170 



May, 1915. 



American Vee -Journal 



)'^^a^^ 1 



the outer edges to the center. This 

 shifting can take place only in mild 

 days. That is why we said in " Lang- 

 strofh Revised," page 341: "When all 

 the food in their reach is consumed, 

 they will starve if the temperature is 

 too cold to allow them to move their 

 cluster to the parts of the combs which 

 contain honey ; hence //' t/ie central 

 combs of the hive arc not zvell stored 

 ■with honey, /hey should be exchan^'cd 

 for such as are, so thai, when the cold 

 comfels the bees to recede from the outer 

 combs, they may cluster among their 

 stores." The words in italics are liter 

 ally from page 336 of the third and 

 subsequent editions of Mr. Lang- 

 stroth's original work. A similar 

 thought and advice are to be found on 

 page 323 of his second edition, while 

 the first contains only a mention of 

 the possibility of their "starving in 

 the midst of plenty," on page 104. 



We would suggest that it is out of 

 the question for the bees to move their 

 cluster when they have any brood at 

 all in the cells. In such cases they 

 can move only the honey, and if able 

 to do so they induce the queen to 

 breed, as so aptly asserted by Mr. Cole. 

 — Editor ] 



Introducing Queen Mated in 

 tlie Same Yard 



BY SOUTHWESTERN BEE CO. 



OUR apiary manager announces that 

 he is mating his queens this spring 

 in 2 frame nuclei. The frames are 

 regular Hoffman brood-frames as used 

 in our brood-nests, and are therefore 

 wholly interchangeable. Whenever he 

 finds a failing queen or a colony not 

 doing satisfactory work he kills the 

 queen and takes out two frames con- 

 taining no brood. He then splits the 

 brood-nest in the middle, making mom 

 for two frames. He now takes the two 

 frames from his nucleus with all the 

 bees attached to them, the more the 

 better, and places the entire nucleus, 

 bees, queen and all in the open space 

 in the dequeened colony. By this 

 rnethod the work of the colony goes 

 right on without any interruption. No 

 time is lost, and the new queen is ac- 

 cepted without any trouble whatever. 



In case of a laying worker colony he 

 puts all the comb containing laying 

 worker brood to one side of the hive 

 and the two frames with the bees and 

 queen from his nucleus on the other 

 side, with empty combs between. In a 

 few days the new queen will begin lay- 

 ing in the first of the empty combs, 

 and then more and more until grad- 

 ually she will absorb the old colony. 

 Where the laying worker colony was 

 exceptionally strong, he did not dis- 

 turb the brood-nest, but put his new 

 queen and her two frames in the super. 

 In either case we have had perfect suc- 

 cess. The method certainly beats our 

 old plan of carrying the hive away a 

 hundred yards and shaking the bees 



upon the ground, or the more heroic 

 remedy of distributing the combs 

 about among strong colonies in the 

 apiary. 



In either of the above operations, the 

 two frames in the nucleus must not be 

 separated when placed in the new hive, 

 and it is important to see that the bees 

 have enough honey in the combs so 

 that they can fill up well. Do not 

 smoke the nucleus if you can help it. 

 We hardly ever use smoke in taking 



out the two frames with the queen. It 

 is best to keep the queen quiet so that 

 she will not run about. Smoke is to 

 be used with the dequeened colony and 

 also with the laying worker. The new 

 bees and queen being full of honey 

 and therefore quiet, will stay on the 

 two frames. Should any trouble or 

 excitement ensue from the introduc- 

 tion, the new queen is protected by 

 her own bees and will keep on laying. 

 San Antonio, Tex. 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



1)k. C. C. Mili.kr. Makengo. III. 



He does not answer bee-keeping Questions by mail. 



First Queen Destroys Other Cells 



Will you explain what is to me still a con- 

 tradictory mysticism. A. It is said that the 

 first queen out destroys Ihe other queens as 

 they emerge; hence, there should iml be 

 after swarming. 



/.' Yet the very fact of there being after 

 swarming shows that the first queen does 

 not stay to destroy subsequent ones, but 

 one (lies off after the other. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer.— There is nothing mystical nor 

 difficult of understanding when you get the 

 whole story. When a virgin emerges from 

 her cell, her first care is to find the cells of 

 her younger royal sisters with full intent to 

 murder ;hem in their cradles. With such 

 frenzy does she seem possessed in this re- 

 gard that I have many a time seen it the 

 case that when a sealed cell was caged the 

 virgin after gnawing her way out would dig 

 a hole in the side of the empty cell, just as 

 she would if a live virgin were in it. Always 

 you may count on this murderous impulse 

 on the part of this royal young personage, 

 and if she were left to have her own way 

 there would never be any after swarming. 



Now, however, comes the part that you 

 have left out- She does not always have her 

 own way by any manner of means. In fact, 

 calling her a "queen" is a neat little fic- 

 tion; the term "slave" would be about as 

 appropriate. The government in the hive 

 is not a monarchy, but a democracy of the 

 most democratic sort, run by a lot of suffra- 

 gists, and the male person has no vote. If 

 the workers vote that the time has not yet 

 come for the destruction of the young rivals, 

 then a committee stands guard over each 

 cell, driving away the young queen as often 

 as she makes an attack. In the meantime 

 several of the occupants of the cells may 

 become sufficiently matured to emerge, but 

 they are not allowed to do so. The guards 

 maintain a neutrality strict enough to suit 

 President Wilson: they will not let the 

 young queen get out of the cell, although 

 she may have the capping of her cell 

 grawed away all but a slight hinge; and no 

 more will they allow the queen at liberty to 

 get at the defenseless sisters in their cells. 

 The free queen runs about frantically from 

 one cell to another, at intervals crying. 

 " Pee e-ep, pe-eep. peep. peep, in a shrill 

 voice, each shorter than the preceding one, 

 and then the prisoners reply in a coarser 

 tone, and apparently hurried "Quahk. 

 quahk. quahk," and this piping and quahk- 

 ing will be kept up until a swarm emerges 

 with the free queen. 



Then it depends uiion the vole of the suf- 

 fragists what further shall be done. If they 

 vote for further swarming, a single virgin is 

 allowed to emerge from her cell, and she in 

 turn will go through the same performance 

 as the one who preceded her. But if the 

 vote is for no further swarming, then the 

 guards relax, allowing the cells to beat- 

 tacked, and also allowing their inmates to 

 emerge. Then there will be a free-for-all 

 fight, one after another each queen will be 

 killed until only one is left, the victor in each 

 case coming off entirely unscathed. Some- 

 times a inumber of the virgins will go off 

 with the swarm, where they can settle their 

 differences as well as if they had stayed in 

 the old home. 



Winter Loss — Glass Panels 



1. What is the cause of a colony of bees 

 dying in the winter with plenty of honey in 

 the hive? It seemed to be in good shape 

 when it went into winter quarters. , 



2. If a colony of bees lost its queen in theJ 

 winter, how long would it live ? 1 



^. What IS the safest method of dividing aj 

 colony and introducing a laying queen that! 

 comes from a distance into the hive of thel 

 increase ? I 



4 Will it interfere with a colony of bees ini 

 winter quarters to have an observation glass! 

 in the back end of the hive with a panel onl 

 the outside? Missouri. ■ 



Answers — i. It may be that the cluster oti 

 bees was in the the center with honey onl 

 both sides; the honey was all eaten out of] 

 the center, and the bees drew to oneside;! 

 they ate all the honey on that side and al 

 long cold spell prevented their going to thel 

 other siile until they starved to death, leav- 

 ing plenty of honey in the hive. 



2. If she were lost in the winter, the sup-J 

 position would be that she laid as long as f 

 usual iu the fall. The bees would become 

 less and less in the spring, and if they didl 

 not desert the hive the last of them might be! 

 dead perhaps some time in May. 



i. It is generally supposed that introduc-j 

 tion is likely to be successful with the usual! 

 queen-cage plan; but you can make it morel 

 safe than the average. Take iialf, or morel 

 than half, of the combs with their adhering! 

 bees, and put them in a hive on a new stand, f 

 Wait until next day, when the field bees] 

 will all have gone back to the old hive, and I 

 then introduce your queen in this new hive. I 

 You see there are no field bees left, and it's 

 tlie field bees that raise the mischief with 

 a new queen, 



4. Yes, any disturbance in winter is not sol 



