344 



November, 1912. 



American Vae Jonrnal 



taining undesirable stock, tliey will not 

 mate through the excluders. 



I thought by the first plan there would be 

 no undesirable drones to worry about. 

 Would the queen be first-class mated with 

 drones front the same colony, or. in other 

 words, with her brother? Would these 

 drones, by the first plan, be old enough lo 

 mate with the queens when they are ready ? 



SuiiSCRlBER. 



Answer. — Either of your plans may work, 

 although perhaps not exactly as you expect. 

 By the first plan you may not succeed in 

 having drones in your best colony in ad- 

 vance of the others, for if the others are 

 stronger they may have drones first in spite 

 of your feeding. You will do well to 

 strengthen your best colony by giving it 

 brood from the stronger of the other colo- 

 nies. That will hasten the drones you de- 

 sire and delay the others. Vou can also 

 prevent undesirable drones by shaving the 

 heads of the drone-brood every 2 weeks. If 

 the drones you desire are hatched before 

 queen-cells are started, they ought to be old 

 enough. But what about drones from neigh- 

 boring colonies ? If there are bees within 2 

 miles of you. drones from them are likely to 

 meet your virgins. 



Killing the old queens and substituting 

 queen-cells will interferea good deal with 

 your honey crop, for there will be 10 days or 

 so when no eggs will be laid, and that means 

 iust so many less bees to gather the harvest. 

 Some of the queens may be lost on their 

 wedding flight, and that will make matters 

 still worse. 



It is doubtful if you will like the plan of 

 having queencellsstarted by laying a brood- 

 comb flat over the top-bars as well as the 

 one given on page 243 of the August number 

 of this Journal. The former plan originated 

 in Austria, and since its first announcement 

 the foreign bee journals have had little or 

 nothing to say about it. which does not 

 speak much tor its popularity. 



Although inbreeding is not always desir- 

 able, if you have vigorous stock you may 

 have good results from having your virgins 

 meet drones from their own colony. A drone 

 from a virgin's own colony is not really her 

 brother, but her half-brother. He has the 

 same mother, but his father is the grand- 

 father of the virgin, and the drone has none 

 of the blood of the virgin's father. 



Your second plan will make little or no in- 

 terference with your honey crop, and on 

 that account is preferable. If I understand 

 you correctly, you mean to put excluders at 

 the entrances of hives containing undesir- 

 able drones, expecting that these excluders, 

 while allowing virgins to pass, would pre- 

 vent the passage of queens. I am not sure 

 you can get excludei-zinc of that sort. All 

 that I have ever seen is made with slots so 

 small as to prevent the passage of virgins. 

 But you can prevent drones in the way 

 already mentioned. 



Introducing Queens Making Nuclei— Excep- 

 tional Cases 



In forming one of my nuclei I did not dis- 

 cover the queen in the hive from which I 

 took it. but after looking over the removed 

 frames carefully. I concluded she must be 

 in the hive. In 5 days I looked to see if the 

 new queen had begun to lay. I was sur- 

 prised to find the queen still in the cage, 

 although the candy was eaten out and the 

 bees were going in and out freely. I looked 

 over the frames and found brood too old to 

 be produced by this queen, even had she 

 been out of the cage and returned to it. 

 Careful search revealed the old clipped 

 queen from the parent hive. Was it not 

 rather odd tliat the new queen was not de- 

 stroyed ? In another nucleus I found sealed 

 queen cells, and thought the queen had 

 been destroyed. 1 was about to close up 

 the hive, but decided to see how many cells 

 had been started, so 1 looked at the next 

 frame and there was the queen iierfectly at 

 home and "doing business." lent out the 

 cells and they have gone on all right. 



Illinois. 



Answer. — Although not much is said 

 about it in books or papers, neither incident 

 you mention is so very exceptional. I have 

 had quite a number of cases in which the 

 queen remained in the cage after the bees 

 had eaten out the candy and were freely 

 passing in and out of the cage. In some 

 cases this hail continued for a week when I 

 let the queen out of the cage, and it is pos- 

 sible that it might have continued indefi- 

 nitely. In your case I don't suppose the 

 presence of the old queen in the hive had 

 anything lo do with the other queen remain- 

 ing in the cage. At any rate in the cases I 



have had there was no other queen in the 

 hive. You may ask why did not the bees 

 kill the new queen as soon as they could get 

 at her. seeing their old queen was in the 

 hive. I don't know why it is. but it is a fact 

 that bees will not molest a queen in a cage 

 as readily as they will out of it. If that 

 queen had come out of the cage, it is quite 

 likely she would have been killed. Kven 

 then she might not have been if the older 

 queen were quiteold. for with the old queen 

 in the hive bees will suffer a young one to 

 be introduced, either virgin or laying. In 

 one respect, however, you had something 

 very unusual. You had a queen remain in 

 the cage after the cage was open, and you 

 had Ihebees practically accept a new queen 

 with the old one present. I never had both 

 of these things happen at the same time. 



The other case— the bees starting queen- 

 cells with the young queen present— is. I 

 think, still more common. When a virgin 

 queen is present, and the bees have eggs or 

 young brood, they may start cells and then 

 destroy them later. When a laying queen is 

 introduced. I think it is the rule rather than 

 the exception for the bees to start cells, to 

 be destroyed by them a little later; although 

 I am not so sure about their destroying the 

 cells, for I have generally taken the destroy- 

 ing into my own hands. 



damaging the chances of the bees for sate 

 wintering. Better leave it until spring, or 

 until next summer after the bees have 

 swarmed. They will not waste it. and you 

 can get later what honey they can spare. If 

 they were in a movable-comb hive you could 

 safely take the honey now. 



You are in latitude 41 north, or a little 

 more, and in Illinois that's very nearly the 

 dividing line between outdoor and eel a r 

 wintering, with mostly cellaring But if 

 your cellar is damp and cold, and there is no 

 way to warm it. you may do better outdoors. 



Bees Throwing Out Larvae and Young Bees 



What is the cause of bees throwing out 

 their young, at intervals, the brood that 

 have just past the larval stage? I have no- 

 ticed, from March of this year up to date, 

 the bees of every one of my hives at times 

 throwing out white brood; and my neighbor 

 informs me that he has noticed one of his 

 colonies dragging out hatching brood— young 

 bees that could crawl. He says this colony 

 has plenty of stores in the brood-chamber, 

 and he has taken 25 pounds of honey from it 

 in the last few days (not from the brood- 

 chamber, but from the super). 



Now, I suppose that this destruction of 

 brood was due either to lack of supplies or 

 to the moth worm. Tennessee. 



Answer.— I don't know. You are quite 

 right in thinking that starvation and the 

 moth can generally be given as the cause of 

 destruction of brood; starvation if the 

 brood be still white, and the moth if it be 

 nearly mature. But in the present case it 

 cannot be starvation, and hardly the moth, 

 since you had that in mind and woidd be on 

 the lookout for it. Poison is the next guess. 

 If it were in fruit-bloom it might be from pois- 

 onous spraying; but you say it hasconiinued 

 from March until the latter part of Septem- 

 ber. Is there a possibility of any other kind 

 of poison ? Can any one help with a better 

 guess? 



Changing the Location of Colonies 



I have b colonies of bees which I keep for 

 pastime and study, as they please me and 

 take up many interesting moments. I would 

 like a little information, but first I must ex 

 plain. The hives are scattered, and I would 

 like to have them closer together. ( )ne hive 

 is north of my house. ^ west of the house, 

 about 20 feet from the first, then about t^o feet 

 farther west comes another, and then again 

 about 80 feet west is the last one. The ad- 

 vice I seek is w/u-n and /tow to get these all 

 to the east of the house. I winter them in 

 the cellar. I will greatly appreciate your 

 advice. Iowa. 



Answer.— That's easy. You will soon put 

 them in the cellar, and when you put 

 them out in the spring, without any cere- 

 mony, you can put them just where you 

 want thtm. To be sure, some say that bees 

 remember through the winter where their 

 old stands were, but there cannot be much 

 troulile from that, for I have many times 

 put tny bees on new stands in the spring 

 without trouble. 



Getting Honey from a Box-Hive 



In June I found a large swarm of bees and 

 put them in a shoe-box. not liavi[ig any bee- 

 hive. I have left them in the shoe box. and I 

 think there must be about iom pounds of 

 honey in it. as it is all that I can do to lift it. 

 What IS the best way to get a portion of this 

 honey without damaging the bees or their 

 winter supply? What is the best way to 

 keep bees over winter ? My cellar is rather 

 cold, and slightly damp. Would it do to 

 keep them there ? Illinois. 



.•\ssWER.--It is very doubtful whether you 

 can take any honey away without badly 



Feeding for Winter—Foundation 



1. When shall I give the bees their large 

 feed for winter ? 



2. How many pounds of sugar should 1 give 

 a colony that has very little stores at the 

 present time ? 



3. How many pounds of comb foundation 

 would it take to fill one brood-chamber of id 

 frames with full sheets? Also, to fill one 

 super with 23 sections ? Indiana. 



Answers —I. The sooner the better. Sep- 

 tember is none too early, but in your locality 

 there will be warm days much later. 



2. Twenty-five pounds of sugar is none too 

 much for a colony that has no stores. From 

 that you must deduct for any stores they 

 have on hand. Remember, however, that's 

 the weight of the sugar, not sugar syrup, 

 and the water in the syrup will of course be 

 additional weight. 



3. For 10 Langstroth frames it takes about 

 i/i pounds of medium brood foundation, 

 and one pound of light brood. For 28 sec- 

 tions it will take about ^4 pound of thin 

 foundaiton. 



How to Get Bees Cheapest 



I lost all my bees last winter. I suppose 

 from starvation. I don't know how to han- 

 dle them, but am trying to learn. How can 

 I get bees cheapest and learn how to take 

 care of them ? North D.^^kota. 



Answer.— 1 don't know how you can get 

 bees cheapest. Depends upon circum- 

 stances. Generally you will do best to buy 

 near home so as to avoid the heavy expense 

 of expressage. for railroads will not carry 

 less than a car-lot of bees by freight. Some- 

 times there may be bees purchasable within 

 a short distance of you without your know- 

 ing it. A small advertisement in this Jour- 

 nal might bring you knowledge of such 

 cases. It will be worth your while, too. to 

 keep watcn of the advertising columns of 

 the bee journals next spring, for some one 

 may there offer bees for sale that will meet 

 your needs. As your bees died, perhaps 

 you have saved the combs in good shape. 

 Even if not in very good shape bees can 

 clean them up. By spring the new parcels 

 post will be in operation, and it may be that 

 bees will be offered to be sent by parcels 

 post in light shipping-cases. These you 

 could put upon your emrtty combs or else 

 upon full sheets of foundation. 



As to learning how to to take care of bees, 

 there are two ways— three, really. First, 

 you can learn through your own experience 

 and mistakes. Second, you can learn from 

 the experience of others. ThiYd. you can 

 combine the two. Tiie first is an excellent 

 way. What you learn that way you are 

 likely to learn for keeps. But it is an ex- 

 pensiveway. And a veryslow way I learned 

 in that way that it is not a good plan to try 

 to increase too rapidly. But it was an ex- 

 pensive lesson, for it cost me 43 colonies of 

 bees— rather parts of colonies, for they were 

 weaklings. Vox a very few cents I might 

 have learned the same lesson from the ex- 

 perience of others, as given in books and 

 papers— if I had had the books and papers. 

 But books and papers about bees were not 

 as plenty then as now. The third way is the 

 best way. tiet all you can from the experi- 

 ence of others, by getting a number of books 

 and papers. You may think a single book is 

 enougiL But by studying a second book, 

 even it the same facts are presented, you 

 will get a different view, and if you are 

 going to do very much with bees it will pay 

 you in ciollars and cents to spend a good 

 deal for reading. Then put into practice 

 what you learn from reading, and add to it 

 your Own experience. There is really no 

 short cut. although learning from reading is 

 a very short cut as compared with going 

 through it all for yourself. But it pays all it 

 costs, both in dollars and cents and in satis- 

 faction. 



I have one hive consisting of two full- 

 depth supers of 8 frames each, one on top 



