August, 1914. 



28\ 



American Hee Journal 



all is bee-tiglit. 



3. It will do no harm; only the bees thai 

 need most may get least. 



4. Generally not; but sometimes they do 

 foolish things. 



In Preparation for Swarming Does the Queen Stop 

 Laying? 



In preparation for swarming, does tlie 

 (iiieen ever entirt'ly shut down laying eggs, so 

 that if no eggs can be noticed in the hive it 

 invariably indicates queenlessness ? 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer.— I think the queen continues to 

 lay up to the day the swarm issues. But ab 

 sence of eggs is by no means a sure sign of 

 queenlessness. There may be no eggs, and 

 even no unsealed brood, but a young queen 

 which has not begun to lay. 



Miscellaneous Questions 



1. Please give me the addresses of every 

 bee journal printed in English. I am now 

 taking Gleanings in Bee Culture, American 

 Bee Journal, and the Beekeepers' Review. 

 Would you advise me to take more ? 



2. Where can I obtain new barrels for ex- 

 tracted honey ? I cannotget them near here. 



3. How many queen-cells may I give one 

 strong colony to complete during a good flow. 

 the colony being extra strong ? I mean to get 

 eood queens. 



i. If I give my bees the proper attention, 

 which will give me the most money, comb 

 honey at 20 cents a pound or extracted at 10 

 cents ? 



5. How can I tell a pure bred Italian 

 queen ? I notice all the queens I buy, and 

 ahso the drones, vary in markings 



ti.' Are Cyprian Queens more prolific than 

 other races ? 



7. Will keeping two or more laying queens 

 in the same brood-chamber prevent swarm- 

 ine? 



8. I have been trying your plan as given in 

 'Forty Years Among the Bees." to prevent 



'swarming by caging the queen 10 days, then 

 destroy all cells and release her. They 

 swarm next day in nearly every case after 

 releasing the queen. W^hat will prevent 

 this ? 



0. Will bees start queen-cells below the 

 excluder as often as they will above ? 



10. What are bees doine when they run 

 around among other bees shaking them- 

 selves, appearing to be very happy about 

 something? Virginia. 



Answers.— I. The Bri;ish Bee Journal is 

 published at 23 Bedford St.. London. W. C. 

 England The Beekeepers' Record is pub- 

 lished at the same address. By getting a 

 sample copy you can judge better than I 

 whether it is desirable for you. 



2. I don't know. Tin cans are used almost 

 entirely for extracted honey in quantity. 



\- Some limit the number to 10. But as a 

 colony left to itself rears twice that number 

 very often, it is doublfal whether it is nec- 

 essary to limit the number so much. Indeed, 

 it is possible that you will do no harm to 

 give quite a large number, say as many as 

 40; the bees themselves will do the limiting 

 by destroying the excess. 



4. Comb. 



5. The workers should show not less than 

 three yellow bands. But you may find in a 

 colony of pure Italians black w'orkers that 

 have come from other hives. Look for the 

 downy little chaps that are quite young; 

 amongst them there should be none without 

 the three bands. 



6. I don't think they have that reputation. 



7. No. 



8. I don't have much trouble in that way. 

 and I don't know how to prevent it in your 

 case. So far this year I have mostly followed 

 that "put up" plan, varied a little. When a 

 colony swarms, or I think it is in danger of 

 swarming, two or more frames of brood and 

 bees, with the queen, are put in a hive and 

 one or two empty brood-combs or frames of 

 foundation are added. A dummy is put be- 

 side the frames left in the old hive after all 



queen-cells in it are killed. The unoccupied 

 space in the hive is left entirely vacant, the 

 supers are put back on it, and the cover is 

 put on. The hive with the queen is now put 

 on top of all. As this hive with the queen 

 has its own bottom board and is set on the 

 cover of the old hive, of course there is no 

 communication between the two. No at- 

 tention is paid to any cells that may be in 

 the "put-up" hive; the bees themselves 

 will destroy them. Ten days later all cells 

 in the lower hive are killed, and the queen 

 with her frames of brood is returned. She 

 was merely caged for two days and then 

 freed. 



t). I think they will, but I never tried it 

 enough to know. In neither case can you be 

 sure of cells being started at all. 



10. I could never tell what it meant; al- 

 though, as you say. they seem so happy that 

 1 enjoy seeing them thus waltzing. 



Claiming Swarms^-Clipping Queens 



1. Uo you have any claim to a swarm of 

 bees after they cluster in a neighbor's yard, 

 and how should I go about getting them if 

 they tell me to leave them alone, as they 

 want to keep them ? Here is a little experi- 

 ence I had the other day. A large swarm 

 came out about 1:30 p m. The queen was 

 clipped first of April, so I did not worry 

 when they commenced to get up in the air; 

 pretty soon they began to cluster on a small 

 apple tree in a neighbor's yard about a block 

 away. I threw a little water on them and 

 went home after a box to carry them in. and 

 when I started to get them the people told 

 me to let them alone as they wanted to keep 

 them. I offered them 50 cents and then $1.00 

 to let me keep them, but nothing doing. 

 They hived them late in the evening in two 

 large cracker boxes and set them on the 

 west side of the house in the hot sun. Next 

 day the bees left them. The question is did 

 I have a right to go into their yard to get my 

 property ? 



2. Do you think there is any danger of my 

 bees contracting disease by building my 

 weak colonies with bees out of bee trees in 

 the woods ? I find a great many bee trees in 

 tne woods, and can use the bees to good ad- 

 vantage in building up weak colonies if 

 there is not too much danger. I had a queen- 

 less colony thisspring,and went to the woods 

 and cut a bee tree, got bees and queen, 

 brought them home and put them in the 

 Queenless colony the firstof April, and on 

 May 27 this colony swarmed. 



3. How often does a person have to look 

 over the bees to be sure the queens are all 

 clipped? I clipped my queens early in 



April. Swarm No. i came out and settled 

 on a grapevine in the yard I could not find 

 the queen anywhere on the ground, so I 

 hived them and found a queen with two 

 whole wings. Swarm No. 2 was the same 

 thing. .Swarm No. 3 came out May 31 about 

 ');3oa m.. and clustered about 8 feet high on 

 an apple tree. I got my hive and step-ladder 

 and proceeded 10 hive them. I had about 

 two-thirds of them in the hive and heard a 

 roar, and another swarm was coming out of 

 the hive next to No 3. and the next thing I 

 knew they were starting to cluster with No. 

 3. I shook the rest of the bees in No. ion 

 the run board, and set the hive to one side 

 in the shade. I went to look for the queen 

 in front of No. 4, and could not find her. By 

 this tinie swarm No. 4 was returning, and 

 about half of them went into their own 

 hive and half into hive where No. 3 had just 

 issued. They did not fight any, and were 

 soon quiet, and gave me a chance to look for 

 the queen. I went through No. 4 hive and 

 found some queen-cells but no queen closed 

 up in the hive, and commenced looking on 

 the ground. I saw about a dozen bees sit- 

 ting on a brick, and found my clipped 

 queen in the bunch, so I returned her to the 

 hive. What do you suppose became of the 

 other three queens I had clipped? I am 

 sure I did not injure them, as I did not han- 

 dle them; just raised their wings and 

 clipped them off. Missouri. 



Answers.— I. Laws may differ in different 

 States, but in general the law is so long as 

 you keep a swarm in sight you may claim it 

 as yours, and wherever it alights you may go 

 and take it. only you must pay for any dam- 

 age Tou do in capturing the swarm. For in- 

 stance, if you should cut down a tree or a 

 limb to a valuable tree, you must pay for the 

 damage done. 



2. 'Yes. bees may be diseased in trees as 

 well as hives. 



1. The number of times it is necessary to 

 look whether a clipped queen has been ex- 

 changed for another depends upon many 

 circumstances too numerous to be detailed 

 here. In general it may be said that there is 

 no need to look until the queen is more than 

 a year old so long as the colony does not 

 swarm. Yet there are exceptions even to 

 this. 



It is possible that the loss of those clipped 

 queens may have occurred in this way: The 

 colony may have swarmed without being ob- 

 served, and then the queen was lost, or else 

 the bees balled her. and then a week or so 

 later a swarm issued with the first virgin 

 emerging. 



A Handy Magnet 



I have for years used a magnet to clean up 

 my workbench, as with it I can find the 

 smallest brads, screws and nails, as well as 

 nail sets, big nails, cratestaples. flatsprings. 

 and even a stray file. I thought may be 

 others would like to know it. 



The honey flow is on here in great shape, 

 and I have all but one colony ready. Swarm- 

 ing has begun with others I raise brood. 

 a la Demaree, and look for no swarms. I use 

 verv free ventilation and give lots of room. 



A. F. BONNEV. 



Buck G: ove. Iowa, June 5. 



European foulbrood has been showing up in 

 a great many new localities. 



The honey-flow has been from light to fair 

 in most localities visited. The linden trees 

 are in full bloom now. and the bees are 

 storing fast from this source The recent 

 rains will prolong the white clover flow well 

 on into July. J. W. Stine, 



Salem. Iowa, June 23. 



Report from an Iov?a Inspector 



There has been more calls for inspection 

 work in the southeast quarter of the State 

 of Iowa than ever before. In Iowa county, 

 where the most work has been done, every 

 colony in the town of Williamsburg for at 

 least 2 miles around was diseased with 

 either American or European foulbrood or 

 sacbrood. In a few cases two of these dis- 

 eases were found to exist in one colony. 



Little Honey in Illinois 



We have been having a few little showers 

 so the crops are growing good. There will 

 be no white honey in Illinois from a line 

 drawn across the State from Princeton, 

 Bureau county. From Princeton north there 

 will be some white clover. 



I am not looking for much fall honey ex- 

 cept on the river bottoms. A. L. KiLDOW. 



Putnam. III.. June 30. 



Keeping Bees in Attics 



Mr . Editor. I am glad jouhavemademen 

 tion of keeping bees in attics or garrets, for 



