June, 1910. 



American ^ee Journal 



several times, but have never been used be- 

 fore ? 



4. A neighbor places common boxes up in 

 trees and catches stray swarms. Is there 

 anything a person can put in a hive that will 

 bait a swarm to the box placed in a tree ? 



5. Will it be all right to cut a small hole on 

 top in the hive-box. and place a screen over 

 it for ventilation when I transfer bees from 

 boxes into new hives ? 



6. I have a super on a hive with pound- 

 boxes and starters, and have no queen-ex- 

 cluder between. It is tilled with bees, and 

 I'm afraid they have drawn out the combs 

 and the queen has deposited eggs in them. 

 What should I do with the super ? Put it on 

 the new hive when the bees swarm, or leave 

 it on the old hive ? 



7. Have bees a location in view before 

 swarming? If so. have they this location 

 prepared ready to enter ? 



8. Is there a young queen in a hive before 

 the old one leaves with the first swarm? 

 How soon does she take her mating flight ? 

 How often does a queen mate in a lifetime ? 



Q. I have some bees that have 2 and 3 yel- 

 low stripes or bands across their backs, 

 back of the wings, and are some larger than 

 the blacks; also, more savage. Is there any 

 Italian blood in them ? 



10. What date of the month is the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal published ? I get it on the 

 ibth of the month, and can hardly wait until 

 it comes. Illinois. 



Answers.— I. If the weather is unfavor- 

 able, or if for any reason the bees of a 

 swarm can not gather when they are first 

 hived, it is an excellent plan to feed them. 

 But can you afford to use only starters in 

 your brood-frames ? The bees will be pretty 

 sure to build a good deal of drone-comb un- 

 less the frames are filled with foundation; 

 and having much drone-comb is expensive 

 business. 



2. And what will they do if they go just 

 half way between the two directions? I 

 don't think there's anything in it at all. 



3. Yes. if the hives are sweet and clean. 



4. Yes. if you can put brood-combs in it. If 

 the combs have been used but are still sweet 

 and clean the bees will like them better 

 than any empty hive. 



5. Yes. but it is not necessary. 



6. If there is brood in the super, and you 

 want it to continue there, put the super over 

 the swarm as soon as it is hived. If there is 

 no brood in the super, give it to the swarm 2 

 days later. If you give the super to the 

 swarm before the queen has begun to lay in 

 the brood-chamber, there is danger that she 

 may go up in the super. 



7. I don't know. 1 suspect they generally 

 have a location in view. I've seen them 

 cleaning out a place 2 or 3 days before 

 swarming. 



8. Before I forget it. I want to tell you that 

 it will be money in your pocket to buy a 

 good bee-book. It will answer a whole lot 

 of questions about things that you ought to 

 know and may not think to ask about, and 

 the knowledge you would gain on a single 

 point may be worth twice the cost of the 

 book. But I'll answer these questions now. 

 and not make you wait till you get the book, 

 for there will be plenty of other questions to 

 ask after you get the book. 



When the first swarm issues there is no 

 young queen in the hive except those in 

 queen-cells. The swarm emerges about the 

 time the oldest queen-cell is sealed. The 

 young queen takes her wedding-flight when 

 she is 5 days old or older. She mates only 

 once in a lifetime; but some say there are 

 exceptions to this rule. 



Q. Bees with 2 and 3 yellow stripes prob- 

 ably have more Italian than black blood in 

 ihem. 



10. The American Bee Journal is published 

 from the 12th 10 the 15th of each month. I'm 

 always anxious to see it, too. and sometimes 

 I wish it would come sooner in the month. 

 But if it did, we'd have to wait just as long 

 between meals for the next, so Where's the 

 odds ? 



Getting Bees into Other Hives 



Last spring 1 boui;ht 5 exceptionally strong 

 colonies of bees in large hives. This spring 

 I have been considering different plans for 

 getting them ovit of the hives. There is the 

 old plan of letting the bees swarm, destroy- 

 ing the queen-cells in the hive, and shaking 

 the bees of the old hive into the new one. 

 when in 21 days none will be left. I have 

 been considering two variations of a differ- 

 ent plan, but would like your opinion before 

 putting cither into practice. 



I. My bees are all very strong, some of 

 them starting work in the second stories. 



Suppose that about June i. or when the 

 queen begins laying in the upper hive-body, 

 I put a queen-excluder bctvi-een the stories. 

 After all the brood has hatched I could re- 

 move the lower story filled with honey. 

 Could I put this honey over a colony after 

 the honey-fiow and get them to put it into 

 sections by uncapping it ? I know they 

 would fill the brood-chamber, but would 

 they go further if several supers were be- 

 tween them and the honey ? 



2. The other plan I had in view was to put 

 a bee-escape board between the two stories, 

 and put a piece of wire-screen over the old 

 entrance, forcing the bees above as soon as 

 hatched. By this plan, the bees could not 

 fill the losver combs with honey, but would 

 so many bees go above that the brood would 

 not be sufficiently covered? In either case 

 would I need to destroy queen-cells below? 

 Perhaps there is some difficulty that I have 

 not thought of. I shall await your reply with 

 the greatest of interest. Illinois. 



Answers.— I. Looks as if it might work; 

 but I've tried it and it was a failure. 



2. I don t think there would be so much 

 danger of brood being chilled as there would 

 be of thirst. But you could furnish water. 

 I don't believe it would be necessary to de- 

 stroy the queen-cells below. 



colonies nicely in the way you propose. Sup- 

 pose th« Italian colony has swarmed. If the 

 weather was favorable for 2 or 3 days before 

 the swarm issued, you may cut out the cells 

 about a week after the issuing of the swarm. 

 But if the weather was rainy or cold for i. 2, 

 or 3 days before the issuing of the swarm, 

 then you must cut out cells that much ear- 

 lier, because the swarm may have been de- 

 layed by the weather, making the cells just 

 so much more advanced, and if you wait too 

 long you may find the cells destroyed. 



About 2 days before you cut out the cells, 

 destroy the queen in any desired colony. 

 Then when you cut out the cells, give one 

 of them to this colony. Use a hive-staple to 

 pin the cell on the side of a comb, letting 

 one leg of the staple be sunk in the comb, 

 while the other holds the cell in place. Let 

 the cell be centrally located so there will be 

 no danger of its being chilled. 



If you want to rear some queens, break up 

 the dequeened colony into nuclei, using 2 or 

 3 frames of brood with adhering bees for 

 each nucleus, and giving it a cell. 



Transferring Bees— Text-Books— Crosswise Combs 

 — Chunit vs. Comb or Extracted, Etc. 



1. I have bought 12 colonies of bees in box- 

 hives from a neighbor. I got them at 75 

 cents per hive. Don't you think I got them 

 cheap ? 



2. The hives are full of bees, and I want to 

 transfer them. Would you advise me to 

 transfer now. or wait till the old hives are 

 filled with honey ? 



3. Would you use the old combs, or full 

 sheets of foundation ? 



4. I am a beginner. What text-books would 

 you get ? 



5. How do you make queen-candy ? 



6. I have one colony with combs built 

 crosswise. How would you manage to get 

 them straight ? , , , , 



7. Do you think I could do better running 

 for chunk honey than for comb or extracted ? 



8. Does it pay to use full sheets of founda- 

 tion in the brood-nest ? Georgia. 



Answers.— I. If you succeed in everything 

 else in bee-keeping as well as in buying your 

 bees, you ought to oeat us all. 



2. The honey is in the way in transferring; 

 so you better not wait. Nowadays it is con- 

 sidered better to let the bees swarm, hiving 

 the swarm in a movable-frame hive, setting 

 the swarm on tlie old stand with the old 

 hive close beside it. a week later moving the 

 old hive to the opposite side, and then 21 

 days after the swarm issued breaking up the 

 old hive. At that time all the brood will be 

 hatched out except a few drones. 



3. By the way I have mentioned you would 

 use foundation. 



4. Roots "ABC and X Y Z, " Dadant s 

 Langstroth," and "Cook's Manual " are all 

 good. 



5. Warm a little extracted honey, knead 

 into it powdered sugar until you have a stiff 

 dough. Let it stand a day or so. and if it 

 seems a little soft, as it likely will, work in 

 some more sugar until it is stiff. 



6. That depends altogether on the condi- 

 tion of affairs. It may be part of the frames 

 are straight and the others only a little 

 crooked. In that case you may be able to 

 cut away the attachments and straighten 

 the comb into its own frame. If all the 

 combs are very crooked, you may consider 

 it as a box-hive. 



7. I don't know; but likely you would. 



8. Yes. indeed. 



Malting Increase — Queen-Rearing 



I am a beginner in the bee-business. I have 

 some black bees, also some Italians. I would 

 like to know if I could take some queen-cells 

 from the Italians in May or June, and divide 

 the black bees and get an increase of Ital- 

 ians. Those who rear queens seem to quote 

 prices very high. Please give me the best 

 way to introduce the cells, or can I clip the 

 cells and rear some queens ? 



North Carolina. 



Answer.— You can buy queens for a dollar 

 apiece or less, which doesn't seem very 

 high. If you go into the business of rearing 

 queens you will not make a fortune at such 

 prices. For all that, it is a good thing to 

 know how to rear your own queens. You 

 can utilize the queen-cells from your Italian 



" La Loque " or Foul Brood 



I am a honey producer myself on a small 

 scale, and I fear that my bees are suffering 

 from "la loque." If so. how would it be 

 seen, and what is the best remedy or treat- 

 ment for curing same ? Canada. 



Answer.— "La loque" is simply the 

 French name for foul brood. A more or less 

 foul odor accompanies it. and the most 

 marked feature is the stringiness of the 

 dead brood. Thrust a tooth-pick into one o£ 

 the rotten larvae, and as you draw it out the 

 decayed matter will stick to the tooth-pick 

 and string out an inch or so before it breaks. 

 The usual cure is to take away all the brood 

 at a time when bees are gathering freely, 

 leaving the bees on frames with shallow 

 starters, taking these away 4 days later and 

 replacing them with frames filled with foun- 

 dation. This is the American foul brood. 

 European foul brood, or black brood, is not 

 generally so foul-smelling, and there is little 

 or no stringiness. It may have the same 

 treatment as the American variety, and it 

 may also have the Alexander treatment, 

 thus: Kill or remove the queen. In g days 

 destroy all queen-cells. On the 20th day 

 after removing the old queen, give a ripe 

 queen-cell or a virgin just hatched, the cell 

 or the virgin being of pure Italian stock. 

 Some have reported success by destroying 

 queen-cells 10 days after the removal of the 

 old queen and giving a virgin at the same 

 time. But remember that the Alexander 

 treatment is no good for the American foul 

 brood. 



Queen-Cells Above Queen-Excluders 



I Since my first sight of queen-excluders 

 my enthusiasm for them has been at white 

 heat, but rush of work in spring-time has, 

 until the present, prevented my putting 

 them on just at the opening of the sage 

 bloom, which was about April 20 to 24. I 

 placed one on every hive I have above one 

 super high. For reasons that only concern 

 the writer, I left all brood from the egg to 

 maturity above the excluder. Within the 

 usual time it takes to set them, almost every 

 colony was filled above the excluder with 

 queen-cells. I make a quick job of going 

 through them all and destroying the cells. 

 I noticed before I got to the end of my job 

 that the bees had torn them down in some 

 instances, and in some they had not. What 

 would the result have been if I had not de- 

 stroyed these queen-cells? Would they 

 have superseded the queens? I frankly ac- 

 knowledge that the matter puzzled me. and 

 that I am still puzzled. California. 



Answers.— I. When brood is put over an 

 excluder, the queen being below, the bees 

 sometimes start queen-cells and sometimes 

 they don't. After starting them, sometimes 

 they destroy them and sometimes they don t. 

 In the cases whore they do not destroy the 

 cells, if you had not interfered, a young 

 queen would in time have emerged. Then 

 the remaining cells may have been de- 

 stroyed, or they may have been left and an 

 attempt made to swarm. The young queen 

 or queens being imprisoned above could not 

 get out with the swarm, but the old queen 

 could, and would. In any case the young 

 queen could not get out to be fertilized, and 

 I don't know what would happen then. Per- 

 haps the bees would worry her to death 

 when they found she was not coming up to 

 their expectations; and perhaps she would 

 go to work as a drone-layer. 



