November, 1914. 



389 



American Vee Journal 



the racks left in. and the board put in and 

 the bees work on one side only ? 



4. A neighbor has a colony of bees in an 

 old fashioned gnni He wants to take the 

 honey this fall and tells me I may have the 

 befs. How shall I arrange for them, and 

 when would be the best time to move them ? 



5- I have two colonies of bees; one fias 

 swarmed four times, while the other lias not 

 swarmed at all. In Iho heat of the day they 

 cluster on the outside of the i;um. What is 

 the trouble, and why don't they swarm ? 



6. Does the Queen-ira[i work satisfactorily 

 to save swarms, and how do you manage it? 



7 Should any of the drones be destroyed ? 



8. Is it necessary to feed bees during a 

 drouth ? 



Answers.— I. That depends upon how 

 much they have. If you leave them so to 35 

 pounds for winter they will do just as well 

 next spring as with double that amount. 



2. You can make arrangement with any of 

 the men who advertise to sell queens by 

 writing to them in advance and asking them 

 to have tiueens ready at a gi\'en time, you to 

 forward the money just before time to ship 

 the queens, or before that time. 



1. Like enough what you have in mind is a 

 dummy. Dummies are used a great deal; 

 division-boards not so much. A dummy is 

 made about as long and deep as a brood- 

 frame, and may be any thickness from /i 

 inch to an inch. A dummy at the side of 

 the hive makes it much easier to get out the 

 frames. Lifting out the dummy gives room 

 to get out the first frame more easily. If at 

 any time you want to use less than the full 

 number of frames in a hive, the frames are 

 shoved to one side, and instead of leaving 

 the frame next to the vacant space exposed, 

 a dummy is placed next to it. 



A division-board is made longer and 

 deeper than a dummy, so that it makes 

 just a snug fit in the hive. When only part 

 of the frames are used in a hive, the divis- 

 ion-board closes up warmer than a dummy. 



No frames need be in the unoccupied part^ 



4. You will drum out the bees into a hive, 

 or first into a convenient box and then put 

 them into a hive furnished witli combs, and 

 then split up the old hive and take the 

 honey. If you have no combs you can use 

 comb foundation, but combs are better. Of 

 course you will tiave to feed the bees, 

 whether you have combs or foundation, but 

 it will take less feeding if you have the 

 combs. The best time is immediately after 

 they stop gathering the fall flow, which may 

 be at different times in different places, 

 maybe the last of August, and maybe not 

 until October. 



5. There may be no troubleat all ; the bees 

 merely being of such good character that 

 they do not feel inclined to swarm Other 

 tilings being equal, bees that never want to 

 swarm are a good deal more valuable than 

 those which swarm four times, or even once. 



6. Under somecircumstances a queen-trap 

 works very satisfactorily, as when there is 

 no one on hand to watch for swarms and 

 hive them. In that case the queen is caught 

 in the trap when the swarm issues, and in 

 the evening or the next morning you can 

 divide the bees, leaving on the old stand 

 part of the bees and thequeen in a new hive, 

 and taking the rest of the brood and bees in 

 the old hive to a new stand. 



7. Yes. it is a good plan to destroy all the 

 drones except in one or two of the best colo- 

 nies. Better than to destroy the flying 

 diones. destroy the drone-brood in the hive, 

 and still better not to allow drone-comb in 

 the hive. 



8. No need to feed if there is plenty of 

 honey in the hive, unless at a time when the 

 queen ought to be laying the dearth con- 

 tinues so long that there is danger that the 

 queen may stop laying. 



Hard Year on Bees 



This has been a hard year on the bees in 

 this locality. No rain from the first of May 

 to the last of August. We only got a little 

 surplus from fruit and black locust blos- 

 soms. Since the late r;uns the fall flowers 

 have come, and I think the bees will gather 

 enough for winter. The price of sugar has 

 gone up 50 I cannot afford to feed 



Martinsville. Ind.. Oct. 10. J. A. Lewis. 



various ways and some 

 my bees are wintered 

 prepared with 6 inch ti 

 as an inlet for fresh air. 

 outlet in chimney. Wit 

 ture is the same at all t 

 than one percent loss, 

 hives when taken out in 



Platteville. Wis . Oct. 



in cellars Now all 

 in cellars, specially 

 le below frost line, 

 and one foot square 

 h this the tempera 

 imes. and so far less 

 Hatching bees in 

 spring. 



N. E. France, 



From a Deputy Inspector 



Tiie bees had a good fall flow here, and 

 most of them will have enough to carry 

 them through the winter. But as it is so 

 late in the season some of the honey may 

 not ripen and may sour and give them the 

 diarrhea. 



1 spent 26!5 days at inspection work, vis- 

 ited 70 yards, examined ■;;» colonies. I found 

 12 colonies diseasi-d with American foul- 

 brood, and 21) with European 1 visited some 

 places in which no inspector had ever come. 

 They were glad to see me. 1 found in all ^o 

 colonies queenless. One Frenchman had 5 

 colonies queenless I showed him how to 

 insert in them combs of eggs and brood. Six 

 wef.ks later he reported these to be among 

 his best colonies. jEssE H. Roberts. 



Watseka. 111.. Oct. 2. 



Satisfied With Short Crop 



I have so many reports of total failure that 

 I feel satisfied with my short crop, about 

 12.500 pounds, and the hives overflowing for 

 winter. Localities differ and methods also. 



1 have for years wintered bees outside in 



Observations from a Northern Indiana 

 Beekeeper 



October 17. iQt2. 1 moved my bees from 

 Noble county, in this State, to Huntington 

 county, a distance of 36 miles, making the 

 trip overland with a hayrack on a common 

 fai m wagon without springs, and notwith- 

 standing the fact that 1 had the covers off 

 the hives and the entrances screened to ad- 

 mit the air. the bees got quite excited, and 

 when we got to the end of the trip I found 

 some of them in rather bad condition. One 

 colony in particlar had a comb broken out 

 from the frame, and the honey was running 

 out of the entrance with several hundred 

 bees drowned in the honey. Not wishing to 

 disturb them any more than absolutely 

 necessary, I placed a hive-body containing 

 plenty of honey on a bottom-board and 

 placed the hives containing the brood-nest 

 immediately on top. and a chaff super on 

 top of this 



The following winter proved to be an easy 

 one for the bees, and 1 did not disturb them 

 until March, IQI3. This being a nice bright 

 day. I determined to see how they were get- 

 ting along. 



The first one I examined was the one hav- 



ing the empty frame from which the comb 

 had fallen, intending to remove the empty 

 frame and replace with a full comb, but 

 what was my suriirise to find this colony 

 good and strong and building new comb in 

 this empty frame, having it built out about 

 two-thirds with nice worker comb, and the 

 bees clustered in true comb building atti- 

 tude. So I replaced the frame and left it 

 after seeing that there was plenty of stores 

 to run them through. 



I did not disturb them further until about 

 Atiri 20, when I removed the chaff supers. 

 By that time this cnlonv had the empty 

 frame filled with comb !all nice wor er ex- 

 cept a small patch in one lower corner, 

 which was drone comb), and it was partly 

 filled with eggs and brood. This was a reve- 

 laiion to me. as 1 never knew that bees 

 would or could build comb in cold weather, 

 but here was the evidence right before my 

 eyes- 



In September last I wished to change one 

 row of hives, and jn order to get it to suit 

 my ideas it was necessary to move the ones 

 at the west end a distance of about 50 feet. 

 I did this one cool morning, and stopped the 

 entrances so as to keep the bees in the hives 

 intending to leave them thus all day. but 

 along toward noon, when the sun had begun 

 to get pretty hot, the bees begged so hard I 

 opened the entrances and let them out, and 

 how they did flv ! Well, they circled around 

 their previous location in perfect swarms; 

 in fact, any one not familiar with the cir- 

 cumstances would have declared a swarm 

 was in the air. Sometimes they would clus- 

 ter on a block where the hives had been. 

 These clusters sometimes being as large as 

 my hand, and probably one or two inches in 

 depth. Then these clusters would melt 

 away only to form again near the same 

 places. 



Along about 3 o'clock p.m. they began to 

 seek the hives, and bv dusk there were but 

 few stragglers left. The next morning every 

 thing seemed normal in and about the hives, 

 hut when the youngsters came out for their 

 flight the same performance was enacted as 

 the day before except there were not nearly 

 so many bees in the flying throngs. This 

 performance was kent up every nice day for 

 about two weeks. Of course, with rapidly 

 decreasing numbers, as along towards the 

 last, there were only a few bees to be seen 

 flyinj in the vicinity of the former location. 



I do not know whether they found their 

 way back to their own hives or not. but 

 it seemed to me that certain colonies re- 

 ceived more than their share, and of course 

 at the expense of some others. However 

 this may be. the colonies all seemed to be 

 plenty strong to go into winter quarters. 



Recently while waiting for a train at a 

 railroad junction, I got into conversation 

 with an old gentleman whom I found to be 

 interested in poultry, and as I am a poultry 

 " crank" myself, and we were soon visiting 

 like we had been old-time friends. Finally, 

 the conversation drifted to beekeeping, and 

 he confided to me that he had a friend who 

 actually makes money with his bees. " But," 

 said he in an undertone. " he has a mean 

 trick of sowing this bad weed, sweet clover 

 along the roadsides for his bees to work on." 

 I asked him if he did not think sweet clover 

 might be a benefit to farmers in some wavs. 

 but he did not see how it could be. and I did 

 not try very hard to convince him. but I am 

 thankful that the rising generations are be 

 ing taught along these lines. 



Ubee. Ind. E. H. UpsON. 



I Mr. Upson is wi'ong in his supposition that 

 it was the younger bees that were seeking 

 the old location of the hives. It was rather 

 the older ones. After bees have once gotten 

 the location of their colony, they never stop 

 to re-locate when going to the fields, but 

 rush out to the harvest. Thus the bees 

 rushed from the colonies in their new posi- 

 tions and were unable to find their way 

 back. They probably drifted promiscu 

 ously into the hives toward nightfall, being 

 attracted by the roar of the colonies 



It is wise when moving the location of 

 bees, especially short distances, to lean a 

 board in front of the hive or place some 

 other obstacle there, so that the outgoing 

 bees must of necessity notice and mark the 

 change of location.— Editor. 1 



Toads Eating Bees 



I obtained a colony in a lo-frame hive las 

 spring, from a beekeeper in Vermont, and 



