Oct. 15, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



663 



another location were not cross. Why was it ? These were 

 all reared from the same queens. I think the blood has 

 nothing' to do with it. 



Frank McNay — I think there is a good deal in location. 

 I have had the same experience as Mr. Delano. We moved 

 a portion of the apiary a number of miles away, and they 

 were so cross all the time they were there it was almost im- 

 possible to handle them. On returning them to the same 

 apiary they were as gentle as the others. I think the loca- 

 tion has a great deal to do with it. 



A Member — My question was, Is it not always the case 

 that an apiary that is moved to a new location is generally 

 cross for awhile, or for the whole season ? 



Mr. Mclntyre — Not always. If they are getting plenty 

 of honey they will soon get over their crossness. Generally, 

 when I move it is when they have plenty of honey, and they 

 soon get over their crossness. 



Mr. Andrews — That has been my experience, exactly. 

 After the oranges gave out this year my son and I moved 

 150 right over to the buckwheat fields. They began work- 

 ing right away, and 82 we had in one place were moved 

 twice, and they were better-natured than when working in 

 the orange tlow, only a few miles move. But if they are 

 not getting much honey, and it is hard to get what little 

 they do get, it is very likely they will become cross. 



Mr. Corey — I don't think Mr. Mendleson's bees stay in 

 one place long enough. 



(Continued next week.) 





Contributed Articles 





Putting Back Supers After Extracting. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



Will you kindly pardon me for asking a question in regard to 

 bees cleaning out the supers after extracting? I have read in your 

 writings (I think it was in the American Bee Journal) that you give the 

 combs, after extracting, in the care of the bees until cool weather comes 

 and the time of storing them away. I tried that way last fall, and 

 when I took them oS I found some honey in every frame, and a great 

 many of the empty cells sealed over. I run the combs through the 

 extractor again and gave them back to the bees, but they failed to 

 empty them. They would store what honey they found right in those 

 cells, and I had to store them as they were. Some of the honey granu- 

 lated, and in spring some of the honey was sour. I had to use them 

 as they were, and I fear that I will have honey that will not keep. — .J. 

 S. Haag, of Iowa. 



We have had one or two experiences of that kind — just 

 enough to know that those things rarely happen. You have 

 evidently extracted your honey before the crop was fully 

 ended, and the hives must have been very full. If the colo- 

 nies are supplied with all the combs that they can possibly 

 fill, they will not put so much honey in the hive-body that 

 they have no room for the very last few pounds that are 

 harvested. A point may even be reached when it will be 

 necessary to crowd them for space in order to get them to 

 place enough honey in the body for an abundant winter 

 supply. But if the crop is long protracted, and the weather 

 is warm, the colony strong in bees, and heavy with stores, 

 the l)ees will often ascend in those supers and stay there. It 

 becomes necessary, when removing the supers for winter, 

 to brush or drive almost the entire colony out of those 

 supers. This may be avoided by extracting late, say a 

 few days after the first frost. 



Then, in putting the combs back, do not place the su- 

 pers directly over the uncovered brood-chamber, but use the 

 enamel cloth, if you use one. or a perforated honey-board, 

 or a burlap cover, between the supers and the hive-body, 

 leaving just enough space so that they may go back and 

 forth. This partition will make them feel that the supers 

 are too remote from their brood to stay on them, and they 

 will carry the honey down, if there is any room at all to 

 place it. 



The amount of honey left in the supers after extracting, 

 if it has been properly done, should be very insignificant, 

 and ought to find a place in the hive-body without any diffi- 

 culty. 



As to the bees sealing empty cells, we have seen that 

 also ; it is a freak for which it is difficult to account. They 

 may do it because they have an excess of broken fragments 



of wax which they dislike to throw away, but in an experi- 

 ence of some 35 years, we have seen this but once or twice. 



The fact that honey, which is left sticking to the combs 

 after the extraction, is apt to sour is our reason for putting 

 all the supers back on the hive at all times after extracting. 

 There are many people who do not follow this practice, but 

 who retain their supers, with the honey sticking to them 

 just as they are after extracting, until the following spring. 

 In a discussion of this matter in the Revue Internationale, 

 of Geneva, it was found that the opinions were about equally 

 divided on the subject, and those who did not return the 

 supers to the hives held that the honey kept just as well in 

 that condition as if it was gathered up by the bees. Per- 

 haps there is a difference owing to the climate. In theMis- 

 sissippi Valley we have very changeable temperature, and 

 even late in the fall we may have weather favorable to the 

 development of fermentation. Besides, during our damp 

 weather the honey that is spread over the surface of those 

 combs becomes watery, and much more liable to the effect 

 of fermentation germs. 



To remedy the trouble mentioned, I would recommend 

 that you extract your honey after the first frost, and if the 

 colony is strong, separate the brood-chamber from the upper 

 story, as mentioned above. I would not under any consider- 

 ation follow the methods of some apiarists, who put the 

 combs out in the open air for the bees to clean. It teaches 

 the bees to rob, and when the combs are not where all the 

 bees can get at them, they tear them up mercilessly in their 

 haste to get the honey away. Robbing bees are as unrea- 

 sonable and merciless as human robbers. 



If the extracting is done too late, and the bees have no 

 warm weather to enable them to occupy the supers suffi- 

 ciently, the conditions will be still more unfavorable. In 

 this locality we are successful in getting our combs all 

 nicely cleaned before cold weather, if the extracting is done 

 I early in October, and the supers returned the same evening. 

 Usually within two days all will be in order. Yet we do not 

 remove the supers until November, because we have once 

 or twice noticed some moth-growth in combs that were too 

 early taken away from the bees. If the combs are kept in 

 a cold room — that is, a room without fire from November till 

 May — there will be no moth in them. The cold weather 

 evidently destroys the moth in whatever stage they may be. 



A CROP-REPORT ERROR — TIME TO STOP. 



A clerical error crept in my article on page 518. I re- 

 ported a crop of 200 pounds per colony, and either the type- 

 writer or the typesetter made it out 300 pounds. The crop 

 was large enough with the true figures, and I only wish we 

 could have such crops a little of tener. 



In his three-column reply to me, Mr. Arthur C. Miller ac- 

 cuses me of resorting to " sophistry." When in an argument 

 one of the contestants advances unpleasant epithets against 

 his adversary, it is time to stop. Honey too much diluted 

 changes to vinegar. Hancock Co., 111. 



Handling the Larvae and Royal Jelly in the 

 Doolittle Method of Rearing Queens. 



BY A. C. F. HARTZ. 



MANY of the readers of this journal undoubtedly remem- 

 ber the fierce queen-rearing battle which took place in 

 these columns between the queen-breeders and some 

 of the contributors in general, and many and heavy were 

 the shots fired from either direction, and some very impor- 

 tant questions were settled for ever, if I am not mistaken. 



But " not by a long shot " do I believe the queen-rearing 

 question entirely settled. The umbilical-cord theory was 

 pronounced nonsense, proved to be such, and disposed of. 

 But there are other questions still unsettled, and it is for 

 that reason I venture to take up the matter anew in these 

 columns, if the editor permits me to do so, and I believe he 

 will, for he himself is of the opinion that the queen-bee is 

 is the "main spoke in the wheel," or, in other words, the 

 foundation of a colony of bees. 



Mr. Alley says, in part, let us have a quiet discussion 

 on queen-rearing. All right, Mr. Alley, here we go ! 



I believe it is now accepted in general that naturally- 

 reared queens are the best ones obtainable, but are believed 

 to be too expensive, and the supply so inadequate to the de- 

 mand, and consequently artificial means have been resorted 

 to. 



Now, there are two principal artificial queen-rearing 

 methods before the beekeeping public, viz. : — the Doolittle 



