322 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1919 



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QUESTIONS.— 

 (1) A beekeep- 

 er of my ac- 

 quaintance 

 uses the second 

 plan while I use 

 the first. Which is 

 the better plan of 

 the two for 

 strengthening a 

 weak hive? Plan 



1 : In the forenoon, when the old bees are in the 

 fields, go to a strong hive and take a frame of sealed 

 brood with bees on it, and place it in the weak 

 hive. If there is danger of the new bees over- 

 powering the beea of the hive, the new bees could 

 be placed with their brood in an upper story with 

 a paper between. This would not be necessary un- 

 less there were practically no bees in the hive. Plan 

 2 : Take a frame of brood, shake all bees from it, 

 and put the brood without any bees into the weak 

 hive. As we have sudden changes of weather, and 

 nights are cold, would not brood thus managed be 

 likely to chill? (2) I have read that a queen will 

 rear brood as fast as her bees can care for it. Is 

 this true ? 



Answers. — (1) If one takes sufficient care 

 not to get the queen, together with the 

 frame of bees when taking this frame from 

 a strong colony, then we would say that the 

 first plan is better than the second. How- 

 ever, the skillful beekeeper, by taking suit- 

 able precautions, may remove brood, with- 

 out the bees, and strengthen other colonies. 

 It should not, of course, be done with very 

 weak colonies, nor should it be done by the 

 beginner. An experienced beekeeper who 

 takes the precautions mentioned on page 

 275 of Gleanings for May, 1918, will have 

 no trouble from chilled brood. In general, 

 however, we should feel like recommending 

 the first plan rather than the second. (2) 

 Early in the spring it is doubtless true that 

 the queen rears as much brood as the bees 

 can well care for. Later, however, bees ac- 

 cumulate to such an extent that it is even 

 possible for o colony to cast a swarm and 

 still have enough bees left to care for the 

 brood. Even those large colonies that do 

 not swarm have more bees than are actually 

 necessary to take care of the brood. 



Questions. (l)Is not the royal cell all finished be- 

 fore the egg is deposited in it? If not, how many 

 days does it take the bees to make it quite ready 

 for sealing? (2) Can the queen be fertilized more 

 than once in her life ? If so, under what particular 

 conditions ? If the number of spermatozoa trans- 

 mitted to the queen in fertilization ranges between 

 two and) twenty million, how can this stock be ex- 

 hausted and the queen become a drone-layer if the 

 total number of eggs laid by the queen does not 

 exceed two million? (3) Is it true that swarms can 

 not transmit disease? (4) Using large horizontal 

 hives consisting of hive body alone (no supers) 

 should I use queen-excluders in order to restrict 

 the queem and form in that way an artificial brood- 

 nest. If so, in what part of the season? (5) In- 

 stead of a special partition board I am intending to 

 use always combs only for the very same purpose. 

 Shall these eventually be with or without honey ? 

 (6) I have read in a bee book that, while opening 

 the hive in early spring or late fall, when there are 

 no open cells containing honey, a little sugar syrup 

 must be poured over each scam of bees to give them 

 a chance to fill their honey sacs under the influence 



GLEANED by ASKING 



Fowls 



LJ 



1 



of the smoke. 

 Would not that 

 cause robbing? (7) 

 On page 31 of the 

 ^J'ownsend bee book 

 I read, " The dan- 

 ger of robbing is 

 enough to discour- 

 age any one from 

 opening the hives 

 (luring the spring 

 months except when it is absolutely necessary during 

 that part of the year. The apiarist himself is respon- 

 sible for nine-tenths of the robbing." This is all 

 very well; but as the spring revision of the w^hole 

 apiary must necessarily be made during the spring 

 months, I can not reconcile these two things. 



Alberto Szukiewics. 

 Papagaios Novos, Brazil. 



Answers. — (1) At first there is no royal 

 jelly in the cell. At the end of three days 

 the egg hatches and the bees begin feeding 

 the larvae. This feeding continues for five 

 days for queen and worker larvae, and for 

 six days in the case of the drone. (2) Ordi- 

 narily the queen is fertilized but once in her 

 life; but in some instances queens are ferti- 

 lized more than once before they begin lay- 

 ing. Whether this ever takes yjlace after 

 they begin laying is very doubtful, altho a 

 few have reported such cases. Any queen 

 that receives more than two million sperma- 

 tozoa at the time of fertilization would not 

 become a drone-layer because of exhaustion 

 of spermatozoa, for it would not be possible 

 for her to live long enough to exhaust that 

 number. Even a very good queen would not 

 be apt to lay more than 200,000 eggs during 

 a season, and the queen would not be likely 

 to live more than four or five years. (3) 

 Swarming bees do not usually transmit dis- 

 ease; but we would not say that it can not 

 be done. In fact, it could be very easily 

 done if the bees* having honey in their hon- 

 ey sacs were hived on drawn comb. Of 

 course, if they were hived on foundation the 

 honey that they carried with them would all 

 be used up in building out the comb and 

 sujiplying their immediate needs. (4) When 

 using horizontal hives during the busy time, 

 qucen-excludcrs may be used to restrict the 

 queen and shut off the brood-chamber from 

 the rest of the hive. Before the opening 

 of the honey fiow it would be well to leave 

 a large brood-chamber so that the queen 

 will have plenty of room to lay. Later, just 

 preceding or following the opening of the 

 flow the queen may be given a smaller space 

 if desired. (5) To a certain extent combs 

 may be used in place of queen-excluders; 

 but of course they are not as satisfactory for 

 this purpose, since the queen could go past 

 them either at the ends, top, or bottom. If 

 combs are thus used the combs of honey 

 would be better than empty combs, since 

 the queen would not be attracted to the 

 comb of honey, as there would be no place 

 for her to lay. (6) This would cause the 

 bees to be less cross if giving the syrup did 

 not cause robbing. However, if the syrup 

 leaked out at a crack or entrance, or if the 

 hive were opened for any length of time so 



