280 



August, 1915. 



American ^Qe Journal 



air stirring so as to encourage evaporation 

 it might be iintit to use in less than an hour. 

 Not very thick, in a cool place with little 

 chance for evaporation. I Eiiesi it might keep 

 two or three days. 



Shipping Bees— Caucasian vs. Carniolan 



1. I want to take a few swarms of bees 

 with me to Minnesota about July io. The 

 car will likely be on the road about a week. 

 How shall I prepare the bees for shipment ? 



2. What are the physical features that dis- 

 tinguish the Caucasian bees from the Car- 

 niolan ? Illinois. 



Answers.— I. The frames in your hives 

 must be fastenedso they cannot move about, 

 although that is not necessary if you have 

 frames with fixed distance, as you probably 

 have. If the entrances to your hives are 

 two inches deep, closing them with wire 

 cloth may give all the needed ventilation. 

 Otherwise better have the entire top cov- 

 ered with wire cloth by means of a frame 

 an inch or two deep. With only a few hives, 

 you can have each one on the floor, kept in 

 place by cleats nailed on to the floor. If 

 the weather is very hot. sprinkle the bees 

 with water every day or two. 



2. The main difference in appearance is 

 that the whitish rinj is not so distinct in 

 Caucasians as in Carniolans. Carniolans 

 look enough liKe common blacks to make it 

 hard to distinguish them, and Caucasians 

 look still more like blacks. 



Is a Bee Sting Fatal? 



Does the sting of the honey-bee ever prove 

 fatal ? 1 have heard that if a person is 

 stung on the end of the nose it is fatal. Is 

 this a fact? Tennessee. 



Answer.— I don't believe a sling of itself 

 ever caused death. There have been cases 

 where persons died after being stung. I've 

 been stung many a time on the nose, and I'm 

 notatall dead. 



Early Queen-Cells— Spreading Brood 



I looked over my bees for the first time 

 May 5. and gave each colony clean bottom- 

 boards. Two of the colonies seemed so for- 

 ward that I at once gave them an extra full 

 depth super, and they went to work therein. 

 No. 30 and 33 continued showing vigor. On 

 theiuthlwas surprised in finding a queen- 

 cell in the lower body of No. 3^. about two 

 days beyond the egg stage; there were also 

 in the upper body eggs in three or four little 

 globular cells. No. 30 had one such globular 

 cell with an egg. No other colony, so far as 

 observed, showed any sign of swarming, 

 both these colonies had quite a number of 

 worker eggs ind comb— place for more eggs. 

 The upper chainber contained only four or 

 five frames, some only with foundation. 

 Last year's frames with foundation were 

 drawn out at once this year: only one frame 

 has some drawn, and that to but one-third 

 of its extent. 



My colony, No. 28. had nearly six frames 

 filled with eggs and brood, the other four 

 were full of old honey. I put on a super the 

 14th. and into the same I put the four frames 

 of iioney, and in place of the latter below I 

 put four frames of empty comb. By the 10th. 

 nothing was done in these combs, so I put 

 them at the opposite side of the liive-body 

 from where they were. 



A good colony, in five days, not having 

 done anything as staled, might be an indica- 

 tion of the state of this season, and in iudg- 

 ini; upon Nos. 30 and 3). it might be of help. 

 It has been mostly cool, cloudy and windy 

 here, and especially so during apple bloom, 

 which now is over. 



On May 11, I spread brood in three colo- 

 nies, but leared afterwards I had done 

 wrong; however, a few days after I exam- 

 ined the colonies, and could not see that any 

 harm ha<l been done. There was not any 

 chilled brood, and half of the transferred 

 frames had eggs in them. Pennsylvania. 



Answer.— According to what you say, 

 queen-cells must have been started in No. 

 33 May 14. That is probably quite excep- 

 tional in your locality, Ijut it Is not certain 



that swarming will result. A cold spell may 

 induce the bees to empty out those cells. 

 May 24. I was surprised to find that the 

 queen had stopped laying in some of my col- 

 onies. The weather had been hot in April, 

 but cold in May. 



You spread brood, and a few days later 

 could discover no harm done. Be thankful; 

 next time you may not get off so well. It is. 

 however, just possible that harm was done 

 without your discovering it. 



chapter devoted to it. Chapter VII. 



There is nothing in the case to require 

 anything different in transferring from the 

 instructions given in your books. 



Diseased 



Age of a Queen 



Is there any way to tell the age of a queen, 

 also how old should a queen be allowed to 

 get. We will have a good flow of nectar 

 here in Wisconsin if we get a little dry 

 weather so that the bees get a chance to 

 work. Wisconsin. 



Answer.— There is no certain way to tell 

 by the looks of a queen how old she is. 

 After you have some experience you will be 

 able to make a fair guess as to whether a 

 queen is old or young, as an old queen is 

 more inclined to have a shiny look because 

 her plumage is worn away. Sometimes, 

 however, a young queen has the same look. 

 An old queen is not likely to move about on 

 the combs in as lively a manner as a young 

 one. 



There are different views as to how old a 

 queen should be allowed to become. Some 

 think not more than two years. In my own 

 practice I allow her to live as long as she 

 will, for when she gets too old the bees will 

 supersede her without any interference on 

 my part. Of course, if she is unsatisfactory 

 in any way. I get rid of her as soon as I can. 



Swarming 



I purchased a colony of Italian bees in a 

 box-hive in the fall of \u\A. I wintered them 

 successfully, and the colony was strong in 

 the spring, I purchased a movable-frame 

 hive in which to hive the expected swarm, a 

 smoker and other necessary supplies I 

 ordered a copy of " Langstroth on the 

 Honey Bee." and made a careful study of it. 



On June 5 the bees swarmed and clustered 

 on a limb of an apple tree, and in ten min- 

 utes after they returned to the old hive. 

 They swarmed again the next day. but again 

 they returned 10 the hive. I was told they 

 would swarm again, but as the weather has 

 since been cloudy, and there has been fre- 

 quent rains, they have not swarmed again. 

 What was the cause of this behavior ? Will 

 they swarm again and cluster without re- 

 turning to the parent colony? As I have a 

 new hive fitted with foundation I would like 

 to have bees in it. Is there any method of 

 artificial swarming which could be prac- 

 ticed? As I intend to transfer the bees 

 from the box hive into a movable-frame hive, 

 what method would you advise under the 

 following conditions: The box-hive has 

 two entrances, one on the bottom-board 

 and one six inches higher. There are eight 

 J4-inch holes in the top of the brood division 

 to the surplus division. During the two 

 weeks since the bees swarmed they have 

 clustered in the surplus division of the box- 

 hive. What would you do under the cir- 

 cumstances ? Illinois. 



Answer.— There may have been some- 

 thing wrong with the queen's wings so that 

 she could not go with the swarm. In such 

 case the swarm may issue again once or 

 several times. But about a week after the 

 first time there will be a young queen reared 

 and she will come out with the swarm. 

 Kvidently. however, yours did not swarm at 

 that time, for the swarm first issued June 5, 

 and your letter is dated .June 19. Likely the 

 very bad weather discouraged them from 

 swarming; but you may be pretty certain 

 that a young iiuecn has taken the place of 

 the old one. 



Yes, indeed, you can practice artificial 

 swarming, and in your book. " Langstroth 

 on the Honey-Bee," you will find a whol_ 



I have a hive of bees that wont buildup. 

 They have plenty of stores and are rearing 

 young, but about the time the young are 

 hatched out they seem to be sick or some- 

 thing, and the old bees lake them out of the 

 hive and drop them on the ground. I thought 

 at one time they were queenless. but upon 

 going through them I found a nice queen. I 

 do not think it is paralysis, as it does not 

 seem to affect the old bees at all. We have 

 no foulbrood in this part of the world that I 

 know of. I was thinking of killing the old 

 queen and putting in a frame of brood and 

 let them rear another one. Do you think 

 that would be the thing? Mississippi. 



Answer.— I don't know what the trouble 

 is. unless paralysis. I doubt that rearing a 

 new queen would help. 



Swarms Leaving Hives 



I am having a lot of trouble with swarms. 

 Three swarms came here from other hives. 

 The first one I put into a nice 8-frame hive 

 with new combs. They stayed about two 

 or three days and then said good by to us. 

 The next one was a baby swarm, not much 

 larger than one of our large Oregon apples. 

 I put it in a hive and put them in a small 

 space and gave them two frames with a lit- 

 tle capped over honey. The next day I 

 found the queen was dead and t.ie bees 

 gone. The last one I gave more attention. 

 I put them in a hive and gave them plenty 

 of honey. (I thought may be the lack of 

 honey was the trouble ) They came out and 

 went into a tree, but not the one I took them 

 from. I put them back and they stayed a 

 few days, and today they are gone. Where 

 did I fail ? Oregon. 



Answer.— Without knowing more about 

 the matter I can only guess, but it's a pretty 

 safe guess that the trouble was the usual 

 one. heat or too close confinement. A swarm 

 is always in a state of excitement, and so 

 heated up, and if they are put in the hot sun 

 or if their hive be not sufficiently open, they 

 are likely to think, "This is too hot a place 

 for a home, we'll hike for a cooler place." 

 So for a few days it is well to have the cover 

 partly open and the hive raised; and it 

 should be in a cool place or else shaded in 

 someway. The dead queen you found may 

 have been accidently killed. More likely it 

 was an afterswarm with more than one 

 queen, and all but one were slain in a royal 

 battle, 



Young Queens— Prevent Increase 



1. How long after the prime swarm issues 

 forth does the young queen hatch ? 



2. Is it right to destroy all queen-cells but 

 one right away after the swarm comes out ? 



3. In placing the Alley trap in front of the 

 hive to catch the drones, is there any dan- 

 ger of capturing the queen? Does the 

 queen ever come out of the hive after her 

 wedding flight, and at any other time besides 

 when she comes out with the swarm ? 



4. How would this work if I didn't want an 

 increase. Prevent all swarming for two 

 years, and keep the same queen, and after 

 that time let them swarm once or buy a 

 young queen; go to the hive every week and 

 keep on destroying all queen cells and give 

 them no chance to rear a queen. 



California 

 Answers.— I. Ordinarily the first virgin 

 leaves her cell about a week after the issue of 

 thejprime swarm. If. however, the swarm be 

 delayed a day or more by bad weather, then 

 the time of her emergence after the swarm- 

 ing will be lessened a day or more. It may 

 also be increased in case the prime swarm 

 issues before the firstqueen ceil is sealed. 



2 Yes; although there is a possibility that 

 you may not leave a cell with the best queen 

 in it, and in rare instances there may be no 

 live queen in it. If you are willing to take 

 the trouble, there is a better way. About a 



