Maj-, 1910. 



[American Hee Joarnaj] 



so far from the cluster. More likely tlie 

 bees liave plenty of honey, and thouttht it 

 was all riitht to leave the honey right where 

 it was until they needed it. 



?. Right away after the bees arc taken out 

 of the cellar I heft the hives by lifting' them, 

 and whenever I find one that feels light I 

 look in to see whether it needs honey. I pay 

 no attention to moths or their larvai. There 

 is not much danger of starting robbing if 

 one is careful. 



4. There may be no danger, and there may 

 be great danger. Bees use stores rapidly at 

 this time, and if there is not much honey in 

 the hive a few cold days in fruit-bloom may 

 find them starving. .Also, there may be 

 dearth and starvation between fruit-bloom 

 and clover. The safe way is to have so 

 much honey in the hive that there will be no 

 danger. 



5. Perhaps a few colonies arc devoted en- 

 tirely to storing honey in combs to be ready 

 for emergency the following spring. Perhaps 

 some are allowed to store in combs after the 

 clover flow is over. 



Foul Brood — Splinting Foundalion 



1. My bees have had foul brood. I lost 40 

 colonies last winter— foul brood, long con- 

 finement and honty-dew was the cause. I 

 have J colonies left, and on account of foul 

 brood I would like to shake them on comb 

 foundation. When would be the best time 

 to do it? 



2. They are weak, and I would like to save 

 all the brood I can. How shall I work it to 

 save the brood? 



3. How do you put splints in comb founda- 

 tion, horizontally, crosswise, or up and 

 down? and how big are they? Ohio. 



Answers.— I. "In the honey season, when 

 the bees are gathering freely." Yet last 

 year 1 operated in a drouth, there being no 

 honey season. 



2. Pile the brood up several stories high on 

 a new stand, taking enough bees w-ith the 

 brood so it will not chill. In 1 weeks this 

 pile can be brushed upon comb foundation 

 and a queen be given. 



3. The splints are put in vertically, run- 

 ning up and down. They are about 1-16 of 

 an inch square, and about % inch shorter 

 than the distance between top and bottom 

 bars. 



Management for Increase 



I have 2 colonies of bees and want to in- 

 crease to 5. How would you increase so as 

 to have them strong for the honey-flow? It 

 comes about June 1st. What time should I 

 make the increase? I would think that if I 

 would take out the division-board and put a 

 partition in it bee-tight, and put a queen in 

 each side, they would have frames of brood 

 between them: and when the honey-flow 

 starts, take the partition out and introduce 

 a queen, it would be all right. Xebrask.^. 



Answer.— I don't know of any way by 

 which you could increase 2 colonies to 3 and 

 be likely to have all strong for the honey- 

 flow, unless it should come very much later 

 than the first of June. As to the time for 

 making increase, it is generally not wise to 

 undertake it before about the time when 

 bees swarm naturally. 



I cannot give an opinion as to the plan you 

 propose, as I do not understand it. 



A Beginner's Questions 



1. I am a beginner and have only 8 colonies 

 of bees. Last year I had one colony that had 

 a fine Italian queen, and in October she was 

 all right with plenty of honey for winter. 

 W^hen I opened the hive in March I could 

 not find her, but there was another queen as 

 black as any of the rest of my black bees. 

 How did the black queen get there? She 

 seems to have not a drop of Italian blood in 

 her. 



2. What race of bees will get the most 

 honey, regardless of temper or any other 

 faults? 



3. I introduced an Italian queen into a col- 

 ony of blacks, and in 5 days I found queen- 

 cells sealed, and the queen I introduced w'as 

 all right and laying, but the bees were tak- 

 ing care of the eel Is just as if they had no 

 queen. Why did they do this when they had 

 a laving queen? 



4. How can I tell pure Italian bees? 



5. How would it do to get queen-cells built 

 in a hive with its queen in it, by putting all 

 of the brood and bees over an excluder and 

 leaving the queen below on empty combs, 

 or giving a little more distance without the 



excluder? Would llie colls be as good as 

 those built in a queenless colony? 



6. If I remove the queen from a strong col- 

 ony in a good flow will the cells be as good 

 as the ones started in swarming season? 



7. What percent of your bees swarm? 



8. What race of bees would you adopt if 

 you could not get Italians? Virginia. 



.'Vkswers.— I. Hard to tell. It is just pos- 

 sible that she flew there from some other 

 colony. 



2. I don't know. I'd as soon risk Italians 

 as any. Continued selection, always breed- 

 ing from the best, will improve the gather- 

 ing qualities of any kind. 



1. They often do so. The probability is 

 that finding things irregular at the time of 

 the introduction of the queen, they think 

 something is wrong, and as a matter of 

 safety start queen-cells. Then before the 

 cells mature they find they don't need them, 

 and destroy them. But sometimes the cells 

 are allowed to go on to maturity and the in- 

 troduced queen is killed. 



4. The regulation rule is this: Look at the 

 worker progeny; if they show three yellow- 

 rings, the mother is pure, and purely mated. 



5. If brood is separated from the queen by 

 an excluder, sometimes cells will be started, 

 and sometimes not. Cells will be more sure 

 to be started if the queen be in the first 

 story and brood in the third, with no ex- 

 cluder, and combs with no brood in the sec- 

 ond story. Cells started in either way are 

 as good as in a queenless colony, if the force 

 be the same. 



6. I think so. But something depends upon 

 the condition of the colony and the time 

 when the queen is removed. If the colony 

 be weak, or if the queen be removed too 

 early, a poor queen is likely to result. 



7. If you mean what percent swarm nat- 

 urally and are regularly hived in another 

 hive, perhaps less than one percent. If you 

 mean how many swarm out and then go 

 back to their own hives, somewhere from 3 

 to 20 percent. If you mean how many would 

 swarm if left entirely to themselves— in 

 some years to percent, and in some years 00 

 percent. 



8. I don't know. If ever that time should 

 come, I'd try to study up on the question, 

 and perhaps try some of several kinds. 



Most Gentle Bees — Comb-Honey Hive — Introduc- 

 ing Queens 



1. What strain of bees do you consider 

 most gentle and easy to handle? 



2. Do you think best to sprinkle bees with 

 water before putting them in the hive when 

 they swarm? 



3. Would you use an 8 orio frame hive for 

 comb honey? 



4. Are hybrid bees as good as pure stock? 



5. I have a queenless colony. What kind 

 of a queen do you think best to introduce 

 to them? They are 3-banded brown bees. 

 What method do you advise? 



Washington. 



Answers.— I. The Caucasians are claimed 

 to be gentlest of all, but reports do not all 

 agree. 



2. It is not a general custom, but if there is 

 fear that the swarm will go off, sprinkling 

 will help to prevent it. 



3. For the one who does not give very close 

 attention to bees, the larger hive is better: 

 for the one who gives all the attention need- 

 ed, the 8-frame hive may be better. But in 

 building up before harvest, it will need to be 

 used 2story sometimes, and that really 

 makes it a 16-frame hive. 



4. Sometimes they are better, and some- 

 times not so good. But even if better, they 

 are more likely to run out than pure stock. 



5. Get an Italian queen and introduce by 

 the method given in the instructions that 

 come with the queen. 



Increase by Dividing 



Can you give me a method of artificial in- 

 crease as good or better than natural swarm- 

 ing? I have 23 colonies, and would like to 

 increase to 50. if the season is favorable, 

 and have not time to watch them as I would 

 have to do by natural swarming. 



Minnesota. 



Answer.— Just what is the best way for 

 you is not easy for me to say. It depends 

 something upon your familiarity with bees 

 and their habits. If you have not done so 

 already, get one or more good bee-books and 

 study upon general principles, and then you 

 can judge better than I what course to pur- 

 sue. My book. " Forty Years .-Vmong the 

 Bees," gives perhaps more information upon 



different ways nf artificial increase than 

 any other, but it would be better to have 

 some other book first as a foundalion study. 

 It may be well, however, to mention one 

 way of making increase that may suit you. 

 Ten or 12 days before you think there is dan- 

 ger of swarming, and at a time when honey 

 is yielding well, take from her colony your 

 best queen along with 2 frames of brood and 

 adhering bees, and put them in an empty 

 hive as a nucleus. The bees thus left 

 queenless will start queen-cells. Within 2 

 or 3 days take from a number of other colo- 

 nies all their brood but one frame, and put 

 this brood in an upper story over an ex- 

 cluder, leaving the queen in the lower story 

 with her one frame of brood, the rest of the 

 story being filled with empty combs or 

 frames filled with foundation. Ten days 

 from the time your best colony was made 

 queenless. set these upper stories on new 

 stands and give to each a queen-cell from 

 your best colony. 



Increase by Driving—Races of Bees— Foreign 

 Bee-Papers 



I am a beginner of 2 years standing, or 

 rather " kneeling. " because I am all crippled 

 up with rlieumatism. so that 1 am unable to 

 walk without a stick, and have to kneel 

 when working with the bees. I began last 

 season with 2 box-hive colonies and 2 weak 

 nuclei, mismanaged colonies of the season 

 before with bees enough to cover one frame. 

 One of the box-hive colonies swarmed itself 

 to death, or. at least, almost so. for when I 

 transferred it Feb. 20, I found very little 

 honey, no eggs, no brood (not even one cap- 

 ped drone-cell), and about a scant half-gallon 

 of bees, so they must have swarmed at least 

 21 days before. I increased to 13 colonies, 

 and got from 2 hives which I did not use for 

 increase after the middle of June) about 75 

 pounds of chunk honey from one, and 56 sec- 

 tions from theother; besides that, the latter 

 being in a divisible lo-frame brood-chamber, 

 and every frame of the upper section of it 

 filled solid with honey, and had. about the 

 week before Thanksgiving, the lower section 

 filled, with the exception of a space about 

 3x5 inches in 3 frames, that was filled with 

 brood. We had a fine fall flow, the bees 

 gatheringup to Sunday before Thanksgiving. 



1. I w-ant to double my colonies, which can 

 easily be done as peaches and pears are in 

 full bloom, and although the bees are a little 

 behind last year, they have all from 5 to 8 

 Langstroth frames of brood, or thequivalent. 



1 also have one colony doubled up and 

 strengthened to 12 frames of brood, to be 

 used to rear drones and queens, the eggs for 

 queen-rearing to come from another queen. 

 To get more increase I can use about 10 box- 

 hives, if I should supply the planter's family 

 with honey and leave the old hives on the 

 place. Now I want to drive these bees as 

 often as possible without ruining them. How 

 often could this be done by putting the old 

 queen back in the box-hive? 



2. How long would it take for them to be- 

 come strong enough for a second drive if I 

 have to run in a virgin? 



3. How long w-ould it take if they had to 

 rear a queen themselves? 



Now. I don't want a mathematically exact 

 answer, a rough guess will do. 



4. I have several bee-books. Root's "AB 

 C," Dr. Miller's "Forty Years Among the 

 Bees." Hutchinson's "Advanced Bee Cul- 

 ture," Cook's " Manual of the Apiary," Doo- 

 little"s, "'A Year"s Work in an C)ut-Apiary,'" 

 and a couple of pamphlets, but what all of 

 these books do not suv about the different 

 races of bees would fill a good-sized book, 

 a^Xi^ that is the one I am after. So if you can 

 tell me where to get a book of that kind, in 

 either English or German, you would oblige 

 me very much. 



5. I have sent for queens to several queen- 

 breeders and received queens that produced 

 good, hustling workers, but I don"t believe I 

 got what I ordered, because I got from one 

 breeder Carniolans, and from another 

 Banats; they both build nice little curtains 

 from propolis about Vi inch back from the 

 entrance, so as to let them enter upwards 

 between the frames, and also below through 

 small openings about Jix^i to one inch or so. 

 "These curtains or storm-doors have proven 

 to be sure mouse-excluders, but also point 

 strongly to Caucasian blood in those queens. 

 Now I want the coming summer or early fall 



2 or 3 imported Banat queens, mailed from 

 the Banat part of Hungary direct to me w-ith- 

 out being classified; that is. picked over by 

 anybody. If you know- of any importer who 

 will do this, please let me know his address, 

 or if you know the address of an Austrian bee- 

 paper where I could find advertisements 

 from exporters (must be printed in German) 

 please let me know. There is a bee-paper 



