October, 1915, 



American Boc Journal 



tliey have in hive— some say 25 pounds per 

 colony ? Missouri. 



Answer.— Like enough they will gather 

 enough stores for winter, although I should 

 put more faith in fall flowers than in the 

 clover, unless things are different from 

 what they are in my neighborhood, for 

 although there seems plenty of clover in 

 bloom the bees don't seem to get much from 

 it. There are seasons. I don't l<now why. 

 when clover shows plenty of bloom without 

 yielding nectar, and even in the best sea- 

 sons clover doesn't seem to be of any use 

 late in the season 



You might weigh the hive and its contents 

 now. and again after the fall flow is over, 

 and if it has gained 25 pounds in weight 

 there is probably enough for winter. That 

 would probably mean a difference of more 

 than 25 pounds in honey, for there is more 

 brood in the hive now than there will be at 

 the later weighing. You can also make a 

 pretty good estimate by inspection. You 

 should find enough honey in the hive, if all 

 put together, to Hll full four or five combs, 

 including the pollen that will be present. If 

 the amount falls short, and you have no 

 honey to feed them, then you can feed sugar 

 syrup in the way advised in your bee-book. 



Blossoms, But No Honey 



This spring I put a super on one of my col- 

 onies, and on Aut;. i. it was about two-thirds 

 full. 1 put another one under the full one. 

 They stopped workingin it; why is it. There 

 was a lot of buckwheat in blossom. 



Michigan. 



Answer.— I don't suppose the change you 

 made in supers had anything to do with the 

 stopping of storing. It just happened that 

 at the time you gave the second super the 

 flow ceased. Even if much buckwheat bloom 

 was in sight, it may be that it yielded no 

 nectar, which is not a very unusual thing. 



Swarms— Afterswartns 



1. Will bees work on alfalfa and pea blos- 

 soms ? 



2. How long after a young swarm comes off 

 will it put out a swarm of its own ? 



1. How late will a swarm come off and put 

 out a swarm that same year ? 



4. What is the reason that the bees gnaw 

 down the foundation starters in the brood- 

 chamber ? I have found two or three start- 

 ers lying at the bottom of the frames. A 

 few days later I found a strip that they had 

 carried out in front of the hive. 



5. If a swarm lights on the grass and you 

 do not happen to see the queen, how would 

 you hive them ? 



6. Is there any danger of clipping the 

 queen's wing too soon or before she takes 

 her mating flight ? 



7. Would it strengthen a colony to cut out 

 their first queen-cells and leave the next 

 ones if you wish them to swarm ? 



8. I thought I saw a few black drones in an 

 Italian colony. Do you think I was right or 

 was I fooled in the kind of bees ? 



«. It has been cold and rainy this spring. 

 Do you think the bees will have time to 

 make 28 pounds of honey before fall ? About 

 how late would ihey have to start ? 



lu. My bees swarmed May 31. I put on a 

 super that noon, and 11 days later they put 

 off another swarm. What was the matter 

 with them ? They have not started to build 

 in the super yet. and the new bees are still 

 bringing in honey in the bottom. What is 

 the reason f" 



II. Can I put another hive body of the 

 same dimensions, with frames of brood, 

 over the one to strengthen the colony to 

 keep them from swarming, and still go on 

 with comb or extracted honey ? 



Michigan. 



Answers —I. West of the Mississippi al- 

 falfa is a great honey plant. Farther east 

 bees pay little attention to it. Yet one day 

 this year I saw the bees busy on it. I have 

 never heard of the pea as an important 

 honey plant. 



2. Two weeks or more; but generally not 

 at all. 



I. I don't know. In a place with a strong 

 flow late enough. I suppose it might be as 

 late as September. But it would be a thing 

 not likely to happen in a hundred years. 



4. The starter may have been insufficiently 

 fastened; there may have been something 

 objectionable about the foundation; it may 

 have been that the bees were not gathering, 

 and at such a lime they will gnaw founda- 

 tion as if in pure mischief. 



5. Set the hive on the ground with the en- 

 trance close to the bees, put a few at the 



enough bees to fill half a gallon can. As the 

 swarm season is over long ago. I took this 

 lor a case of supersedure. especially be- 

 cause only a few colonies had swarmed this 

 season. Am I correct ? Indiana. 



Answer. -You are quite likely correct, 

 the bees have reared a young queen to su- 

 persede the old one. and when the young 

 queen takes her mating flight some of the 

 bees swarm out with her. 



Tiering -Returning Unfinished Sections 



I. How high do you tier up? lam usinr 



APIARY OF GALE H. PATTERSON. AT CEDAREDGE. COLO. 



entrance, and let the rest follow. 



1. Great danger. If you clip her before 

 mating she will be a drone-layer if she lays 

 at all 



7. There might be more bees by such delay 

 in swarming, and that would strengthen 

 either the swarm or the colony. 



8. Nothing strange about it. Drones are 

 freebooters, and in prosperous times will be 

 accepted in any colony. So black drones 

 may have come from some other colony. It 

 is also true that pure Italian drones are 

 sometimes very dark when the workers are 

 properly marked 



0. Sure. They might start any time in the 

 fall if there's forage enough after that time. 



I". It is the usual thing for bees to send 

 out a second swarm about eight days after 

 the prime swarm, and it may be as much as 

 It) days later. They may also send out a 

 third, fourth swarm, or more, and even if 

 they send out only one swarm they are not 

 likely soon to do anything in super, if at all. 



II. It would interfere with comb honey, 

 but not with extracted. 



Why Do Some Swarms Return? 



It has occurred three times that bees 

 swarmingand settling, even going into hives 

 by themselves, have returned to the old 

 hive, although the queen wasn't clipped. 

 What was the cause ? Pennsyl; ania. 



Answer —That might happen with an old 

 queen having defective wings, or possibly 

 too heavy with eggs to fly. It happens more 

 often with a virgin queen when she goes on 

 her wedding flight. For some reason the 

 bees go with her. regular swarm fashion, 

 and then return to Iheold place. 



A Superseding Swarm 



On Aug. 13. a small swarm of bees issued 

 and clustered near by. There were hardly 



the lownsend way by putting an extracted 

 comb on each side and sections in the cen- 

 ter, and on some hives I use shallow extract- 

 ing frames filled with comb. I find these 

 were one-half to three-fourths filled with 

 honey by June 16. and have put supers filled 

 with sections under the partly filled ones. 



2 The weather here has been cool and 

 rainy, giving the bees but little chance to 

 work, still they have stored some honey. 

 Thereis lots of white clover, and I think it 

 will last from three to four weeks without 

 any rain. With these conditions I think it 

 will turn out all right. 



3. If I use Dr. Miller's plan of taking off 

 honey, taking the filled and capped ones 

 are the unfinished ones returned to the same 

 hive and in place of the ones taken out new 

 sections put on. or do you fill thissuper with 

 other partly-filled sections taken from an- 

 other hive ? 



4 When do you give a newly-hived swarm 

 a super ? If given too soon is there any dan- 

 ger of the queen entering it? How much 

 comt) honey can I expect from agood swarm 

 hived about June 2. with conditions as given 

 herewith? lowA. 



Answers— 1. In a very poor season there 

 will be no tiering up. In a good season, after 

 the season has fairly advanced, there will 

 be three or four supers on each hive, and 

 from that up to seven or eight. But in the 

 latter case the top and the bottom super 

 will likely be empty or nearly so. 



2 Just as soon as the second super is 

 about half filled, with continuing prospects 

 such as you describe I should add a third 

 super at the bottom, and also one on top. 

 Like enough the bees may not enter the 

 upper one. but it serves as a safety valve, 

 and it will be in good shape to put down 

 when the next one is needed below. 



3. The unfinished sections from different 

 hives are assembled into one super, and 

 then this super is put back, possibly on a 

 hive from which none of the unfinished 

 ones were taken, no attention b^ing given to 



