November. 1915. 



American ^ae Journal j 



golden queen to last fall, Perhaps they got 

 crossed with some of my drones after they 

 catne here, for Ihey don't seem to be as 

 golden as they should be; but they are 

 working later at night and earlier in the 

 morning, and finish up the sections better 

 than the others. Are they any better ? Is 

 it because they are perhaps crossed just 

 right, or is it all a happen so ? 



4. Why do we have to pay more for a 

 golden queen than we do for any other 

 kind ? Nkw York. 



Answers.— I. I don't believe the bees will 

 carry out your scheme at all. At least I 

 never could get them to do so for me. 



3. Like most beekeepers. I prefer the 3- 

 banded. 



3. There would be no change in the bees 

 so long as the same queen remained; but it 

 is quite possible that the original queen has 

 been superseded and the new queen has 

 met your drones. ICvidently the new stock 

 is better than your old stock, but without 

 trying them side by side you can hardly tell 

 whether goldens or (banders would do bet- 

 ter for you. It may be mentioned, however, 

 that there is quite a variation in the same 

 variety of bees, and from this it happens 

 that some goldens are better than some 3- 

 banders. and at the same time some jband- 

 ers. are better than some goldens. 



4. I don't know why. unless because of the 

 general law of supply and demand, which 

 makes an article cost more when it is 

 scarce. I think, however, that generally 

 one can be bought for as little as the other. 



Lesser Beemoth 



Two or three days ago when looking at a 

 nucleus that had a laying queen. I found 

 several worker bees with their heads stick- 

 ing out and acting as if they would be out 

 of the cells in a few minutes. Today look- 

 ing at the same nucleus, I saw the same 

 bees still alive and as yet in their cells, 



I got a knife and took them out, being sur- 

 prised to find their abdomens partly eaten 

 and a white worm about three-fourths inch 

 at the bottom of each cell. There were 

 about a dozen bees so aftiicted. Have never 

 before seen this; the bees immediately re- 

 moved worms and afflicted bees from the 

 nucleus. The frames have been in constant 

 use, being full of brood when placed in 

 nucleus. 



What explanation can you give for this ? 

 Rhode Island. 



Answer.— It is the work of the lesser bee- 

 moth. It seems to fasten the young bees in 

 their cells, perhaps by a web in the bottom 

 of the cells. The bees wiggle their heads 

 earnestly and constantly, but without the 

 power to get loose. Fortunately their pres 

 ence is rare, and they do not appear in large 

 numbers. I doubt if I have seen them once 

 in five years, and then on a very small scale. 



Damp Cellar 



1. My cellar floor is concrete, and is 

 always damp. lam thinking of covering it 

 with 4 inches of dry sawdust. What do you 

 think about it ? I wintered 106 colonies in 

 this cellar without a loss in 1914, but the cov- 

 ers and bottoms were very damp in the 

 spring. I gave the bees all the ventilation 

 possible according to the weather, and the 

 temperature stood at about 45 degrees on 

 too and 4.; degrees below. 



2. The plan I used on swarming in IQ14 did 

 not work this year. They swarmed with one 

 frame of brood. Did you have any trouble 

 with the sickness among your bees this 

 year about the middle of July, and if you did 

 what do you call it ? My crop this year was 

 a little better than last year, and averaged 

 about 35 pounds of comb honey to the col- 

 ony and about 65 pounds of extracted. 



3. The bottom of my cellar was sandy. 

 How would it do to break five or six holes in 

 the floor and dig a foot or so deep, or take 

 the floor out entirely ? Wisconsin. 



Answers —I. I'm afraid the sawdust will 

 not do a great deal of good. Possibly it might 

 if you should sweep it up and dry it out as 

 fast as it got wet. Lime might do more good. 



2. Yes, I had some trouble to keep down 



swarming, as I do every year, only some 

 years it is worse than others. I didn't call 

 it anything but old-fashioned swarming 

 fever. 



3. Likely the sandy floor would be better 

 than the concrete, the difference being in 

 proportion to the amount of the concrete re- 

 moved. But so long as your bees winter 

 well the dampnesss cannot be such a very 

 bad thing. 



A Beginner 



1. Is Michigan a good State for honey ? 



2. How many pounds will a colony here 

 yield per season ? 



3. Is there any way of keeping a colony 

 over winter when it has not enough honey 

 stored ? 



4. What kind of bees is best adapted for 

 this State? 



5 Name me some of the best bee flowers 

 and where could I get their seed ? 



b Could I place a new queen in a queen- 

 less colony ? . Michigan. 



.\nswers.— I. Yes, very good. 



2. That varies very greatly, according to 

 the locality, the season, and the beekeeper. 

 The average per colony may be from little 

 or nothing to 100 pounds or more. 



3. Yes, it can be fed. 



4 Italians are generally considered pref- 

 erable. 



5. White clover, raspberry, basswood, wil- 

 low herb. etc. Seed can be had of seed 

 dealers, but if you do much at beekeeping 

 you will have to have quite a large radius for 

 pasturage, so you will not think of planting, 

 but will depend on pasturage already to 

 hand. 



6. Yes, it is a common thing to introduce a 

 queen into a colony made queenless by de 

 sign or accident. 



It will pay you big to get a good book on 

 beekeeping. A book really comes before a 

 bee journal. 



European Foulbrood 



I saw in the May number of the Bee Jour- 

 nal the water cure for foulbrood. The Edi- 

 tor said in a foot-note it probably would not 

 work with European foulbrood. as the 

 queen would carry the disease. 



1. Now the question is how will she carry 

 the disease ? 



2. Will the honey of European foulbrood 

 infect other colonies ? 



3. If the queen is infected will caging cure 

 her: if so, how long must she be caged ? 



Missouri. 



Answers.— I. I don't know, but I suppose 

 //she carries the disease it must be through 

 the eggs she lays, 



2, Yes, provided the honey contains germs 

 of the disease, of which there is always dan- 

 ger. Yet I doubt if there is much danger 

 from the honey in the surplus department. 



3. I don't know: but if the queen has the 

 disease in her system I doubt the eflicacy of 

 caging. 



Bitter Honey— Pine Honey 



1. The grading rules of Colorado class as 

 not permitted in shipping grades honey 

 contaminated by honeydew. How is honey- 

 dew detected in the comb ? 



2. I found a good many granulated cells in 

 my honey. The last time I went over my 

 apiary I had taken the honey off three 

 weeks before, so this must have been new 

 honey. Can you suggest the cause of the 

 granulation ? 



3. In this vicinity. 30 miles north of Chat- 

 tanooga, all of the honey stored before May 

 20 this year was decidedly bitter. Some say 

 it was peach bloom, some black gum. some 

 dogwood. Do any of these cause bitter 

 honey? 



4. I have been inclined to think the bitter 

 honey came from the bitterweed or yellow 

 fennel, which was stored in the brood-cham- 

 bers last September, as there were lots of it 

 in this section last fall. Some of my colo- 

 nies storing as much as 20 or 30 pounds 

 apiece in supers. It was as bitter as qui- 



nine. I fed it to weaker colonies. Could 

 this have been removed from the brood- 

 chamber and carried into the super, as they 

 wanted to make room for the brood, and 

 mixed with other honey? 



5. Do bees and bumblebees ever sting each 

 other to death ? My wife, son and I wit- 

 nessed a battle royal between two honey- 

 bees and a large bumblebee. This was 

 fought on a board in front of the hive— we 

 had put it there to keep down the grass. We 

 watched the struggle in breathless suspense 

 for about ten minutes, when one of the bees 

 crawled off from the board. The other bees 

 of the hive paid no attention to them. In 

 the fight which was decidedly rough and 

 tumble, the bumblebee seemed to hold the 

 bee in such a way that it could use its 

 stinger on it; but we were not absolutely 

 sure that it stung it. Soon they both became 

 quiet and seemed to be dead. On examin- 

 ing the bumblebee we found a honeybee 

 stinger was sticking in its neck. This may 

 be a common occurrence to beemen, but 

 was new to us. We have only been in the 

 business three summers. 

 J>- Do bees ever make honey from pines ? 

 My bees are bringing in quite a little honey 

 now. Aug. 0, when usually there is nothing 

 doing in this section except a few cowpeas 

 that about feed the bees. It has been very 

 dry here for three weeks, following an un- 

 usually wet spell. During most of this time 

 the majority of the pines in this place have 

 been covered with bees, and a fine flavored 

 honey is being stored. Tennessee, 



Answers— I. I'm not sure that Colorado 

 officials have any particular rule as to how 

 it is to be detected; but a good guess can be 

 made by both looks and smell while in the 

 comb, and if necessary it can be sampled by 

 taste. It generally has a cloudy look that 

 honey does not have, and its smell is pecu- 

 liar. Even if a certain sample of honey 

 could not be positively identified as honey- 

 dew, if it were so much like it as to make it 

 difficult to decide. I suppose it would be 

 ruled out. Possibly I'm off in my views, and 

 shall begladif Mr. Rauchfuss willstraighten 

 me out, 



2. I don't know. There are certain kinds 

 of honey that granulate in the hive very 

 speedily, and you may have something of 

 that kind. The presence of granules has- 

 tens granulation, and it is possible that you 

 had sections from the previous year that 

 had not been thoroughly cleaned out. 



3. I'm rather glad to live where 1 have no 

 chance for practical knowledge as to such 

 objectionable honey, although sorry I can 

 not answer your question. Perhaps some 

 one who knows will tell us about it. 



{Hcli-iiitiw tcnuifoUum, also called "bitter- 

 weed" and " sneezeweed," yields bitter 

 honey, but it is not the same as fenne An- 

 thhnin cotiiht, which is a chamomile and 

 yields no honey. Description of " bitter- 

 weed" was given in our December. i«i4, 

 issue.— Editor,] 



4. It is possible. Generally the honey in 

 the brood-chamber is used up for brood, 

 but if the queen were crowded for room the 

 bees might carry honey from the brood- 

 chamber into the super to make room for 

 her. 



5. I think it is not very uncommon for a 

 bumblebee to attempt to enter a hive, and 

 to be seized by the bees. 1 have seen such 

 cases, and oftener I have seen the dead 

 body of a bumblebee at or near the hive 

 entrance, the hairs stripped from its body. 

 I have an impression that the honeybees 

 are never stung by the bumblebees, although 

 the honeybees often sting the bumblebees 

 but I mar be mistaken. 



6. Yes. bees store from pines, in some, 

 parts of Europe very largely. 



Robbing — Moth 



I. Last spring I put a hive in a tree with 

 one blood frame in it. The last of June a 

 small swarm of bees came to it (about half 

 a gallon of bees). \ tQok a frame of brood 



