July, 1914. 



American Hee Journal 



queen, is it necessary to protect it in any 

 way ? 



4. Do yon think soft sugar is as good to 

 stimulate l^rood rearing as syrup ? Is it as 

 good for winter stores ? Is soft brown sugar 

 all right for bees ? Tennessek 



Answers.— I. There is no special trick in 

 finding queens. Just lake out one frame 

 after another and look carefully, first on 

 the side opposite you. then on the side 

 nearest. If you are gentle about It. and 

 don't get the bees stirred up with too much 

 jarring or smoke, you will generally spot her 

 the first time looking the frames over. If 

 you don't get her after looking the frames 

 over two or three times, you may as well 

 close the hive until an hour or more later, or 

 until another day, for sometimes a queen 

 hides in some mysterious way and cannot 

 be found, and then the next time you open 

 the hive she may be found on the first frame 

 taken out If, however, for some reason it 

 is very important that you get her at once, 

 then the plan you suggest will work all right. 



2. I don't know for certain, but I think it 

 might work all right, provided your supers 

 contain extractingcombs. If they contain 

 sections, the sections may become badly 

 darkened with old brood-combs above them. 

 I hardly think you need cage the old queen 

 in the upper story, but may leave her at 

 liberty. 



3. No, unless the colony has lost its queen 

 only 12 hours or so previously, and is not yet 

 conscious of its queenlessness. 



4. I don't know; but I should think there 

 would be littledifference betweensoftsugar 

 and syrup. But neither of them is as good 

 as honey for brood-rearing. Brown sugar is 

 good for bees at any time when they are 

 flying, if they will take it; but syrup of 

 granulated sugar is better for winter. 



Freezing Honey Difference in Wintering Italian 

 and Black Bees in Russia 



1. It is a custom here in Russia to keep 

 and sell honey in wooden tubs without any 

 covers. Usually it granulates in October or 

 November. It is kept all winter in buildings 

 without stoves, where the temperature is 

 under freezing-point. Does freezing injure 

 (he honey? Last summer I had very good 



honey. 1 took some of it. when extracting, 

 to the house for family use. It was thick, 

 ripe honey, which granulated hard. We ate 

 it until Christmas, then I took some more 

 from one of the wooden tubs in the cold 

 building. We were much astonished to find 

 it quite soft, and when left for some time in 

 the warm room it nearly became liquid, and 

 was not to be compared with the honey I 

 took when extracting. What injured it i" 



2 .■\re Italian bees more difficult for win- 

 tering than black bees? I have one colony 

 of Italians. In the middle of winter they 

 began to roar in the bee-house, so much that 

 I was obliged to take it out in the snow. 

 The black bees, of which I have 125 colonies, 

 are quite still now. Russia. 



Ansvvers.-i. Freezing does not in any 

 way injure granulated honey. It hastens the 

 granulation of liquid honey, and may crack 

 the combs of comb honey The difference 

 in the behavior of your early and later 

 honey may have been due to being gathered 

 from different flowers. There is a great 

 difference in that respect; honey fromsome 

 plants granulates almost as soon as it is 

 stored in the hive, and from others it 

 scarcely granulates at all. 



2. In this country there is considered to 

 be little or no difference between blacks 

 and Italians as to wintering. There may 

 have been some special reason for the poor 

 wintering of that one colony, and it is also 

 possible that your blacks are used to the 

 severe climate while the Italians are not 

 yet acclimated. 



Hiving Swarms 



One of my colonies of Italian bees, on May 

 », threw off a nice, strongswarm. and follow- 

 ing advice given in a recent number of the 

 American Bee Journal, I placed the swarm 

 on the old stand, and the old colony close 

 beside it. to be moved on the tenth day to a 

 new location, 10 feet or more away. But on 

 the seventh day it threw off a second 

 swarm. What would you do when they act 

 like that? Virginia. 



Answer.— 1 wonder if you haven't by any 

 chance got things a little mixed. Ten days 

 is the time given quite often for overhauling 

 colonies to look for queen-cells, but about a 

 week has been given a number of times as 

 the time to move the old colony to prevent a 

 second swarm. It is counted that the prime 



swarm issues about the time the first cell is 

 sealed. Then seven or eight days after the 

 cell is sealed the virgin emerges, and is 

 ready to go with a swarm the next day. If, 

 now, the old hive, which was set close be- 

 side the swarm at the time the latter was 

 hived, be moved to a new location a week 

 after the prime swarm issued, all the field 

 bees will desert the old colony, joining the 

 swarm, and the old colony being thus de- 

 pleted, with honey coming in. will give up 

 all further swarming, allowing the first 

 virgin to kill all the others. 



Sometimes, however, it happens that at 

 the time the first cell is sealed the weather 

 IS too bad for a swarm to issue, and it issues 

 a day or more later. That shortens the in- 

 terval between the two swarms. That's 

 what happened in your case, making the 

 second swarm issue the seventh day. To 

 guard against such exceptional cases (and 

 there may be exceptions even without re- 

 gard to weather) theold hive might be moved 

 the sixth, or even the fifth day; yet the 

 sooner the hive is moved the less certain it 

 is to be entirely effective. 



You ask what to do in a case when a sec- 

 ond swarm actually issues. Hive it, set it 

 closebeside the hive from which it issued, 

 or else down cellar, and next day return it 

 to the hive from which it issued. That will 

 probably end the matter, for by that time no 

 more live virgins will be left in cells, but 

 occasionally it might happen that a swarm 

 would again issue, in which case it should 

 be again returned. 



Swarms Work Better than Old Colonies— To Make 

 Room 



1. What is the matter with my bees' I 

 have 16 old colonies. Four or five of them 

 started to work early in the season on wild 

 flowers. I took off 23 pounds of comb honey 

 from one hive the last of March. Now they 

 are not storing a pound of honey, and will 

 not work in the supers. On the other hand 

 three swarms that I hived in February are 

 working in the supers, and one has u pounds 

 of sealed comb honey and the other has 17 

 pounds. Why do they work better than the 

 old colonies? Is it the queens ? 



2. Would bees bemorelikely tomake more 

 honey by adding supers all the time or by 

 taking out the one-pound sections each 

 '"Tie? California. 



Answers. -I. It is a common thing for a 

 swarm to do better work at storing than the 

 mother colony. The latter is greatly de- 

 pleted by the swarm leaving, and has a lot 

 of brood to feed, while the swarm has most 

 of the field bees and no brood to feed. 



2 They will store as much one way as the 

 other, provided they have all the room they 

 need. 



Bees Beginning to hang OfT-THEv Should Be Given More Room By Re.moving 

 THE Entrance Block Entikelv. 



Shake Swarming— Redwood Hivei 



1. Last year I had a lot of trouble with 

 runaway swarms. Can you tell me how to 

 practice "shake swarming?" 



2. I put two primeswarms of bees in a new 

 redwood 8-frame hive. The bees imme- 

 diately left for parts unknown within a few 

 hours. Can you tell me if the smell of a red- 

 wood hive is offensive to the bees ' 



Nebraska. 

 Answers.— I. Lift the combs out of the 

 hive, one after another, and shake the bees 

 back into the hive, filling up the hive with 

 empty combs, and when vou have done that 

 you have shaken a swarm. Of course you 

 must be sure that the queen is left in the 

 hive from which the brood has been taken. 

 To hold the swarm in the hive it is well to 

 leave one frame with at least a little brood. 

 Some think it best to take this frame away 

 after two or three days. You can make any 

 disposition you like of the frames of brood 

 taken away. They may be used tostrengthen 

 weak colonies, or you can use them to make 



