338 



October, 1914. 



American Hee Journal 



the bees. Those, however, who find 

 themselves fitted for the business 

 will find a fascination and enjoyment 

 in it entirely independent of the mone- 

 tary reward obtained. 



With regard to choosing a location, 

 it is difficult to give anything but gen- 

 eral advice. Right where you are is 

 probably a good place to begin, and 

 possibly to continue. In the North, 

 white clover and basswood are the 

 leading honey plants for the early har- 

 vest, and buckwheat and heartsease for 

 the late harvest. Alsike and sweet 

 clover are fine yielders where they are 

 found in quantity. A paying crop may 

 be obtained from any one of these 

 plants alone; but, of course, there is a 

 better chance for success where two 

 or more of them are found in the same 

 locality. Please remember that a bee's 

 locality reaches out IK to 2 miles or 

 more in every direction. 



Moth and Combs 



It is interesting and instructive to 

 read what the Editor and Mr. J. L. 

 Byer have to sayabout combs outdoors, 

 pages 29.5 and 804. It may do no harm 

 to tell how it is here, part way between 

 the two places. 



If a colony dies in the cellar in win- 

 ter — it would no doubt be the same 

 outdoors — it is a matter of certainty 

 that sooner or later the combs left by 

 the dead colony will become wormy. 

 If left in the cellar, however, the prog- 

 ress of the miscreants will be very 

 slow, and little damage will be done 

 to the combs until some time in May 

 or June. If taken outdoors the prog- 

 ress of the worms will be much more 

 rapid; so we do not take them out 

 until we are ready to give them in care 

 of the bees. 



If, however, combs have been left 

 out over winter, and subjected to severe 

 freezing, they will generally, although 

 not always, pass through the summer 

 without being touched by the moth. 

 But they are never closed up so that 

 the moth can gain no entrance, but left 

 well ventilated. They would probably 

 be still more secure against moth if 

 entirely uncovered, only exposure to 

 the rain would not be good for them. 

 Very rarely do spiders make webs to 

 keep out the moth. 



The closer the combs are crowded 

 together the better it seems to suit the 

 moth, so we prefer to have combs un- 

 occupied by bees always spread well 

 apart. 



The Smoke Method of Introduction 



We have tried introducing queens by 

 the Arthur C. Miller smoke method, 

 only to find it a failure in every in- 

 stance. Possibly our deep bottom- 

 boards may account for the failures. It 

 has been explained that the secret of 

 the success of the plan is that under 

 cover of the smoke the queen imme- 

 diately rushes through the outer wall 

 of bees into the center of the cluster, 

 where she is safe. With 2 inches space 

 between the floor of the hive and the 

 bottom-bars she cannot readily do that, 

 but must run to one side of the hive or 

 the other before she can get up into 



the cluster, and she may run the full 

 length of the hive to the back end. 



On page '.'Mi, Mr. Byer gives his ex- 

 perience with the plan, and one colony 

 which was particularly vicious " was 

 given an extra hard smoking so as to 

 be sure of results." In spite of the 

 severe smoking the queen was killed. 

 According to liditor Root, however, 

 it may not have been in spite of, but 

 liecause of, the severe smoking. In 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture for Sept. 1, 

 he says, page 657, "Oversmoking or 

 undersmoking will lead to failure." He 

 further says that "apparently we would 

 better stick to the cage plan fora while 

 yet." 



•^--•-^ 



Overcoming Stubborn Queenlessness 



Once in a while there happens a case 

 of a queenless colonywhich is so stub- 

 born about accepting a queen that it 

 kiPs them as fast as they are given. 

 We had such a case last year. Seven 

 queens were killed in succession, al- 

 though different plans were used and 

 extra precautions taken. It would have 

 been better to have broken up the col- 

 ony, but there is a stubborn streak in 

 Dr. Miller, and finally a virgin just 

 hatched was given, which was respected 

 and allowed to remain. 



Although the introduction of a 

 young virgin causes a delay of 8 or 10 

 days, as compared with the introduc- 

 tion of a laying queen, there is the 

 practical certainty that it will be ac- 

 cepted by any colony. A colony with 

 laying workers will not accept a good 

 laying queen, but it will accept a very 

 young virgin. Even a colony with a 

 normal laying queen will not refuse a 

 virgin less than 24 hours old, but will 

 treat her kindly so long as she is a 

 baby. But as soon as she becomes old 

 enough so that it is a question between 

 her and the old queen, then your virgin 

 will disappear. 



It would seem that it is the older 

 bees that ol.ject to having a step- 

 mother. So if the older bees be re- 

 moved from the colony there will be 

 less trouble. An easy way to remove 

 them is to remove the colony to a new 



place, and the best way to do that is to 

 put on the stand, in place of the hive, 

 another hive containing perhaps empty 

 combs, all but one frame of brood, set- 

 ting on this the supers, if there were 

 any, then the cover, and on top of this 

 the hive containing the colony. Then 

 the queen is introduced to the colony 

 on top, and when she is laying nicely 

 things may be restored to their former 

 condition. The returning field bees 

 find a full colony with a laying queen, 

 and accept the situation. But in the 

 exceptional cases of those colonies 

 bound to kill every queen given them 

 the plan will not work, the old bees 

 killing the new queen when she is put 

 down on the stand. 



So this year, having again a trouble- 

 some case, we varied the plan. We 

 put up the colony as before, taking 

 away the supers, at least temporarily, 

 and on the stand we set a hive with its 

 one frame of brood, just as before, only 

 this time the hive was not fastened to 

 the bottom-board. When the queen 

 was accepted and laying in the hive on 

 top, we went in the evening, after bees 

 had stopped flying (before they began 

 flying in the morning would be just as 

 well), lifted the hive from on top and 

 set it on the ground, gave a little 

 smoke to the hive on the stand and 

 carefully removed it, so as not to start 

 the bees to flying, set the hive with the 

 laying queen on the stand, took off the 

 cover, put over the hive a sheet of 

 newspaper, and carefully set on this 

 the hive with the one frame of brood, 

 covering it up. We thus had all the 

 old bees imprisoned in the hive-body 

 on top. 'ihis proceeding saved the 

 day. When a hole was dug through 

 the newspaper, so that the bees could 

 get through one at a time, they did so 

 with a confused feeling, all the fight 

 taken out of them, glad to be accepted 

 without any resistance. 



Of course, all this trouble would 

 hardly be worth while in ordinary 

 cases, but it may be well worth while 

 in the case of a valuable queen, and in 

 any case there is a gain of several 

 days of brood-rearing as compared 

 with giving a virgin. 



CaUFORNIA ^ BEE-tteEPING 



Conducted by J I'^. I'l.EAsANTs. Orange. Calif. 



Letter from Mr. Bixby 



On page 2(37 of the August Bee Jour- 

 nal, in the "California Department," 

 appear criticisms by its venerable edi- 

 tor, Mr. Pleasants, of the Executive 

 Board of the California State Bee- 

 keepers' Association and its journal 

 the Western Honey Bee. 



Ten months ago the Honey Bee, 

 heavily in debt and receiving but a 

 feeble support, was turned over to the 

 present editor, admittedly to die. He 

 adopted the policy of telling the truth 

 about apicultural matters, as near as he 

 could ascertain it. Naturally, this 



aroused some criticism, but today the 

 journal is free from debt, has the cash 

 support of some of the most prominent 

 beekeepers all over the country, and 

 without expenditure for advertising, 

 but through the personal influence of 

 the Editor and a few other earnest 

 workers, has increased its paid sub- 

 scription list over /Ji) percoil. 



P>om the viewpoint of the Editor and 

 the lixecutive Board, there is no " grave 

 mislake " about this. 



Editor Western Honey Bee. 



We are sorry that our August 

 "notes" displeased the ]'"ditor of the 

 Western Honey Bee, but judging from 



