1913. 



American l^ee Journal 



thought I might possibly learn something 

 from Dr. Miller's "Honey as a Health 

 Food" that might explain the matter. 

 California 

 Answers. — The first thought is that 

 there must be some mistake, and that 

 the honey is blamed for a trouble that 

 is due to something else. But if a num- 

 ber of you have found the trouble arising 

 every time you eat the honey, and only 

 then, it is possible the honey is at fault. 

 You do not say what kind of honey it is, 

 and it is possible that you do not know, 

 for it isn't always easy to know the 

 source of honey. Very likely, however, 

 I couldn't tell any more about it if I 

 knew from what flowers it was gathered. 

 I'll tell you what you do. Send a sample 

 of the honey to Dr. E. F. Phillips, De- 

 partment of Agriculture, Washington, D. 

 C and he may be able to tell you some- 

 thing about it. It will cost you nothing 



Some Queen Questions 



.■\t what age will a young queen begin 

 to lay eggs? Some one told me that she 

 will first lay eggs when she is 2 or 3 

 months old. Is he right ? 



2. Will a queen's wings grow again 

 after they are clipped? I suspect that 

 turkeys' wings can grow again the same 

 as queens'. Bee-books do not say queens' 

 wings would grow again. 



4. If queens' wings were clipped would 

 swarming be heard ? I would not be ab- 

 sent from the apiary. 



5. Can a young queen be kept in a 

 small cage in a room of the house for 

 .■I or 4 weeks with sweets, before giving 

 her to a queenles nucleus? How long 

 can she be kept in it? Indiana. 



.\nswers. — I. I doubt if he is very 

 sure. If a queen does not lay before she 

 is 2 weeks old she is a rather slow 

 coach, and she oftener lays when she is 

 8 or 10 days old. 



2. A queen's wing that is clipped will 

 not grow again; never, never; no, not the 

 least little bit. 



3. Yes, a swarm will be heard to make 

 exactly the same noise, whether the queen 

 be clipped or not. But of course a clipped 

 queen can not go with the swarm, and 

 when the swarm finds out the queen is 

 not with them they will return to their 

 old home, unless you set a new hive on 

 the old stand for them. 



4. She can be thus kept, sometimes a 

 week, sometimes 3 or 4 weeks, or possi- 

 bly longer. Much depends upon having 

 the right temperature for her. Likely 

 somewhere about 80 or 90 degrees would 

 suit her best. 



Miscellaneous Questions 



1. In stapling on queen-cells, do you 

 ever have the bees tear them down? 



2. Don't you think l^-inch too thin for 

 outer walls of chaff-hives? 



3. How long will they last, if you have 

 ever seen them used? 



4. Which is better, H^nch outer and 

 inner walls with 2 inches of packing be- 

 tween, or ^-inch outer with 'Ji-inch in- 

 ner, with an inch space packed or dead- 

 air ? 



5. On page 254 of "Forty Years Among 

 the Bees" you give a plan of increase of 

 I) to 56 colonics. Have you any comment 

 to make on this plan? I am going to 

 try it this year. 



6. Is a block of wood just as good as 

 grass for an entrance-closer for a nu- 

 cleus, removing same in 4 or 5 days? 



7. Is there any trouble witli robber- 

 bees bothering new nuclei? 



8. Is it best to set nuclei quite a dis- 



tance from strong colonies? 



9. Feeding g parts water to one of su- 

 gar outdoors — don't you think this would 

 cause robbing? 



10. Where foundation in sections has 

 been partly drawn by the bees last year, 

 will it do to use those sections and 

 foundation this year, or would I better 

 cut it out and put in ne\V foundation? 



Missouri. 

 .Answers. — i. No, if the cell is torn 

 open at any point, no matter how little, 

 the bees will destroy it : if the cell is 

 entire it will remain so. This refers, 

 of course, to a time when the bees de- 

 sire a queen-cell ; if they do not desire it 

 they will tear it down at any time, no 

 matter how sound. 



2. In case of a double wall there is 

 likely but little difference between ^ 

 and a full inch. 



3. I have not had any. 



4. I don't know ; with close joints 1 

 believe I would chance the first. 



5. The plan is a good one if you do 

 not care for any honey ; but the danger 

 with many would be that they would 

 overdo the thing and try to go too fast. 

 There is danger, too, of keeping up the 

 division too late, and going into winter 

 with some colonies too weak to winter. 



6. Perhaps in some cases ; generally not. 

 The grass allows a trifle more ventila- 

 tion ; and if you forget to open it at the 

 right time the bees will do so. Besides, 

 it is just possible that the bees will be 

 less likely to return to their old home 

 if they can just squeeze through one at 

 a time than they will with a full open- 

 ing. 



7. I came pretty near saying always. 

 I'll modify that by saying always if honey 

 is not yielding, and care should be takeii 

 even when it is yielding. 



8. I don't believe it makes much dif- 

 ference. 



9. Not unless some blundering work 

 is done about it. If the feeding be done 

 a few rods from the hive there may be 

 no more danger than when bees are gath- 

 ering nectar from the flowers. For re- 

 member that when bees are gathering 

 from buckwheat in the forenoon with 

 nothing to do in the afternoon, there is 

 danger of some dishonest work in the 

 after part of the day. 



to. If it is clean, with no remains of 

 candied honey, use it again. 



Honey-Dew Questions 



1. Does honey-dew ever appear before 

 July 1st? 



2. Will bees work on honey-dew dur- 

 ing a flow from clover or basswood " 



3. Are we liable to have a flow of 

 honey-dew any time during the summer? 



4. How often in the last 10 years has 

 honey-dew damaged your white honey ? 



5. What weather conditions are agree- 

 able to the plant-louse? Onto. 



Answers.— i. I think it does. 



2. Not to any great etxent. They pre- 

 fer the better article of food. 



3. I suppose we are. 



4. Never once : nor, I think, in 2'j 

 years. I think I have never been seri- 

 ously troubled with honey-dew mor^^ than 

 twice in 50 years. So you see I'm not 

 the best authority on that subject, and it 

 may be well for you not to place too 

 much dependence on my answer. 



5. I don't know. I suppose that like 

 other folks they like pleasant weather. 

 Dikely, however, your question has ref- 

 erence to the kind of weather most likely 

 ,to make trouble for the bee-keeper on 

 account of honey-dew. As to that, one 

 would not expect much trouble from 

 jilant-lice during a rainy time when the 



honey-dew is washed away. On the other 

 hand, hot, dry weather causing the liquid 

 to condense on the leaves, would have a 

 tendency to make it more attractive to 

 the bees. But, as already intimated, it is 

 likely that the presence or absence 01 

 honey from good sources has more to do 

 with the case than weather conditions. 

 Please remember that a plant-louse is a 

 plant-louse ; it must keep at work to live, 

 and it can not make too much conces 

 sion to weather conditions. 



Do Bees Carry Disease to Fruit- 

 Trees? 



Do bees carry any diseases? The other 

 day Mr. John J. Myles visited my bee- 

 yard. He is quite an intelligent youns 

 man, and resides in Washington on a 

 farm. He also wants to start in the bee 

 business. He raises alfalfa and fruit, and 

 bis neighbors do the same. He came to 

 me to get information about bees. Of 

 course, I recommended the literature 

 first, such as bee-papers, bee-books, etc.. 

 and showed him all I could about my 

 bee-hives. He said the fruit-growers are 

 complaining that the bees carry black rot 

 on apple-trees from one to the other, and 

 that he is afraid they would prohibit 

 him from keeping bees on his own place. 

 He also said that the fruit-growers have 

 the same complaint about the black rot 

 on apple-trees, where they really do nr>\ 

 keep bees, and they want to destroy all 

 the bees to save their apple-trees from 

 black rot. I was astonished when I 

 heard such a report. 



I have been raising trees myself over 

 30 years, and I planted over 80.000 trees 

 the last 4 years, and most of the time 1 

 am among the fruit-trees. I have kept 

 bees all the time among the fruit-trees. 

 I never saw that the bees did any damage 

 to apple-trees or any other trees, blos- 

 oms or vegetation of any kind. They do 

 no harm to any fruit or grapes. But il 

 there is any harm done, the orchard man 

 or some scientific man sits in an office 

 somewhere in town and writes articles 

 for the papers for which they get paid, 

 and, as a rule, some of them can't tell 

 a peach;tree from an apple-tree : and with 

 re.gard to the growers, if they would in^ 

 vestigate what they spray the trees with, 

 and when they spray the fruit-trees, they 

 probably would find out that it is not 

 the bees. Init some other cause of the 

 black rot on apple-trees. It may be the 

 shallow planting, and may be spray of 

 arsenate of lead, or some other ca'ise 

 But I know one thing is sure, that 1 

 lost my best apple-trees by spraying with 

 arsenate of lead for the coddling-moth. 

 r quit the arsenate of lead and have no 

 trouble in my orchard. I use a dift'erent 

 kind of spray which will do no harm to 

 the trees. The arsenate of lead will not 

 only poison the tree, but it will do no 

 good to the fruit and to the bees. There 

 is a chance to poison all. 



If the fruit-growers want to destroy 

 bees, then they may start destroying flies, 

 ants, yellow jackets, bumble-bees, wild 

 bees, and all the singing birds, and then 

 they will see that they will have no dis- 

 ease on the trees — and no fruit at all, 

 either. Oregon. 



Answer. — That's a new one on me. 

 Didn't know that bees were ever ac- 

 cused of carrying black rot, although ( 

 have .heard them accused by ignorant 

 people of doing very bad things. How 

 can they carry black rot ? Is there any- 

 thing about it to attract bees in the least? 

 Even if there were, how would they or 

 could they be induced to carry it to a 

 sound fruit? There is nothing about a 

 sound apple to make a bee want to visit 



