138 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



ANSWERED BY 



OK,. C C. I^IXjILiHSR,, 



Marengo, III. 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufficient special Interest to 

 require replies from the 20 or more apiarists 

 who help to make "Queries and Replies" so 

 interesting on another page. In the main, it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— Ed. 



Transferring and Italianizing:. 



1. I have four colonies of bees in 

 Langstroth hives with loose frames, 

 vi^hich 1 wish to transfer to dovetailed 

 hives and Hoffman frames, and I also 

 wish to Italianize them, as they are now 

 blacks. Will it be best to Italianize 

 now, and transfer next spring, or do 

 both at once next spring ? 



2. Is there any way to Italianize with- 

 out having to hunt up the old queen and 

 kill her? If so, how ? Black queens 

 are, I discover, very hard to find when 

 there are many bees in the hive. 



Aurora, 111. W. H. N. 



Answers. — 1. I believe I'd rather 

 Italianize now than next spring. It will 

 interfere more or less with building up 

 the colony in the spring when every bee 

 counts. 



2. You'll not get the bees to accept a 

 new queen so long as the old one is in 

 the hive. Hunting the black queens 

 will give you a good lesson in patience. 

 Possibly some hints may be of use to 

 you. Suppose you have looked over the 

 frames carefully the second time with- 

 out finding the queen, it isn't wise to 

 keep on. She has perhaps hidden some- 

 where out of sight, goodness only knows 

 where, at any rate you'll probably not 

 find her if you keep on. But leave the 

 hive and come back in half an hour, and 

 next time you may readily find her. 



Be careful about using much smoke. 

 Smoke them until you get them to run- 

 ning, and you've small chanceof success. 



Here's something may help : Take 

 out the first frame, and after looking it 

 over put it in an empty hive, an inch or 

 so from the side of the hive next to 

 you. Put the next one close to it. The 



third frame an inch or more from the 

 second, and the fourth close to the third. 

 When half the frames are out of the 

 hive, spread the remaining half in the 

 old hive in the same way in pairs. Now 

 your frames are all in pairs, and the 

 bees will be pretty thick on the outside 

 surfaces of each pair, and comparatively 

 few between the two combs of each pair. 

 The queen is very likely to be between 

 the combs. 



Now commence your examination of 

 the frames in the empty hive. Frame 

 No. 1 is next to you. Lift it out, and in 

 doing so the side of No. 2 next you is 

 easily seen. Look it over somewhat 

 hastily as you lift out No. 1, then turn 

 over No. 1 and examine the side that 

 was next No. 2, putting the combs back 

 in pairs just as they were, ready to be 

 looked over again if you don't find the 

 queen first time. 



Sometimes in a stubborn case it's a 

 good plan to leave the frames thus in 

 pairs for some time (still better if they're 

 scattered in several hives), then after a 

 time the bees without a queen will show 

 themselves quite uneasy, while the pair 

 with the queen will remain tranquil. 



By means of a queen-trap or a queen- 

 excluder you may make shorter work of 

 it. Shake the bees off two frames, at 

 least clean enough so you are sure there 

 is no queen there. Put these two frames 

 in an empty hive, and put an excluder 

 over it, or a queen-trap in front. Now 

 shake or brush the bees oflf the remain- 

 ing combs on top of the excluder, or in 

 front of the queen-trap. The workers 

 can get through, but not the queen. If 

 they stop going through, start them up 

 with smoke. Better put an empty hive 

 or box over the excluder, so the bees will 

 not fall off on the ground. 



Bemoving Brood or Sections. 



1. In removing a frame of brood or 

 sections, from one hive to another, do 

 you shake the bees off, or take all to- 

 gether? 



2. Will the bees remain where put, or 

 return to their old home ? 



Answers. — 1. Just as you like. If 

 you give a frame of brood to a colony 

 that has enough bees to take care of it, 

 perhaps it is better to brush off most or 

 all of the bees. Then there's no danger 

 of taking the queen with the brood, and 

 no danger of the strange bees disturb- 

 ing the queen of the hive to which they 

 ara taken. If you take a section to use 

 as a bait to start the bees at work on 



