December, 1914. 



423 



American ^ee Journal 



tree and put them in a liive. they would tlien 

 be called tame. So you see that wild and 

 tame bees are really all the same thine. If 

 the workers have three yellow bands, they 

 are Italians, wild or tame. If they are of 

 good stock it will not pay to requeen. unless 

 with better stock. I don't know whether it 

 will pay you or not ito eet a colony of Ital- 

 ians; hardly, if you already have eood Iial 

 ians. unless you are anxious to increase 

 your number immediately. Whether an 

 Italian colony is worth $12 depends upon a 

 eood many things. It may be worth twice 

 that under some circumstances, and half 

 that under others 



Trying a New Thing— Diseased Colonies— Sugar- 

 Fed Honey Second Mating— Uniting 



1. How would it do to supply the combs 

 with water and Hour in the early spring ? 



2. My bees had pickled or scab brood in 

 one colony or the other all summer. Will 

 they be very likely to have it ne.\t spring; if 

 so, what treatment would you recommend ? 



1. If I feed sugar syrup and the bees store 

 it in the combs so as to get it mi.xed in with 

 the honey, might it be sold for pure honey ? 



4. Last May 1 purchased a queen with a 

 one-frame nucleus. The workers and drones 

 were pure: but the longer I had them the 

 darker they seemed to get. The queens I 

 reared from her seemed to be very pure, also 

 the drones. Do you think she mated again ? 



5. 1 am going to winter my bees outdoors, 

 simply putting an enamel cloth over the 

 frames Would you advise cutting a hole in 

 the cloth to allow the moisture to escape? 

 Will these cloths be all right ? Illinois. 



Answers.— I. The fact that it is not gen- 

 erally practiced is pretty good proof that it 

 is not satisfactory. You are not likely to do 

 any harm by putting water in combs, but if 

 you mi.x flour with it there maybe trouble 

 in getting it out again. 



2. They are not certain to have it next 

 year because they had it this year, but if 

 exactly the same conditions are repeated 

 the trouble is likely to reappear. Do all you 

 can to have strong colonies, with everything 

 in best condition. 



3. Any mixture of sugar syrup in honey 

 bars it out from being sold as pure honey. 



4. There are reports of queens mating a 

 second time, but it is a rare occurrence. 



5. A hole, or a number of holes, would 

 probably be better, and there should be 

 3 to'b inches of loose material as packing on 

 top. Try at least one colony with burlap or 

 other pervious material instead of enameled 

 cloth. 



Swarm Prevention 



See article on page 310 of the American 

 Bee Journal on "Controlling Swarming." 

 The author says that he produces a new 

 colony with just one frame "of brood in 

 several stages" and the honey-gathering 

 bees. I should imagine that the frame ought 

 also to contain eggs, or how could a queen 

 be produced ? 



The point I have in mind, is that I once 

 asked you how it would be tocontrol swarm- 

 ing by taking from a colony every frame 

 having a queen-cell no beesj and distribut- 

 ing a tranie of comb or foundation. You an- 

 swered that such practice probably would 

 destroy the colony or weaken it enough so 

 as not to become a surplus producer, but 

 does not C. K. Greening, by his way. leave as 

 the basis for a new colony much less than 

 would be left by taking away only such 

 frames as bees would make queenless on ? 



And is there not more depletion than by 

 my suggestion in the ordinary shook swarm- 

 ing, when the bees have at most only one 

 frame of brood and the rest all foundation ? 



As to my suggestion or notion, it would 

 seem theoretically possible to deprive bees 

 of the minimum, whereby just that is taken 

 from them and just so much empty space re- 

 given to induce desistence from swarming. 

 Then practice to approach the theory as 

 near as possible. 



Aside of this— in giving a queenless col- 

 ony a frame with queen-cell— may an un- 

 capped one not be better than even a " ripe " 



one on the following line of argument: Ex- 

 perience seems with me to recommend the 

 practice of putting into the hive-body to 

 hold a swarm a frame with ////capped brood. 

 I read that the bees " never " desert such. 

 If a swarm of bees is so well held by ////- 

 capped brood, will analogously an "un- 

 capped " queen-cell elicits more sympathy 

 from the queenless bees than a sealed one ? 

 As good mothers like to take care of their 

 babes, so bees might best like to "have a 

 hand" in the rearing of their queen— to be ? 

 ."^n uncapped queen-cell may also involve a 

 suggestion ahead of a frame with eggs only, 

 and so be better than either the latter or a 

 sealed queen cell. Subscriber. 



Answer.— Replying to your first question, 

 as to how a queen could be produced from 

 brood in several stages without eggs, it may 

 be said that eggs are not at all necessary, 

 since iji/gc'ff/t-is bees seldom if ever start a 

 queen from the egg, but from a larva less 

 than three days old— usually. I think, less 

 than two days old. 



To your second question, whether C. F. 

 Greening (page 311, September number, 

 where he forms a colony from one frame of 

 brood and the field bees of a strong colony) 

 does not have a weaker colony than you 

 would have " by taking away from a colony 

 every frame having a queen-cell." I answer 

 yes. 



To your further question whether a 

 shaken swarm is not weaker than said col- 

 ony having its brood with queen-cells taken 

 from it, I again answer yes. 



The gist of tlie whole matter, however, 

 lies in the implied question as to how I rec- 

 oncile that with the answer you say I made 

 formerly, that taking away from a colony 

 every frame having a queen-cell would prob- 

 ably destroy the colony or weaken it beyond 

 producing surplus. I don't reconcile it— 

 can't. The statement attributed to me is 

 nonsense. You do not say where that an- 

 swer is to be found; but I cannot imagine 

 how I could have made such an answer, for 

 I have been a teetotaler all my life. I really 

 wonder if 1 made exactly that answer to ex- 

 actly that question. 



Your theory that just enough depletion 

 should be used as would prevent swarming 

 is excellent. In actual practice it is hard to 

 carry out. Colonies differ: seasons differ. 

 I have known the removal of two frames of 

 brood to make a colony give up the notion 

 of swarming, and I have known the removal 

 of nearly all to have no apparent effect. 

 Breeding persistently fromstock least given 

 to swarming may help out. 



I don't know for certain, but I have doubts 

 that bees will be better held by uncapped 

 than by capped brood. I have known bees 

 to remain faithfully clustered on a piece of 

 sealed brood at the hive-entrance in a pelt- 

 ing rain; I never knew them so faithful to 

 unsealed brood. Many a time I have known 

 them to empty out unsealed queen-cells 

 when sealed queen-cells were left undis- 

 turbed. .At any rate, I don't see the bearing 

 in the present case. What we are after is 

 not to keep the bees from absconding, but 

 from swarming, which is a very different 

 thing, .^nd the presence of a queen cell, 

 either sealed or unsealed, whatever it might 

 do toward keeping a colony from deserting 

 its hive, would in many cases be the very 

 thing to make it swarm. 



How to Prove Section Honey is Pure ?— Watery 

 Looking Honey 



1. Some dealers tell me that I have been 

 feeding my bees sugar syrup. Others ask 

 me if it is machine made. I would like to be 

 able to prove that my nice white comb 

 honey is pure honey produced by the 

 bees, but as I am not very well posted on 



honey yet. I do not know just what what to 

 say. I have heard it said that somebody 

 somewhere offered Siooo for a pound of ma- 

 chine-made honey. Who was this man. and 

 IS the offer still good, and has he got the 

 Jiooo yet? The trouble is that many per- 

 sons believe that clean white combs with- 

 out stains are machine made, that pure am- 

 ber honey is colored, and if it is clear and 

 white it must be nothing but sugar and 

 water. 



2. What is the cause and remedv of comb 

 Jioney having a water soaked appearance? 

 Ihecappings lie right on the honey. The 

 honey tastes about the same as any other, 

 but It does not look as good as where the 

 capping IS pure white. I have a colony that 

 produced over 100 pounds more this season 

 than any of the others, but a good many of 

 the sections had this watery look. 



3. I am using the 4xsxi48 sections, but in 

 Older to get a heavier section when filled. 

 1 have been thinking about changing to the 

 iX%xi'A. Do you think this advisable? My 

 i?s sections weigh 13 and 14 ounces, includ 

 ing the wood. I would like to have them 

 weigh at least 15 ounces net. as people 

 expect a pound package when buying. Which 

 IS the most used by beekeepers through this 

 country, the 4X5xi-;a or the iX^xi'A ? 



Washington. 



Answers.— I. An argument that I think 

 was first advanced by C. P. Dadant ought to 

 be enough to convince any one with suffi- 

 cient reason that section honey is not ma- 

 chine made. Take any two sections of 

 honey and place them side by side. If ma- 

 chine made they would be exactly alike, 

 whereas there will be no difficulty in point- 

 ingout differences that will knockout all 

 idea that they are made in the same mold, 

 and establish clearly that each section is an 

 individual job. worked out by the bees. 

 Pop-holes in one will be clearly different 

 from those in another, and variations of 

 cells will be evident. You may also show a 

 section just as it is when you give it to the 

 bees, and that will be convincing to most 

 men that the bees do the rest. 



The offer of tiooo for a section of honey 

 made without the aid of bees was first made 

 by The A. I. Root Company, and is still 

 good, with many thousands of dollars back 

 of it. No one has yet captured the reward. 

 The same offer has also been made by the 

 National Beekeepers' Association. 



2. You have answered the question your- 

 self, when you say. " The cappings lie right 

 on the honey." In other words, the bees fill 

 the honey right up to the capping, leaving 

 no air-space between the capping and the 

 honey. The remedy is to change the queen, 

 or else use the colony for extracted honey. 

 Any section may also acquire the same ap- 

 pearance after it is taken from the hive, no 

 matter how white the bees made it. if it is 

 put in a damp place. Honey is deliquescent, 

 attracting moisture from damp air. and 

 should be kept in a warm, dry place. W^here 

 salt will keep dry is likely a good place to 

 keep honey. 



3. You may as well put it down first as last 

 that you can find no size of section that will 

 always weigh exactly the same when filled 

 with honey. No. nor anywhere near the 

 same. The weight will vary in different sea- 

 sons, at different times in the same season, 

 and with different colonies at the same time. 

 I venture the guess that your colony that 

 made watery sections made at the same 

 time heavier sections than other colo- 

 nies. In my crop of 1014. I found whole 

 cases in which the average weight of a 

 section in one case was more than two 

 ounces above that in another, and 1 think 

 two individual sections might have been 

 found with a difference in weight of six 

 ounces. You can be just as honest selling 

 sections weighing ten ounces as you can sell- 

 ing those that weigh a pound or more. Only 



