August, 1910. 



American ^ee -Journal 



of moving the queen to a new location, you 

 will find that the bees will stay better on the 

 new location if the queen is with them. But 

 bees that have been quecniess a day or 

 more will stay in a new location better than 

 bees taken directly from a layinequeen. One 

 good way to form a nucleus is to put a colony, 

 or part of a colony, with its queen, on the 

 new location, and then after 2 or 3 days to 

 take away the queen with all the brood and 

 bees except enough to make the nucleus. 



3. Doesn't make any material difference; 

 just as well to give additional frames only as 

 needed. 



Getting a Patent — Best Comb-Honey Hive 



1. What is the best way to get a super for 

 grooved sections patented ? 



2. Which hive is considered the best for 

 comb honey, the Langstroth or the Danzen- 

 baker ? 



I have taken the American Bee Journal 

 one month and consider it grand. 



New Jersey. 



Answers.— I. I think a patent lawyer is 

 always employed to secure a patent. He 

 makes it a special business. 



2. Some prefer one and some the other. 

 Probably the great majority have the Lang- 

 stroth in the popular form of the dovetailed 

 hive. 



Progeny of Purely Mated Queen 



1. Will a purely mated Italian queen ever 

 produce both black and red drones ? 



2. I have some Italian queens that I 

 bought as pure stock, and a small percent of 

 their workers show real black on the ex- 

 treme tip end of the body. Is this a -sign of 

 impure blood ? 



3. Last year 1 bought some queens and 

 reared them and Italianized my yard of 20 

 colonies, and some of them show all red 

 drones, and some both red and black. I un- 

 derstand from studying " A B C of Bee Cul- 

 ture," that the daughter of a pure Italian 

 mother will always produce pure drones, 

 even should she mate with a black drone. 

 Please straighten me out on this. 



Missouri. 

 Answers— I. I think she may. The work- 

 ers are quite constant in their markings, but 

 queens and drones vary considerably. 



2. Black on the lip end is no sign of impure 

 blood. If a shiny black, it is a sign that the 

 plumage has been rubbed off. 



3. The drone eggs are not fertilized, as are 

 the eggs that produce queens and workers, 

 so the mating of the queen has no effect on 

 her drone progeny. Consequently if a vir- 

 gin of pure Italian blood meets a pure black 

 drone, although her worker progeny will be 

 mixed, her drone progeny will be the same 

 as if she had mated with a pure Italian 

 drone. That, however, has nothing to do 

 with the fact that there is no little variation 

 in drones of pure blood. 



Sections Under Brood-Frames — Comb or Extracted 



Honey ?— Preventing Swarming — Making 



Increase 



1. Do you ever have bees start sections un- 

 derneath the brood-frames; that is. the su- 

 per on the first floor, then the hi\e on top ? 



2. Are there any serious objections to this? 



3. Which is the best to produce, comb 

 honey or extracted? 



4. How do you prevent sw"arming? 



5. I iiave about 100 colonies now. How 

 many have you ? 



6. I live in the blue-grass section of Ken- 

 tucky. White clover is very abundant this 

 year. My bees haveswarmedso much I will 

 not get as much honey as I would otherwise. 

 I had the surplus combs and hives for them. 

 so wanted some increase. What do you 

 consider the best method of increase :■ 



7. What section do you prefer, the bee 

 way or plain ? Kenticky. 



Answers— I. Xo. But some very good bee- 

 keepers practice it. 



2. I don't know that there are serious ob- 

 jections except the labor involved, provided 

 the sections are moved above before there 

 is any sealing done. 



3. I don't know which is best for you. In- 

 deed. I'm not any too possitive that I know 

 which is best for me. 1 produce section 

 honey entirely; but if I were to spend a few- 

 years extracting I might think that better. 

 But what is best for one is not always best 

 for another. 



4. I don't always prevent it. Among the 

 things that I think may have some influence 

 in preventing swarming are: Keeping the 

 hives shaded; giving abundant ventilation 



at the bottom of the hive with opening at 

 the back end on top, so that there is ventila- 

 tion thiounh the brood-chamber; keepingout 

 all drone-comb; givink'abundant super-room 

 in advance of the needs of the bees; and 

 keeping vigorous young queens. Yet some 

 old queens are less inclined to swarm than 

 some young ones. Cutting out queen-cells 

 sometimes prevents swarming; sometimes 

 not. Breeding from queens whose colonies 

 do not swarm is advisable. 



5. log. 



6. The best method of increase depends 

 largely upon the man. and somewhat on con- 

 ditions. For some, natural swarming is best. 

 For some, artihcial increase. Among the 

 different kinds of artificial increase there 

 are so many that space would fail to name 

 them all here. Perhaps there is no place 

 where fuller information on the subject may 

 be found than in " Forty 'Vears Among the 

 Bees." 



7. The bee-way. 



Position of Laying Queen and Division-Board 



1. I have an observation hive. The bees 

 were put into this hive about June ist. and I 

 have been looking closely for the queen but 

 have never seen her. Is she covered by the 

 workers while laying ? They have brood and 

 honey sealed. 



2. 1 have the S-frame dovetailed hives. I 

 did not know where to place the division- 

 board until I had read the last American 

 Bee Journal. I placed the division-board in 

 the middle of the hive instead of at the side. 

 Do you advise me to open the hives and 

 change them ? What harm do they do when 

 placed in the middle of the hive ? 



Illinois. 



Answers.— I. No, she is not covered when 

 laying; but she may be hidden under a mass 

 of bees when not laying. It is a little strange 

 that you have not seen her; but if eggs are 

 present she must be there, and if you perse- 

 vere you will probably see her. 



2. Early in the season, while the weather 

 is cool, the brood-nest should be as compact 

 as possible to preserve the heat, but at the 

 present time a dummy in the center of the 

 hive will do no harm. It's a dummy rather 

 than a division-board, having space all 

 around it so the queen can easily pass from 

 one side to the other. 



Bees Not Doing VVell—Wliy? 



I have a few colonies of bees, but they are 

 not doing as well this year as last. "They 

 stood the winter all right, and were strong 

 enough up to April 25. We had 3 big killing 

 frosts here, and from that day to this they 

 have not done so w-ell. What is the cause 

 of it? I have just looked at them and the 

 queens don't seem to lay as many eggs now 

 as they did in March and up to April 25. 

 What is the cause of that ? I have been 

 handling the common black bee for 10 years, 

 and this year they are not doing anything. I 

 have 7 colonies of bees of the golden 5-band 

 Italian, and 7 of the blacks. They are all 

 just about the same. Arkansas. 



Answer. — The remarkable season is 

 enough to account for the trouble. 'You will 

 likely never have another like it. The very 

 warm spell early set the bees forward and 

 they were in April much as they usually are 

 in June. Then came that terribly cold and 

 backward spell that set them way back, and 

 having a lot of brood on hand they used up 

 stores rapidly. If you had looked closely 

 you would verv likely have found that they 

 were entirely o "^f stores, all brood-rearing 

 stopped, and pel sail the unsealed brood 

 dragged out. Tha* ould leave them too 

 weak now to do their * Very likely they 

 ought to have been fed 



Uniting Colonies — Bees Working Intermittently — 

 Self-Requeening of Colony— Facing Hives 



1. Is it possible, and if so, how would you 

 unite 2 or more colonies ? I mean, take 2 

 small second swarms and kill the queen of 

 one colony before uniting ? 



2. One of my colonies stopped working 

 while others were very busy. They quit for 

 about 3 or 4 days, and then started to work 

 again, but are not as busy as the others. 

 They seem to be strong. They stopped work- 

 ing about one week after the swarm issued. 

 What do you think was wrong? Can I do 

 anything to get them busy again ? 



3. Incase a queen dies by accident, will 

 the colony requeen of its own accord; that 

 is, if it has brood? 



4. In last month's American Bee Journal. 



I see there is a question asked by me about 

 having the bee-hives "face to face, " which 

 should be " face east." Do you think facing 

 east is just as good as facing north? 



Iowa. 

 Answers.— I. At a time when bees are 

 gathering there is little trouble in uniting 

 almost any way. Merely putting the 2 to- 

 gether is generally all that is needed When 

 nothing is coming in there is more trouble. 

 One way is to alternate the frames, putting 

 into an empty hive first a frame of^ brood 

 and bees from one hive and then from the 

 other, and so on. Another way is to shake 

 on the ground in front of one of the hives all 

 the bees from both colonies, letting them 

 get mixed up together, and then giving them 

 the combs from both. One of the best ways 

 is to put one hive directly over the other, 

 with 2 thicknesses of common newspaper 

 between them. By the time the bees gnaw 

 the paper enough to get together they will 

 unite peaceably. If a little hole is broken 

 through at one spot it will hurry matters a 

 little, out the hole must be merely a break, 

 but not open so a bee can walk through. If 

 there is -any choice of queens, kill the 

 poorer; if not, the bees will attend to the 

 business themselves. 



2. If they stopped working for a few days 

 after sending off a swarm, that was nothing 

 unusual, especially if a very large force 

 went with the swarm, leaving very few field- 

 bees in the mother colony. 



3. 'Yes, when the bees lose their queen 

 they will rear another, provided there is 

 present brood not more than 3 days old. 



4. There probably is not much difference. 

 A good many think it is better to face east 

 than north. 



Rattlesnake and Ground-Squirrels 



1. Yesterday July g). at our apiary, a loud 

 humming sound was heard, and on investi- 

 gating it was found that a swarm was form- 

 ing on a small shrub. For a while it grew in 

 size and then dissolved into a w^hirling 

 storm of bees and returned to their old 

 location. And, as we were watching, a large 

 rattlesnake went gliding along and into one 

 of the empty hives, evidently through a small 

 entrance, where he was dispatched. Might 

 the snake have caused the swarming, or 

 irritated the bees ? 



2. We noticed lately that ground-squirrels 

 spend much of their time among the hives. 

 and seem to eat something in their cautious 

 way from the ground. Is it likely that they 

 eat incoming bees for the sweets ? 



California. 



Answers.— I. It is doubtful that the snake 

 caused the bees to leave the hive. It some- 

 times happens that bees swarm and then 

 return to their hive because for some rea- 

 son the queen does not accompany them, 

 and the case you mention may have been 

 one of this kind. Certainly the entrance of 

 the snake into another hive did not cause 

 swarming, as you say the snake was dis- 

 patched. 



2. I have never heard of ground-squirrels 

 catching returningbees. and it is more likely 

 that if a squirrel picks up anything from the 

 ground in front of a hive it is dead bees or 

 larvae thrown out from the hive. 



A Beginner's Questions 



1. I just purchased (July 2: wne c*l*ny of 

 bees Csbanded Italians, I think/ of a man 

 who doesn't know much about bees, and is 

 afraid to go near them. He thinks bees will 

 fill the hive first before they will the super, 

 so he put the super on as soon as they 

 swarmed. The super is nearly full of honey 

 now, but none in the hive. Would you let 

 the bees finish filling the super, or take it off 

 now ? 



2. Is it advantageous 10 feed any sugar 

 now ? Do they eat it and not so much honey, 

 or do they store it or make honey of it ? 



3. How can I tell a queen-cell from any 

 other cell ? 



4. If 1 destroy the queen-cell will it prevent 

 swarming ? 



5. If I buy a new queen of some other va- 

 riety and put it in a strong colony, will they 

 swarm with the new queen? If not, what 

 will they do ? 



6. Will the colony with the new queen 

 soon become entirely the same kind that 

 she is ? 



7. Is crimson clover a good bee-plant ? 



8. Where can I get sweet lyellowand white) 

 clover seed? When should it be sown ? 



Q. / have just subscribed for the American 

 Bee Journal and ordered 2 bee-books, so I. 

 expect I won't have to ask questions here 

 after. New Jersey. 



