352 



October, 1915. 



American l^ee Journal 



stands cell building, and I eet loo percent 

 queens; at least I have so far. What do you 

 think of this plan of netting good queens ^ 



3. Have you ever had this to occur, treat a 

 swarm on the put-up plan, and after two 

 weeks they swarm out with a youni; queen 

 and leave the old queen in the hive ? 1 was 

 very much surprised to see this just re- 

 cently. I found only one cell in the hive, 

 and that one was the one which was hatched 

 and the young queen came forth with the 

 swarm. The hive was full of brood, but no 

 other queen-cell was visible. 1 treated them 

 by the put-up plan. I found the old queen 

 which was clipped in the parent hive. 



Indiana. 



.Answers -i. Generally, after a colony has 

 been treated by the "put-up" plan, there 

 will be no more swarming for the season, 

 but you can never be certain of it. Yet it is 

 a rare thine that a colony swarms a third 

 time, as in your case. Yet I should not be 

 much afraid to breed from such a queen if 

 the colony greatly exceeds other colonies in 

 storing. 



2. Your plan of getting queens is good, and 

 is given in "Fifty Years Among the Bees," 

 only I do not take brood from three different 

 colonies. Instead of that I take one or more 

 frames of brood from the best stock. Unless 

 you have three colonies that are equal in 

 worth, your plan will not give as good queens 



I think they are young bees. What is the 

 trouble? Norfolk, Neb. 



Answers.-i. If you write Frank C. Pel- 

 lett, of Atlantic. Iowa, he can probably do 

 something toward informing you in the line 

 you desire. He is Iowa's foulbrood inspec- 

 tor, a man of whom Iowa ought to be proud. 



2. Probably you will do well to leave the 

 bees where they are until they swarm next 

 year, then hive the swarm in an up-to-date 

 hive, and 2i days later break up the old hive. 



3. Likely the work of the bee-moth or wax- 

 worm. They are quite troublesome with 

 weak colonies of black bees, but Italians 

 keep them under control. If your bees are 

 mostly of black blood, you will do well to 

 introduce Italian blood. 



Miscellaneous Questions 



1. How long may I keep queeni caged (after 

 they have commenced to lay) without danger 

 of injuring them ? 



2 Woulc^n't it be better to cage them on a 

 comb of unsealed honey, on the push in- 

 cage method, than in cages with candy ? 



3. Are not queens reared from the egg bet- 

 ter than those reared from the grub ? 



i If I brush the bees from my section 

 honey and put it in folding cartons, such as 

 are listed in supply catalogs, right in the 



the queen be caged in a strange colony, if 

 caged among her own bees there would be 

 no advantage in it. For in that case the 

 bees feed the queen, which is probably bet- 

 ter than for her to feed herself. 



3, I don't believe they are if the grub be 

 young enough. Scientists tell us that during 

 the first three days the food to the queen 

 larva is the same as to the worker larva, 

 only in larger quantity. But it is likely the 

 worker gets all it can eat; so theoretically 

 a queen reared from a worker larva three 

 d tys old should be as good as one reared 

 from the egg. I think, however, that a larva 

 of less age is better, because when bees 

 have their choice they select one younger; I 

 think not more than perhaps a day and a 

 half old. Such a queen is probably as good 

 as one reared from the egg. 



4. No, you can't trust to anything of tde 

 kind. Years ago, if I took off sections and 

 kept them where no moth could touch them, 

 within two weeks tiny worms would appear 

 here and there. The only way I could un- 

 derstand it was that the moth must have 

 gotten inside the hive and laid eggs on the 

 sections. Of late years I have no trouble of 

 the kind, probably because of Italian blood. 



5, Likely, unless you have more drone- 

 comb than desirable in the brood-chamber. 

 For the bees will build drone-comb in the 

 sections and the queen will lay in them. 



6, The Hubbard section-press, the Daisy 

 fastener, and thin super foundation. 



7. I don't know. If a queen, when at rest, 

 does not have her wings folded together flat, 

 which very rarely occurs, there is likely 

 some little defect. But that may not hinder 

 her being a good queen to lay. 



COLORADO COLUMBINES-Photograph by Gale H. Patterson 



as you will have by taking brood only from 

 the best. You say you destroy all but one 

 cell. That is well in a full colony, but hardly 

 wise in a nucleus. For in the nucleus the 

 bees will take care of the matter them- 

 selves, with no thought of swarming, and 

 will be a little more sure then to have the 

 best of the virgins left. 



3. For a virgin to go with a swarm, leaving 

 the old queen in the hive, is something that 

 very rarely occurs, but it may happen. 



carton. , , , . . 



5 Will I be bothered with brood in sec- 

 tions if I use onlv starters? I mean without 



Wants Instruction and Organization of Bee Asso- 

 ciations 



1 1 wonder if it would be possible to have, 

 in this city, some instructors or bee meet- 

 ings like I read about? We have several 

 beekeepers the most of them are farmers, 

 but several are here in town; none of them 

 know very much about beekeeping. I he 

 most of them catch a swarm and keep it 

 until winter and then kill it to get the honey. 

 What I have reference to is this, is it pos- 

 sible to have some one come here lo make 

 a speech on bees and bee culture and then 

 perhapsorganizea beekeepers' association ? 



2 I have a colony in a common store box. 

 How can 1 transfer them into a regular bee- 

 hive, and at what time. 



3 I see every day in front of one hive some 

 dead bees anfl 'yhi'F worms and white bees 



W lugs dl C K^t't;' »" J '" 



high winged sisters ? 



Answers— 1. I don't know. No doubt 

 something depends upon circumstances. If 

 a queen should be catied in a hive among 

 her own bees, so that they can feed her, she 

 would likely endure confinement several 

 times as long as she would if the cage were 

 left out of the hive with candy for the queen 

 to eat. I have often had a queen caged 

 in her hive m days or so with no ap- 

 parent harm, and my guess would be that 

 she might stand it three to five times as 

 long. Caged outside the hive, m days might 

 be all or more than she would stand, 



J. The way you suegest would be better if 



Virgin Going With Swarm 



I have been considerably puzzled by a 

 case called to my attention in which a party 

 claims that a hive of bees swarmed with a 

 virgin queen, leaving a clipped queen at the 

 head of the colony. 



I have been under the impression that the 

 bees or the virgin queen generally kill the 

 old queen on account of her inability to 

 leave with the swarm, Colorado. 



answer —You are right in your impres- 

 sion as to the bees of the virgin putting out 

 of the way the old queen ; at any rate, when 

 a colony with a clipped queen swarms, and 

 the beekeeper does not interfere, you may 

 count ujon the old queen turning up miss- 

 ing a week or more after the issuing of the 

 primeswarm. and the colony swarming with 

 the virgin. But I think I have seen reports 

 of rare exceptions. At any rate, it is not 

 impossible that the old queen might be suf- 

 fered to remain, perhaps both queen and 

 virgin going with the swarm, and then the 

 old queen crawling back into the hive. 



A Beginner 



I am inexperienced in the bee business 

 but anxious to learn. March 2o. i«i5. I se- 

 cured one old-fashioned box hive of bees. 

 They were pretty good hybrids, but did not 

 swarm until June 2ti, when a fine swarm 

 came out, and as I had secured three »- 

 frame dovetail hives, 1 had no trouble to get 

 them to set up housekeeping at once in one 

 of them. They have been strong from the 

 start and on looking in the hive some two 

 weeks ago I decided they were ready for the 

 super so I put one on filled with sections 

 and foundation, but they did not seem to 

 take kindly to the upper story. On Aug. u. 

 this prime swarm sent out a hne big swarm. 



Now will this colony make enough lo live 

 on? I'gave them full sheets of foundation, 

 and the white clover seems to be at its best, 

 now, has a vigorous growth and sending out 

 lots of bloom also a good show for fall pas- 

 ture of all kinds? How will a beginner 

 know if they need feeding, and how would 

 you advise to begin? Wait until bloom is 

 all gone? How can I tell how much honey 



