Oct. 8, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



651 



climate, or is there a time with all ciueens of every climate when they 

 are fully at reel from laying ; Would feeding a colony cause a (lueen 

 to continue to lay! 



H. AVould frames put in crosswise, let them be brood or extracting 

 shallow frames, make any difference with the bees accepting and till- 

 ing them, and say the brood-cliamber frames are lengthwise and the 

 super frames crosswise? Mississii'i'i. 



Answers.— 1. It is easier to tell by looking at them whether they 

 feel like accepting her than it is to tell how one tells. It the bees are 

 hostile to her, they may be grasping the wires of the cage as if trying 

 hard to get at the queen, while if they feel kindly toward her they sit 

 nuietly and loosely on the cage. That's not telling you very muuli, is 

 it! Well, I may as well tell you that if the case were right here before 

 me, I couldn't always tell for certain. They might appear to be look- 

 ing as sweet as you please at the queen, with murder in their hearts 

 all the while. 



2. Yes, a strange bee appears often to be made to give up its 

 honey voluntarily, saying, " See here, girls, it you'll just let me ofl 

 I'll give you every bit ot honey I have." 



3. It must mean one of three things — swarming, supersedure, or 

 queenlessness. 



4. She would have no chance if all drones were absent, but there 

 are generally at least a few drones at any time when bees are daily Hy- 

 ing, even if you can't tind any. 



5. I don't know; I wouldn't give much for her chance. Some say 

 they have had queens fertilized in the fall that did not lay till spring, 

 and that they were all right. But a queen whose virginity extends 

 from fall to spring might safely be warranted as worthless. 



6. A virgin reared in the fall and not fertilized before winter 

 would probably lay no eggs before spring; and if she then should lay 

 any eggs they would produce only drones. 



7. The lime a colony is queenless should be counted from the time 

 the queen is removed. A common way is to remove the old queen and 

 put in the caged queen Immediately, the arrangement being such that 

 it takes about two days for bees to release the new queen. But that 

 •' about" is not very definite; sometimes a queen is released in less 

 ihan a day. sometimes in three days or more. It is claimed that a still 

 better way is to put the caged queen in the hive without disturbing 

 the old queen, leaving no chance for the bees to release the caged 

 queen ; then 4S hours later to remove the old queen, and give the bees 

 a chance to release the caged queen. 



8. I don't know, but I think a queen takes at least a short lay-off 

 from laying in any climate. Feeiling continuously is likely to induce 

 laying; but sometimes it's very hard to start laying. But continued 

 feeding when the flow stops would be likely to keep the queen laying. 



9. It wouldn't make any difference. 



cepted. I gave the other,^ frames containiQg eggs in all stages, and 

 ordered some queens, and was .surprised to find none started. Sol 

 run them through the perforated zinc and found no (|Ueens, and in- 

 troduced my ijueens and they were accepted all right. Why did they 

 not start (|ueen-cells '. 



)i. As they must have been queenless at least ;il days, why did 

 they not have a laying worker* 



3. I left one nucleus to themselves, when I took their queen, and 

 they started several cell-cups over cells of bee-bread but none on cells 

 with eggs. Why did they do that? 



4. By some unaccountable blunder I marked one hive queenless 

 that had a laying c|ueen with plenty of brood, and introduced a tine 

 queen. Yesterday they had her nearly let out, and to-day she was out, 

 and I opened the hive to see if she was all right, and difcovered my 

 blunder ; and while hunting for my queen I found the old one balled 

 in the bottom of the hive, but could not find my new one. I left no 

 bees in the cage when I introduced the queen. Why did they ball 

 //(«')• queen? Iowa. 



Answers. — Oh, dear! what makes you send so many hard ones 

 all in one bunch! I don't like to use up my whole slock of " I don't 

 know " answers, so must guess at some other answers the best I know 

 how. 



1. It is possible that so late in the season, and so near the time for 

 the cessation of laying, the bees didn't think it worth while to bother 

 about starting queen-cells. A better answer is thit queenless bees 

 have a trick of tailing sometimes to start cells from brood given — not 

 such a very uncommon occurrence, either — and no one seems ever to 

 have given any reason for it. .Just the way the bees have. 



2. Better say " laying workers," for generally a lot of those nui- 

 sances are present. Laying workers don't always set up business in 

 21 days of the removal of the queen. In this ease, too, there was less 

 chance for it, because it was late in the season, and laying workers 

 are not likely to start after the time when egg-laying ceases naturally 

 in some colonies. 



3. Can't make even a guess at an answer. 



4. Perhaps for protection. It is not a very uncommon thing for 

 bees to ball their own queen when alarmed in any way. The presence 

 of a strange queen would suggest to them that their own q ueen needed 

 protection. In one case, however, I had a queen protected to death 

 because some strange queens were caged In the hive. 



Queenless Colonies Balling ttie Queen. 



1. About the first of this month (September), in looking over my 

 bees I found Nos. 10, 13, 13, 17, 2ii and .30 with no eggs, larv;t^ or brood 

 of any kind, and being so early I took it for granted they were queen- 

 less. 1 had three or four laying queens in nuclei, so I just turned 

 them loose in some of the queenless colonies and they were all ac- 



Removing Supers from Hives. 



1. When should all supers be removed from the hives? 



2. Will the bees feed on honey in the super now, or from the 

 brood chamber? Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. As soon as all storing is over for the season. In 

 white-clover regions it is the best to take off supers at the close of the 

 white-honey harvest, and then put them on again when needed for a 

 fall flow, if a fall flow comes. 



2. Both. As brood-rearing slackens, and empty cells appear in 

 the brood-chamber as a consequence, you may count on the bees 

 carrying down honey out of the super to store in the brood-combs. 



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