246 



August, 1:112. 



American ~Bae Journal 



will put a lot of honey into those drawn 

 combs below the broo<i. At least my bees 

 (H<i. 'I'lien the brood-nest may continue 

 above and the honey below. But that is not 

 at all likely to continue for any length of 

 lime. The broodnest is likely to work its 

 way down into the lower story. Brood may 

 continue to occni^y both stories. More likely 

 the lower story will become tilled with 

 brood, and the uijper story become wholly, 

 or. in part, tilled with honey. Sometimes 

 the central combs in each story will be filled 

 with brood and the outer combs with honey. 

 I'ldess queen-cells are well under way 

 when drawn combs are put under, there 

 will likely be no inclination to swarm liven 

 if queen-cells are started, if they are cut out 

 they may not be started a^ain. 



Swarms Refusing to Stay in a Hive 



Please tell me how to keep the bees of a 

 swarm from swarmiiiK out again. I lost sev- 

 eral swarms this summer by their swarmine 

 out. They were rnit in new hives that I 

 bought 2 years aeo. Iowa. 



Answkr.— Years ago it was more or less 

 the practice to wash out the hives with this 

 or that under the notion that certain odors 

 made it attractive to the swarm put in it. 

 Nowadays nothing is wanted but a clean 

 hive. Your hives were.no doubt, all right. 

 But it's a pretty safe guess that the bees 

 were uncomfortable for all that. Either 

 they were too warm or had too little air. 

 I^ikely both. When you hive a swarm see 

 that it has abundant ventilation. Give it as 

 large an entrance as you can. If practica- 

 ble it is a good plan to raise the hive an inch 

 or so from the bottom-board by putting 

 blocks under the corners. Shove the cover 

 forward so as to make an opening of half an 

 inch, or an inch, at the back end. After 2 or 

 3 days you can lessen the ventilation if you 

 think best. The hive should be in a shady, 

 airy place If you cannot give shade in any 

 other way. cut an armful of long grass, put 

 it on the hive, lay 2 or i sticks of firewood 

 on it to keep it froin blowing way. Some 

 make a practice of giving a frame of brood 

 to the swarm. The bees think that it is 

 such a good start toward housekeeping that 

 they are unwilling to leave it without great 

 provocation. 



Bad Losses Partly Caused by Spring Dwindling 



If you can tell what ails the bees this 

 spring, please do so. I had mo colonies, fall 

 count. April 10 I had lost only lo colonies, 

 then they commenced to dwindle. The 

 spring was very late, but I found only 2 colo- 

 nies short of stores. As soon as the weather 

 got warm they left the hives, and those that 

 did not died in May. There was but little 

 brood, and not enough bees to cover that 

 little. I have now 3o colonies left, and one- 

 half of them are so weak that if they live 

 through they will do well. Last season was 

 a i>oor honey season: no early How. and none 

 after Aug. 15: no late brood, and all old bees 

 at the commencement of winter. 



The hives had lots of honey in them, but 

 we got but little in the supers. I melted 400 

 pounds of honey taken from the hives where 

 the bees had died or left. I found none 

 without honey except about 15 strong colo- 

 nies; those I fed. and they are doing well 

 now. Kvery one is in the same fix. One 

 man with 30 colonies has one left; and an- 

 other with touohasone-half left. The general 

 loss is about 50 percent. 



The bee-keepers' association met here the 

 first of the month, and reported the loss as 

 State wide, and I see by the Bee Journal 

 that Wisconsin suffered, loo. and California 

 is also hit hard. Utah seems to have es- 

 caped. I think we will have to quit bee- 

 keeping and try something not so uncertain. 



Col.dKADO. 



Answer.— I don't know enough losay what 

 the trouble was. It seems that the winter 

 and spring losses were ouite general, more 

 general than at first smiposed. A note from 

 the office of the Atnerican Bee lournai ac- 

 companying your letter says: ".Same con- 

 ditions with some bees here. One man has 

 30 left of iiio. s|)ring count. Bad case of 

 siirine dwindling, we c;illed it." That " 30 

 left of !im" was worse than your loss, for the 

 1(10 was siiring count, and your if.o was fall 

 count. In my own locality it was a good 

 de;tl worse. .-Xside from my own bees. I 

 think I have heard of nothing less than i;o 

 percent loss, and t>erhaiis in most cases the 

 loss was entire. Although my own loss was 

 not so bad as that, it was the worst I have 

 had in many a year. I put iij colonies in 

 the cellar-or had them put in— had 81 taken 

 out, and in lune had 1.4 left. That made the 



Bad SrRiN(j Dwindling— 30 Colonies Lkft ok i6o. 



total loss nearly 45 percent. I try to excuse 

 myself a little with thethought that my bees 

 didn't have a fair chance In the fall there 

 was sickness practically in the family, end- 

 ing with death, which kept me from giving 

 the bees the attention they ought to have 

 had. When they were taken out in the 

 spring I was sick abedwith the worst illness 

 of 30 years. But I don'tknowhow much bet- 

 ter it would have been if I had had all the 

 chance in the world. I suppose you have 

 given a pretty good answer to your own 

 question when you say your bees dwindled. 

 It was a case of spring dwindling, and a 

 pretty bad case. too. That leaves still the 

 duestion why there should be such an urt- 

 usual spring dwindling. And that's the 

 hard question to answer. The winter was 

 an unusually hard one. In this locality at 

 least I never knew such a killing one. Hardy 

 roses and other shrubs were killed outright, 

 root and branch. I never before knew grass 

 to be so badly killed. Ihe severe winter 

 was no doubt hard on the bees that were 

 wintered outdoors. And it was also hard 

 on bees wintered in cellars which are none 

 too warm in ordinary winters. But it ought 

 not to be bad in cellars like mine with a fur- 

 nace, where the problem is to keep the cel- 

 lar cool enough. 



The principal trouble. I think, both with 

 you and v.'ith me. dates farther back. The 

 season, last year, was bad. Breeding stopped 

 early, and this spring the proportion of very 

 old bees was so large that they died off 

 rapidly at the time when most needed. 

 That left, in many cases, brood with not 

 sufficient bees to cover it, and when that 

 happens there are no bees to go a-field. the 

 bees dwindle, become discouraged, and 

 sometimes desert their hives, leaving a good 

 stock of brood and stores— everything ap- 

 parently necessary for their prosperitv. In 

 your case, no doubt, the severe winter ag- 

 gravated the case. You may take comfort 

 in thinking that the same thing may not oc- 

 cur again in the next 50 years. 



Italianizing Swarms Making Increase 



1. Page 335 of " Forty Years Among the 

 Bees." headed, " Italianizing with Natural 

 Swarming," is given a iilan as follows: Call 

 Italian colony A the strcuigst. B. C and D the 

 next. When A swarms, hive the swarm and 

 set it on the old stand, muting A in place of 

 B. and B on a new stand, :ind so on. At the 

 last you s;iy, if you have only '^ or u colonies, 

 the whole lot may be thus Italianized. Now. 

 is it not a fact that the new swarms will 

 only be Italians, and the old colonies will 

 be the same as before the oiuration .' 



2. I have 3 colonies, and will call them i. 2 

 and 3. No. I has 7 frames. :ind the comb is 

 built so it cannot be removed; No. 2 is of the 

 same stock. a lid has straight combs which can 

 be removed; No. 3 is comimsed of black bees 

 and is weak. I would like to increase from 

 mv 2 best colonies, and as I cannot find any- 

 thing in my books to fit my case, how will 

 this plan work: Remove Ihe frames only in 

 No, 2. then take half the brood from .No. 2 

 and pi, ice it in a new hive, and set the new 

 hive in place of No. i. setting No. i ou a new 



stand. Shall I leave the queen in the old 

 colony, or give her to the new one ? Tiie 

 idea of putting the new colony in place of 

 No. I is to catch the flying force, as they 

 would not be apt to keep any old bees from 

 No. I. Will the queenless half rear a queen ? 

 If this is not a good plan, what would you 

 advise? Missouri. 



Answers. — I. Yes. the old colonies remain 

 the same. It might have been more clearly 

 written, but if you will notice the context 

 you will see that the swarms are referred 

 to. for immediately preceding it is said 

 "each of your swarms will have for its 

 queen a daughter of an Italian queen. 



2. Yes your plan will work. Better leave 

 the queen on the old stand, for if she is in 

 tlie hive that is put on the stand of No. r, 

 there is some danger that she may be at- 

 tacked by the returning fielders of No. i. 

 Be on tfie lookout 10 or more days after 

 making the change, for it is possible that a 

 swarm may issue with the first virgin that 

 emerges. 



Can You Destroy European Foul Brood and Save 

 the Combs? 



Tell us how to tlestroy Kuropean foul 

 brood without destroying a lot of nice, 

 straight combs. Illinois. 



Answer.— When I discovered European 

 foul brood in my apiary. I melted up hun- 

 dreds of beautiful worker combs. If Iliad 

 it to do over again I would try to save them. 

 I have been blamed for encouraging any- 

 thing of the kind, because in the hands of 

 careless bee-keepers there is danger that 

 the disease may be spread through the 

 combs that are saved. But you'll promise 

 to be very careful, won't you. if I tell you 

 how I would do — how I have done ? The 

 first thing is to have the colony strong. Foul 

 brood is not a great strengthener of colo- 

 nies, and if it has proceeded to any great ex- 

 tent you will need to strengthen thecolony 

 by giving brood or young bees, or both, from 

 healthy colonies, or by uniting diseased 

 colonies. But. remember. ///(■ <.'/('//r must be 

 stii'Nt;. The Alexander treatment requires 

 the removal of the queen, and then 20 days 

 later the giving of a ripe queen-cell or a 

 virgin just hatched of best Italian stock. 

 The bees do the rest. I l/iiir/.- 1 have had just 

 as good success without leaving the colony 

 so long without a laying queen. So instead 

 of waiting 20 days, give the colony a cell or a 

 virgin just as soon as it will accciU it after 

 the removal of the queen. 



Sometimes you may find only a single bad 

 cell, or perh:ips Hor 10. In that case it may 

 not be necessary lo do anything, .\ week or 

 two later you may find that the bees have 

 cleaned out all liiul brood :ind left nothing 

 but healthy brood ill the hive. But you may 

 find the case worse than it was. although 

 not yet a very bad case. If the queen is vig- 

 orous, and the colony appears prosiierous, 

 cage the queen and leave her in the hive. 

 After a certain period let the queen out of 

 the cage, ami if your bees do as mine have 

 done the disease will have disappeared ill 

 most cases. I say after a certain period. I 



