Septe.mhkr, 1919 



G LEANINGS IN BEE C U L T U R E 



603 



honey, anil then watch their llight as you 

 liberate them. By following in the general 

 direction they take, and from time to time 

 catching more bees, and again liberating 

 them, you will be able to locate the tree. (2) 

 If bees fly a mile in five minutes, and spend 

 two minutes at the tree, one could estimate 

 the distance of the tree by noting how 

 many minutes the bees are gone, subtract 

 two minutes from the number, and divide 

 by 10. Therefore if they are gone 10 minutes 

 the tree is probably about 4/5 of a mile 

 away. This is taking it for granted that the 

 honey fed is of the same consistency as 

 nectar. 



Questions. — (1) Should an unmated queen get 

 clipped, would she be mated and return to the hive ? 

 (2) How long will hecs live without eating? 



New Jersey. Arthur Stiebritz. 



Answers. — (1) If an unmated queen is 

 clipped she will never lay anything but 

 drone eggs, as she could not be mated. 

 Queens are mated only when flying. (2) We 

 have known bees to live over a week during 

 the summer without eating if their honey - 

 sacs were filled with honey at the beginning 

 of that time. How much longer they could 

 live we do not know. 



Question. — If you give a frame of unsealed brood 

 to a colony having a virgin queen, you sign her 

 death warrant. Repeatedly I have done this and 

 soon found the queen missing and cells started on 

 the brood. Why is this ? I have studied about it 

 a great deal and have come to this conclusion: Bees 

 prefer a laying queen to a virgin. This is well 

 known. When they find eggs in the hive. I thinli 

 they conclude they have a laying queen somewhere 

 in the hive and pro<eed to execute tha virgin. If 

 anyone can give a better theory, let us have it. 



Georgia. L. K. Smith. 



Answer. — We know some consider it un- 

 wise to give eggs and young larvEe to a colo- 

 ny having a virgin, but we have practiced 

 this successfully for a good many years. 

 The presence of the eggs and larvae causes 

 the bees to gather honey and pollen to feed 

 the young brood. This brings about a nor- 

 mal condition conducive to the queen's mat- 

 ing. Moreover, if the queen should happen 

 to be lacking, the colony has a chance to 

 raise another. 



Questions. — (1) Wlien should supers of honey 

 be removed from tlie hive ? (2) Should not some 

 super room be given until frost to prevent too much 

 crowding or possibly honey-bound queens? (3) Can 

 good queens be reared in a two-frame nucleus? 



Virginia. .T. T. Satterwhite. 



Answers. — (1) When completely ripened, 

 at least two-thirds sealed. (2) Whether or 

 not super room will be necessary in the fall 

 will depend entirely upon your locality. If 

 you have a good fall flow you may be able 

 to get some more surplus, but' if the fall 

 flow is light the colony will doubtless need 

 all they store for winter. The queens, of 

 course, should not be allowed to become 

 honey-bound. If you find there is any dan- 

 ger of this, it would be well to remove a few 

 combs of honey and give empty combs in 

 the middle of the hive for the queen to lay 

 in. (3) Good queens have sometimes been 



leari'ii in nuclei, but in general we advise 

 raising them in large colonies. Of course, 

 after queen-cells have been capped over, 

 they may be given to nuclei to be taken care 

 of; but the nuclei should not be so weak 

 that there is danger of the queen-cells be- 

 coming chilled. 



Question. — The following advertisement appears 

 in thei .July issue of Outdoor Enterprises, Kansas 

 City, Mo., page 61, column 2: "For Sale. — Aus- 

 tralian Wine and Vinegar Bees. Big profits. They 

 are very prolific, work day and night, and harmless. 

 Keep in window of your house. Will start you for 

 $2.50 or give you six times as as many for $5.00." 

 Is this a "fake?" M. L. Dodson. 



Kansas. 



Answer. — That ad is certainly misleading. 

 It refers not to honey bees but to a wild 

 yeast that is called bees and is of very lit- 

 tle value. A large number of beekeepers 

 have called our attention to this ad. We 

 find that extravagant claims have been 

 made for the product, and the high price 

 asked is apj^arently out of all proportion to 

 its real worth. 



Que»stion. — .July 1 I started transferring my colo- 

 nies into Jumbo hives. I left three standard frames 

 with queen and lots of brood in the Jumbo hive and 

 placed seven Jumbo frames of foundation along with 

 the three, supposing the bees would draw out the 

 foundation, and in a few weeks I could raise the 

 three standard frames to the super above and fill 

 in with .Jumbo frames and everything would be all 

 right. The plan might have worked out had this 

 been a normal season, but it has been a very ab- 

 normal season — old beekeepers say the worst in 20 

 years — as there h.ns been no honey flow at all in 

 any of ray apiaries this season ; consequently when 

 I examined theim yesterday I found some colonies 

 with only two frames, some with three frames, and 

 some with only one of the Jumbo frames drawn out 

 and in no hive, were there more than five or six 

 drawn, including the standards which I put in. 

 Now the season is practically over, with the excep- 

 tion of buckvpheat, and as we have had only one 

 good rain, the chauce.s for buckwheat are not bright. 

 In quite a number of the Jumbo- frames the bees 

 have gnawed the foundation badly. Would you 

 replace those? If not changed I would think the 

 foundation would be built out with drone comb. 

 They are a pretty ragged lot of sheets just now. 

 Would you use the standard-sized combs and get 

 them back into the old hives, placing the Jumbo 

 frames with brood above and try it again next sea- 

 son, or will the bees build out foundation in the 

 .Jumbo frames by feeding sugar syrup or using 

 frames partly filled with honey? Can you help me? 



Ontario. E. V. Tillson. 



Answer. — If late the best thing to do 

 would be to put the bees back on the old 

 combs. This will give the bees a good chance 

 to prepare the brood-nest for winter and the 

 old combs will be much warmer than the 

 new ones. If this problem arose as early as 

 August one could replace the torn and rag- 

 ged foundation with good sheets and then 

 feed a sugar syrup, one part sugar to one 

 part water, feeding slowly, using a feeder 

 with about three perforations in the cover. 

 If this should not give them the syrup quite 

 fast enough, you could regulate it accord- 

 ingly. We have often succeessfully drawn 

 out foundation in this way during a dearth. 



