602 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 17 1903. 



disinfect hands and tools after handling' a foul-broody col- 

 ony ? Iowa. 



Answers. — l. Yes, give them time enough and you will 

 find the pollen all out of the middle of the brood-nest. 



2. The decision of the question hinges upon the point 

 as to whether the diseased honey will all be used up in the 

 four days in comb-building. Mr. McEvoy thinks some of it 

 will still be left, stored in the newly-built cells ; the others 

 think it will all be used up, making a second shaking un- 

 necessary. I am not authority enough to decide. 



3. Yes, and even without the baking it would be safe, 

 for it is now generally agreed that the hive of a foul-broody 

 colony does not need disinfecting, and the super would be 

 as safe as the hive, if not safer. 



4. Yes, " if considerable honey " means a flow suiBcient 

 to keep the bees busy, and at least a little on the gain. You 

 can help matters by feeding. But it's wise to make your 

 plans for another year so as to be all through with queen- 

 rearing earlier in the season. 



5. I don't know. Some one please tell us the right pro- 

 portion. 



Uniting Colonies in the Pall. 



I am a beginner and have 6 colonies of bees, spring 

 count. I have increased to 9 this summer, two of which are 

 quite weak and small, and I wish to unite them. Do you 

 think it a good plan to smoke the strongest colony and put 

 the weakest colony on top of the other, and drive them 

 down with smoke, and after they are down, smoke them 

 slightly more, and then cover them up ? or is there a better 

 plan ? Washington. 



Answer. — I think it would be better not to drive them 

 down, but to leave them to themselves for a few days, set- 

 ting the one hive quietly over the other at a time when bees 

 are not flying — preferably on a cool day — then after the 

 bees have got acquainted put the best combs of each into 

 the one hive. It might be a little better, when the one 

 hive is put over the other, to put paper between the two, 

 leaving a hole in the paper large enough for one bee to pass 

 through. 



Swarm Hangins; on Tree Several Days. 



If I am correct, a swarm in Wisconsin hangs on a limb 

 over night in some cases, but never more than one or two 

 nights. We recently had a swarm at one of our out-yards 

 hang from Sunday until Friday morning, when they were 

 hived and seemed perfectly contented. The weather was 

 fair all this time. Is this an unusual occurrence, and can 

 you account for it ? Wisconsin. 



Answer. — It is unusual for a swarm to hangover night, 

 still more unusual for it to remain two nights, and extremely 

 unusual for it to remain five nights, as in your case. I 

 don't know what should make the difference ; possibly the 

 rain or something else prevented their breaking cluster at 

 first, and they began building comb and were reconciled to 

 stay. Very likely if you had not hived them they would 

 have hung there permanently. 



Hiving Swarms on the Old Stand. 



On page 371, beginners are advised to hive new swarms 

 on the old stand (to prevent second swarms), and a week 

 later take away the old colony to a new stand. I tried 

 this and it worked fine the first time. But the second time 

 I tried it there was a second swarm came out of the old col- 

 ony in four days. Will you kindly tell me what was the 

 cause of this ? 



Would there be any harm in moving the old colony in 

 less than a week to its new location ? 



Massachusetts. 



Answer. — As a rule, the prime swarm issues when 

 the first queen-cell is sealed, and a second swarm issues 

 shortly after the first virgin emerges, making the second 

 swarm about eight days after the first. It may happen that 

 on account of bad weather, or something else, the issuing of 

 the first swarm is delayed, in which case there will not be 

 as much as eight days between the two swarms — in your 

 case it was four — in which case the wait of a week is of 

 course too long. In that particular case it would have been 

 all right to move the old hive in three days ; but such cases 

 are not frequent enough to make it advisable to move the 



hive in so short a time. In ordinary cases the depletion 

 would not be sufficient to discourage the bees always from 

 swarming ; for you will understand that the colony will be 

 gaining strength rapidly every day from the hatching 

 brood. Moving the hive earlier than a week might prevent 

 swarming, but it would not be so sure. 



( 



Nasty's Afterthoughts 





' Old Reliable '' seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hastt, Sta. B Rural, Toledo. Ohio. 



RUBBING THE PI.ACE STUNG. 



The good maxim, " Do not rub the place where a sting 

 is received," hardly applies to old chaps well inured to 

 stings. Sometimes when I fear that a sting is going to 

 g^ive trouble, I purposely rub the place violently and at once. 

 The idea is to dilute and spread the poison before trouble 

 gets begun. The plan works well with me. Page 478. 



AFRAID OF MOTH-BALLS. 



Bees are insects as well as moths ; and I fear that any 

 moth-ball strong enough to stand off the one would bring 

 more or less injury to the other. Page 483. 



INTRODUCING LAME QUEENS. 



In introducing a queen not able to walk, there is another 

 danger in addition to danger of hostility from the bees. She 

 tumbles, or gets tumbled to the bottom, to chill and starve 

 and be neglected there, or possibly to get more tumbles out 

 onto the ground. Page 483. 



THE "doings" (?) OF THE NATIONAL. 



A column entitled, " What the National is Doing," Mr. 

 Herman F. Moore wants. Some pre-requirements. Na- 

 tional must be doing something, and some one qualified 

 must write it. We hardly need a column of well-looking 

 nothings which busy readers would skip at sight as they 

 skip most of the columns and pages of the 16-page daily. 

 Page 486. 



UN.\PPRECIATED GENEROSITY. 



Dr. Peiro, I feel somewhat as I suppose a good mother 

 must feel when she finds her children have been misbehav- 

 ing themselves toward respectable passers-by. Fifty of our 

 children received valuable time free, and cuttings presum- 

 ably valuable, and not one heeded the request to write re- 

 sults ! I don't blame you. Doctor 1 Still, it would please me 

 best if you would rub the sore feelings into feeling better, 

 run and play at something else for awhile — and then turn 

 up again on the same subject. You're not alone. " Seven 

 thousand in Israel do good for the sake of doing good, and 

 get similar reward." It's only in the sweet " Thy Kingdom 

 come ' that the animal's, " Get all the good grabs you can 

 and render nothing in return," will be found entirely ab- 

 sent. 



Still, contra considerations are possible. Possibly a 

 good many failed to make their cuttings grow, and didn't 

 want to ride a free horse to death by asking for anything 

 further. And I imagine that Uncle Sam is the leading vil- 

 lain in the case. He long has paid the bill for his poli- 

 ticians to shove free garden seeds under everybody's nose — 

 request to write results printed on. Treating you as they 

 treat Uncle Sam may be a little unpleasant, but is not do- 

 ing you any dishonor. Page 492. 



REARING COMMERCIAL QUEENS. 



George B. Whitcomb seems to have an idea that com- 

 mercial queens are often deteriorated by being reared from 

 No. 2 eggs. Has this idea reasonableness enough to call 

 for a discussion, and for experiments later on, perhaps? 

 Some mother-queen alleged to lay, or at least to be capable 

 of laying. No. 1 eggs and No. 2 eggs. When in full tide of 

 laying she finds that she has a whole empty comb ahead of 

 her she gets a hustle on, and lets the eggs fly before they 

 have had quite time to become No. 1. Feeble plants raised 

 from half-grown seeds, feeble queens from such scant-timed 

 eggs. This is surely one of the " important if true " mat- 

 ters. The opposite of this makes toward accounting for the 

 excellence of natural swarm queens. "Jueen seldom laying 



