JAXUAKV, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



the entrance. This, in our opinion, is re- 

 moved simply because, unless sutSciently 

 moistened, it is not in suitable condition 

 for the bees' use, and not because there is 

 nectar in the fields. In fact, bees often 

 store new honey right in the same cells on 

 top of the candied honey. If combs of 

 candied honey are removed from the hive, 

 uncapped, dipped in hot water, and returned 

 to the hives wet, much of this honey will be 

 saved that would otherwise be wasted. 



Question.- — Why are drones tolerated in colonies 

 as late as Deceml>er 6th? Claude Barker. 



Avilla, Mo. 



Answer. — Drones maj' be found late in 

 the fall, if there is a late fall flow or if the 

 bees are fed regularly. Otherwise, their 

 presence would indicate the absence of a 

 good queen, and the colony would be found 

 to be queenless or possessed of a failing 

 queen, drone-layer, or laj'ing-workers. 



Question. — Three of my colonies have foul brood. 

 Do you think that by wintering them with healthy 

 ones in the same room of the cellar, I endanger 

 the healthy colonies? J. B. Bowman. 



Bridger, Mont. 



Answer. — If right conditions could be 

 maintained so that the bees would remain 

 contented in their hives, there would proba- 

 bly be no spread of the disease. Still, we 

 would not care to take chances on such a 

 proposition. 



Question. — At Grand Rapids I became acquaint- 

 ed with a beekeeper that advocates the attic way 

 of keeping bees with no swarming, but I would 

 like to look up the matter some before deciding on 

 no-swarm hives. Will you kindly give me your 

 opinion? Wm. J. Runyan. 



Coopersville, Mich. 



Answer. — Bees may be kept in the attic; 

 but this in no way prevents swarming nor 

 has there yet been invented a practical non- 

 swarming hive. From your allusion to 

 Grand Rapids we rather suspect you have 

 in mind the Pearce new method of beekeep- 

 ing. If so, we suggest that you would doubt- 

 less be interested to read a book review as 

 given on page 633 of the October number 

 of Gleanings. 



Questions. — (1) Would you expect an untested 

 queen from the mails, introduced late in the fall 

 after all brood-rearing had stopped, to do as good 

 work the next year as one that had been intro- 

 duced earlier and had layed a few weeks? (2)1 

 noticed at different time.s, during the honey flow 

 in some colonies, the bees working under the can- 

 vas quilts made a sound not unlike rain falling on 

 a newspaper. I thought they were propolizing ; 

 but now in fall feeding, with quilts off and clean 

 feeder-boards on, I notice the same sound. The 

 bees are not flying, so could gather no propolis. 

 Could you tell me what they are doing when making 

 that sound? E. C. Hardie. 



Burford, Ont. 



Answers. — (1) When untested queens are 

 introduced as late in the fall, it sometimes 

 happens that they do not lay at all until the 

 following spring. However, if fed for a 

 time, they may sometimes be induced to lay 

 even, tho it is late. Whether or not they 

 lay in the fall, we believe that there will be 

 no difference in their work the following 

 spring. (2) This sound may result from 



the bees performing the washboard move- 

 ment, the cause of which has never been 

 definitely proved, yet we do not know. To 

 our knowledge they make no strange sound 

 when propolizing, for the propolis when 

 gathered is soft. 



Question.- — Please let me know whether it is in- 

 jurious to people to eat honey that has been thru 

 a solar wax-extractor. Margaret Ullman. 



Illinois. 



Answer. — Not in the slightest. The honey 

 will be very thick and have a waxy flavor 

 that is rather pleasant to many, some even 

 preferring it to a honey of more delicate 

 flavor. 



ANSWERED BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Questions. — (1) Would you please tell me how 

 to rear queens for use in my own apiary next year, 

 as some of my queens are getting to be quite old? 

 (2) How old should a queen be before she is re- 

 placed by a young one? (3) How may I work from 

 hybrid bees to Italian? Can I put tested Italian 

 queens in the hive in place of the hybrid queen, or 

 will the hybrid bees all have to be killed off first 1 

 (4) M'^hich is the best way to buy bees — in pound 

 packages or in nuclei ? G. T. Pettys. 



New York. 



Answers. — (1) In the limited space al- 

 lowed here it would be impossible to tell 

 very much about rearing queens, as it would 

 take a whole book to go into the subject ful- 

 ly. Indeed two very good books have been 

 published on queen-rearing, the first by G. 

 M. Doolittle and the other by Frank C. Pel- 

 let, and you can get either from the office 

 of Gleanings. I might say briefl}^ that one 

 Way for you to do is as follows: see that the 

 colony containing your best queen is built up 

 very strong, giving it sealed brood from 

 other colonies if necessai'y. When the hon- 

 ey flow begins, take out two frames with 

 adhering bees, the queen on one of them, and 

 put them in an empty hive on a new stand. 

 Shake into this nucleus the bees from one 

 or two additional frames for good measure. 

 Ten or eleven days later return the old 

 queen to the old stand, taking away the 

 hive containing the brood and queen-cells, 

 and divide this latter into as many nuclei as 

 you can, each nucleus having two or more 

 frames of brood, and see that each nucleus 

 has a queen-cell centrally located where 

 there is no danger of its being chilled. In 

 about three weeks from the time you began 

 operations you should have a laying queen 

 in each nucleus. (2) Opinions differ, and lo- 

 calities differ. In some localities it may be 

 better to requeen annually; in others better 

 not. In my own locality, which is probably 

 much like yours, I never requeen at all, un- 

 less there is some fault to find with the 

 queen besides old age, leaving the bees to 

 requeen when they like. (3) If you intro- 

 duce an Italian queen into a hybrid colony, 

 you need pay no attention to the worker 

 bees. In a month or two the bees of the 

 old queen will be gone, and all the workers 

 will be daughters of the new queen. (4) 

 If you get them near by, the nucleus may be 

 better, and 2- or 3-pound packages if you 

 send a longer distance. 



