June 11, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



377 



think that in some way my stupid human blundering cost a 

 really whole, busy, happ3' colony their lives. 



2. What am I to do with the others, for I must transfer 

 somehow ? 



3. Do you think it would be successful on the same 

 plan, if I waited until 21 days after swarming ? The alfalfa 

 will then be in bloom. 



4. How many colonies of bees will 425 acres of alfalfa 

 support ? Here there is very little honey from wild flowers ; 

 first the fruit-bloom, and then alfalfa. 



Delta Co., Colo., May 14. (Miss) Rebecca Hallev. 



Answers. — 1. Your method of transferring- was really 

 making a forced swarm, and swarms will not always stay 

 where they are put, and it is sometimes difficult to say why. 

 One of the most common reasons is heat, or lack of ventila- 

 tion. Bees are dainty in their habits, and dislike a dirty 

 hive, but that could not have been the trouble in your case, 

 as the hive was new. Sometimes they will leave for no 

 apparent cause whatever. 



2. Do just as you did — give plenty of ventilation, and, 

 if you can, give one frame of brood from some movable- 

 frame hive. They are not likely to desert the brood. 



3. The plan is an excellent one to let the bees swarm 

 naturally instead of making a forced swarm. Then 21 days 

 later drive out all the bees. 



4. I don't know, and I don't know any way that you 

 can find out. 



Drone-Brood- 



-Laying- Workers or Drone-Lay- 

 ing Queen. 



I think the "Bee-Keeping Sisters' Department " a fine 

 and instructive one, indeed. 



1. I have a colony of bees about which I wish to ask 

 your advice. The first I noticed wrong about them was 

 that they were not working as hard as the others. When I 

 examined them I found they were not very strong in bees. 

 That was about April 23. They haven't very much sealed 

 honey, or unsealed either, and I didn't see any brood except 

 a few cells that are pouched out a pretty good size. Isn't 

 that drone-brood ? The other colonies are doing well, and 

 will need the second super soon. 



2. Is that colony queenless, or isn't the queen prolific, 

 or what is the trouble ? 



3. If I get a new queen and introduce her, could I do it 

 without removing the old queen, if there is one ? or would 

 the new queen be killed ? 



4. Can this colony, in the condition it is in, rear a new 

 queen ? The hive is an old one, but the frames are remov- 

 able. I don't think the frames have ever been removed, 

 and consequently they are badly stuck together. Maybe I 

 would not know the queen if I saw her, although I have 

 seen a queen-bee. Illinois. 



Peoria Co., 111., May 23. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, it is drone-brood, although in 

 worker-cells. 



2. Your colony either has a drone-laying queen or lay- 

 ing workers. 



3. The old queen must be removed before introducing a 

 new queen. If you get a new queen you will receive with 

 her instructions how to proceed. If it is laying workers 

 perhaps the best thing to do is to unite them with another 

 colony, as it is always a difficult matter to get a colony with 

 laying workers to accept a queen, and unless quite a colony 

 it may be the best thing to unite in either case. 



4. No, it is in a hopeless condition. 



Honey as a Health-Food is the name of a 16- 

 page leaflet (3,'2x6 inches) which is designed to help in- 

 crease the demand and sale of honey. The first part is 

 devoted to a consideration of " Honey as Food," written 

 by Dr. C. C. Miller. The last part contains " Honey-Cook- 

 ing Recipes" and "Remedies Using Honey." It should be 

 widely circulated by every one who has honey for sale. It 

 is almost certain to make good customers for honey. We 

 know, for we are using it ourselves. 



Prices, prepaid — Sample for 2 cts.; 10 for 10 cts.; 25 



for20cts.; 50 for 35 cts.; 100 for 65 cts.; 250 for $1.50: 500 



for $2.75 ; 1000 for $5.00. If you wish your business card 



printed at the bottom of the front page, add 25 cts. to your 



rder. Send all orders to the Bee Journal office. 



The Premiums offered this week are well worth working 

 for. Look at them. 





Nasty's Afterthoughts 





■ Old Reliable "' seen throufjli New and Unreliable 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sla. B Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



BEES STORING— STIMULATIVE FEEDING. 



Here's battle again. Returning field-bee gives the nec- 

 tar to first convenient hive-bee, because that's the business 

 of one section of the hive-bees. Don't do any such thing; 

 chucks it into the first empty cell, because it can do so 

 quicker. If this is true the bee-hunter's bees ought (at least 

 sometimes) to return almost immediately. The way that 

 thing stands in my mind is that they almost allow four or 

 five minutes for time spent at the tree. And quite likely 

 those " becauses " had better be left ofi' till the exact ob- 

 served facts are agreed on. And the unnatural conditions of 

 an observatory hive must not be allowed too much weight. 

 Somelimes a returning bee finds it difficult to get rid of a 

 load anywhere. Sometimes (I think) she finds the folks at 

 home rather greedy to take what is brought in — three or 

 four friends at once saying, "You know me!" When 

 honey comes in rapidly field-bees should be plenty in the 

 super, if the second of the above views is correct. Generally 

 almost entirely absent from the super, I believe. 



And, Arthur C. Miller, this department thinks you are 

 too free with your nevers, if you say bees never give food 

 unless it is almost taken by force. Pretty mess of things 

 that would make in the winter cluster ! And when you deny 

 all show of respect by workers toward queens — well, you're 

 in for a general flight of brickbats on that point, and so 

 just at this time I will not throw many. 



As to stimulative feeding, your conclusion, as the result 

 of many and various experiments, that it is always done at 

 a loss, is about what some of the rest of us have been con- 

 cluding ; but its friends are not going to surrender on call. 

 Page 278. 



MAY CAUSE INSTEAD OF PREVENT SWARMING. 



R. F. Hill's report is interesting where he says, queen 

 and two frames of brood below, and the rest of the brood 

 put above usually prevents swarming. I rather think that 

 sometimes it would do just the opposite thing — put the 

 swarming idea right into little noddles which had not en- 

 tertained it yet. Page 279. 



WATERING BEES .AT THEIR DOORSTEP. 



I'll request Mrs. Sarah Griffith to report later on as to the 

 extent she succeeded in getting bees to take the water she 

 provided at their door. The little " snipes " are inclined to 

 wade right through water at their door, and go off to the 

 old familiar watering-place, " whether-or-no." Page 280. 



GREASE ON FINGERS MAY BE A GREATER ILL THAN PROPOLIS. 



On page 283, A. Mottaz gives us a plump question : 

 Why not carry some grease along and keep our fingers 

 greased as a defense against propolis ? Think I tried that 

 so many years ago that I do not remember as clearly as I 

 would like. The grease and the continual fuss of putting 

 it on, and renewing it every time we hold to an absorbent 

 surface for a minute, is quite a serious nuisance of itself. 

 And if we do not entirely prevent the sticking it's taking 

 on an additional nuisance partly to abolish an old one. 

 And. let me see, doesn't the propolis and the grease some- 

 times work up together on the finger tips — work up into a 

 sort of paint that prints the clothes wherever fingers 

 thoughtlessly touch ? If so, part of us will continue to bear 

 the ill we have. 



DOUBTFUL ON RED-CLOVER STORING. 



ToGuy Hunsberger, page 284, I don't mind saying that 

 blacks, hybrids and Italians all of them work on red clover 

 at times. But as to any of them (or any particular strain 

 of any of them) being ready to store very much r-ed clover 

 honey just yet— well, I'm nicely ready to receive a whole lot 

 of convincing before I write it down so. 



WHITE CLOVER AND BUCKWHEAT IN VERMONT. 



Interesting to see that in Bennington Co., Vermont, 

 white clover has a steady reputation of yielding no honey. 

 Bees at work lively on buckwheat, and still no significant 

 amount of buckwheat honey in the hives— that's a common 



