American Hee Journal | 



April, 1915. 



is disturbing them, or that they are trou- 

 bled with diarrhea. In the latter case a 

 good tlight the first warm day will cure 

 them, unless, indeed, they have unwhole- 

 some stores which will keep up the trouble 

 more or less until warm weather comes. 



Shallow Divisible Hives 



For some time I have been reading period- 

 icals and catalogs treating on beehive 

 oquipments and their relative merits. 1 

 have decided that a divisible hive consist- 

 ing of shallow frames and supers, one. two. 

 or three, according to the strength of the 

 queen, is about what I want. Is it a practi- 

 cal combination ? I see in the A B C and -\ 

 Y Z of Bee Culture a divisible hive used by 

 J E. Hand that looks good. Does he still 

 use a divisible hive and recommend it? I 

 see in the American Hee Journal he uses a 

 i6-frame hive. Is it brought about by verti- 

 cal or horizontal expansion ? The hrst by 

 placing eight frames on top of eight or side 

 by side sixteen in all. I wish to winter out- 

 of-doors, and think I can make a warm hive 

 of the shallow frames and supers by con- 

 tracting the brood-nest horizontally with a 

 tight division-board on each side and pack- 

 ing between them and the outside; the ends 

 being closed. Onondaga. 



Answer.— I doubt the advisability of your 

 trying shallow or divisible chamber hives. 

 To be sure some good beekeepers use them, 

 but the majority of beekeepers prefer a 

 frame not less than the Langstroth. and 

 some like a still larger frame. 



K 



Position of Frames in Nuclei 



In making nuclei, which of these methods 

 would you recommend; 



I Two frames of brood, then one frame of 

 honey then division-board, all at one side of 

 the hive body, with rest of space vacant ? 



-• Two frames of brood, one frame ot 

 honey, at one side of the hive body, with 

 rest of space filled with frames of founda- 



'3"two frames of brood in center of hive, 

 frame of honey on one side, frame of drawn 

 comb or honey on the other, with frames 

 of foundation in rest of space ? 



If your practice is different from any ot 

 these will you please give it ? Illinois. 



Answers.— I. If I were to choose between 

 the three, I think I would take the third. 

 But I think I would not have the brood in 

 center of hive, but put the honey at one 

 side, then the two frames of brood, and then 

 the drawn comb (either empty or with a lit- 

 tle honey). Then I would add comb or foun- 

 dation as needed, preferring the comb if 

 available. 



Trinsferring— When Does Brood-Rearing Begin? 



1 When is the best time to transfer bees 

 out of old box hives into modern ones ? 



2, When does the queen begin laying in 

 the spring? Texas. 



Answers.— I. The favorite plan nowadays 

 is to wait until the colony in the box hive 

 swarms, hive the swarm in an up-to-date 

 hive, setting it on the old stand and the old 

 hive on a new stand, and three weeks later. 

 when all the worker brood has hatched out. 

 transfer what is left in the old hive, or else 

 melt up theold combs and give the bees to 

 the swarm. 



2. In a colony wintered outdoors she be- 

 gins, in the north, in February, or even in 

 January. In Texas probably earlier. If 

 cellared, she begins about the lime bees are 

 taken out of cellar. 



Dividing to Prevent Swarming 



My start was made in I'ju. whtn on July 1 I 

 found a swarm in a large oak, which we 

 hived luly 25. By feeding sugar on warm 

 winter days they came through strong. The 

 hive lliey were in was a lo-frame. As 1 had 

 no honey-bpard 1 gave them an upper story 

 which the queen proceeded to hi with 

 brood, although I took some very hne honey. 



As the bees increased rapidly, and would 

 cluster out some, I decided to give more 

 room and gave them a 28-section super be- 

 tween the stories which they began to fill 

 nicely. After this they began again to clus- 

 ter out on hot days, so I provided shade 

 which did not seem to help matters; sol 

 decided to take some brood, as I wished to 

 keep down swarming. 



I found a nice ripe queen-cell below while 

 the old queen was above. Now I did not get 

 to ascertain what would have occurred, as 

 they were so close to the highway that they 

 had to be moved, which was done with fatal 

 results to the colony, although I was not 

 much surprised as it was too hot, and I had 

 to keep them confined in the hive to avoid 

 further trouble. I think I should know bet- 

 ter now, as I would remove the lid and put 

 on a screen and thus provide plenty air, 



1. Now what I wish to know is, had I put 

 on a honey-board would it have proved 

 all right, and what would have happened 

 when the new queen emerged ? Could I 

 have set off the storyand hid two colonies ? 

 If this were feasible you see it would save 

 rearing a queen. 



2, Yet I am not without bees, as my neigh- 

 bor who has several swarms gave me one 

 when they swarmed This swarm I divided, 

 havingthem rear their own queens, and by 

 giving them the old combs left from the 

 other colony. I have four which went into 

 winter with hives full, but only eight 

 frames each. I have thought of giving them, 

 in spring, each two stories for brood and 

 then setting off and forcingmost of the bees 

 back in a single story with plenty of super 

 room, and using the remainder as nucleus 

 for increase- Would this be all right, and 

 would you think it all right to give each col- 

 ony a frame of young brood to rear a queen 

 or a frame with lipe cell, and let the queen 

 go with the nucleus? 



1. Do you think this plan would save 

 watching them so closely ? I do farming, 

 also tiucking. and can not give much time 

 to bees. Ohio. 



Answers.— I. I am not at all sure that put- 

 ingon a " honey-board "—by which I suppose 

 you mean a queen-excluder— would have 

 made any difference. The super of sections 

 acted a good deal as a queen excluder, as a 

 queen is not likely to go through a super of 

 sections to get into another story. When the 

 young queen emerged below she might have 

 issued with a swarm, although like enough 

 she might have gone to laying below, and 

 then you could have set off either story 

 on a new stand as a separate colony. Or, 

 you might have set on a new stand the lower 

 story before the young queen emerged. But 

 if you had put the queen in an upper story, 

 with an excluder under, without the sec- 

 tion super, it is not so certain that queen- 

 cells would have been started in the lower 

 story, since the distance between the two 

 stories caused by the intervening section 

 super is an important factor in making the 

 bees feel queenless in the story without a 

 queen. An objection, however, to having 



a section super under brood-combs is that 

 the sealing of the sections will be darkened. 



2. If you should take the queen away, and 

 leave on the old stand a hive full of brood, 

 the bees would be pretty sure to swarm 

 with the first virgin emerging. But they 

 would not be likely to do so with only a sin- 

 gle frame of brood, 



3. Yes, if you should leave on the old 

 stand a single frame with only one queen- 

 cell on it. you would not need to watch for 

 swarming. 



Bees in Chimntyi, Etc. — Finding Bee Trees 



1. How can I get a swarm out of a chim- 

 ney ^ It is about 50 feet high. I do not like 

 to ascend by means of a ladder, as some of 

 the bricks near the top are loose. 



2. Seeing one of your answers in the Bee 

 Journal about getting a swarm out of a 

 house. I would like to know if there is any 

 danger of horses being stung, as a road runs 

 about 3 feet from the house ? 



3. Do forest fires kill bees ? 



4. How can bees be hunted ? 



New York. 



Answers —I. More than once I have had 

 bees offered to me for nothing if I would 

 take them out of chimneys, but always de- 

 clined the offer, as the bees are not consid- 

 ered worth the trouble. If you can't get up 

 with a ladder I don't know how you can get 

 them. 



2. If the entrance of the bees faces the 

 road, and it is not more than 6 feet high, 

 there is danger; otherwise the danger is 

 small. 



3. Yes. 



4. Set a bait of honey, and watch until bees 

 fill themselves with it and fly away, and the 

 direction they fly will indicate the direction 

 of their home. Move your bait farther 

 along in that direction and watch again, and 

 so on until the bees fly back on their track, 

 and then scan the trees between the last 

 two places. Instead of direct lining, as de- 

 scribed, you can cross line. After getting a 

 line on their flight, instead of moving your 

 bait in the same direction, move it a little 

 farther along to one side, and at the point 

 of intersection of the two lines you should 

 find your bee tree. 



Requeening from Prolific Stock 



I introduced three Italian (golden) queens 

 to three colonies last September. All colo- 

 nies had an equal amount of bees. Two of 

 the colonies are doing finely and are strong, 

 while the third colony hardly has as many 

 bees as it had when I introduced the queen, 

 and they have very little brood. I only let 

 mine have five frames and a follow board. 



THE QUEEN ON A COMB OK BROOD AND BEES.-(Photo by J. I.. Leath.) 



