would you keep her, and how 

 would you feed her? 



3. My bees are bringing in pollen, and not 

 a flower in bloom, and a few days ago we had a 

 hard freeze. Where do they get it? 



4. I have 3 colonies in 8-frame hives; had 

 12 last fall, but 9 died because of worms and 

 starvation. Could I have prevented this by 

 feeding them on sugar and water, and if a 

 little honey is added wouldn't it keep the sugar 

 from granulating in the combs? 



5. To make the 3 extra strong, how would 

 it do to place a second hive-body under them, 

 with full sheets of foundation, to give the 

 queen extra room, and, when the honey season 

 opens, give them all the bees and the best of 

 the brood and use the comb for swarming? I 

 have no extra comb. 



6. Swarming begins here April 15; according 

 to that, when does the bee season open, and 

 when should I put on supers? 



7. Should I introduce Italian queens before 

 or after the swarming season ? 



8. Last summer, I had 12 colonies in boxes, 

 they gave 12 swarms, which I put in hives; 9 

 of these died in the fall, and only one box- 

 hive colony died. I robbed the box-hives, so 

 I have 11 box-hives and 3 frame hives. What 

 made the box-hive colonies do so much better? 



9. Are bees from an Italian queen mated 

 with a black drone any better than the regular 

 black bees, and is their color yellow? 



30. Do you think I could do better business 

 running for chunk honey in shallow frames, 

 than for section honey? 



11. How many colonies of bees did you have 

 last summer, and how much honey did they 

 produce? Did you have a good honey season? 



Georgia. 

 3JE su33nb we sXEpEMOjsl "I — 'saaMSNV 

 mailed in introducing cages provisioned with 

 candy which the bees eat out, thus releasing 

 the queen, but generally they are so arranged 

 that the candy is not accessible to the bees 

 of the hive till the bee-keeper uncovers it. It 

 will be all right to leave the queen as you say 

 for 2 days; then remove the old queen and at 

 the same time uncover the candy so the bees 

 may release the queen. That is safer than for 

 you to let the queen out of the cage yourself. 



2. Put her in a cage provisioned with candy, 

 put the cage on top of the frames of any strong 

 colony, or else in the house where it is warm. 



3. I don't know. 



4. Yes, to both questions. But feeding will 

 not keep out the worms. Do that by keeping 

 the colonics strong, and introducing Italian 

 blood. 



5. Excellent plan, provided the colonics are 

 stronp enough in the first place to fill more 

 than the one story, which they may well be. 



0. You cannot gauge the time of putting on 



supers by the time of swarming. It differs in 

 different places, and also in the same place 

 in different years. Find out as nearly as you 

 can when the flowers first open that give you 

 your harvest, and give supers at that first open- 

 ing. Or you can go by the old rule to put on 

 supers when you first see bits of white wax 

 along the top-bars and upper part of the combs. 



7. Either or during swarming. 



8. The old combs are better for wintering 

 than new ones, having the olu cocoons in the 

 cells to make them warmer. Besides, the new 

 colonies had to use part of their honey in builu- 

 ing out their combs, and the old ones were 

 spared this expense. Possibly tlie size or shape 

 of the hives may have had a little to do with it. 

 A movable frame hive is much more conven- 

 ient -for a bee-keeper than the old-fashioned 

 straw hive, but the latter is better for the 

 bees. 



They may be as good workers as pure Ital- 

 ians, and they vary in color from pure black 

 in appearance to pure Italian. But the after 

 generations of hybrids do not hold out in 

 quality like the first cross. 



10. Very likely. At least some of the lead- 

 ing beekeepers in your State think so. 



11. I didn't spend the summer in getting 

 honey, but fighting European foul brood. Be- 

 sides, the season was a failure. I started with 

 155 colonies, increased — I mean decreased — to 

 122, and got less than 1,000 pounds of late 

 honey. 



Feeding Bees — Introducing Queens — 



Laying Workers — Shading Hives — 



Ventilating Hives — Sweet Clovei. 



1. Will 2 pints of granulated sugar and 1 

 pint of water make 3 pounds of stores? If 

 not, how much would it be in weight, that is, 

 after the bees cap it over? 



2. Please explain the Abbott plan of intro- 

 ducing queens. 



3. What is the Sibbald quick method of in- 

 troducing queens? Mr. J. L. Byer speaks of 

 it in the June number of the American Bee 

 Journal, but I have lost that number. 



4. What is your way of introducing queens 

 Please explain the plan. 



4. What is your way of introducing queens 

 when you get them by mail? 



5. What is the best way of getting rid of 

 laying workers, and not destroy the colony? 



6. Do you keep your hives in the shade in 

 summer? I see some advise no shade. Which 

 is best? 



7. Are the long-tongued, red clover Italians 

 as yellow as the goldens? 



8. What are the exact measurements of a 

 10-frame hive, inside measure ? 



9. I see you advocate slipping the supers 

 back to give more air. What would you do 

 to keep the rain out between the hive and 

 super, for there is bound to be a gap? 



10. I am thinking of sowing about an acre 

 of sweet clover on wheat early in the spring. 

 Do you think it will work all right? I will 

 let it stand a year or so for the bees, and then 

 put it in alfalfa. 



11. Did you ever try, or see used, the Tri- 

 State hive? If so, what do you think about it 

 for a beginner to adopt? I have trouble with 

 the dovetail pulling loose at the corners. 



Missouri. 

 Answer: — 1. If the 2 pints w«igh 2 pounds, 

 it ought to be about 2^ pounds when sealed. 



2. Put the new queen in the hive in a pro- 

 visioned cage with the candy protected so the 

 bees of the hive cannot get at it. In about 2 

 days remove the old queen and give the bees 

 access to the candy so they may liberate the 

 queen. 



3. Hunt the queen out that is to be removed 

 and put her in a wire cage on top of the 

 frames. Then the queen that is to be intro- 

 duced is laid on top of the same frames, too, 

 and left till evening. Now remove the old 

 queen, and put the new queen in the cage 

 from which the old queen has just been taken, 

 and over the end of the opening fasten a piece 

 of comb foundation. Place on the frames 

 again, after punching a few small holes with 

 a pin through the foundation and release the 

 queen. Sometimes Mr. Sibbald rubs the dead 

 body of the old queen, that has just been 

 killed, over the outside of the cage* she has just 

 come out of. 



4. Not always the same, something depend- 

 ing on the value of the queen. I may use 

 something like the Abbott plan, putting the 

 new queen at the entrance if the weather is 

 warm enough, and not removing the old queen 

 for about 3 days. If I want to be entirely 

 sure of safe introduction, I put some frames 

 of hatching brood into a hive, not a bee with 

 them, put in the queen, and set the hive on 

 top of a strong colony, with wirecloth be- 



tween the hives so that the heat can ascend 

 from below, the whole being closed bee-tight. 

 In 5 days I allow the upper hive an entrance 

 large enough for one or two bees at a time, 

 and as soon as I think enough bees are pres- 

 ent I set the hive on a stand of its own. 



5. Give them a virgin queen just hatched, 

 and a frame of eggs and young brood at 

 the same time. Generally break up the colony. 



6. I like hives in the shade of trees, chiefly 

 for my own comfort. 



7. I don't know that there is any definite 

 variety called red-clover Italians. At differ- 

 ent times bee-keepers have had bees that did 

 unusually well on red clover, and some of ^ 

 them may be darker in color than others. ^ 



8. Unfortunately there are no "exact meas- 

 urements'* that all makers have always used 

 in making hives to take 10 frames of Langs- 

 troth size. The depth of the frame being 9^ 

 inches, if J4 inch be added to that to make 

 a bee-space, we would have 9H for the depth 

 of the hive. But a very little shrinkage 

 would make bad work, and to make sure 

 against that the hive is made 9J^ inches deep. 

 The length of the frame is 17^, and if ^ 

 inch be added at each end we would have 

 iS% for the length of the hive. But that 

 makes very close work, and bees are not 

 much inclined to build at the ends of the 

 hive, so the length is not less than 18J4- For 

 an 8-frame hive I think there is general agree- 

 ment on 121-^ for the width. That allows 

 1 1 inches for the 8 frames spaced 1 J^, and 

 IH inches for a dummy ^ thick with a space 

 each side of it. If we add twice IH, or 2H 

 inches, for 2 additional frames, we would 

 have 14^ for the width of a 10-frame hive. 

 But for some reason, that never seemed sat- 

 isfactory to me, the dummy is generally omit- 

 ted in 10-frame hives, and they are made 14J4 

 inches wide. So I think we may say, as 

 nearly as we can come to standard, that the 

 inside measurements of the 10-frame hive are 

 18%xl2%x9y2. As a side remark, I may 

 say that I think some of the hives are not 

 more than 9^ deep, although I think they 

 were 9J/2 when new. 



9. Nothing. I never knew any harm to 

 come from rain entering the gap. 



10. Yes; sweet clover will work right al- 

 most any way, provided the ground is not 

 so soft that the plants will heave in winter. 



11. I have never seen the Tri-State used. 

 It must be that you do not nail your dove- 

 tailed hives. They were never meant to be 

 used without nailing, and when nailed they 

 are the strongest made. 



Ventilating Hives 



1. When buying swarms of different par- 

 ties. I took a 10-frame body filled with full 

 sheets of foundation, and told them to put a 

 piece of section under the cover and shade 

 the hive, yet about '.i say they won't stay 

 hived. lam afraid if I put in one or two 

 drawn combs. I may get some foul brood. 

 The entrance is J's-inch by the width of the 

 hive. What can I do? Pennsvlv.'\nia. 



Answer.— The piece of section raises the 

 cover H of an incli only at one spot. That 

 does not give ventilation enough. Instead of 

 putting anything: under the cover, shove it 

 forward so as to leave an inch or more of the 

 top of the hive uncovered at the back end. 

 Also give abundant ventilation at the bot- 

 tom. 



No Queen-Cells— Shade for Bees — East 

 Florida as a Bee-Location 



1. I am a beginner in bee-keepint. Last 

 summer I had q colonies of bees. 5 were new 

 swarms and 4 were transferred from box- 

 hives. The 4 that were transferred in July ^ 

 starved in January, and in examining the K 

 combs I did not find a single queen-cell in ^ 

 either hive. Should there have been a 

 queen-cell, one or more in each hive? 



2. On page QS it leaves the impression that 

 bees need no shade. My bees, when left in 

 the hot sunshine, loaf on the outside of the 

 hive. Do yon know of a remedv for this 

 loafing? and do you think that in this part of 

 the State bees should be shaded some? 



3. Do you think the east coast of Florida is 

 a good location for bees? I have never read 

 anthintr in llic American Bee Journal about 

 that Stale. lam thinking.of locating there, 

 is the reason I ask. Illin(,)Is. 



Answers.— 1. No. a queen-cell would have 

 been of no advantage. 



2. On page as. to whicli you refer, the an- 

 swerwas given at the Wisconsinconvention; 

 ■' What do you want shade for? If you must 

 have shade, use shade-boards only. Too 

 much shade makes the bees cross and slow 



