April 30, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



261 



formation on the line. Misery I I By the time this gets 

 into print they'll say, " How late your house-cleaning- 

 comes !") 



BLACKS AND ITALIANS IN BAD WKATHKK. 



An idea advanced by Geo. B. Whitcomb, page 1>7, may 

 have something in it. Claimed that in very rainv localities 

 black bees will be patient and stay in the hive whenever it 

 is unprolitable to be out. Also claimed that Italians are 

 pretty sure to be impatient and reduce themselves to ruin- 

 ous weakness by going out in bad weather. Wonder if the 

 sliding screen in front, which we had up a few weeks ago, 

 could be made to help in this case. 



\ Questions and Answers. { 



CONDUCTED 



DR. O. O. MILLER, Marengo, ni, 



(The Qnestlons may be mailed to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers bv mall.— Editob.1 



Management for Increase. 



I have 2S strong colonies and want to increase to .50 if possible 

 this season, and would like to do it artificially as I think it will save a 

 Idt of time. This is my second season with bees. How shall I pro- 

 ceed* Would it do to divide the frames just before they are ready to 

 swarm J and is it best to put frames of foundation in the old colony 

 where I take out the frames of brood? " Ontario. 



Answer. — Yes, one of the simplest way is to divide each colony 

 into two parts before the bees swarm. Leave the old queen on the old 

 stand, and put more than half the brood with adhering- bees on a new 

 stand, and they will rear a queen. Fill vacancies with frames having 

 full sheets of foundation. 



But that's far from the best way. Just what the best way is, de- 

 pends upon circumstances, and it would take more room than the 

 patient editor would allow us in this department to go fully into the 

 whole subject of artificial increase. Study up general principles in 

 your text-book, and you will be better prepared to judge what is best 

 for you. If there's any special point in the text-book that needs 

 further elucidation, ask all the questions you like — that's what this 

 department is for. If the editor can't get it all in with the fine type 

 he's using, he can put some of it in lead-pencil around the margin ! 

 Artificial increase is perhaps given more fully in ''Forty Years 

 Among the Bees " than in any other book. 



Light in Supers-After-Swarms. 



1. Will light getting in between the supers and brood-chamber, 

 or under the cover, have a tendency to keep the bees from working in 

 the super.' I have some supers that do not fit snugly, but 1 can use 

 packing to exclude the light if it is necessary. 



2. In case of after-swarms, what would you recommend doing 

 with them; Virginia. 



Ans-wers — 1. Perhaps the light would do little or no harm, but 

 on cool nights it isn't a good thing to have cracks admitting the cold. 



3. Return them, or unite two or more of them, unless you want 

 the increase. Better still, prevent them. Set the swarm on the old 

 stand with the old hive close beside it, and a week later move the old 

 hive to a new place. 



Questions on Wintering and Swarming. 



1. Can I make a standard Langstrolh or a Danz. hive a safe place 

 for bees to reside in during the winter in northern Illinois; If so, 

 how; Laying aside the loss of honey (salable), wouldn't you advise 

 .Jumbo or Dadanl hives; 



2. If I raise the coffee-sacking or burlap with cobs or sticks, 

 the bees usually come up and cluster above the frames in cold weather 

 (formeiiu outdoor wintering. Is this as well as to keep them <lown 

 on the frames; It seems to me that those bees that have to stay in 

 those narrow spaces between the honey, near the top of frames, must 

 need have sore throats — and they are the ones, perhaps, that have rheu- 

 matism in their shoulders and can't fly in spring-time. 



3. Will the weight of honey in a 10-frame super sag the T tins in 

 the center so as to make the '4 bee-space too narrow ; 



4. Are the side supports of the loose T tins set into the b"-o of 

 super! If not, is there n<it a vacant space left for the bees ti) propo- 

 lize and to let in cold air: You need not answer this if you think I 

 would better buy one and lo"k for myself. 



.=). I have the most of my Ijees now that show three yell. iw or 

 bronze bands. Their queens do not run excitedly, and the b.-.-- act, 

 I think, in quite a proper manner, waiting, as a rule, on the coul' near 

 or over the young, and generally receiving with kindness if I am ;i'ilite 



in my calling; but these bees havi- mostly, or entirely, black or hybrid 

 ancestors. Are taey Italians; iif course, I have been choosing their 

 mother and brothers from the hi-ttrr colored ciueens for several years, 

 and there are now colonies in whit'h I can seldom find a bee which 

 does not show :i lighter bands. Do you think that bees from Italy 

 would be willing to "sit in the sauie pew" with them; and could 

 they breast so strong a wind as those who helped tempt the Vandals to 

 Rome; 



11. I spent last evening reading " 40 Years." Now, after I " put 

 up the queen" and the bees in-low have started cells, (page lt')4), 1 

 give them a cell about ready to hatch, of my own choosing. After the 

 queen from this cell begins to lay, I " put down " the old hive, having 

 removed its ciueen 2 or .'S days prinr. and unite the two. Will this hold 

 the whole union from swarming' ' We could get a young queen and 

 a good swarm this way, but would the "put down," not knowing that 

 the " holdens" below had reared a young queen of the "current year," ' 

 give the whole union the " fever' " or would the aborigines tell the 

 prodigals that they had a current queen now, and that she was not go- 

 ing to move until next spring; 



T. Would an inserted cell act on swarming the same as a queen 

 hatched from one of their own cups ; 



I have good reason for believing that a young queen feels as you 

 say about swarming. Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. You can make them safe by having a lot of extra 

 combs of sealed honey, and using these fall and spring. But the larger 

 hives are safer. I got as much honey from 10-frame hives as from 

 smaller ones, but it was harder work handling them. 



2. Being above the cluster, they ought not to suffer; but there is 

 really no need of any more space for the bees than just enough for 

 them to cross over the top-bars. 



:i The upright part of the T tin does not allow the least sag. 



4. There is no trouble whatever. If sheet-iron is used, the thick- 

 ness is not enough to count. If bent staples are used, they are mashed 

 clear into the wood, so not the slightest space is left. 



h. In spite of the apparent prevalence of black blood in their an- 

 cestry, your selection seems to have been such that Italian blood pre- 

 vails, and your bees can hold up their heads as high as any "to the 

 manner born." The crossing is rather an element of strength than of 

 weakness. 



7. Let's get at the principle — it we can. Other things being equal, 

 a young queen is less likely to swarm than the older one. But if the 

 youngqueen is intlif riyltt iiHrroii>i(!:ii;jx,she'U swarm about as surely as 

 an older one, for the condition of the'brood is a very important factor. 

 I think that the chief reason why a colony does not swarm with queen 

 reared in the hive the current year, is because of the condition of the 

 brood, there having been for some time no young brood to feed. So 

 when you p'ut down brood that has been queenless only two or three 

 days, they have the stuff to swarm with, and they may swarm. 



7. An inserted cell will result exactly the same as one of the same 

 age built by the bees themselves, providing there's no change in the 

 brood. 



Management at Swarming-Time. 



I caught 10 colonies of bees in box-hives, and I would like to 

 know if it will do in swarming-tlme to pick the box-hive up bodily 

 and shake the bees out, put a new hive with the bees on the stand, and 

 put the old hive in a new place; 



My first experience with bees was last spring. I caught a colony 

 in a box-hive, and they swarmed 4 times, and what remained I drum- 

 med out and divided them between the last two swarms. From the 

 first swarm 1 got 72 sections well filled; from the second I got 48 sec- 

 tions. I don't want so much increase, for I have now 19, all told — 10 

 in box-hives, and 11 in 9-frame hives, called the " Jones Combination 

 Hive." Ontario. 



Answer.— Yes, it will do to shake the bees out, if you cm, and if 

 you make sure to get the queen with them. You will probably find it 

 easier to drum them out. 



Catnip. 



1. Will catnip grow on sandy soil ; 



2. Does it prefer shade or sun ; 



3. Will it blossom the first year; Wisconsin. 



Answers.— 1. Y'es, if not too sandy. 



2. It seems to have a partiality for hedgerows, but that may he 

 more because of the protection, for it grows well right in the full 

 blaze of the sun. 



3. I think not. 



Porcefl Swarms— Wintering Bees. 



1. In your comments on the "ABC of Bee-Culture '' (No. 307, 

 page 6). Do you put a super on the new swarm at once when hivedi 

 Do you use an excluder? 



2. In the forced-swarm method do you use starters or full sheets 

 of foundation ; Do you put on a super at once, and do you use an ex- 

 cluder; 



ii. If one uses full sheets of foundation in the brood-frames, will 

 the bees change worker-cells into drone-cells when they get ready > If 

 so, how would it work in forced swarming to melt up the comb in the 

 old hive after the second drive and replace with starters; If done 

 every year would it keep down an excess of drone-comb? 



4. The last two winters I have put on a super (filled with unBn- 



