AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



203 



• answered by 

 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 '~!0 or more apiarists 

 who help to make "Queries and Replies" so 

 interesting: on another paare. In the main, it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly Interest beginners.— Ed. 



Ijeveling Section Combs. 



Is there any need of leveling the 

 combs in extracted sections ? If so, of 

 what good is it ? W. N. C. 



Answer. — Generally, you will find it 

 an advantage. If you use no separators, 

 you will find some parts of the sections 

 so near touching that the bees will build 

 them together. If you use separators, 

 you will still find there may be such 

 variation that the sections will come too 

 near the separator in places, and then 

 the bees will make bad work. 



Another thing : Leveling will take off 

 the edges of the cells that are likely to 

 be dark-colored and perhaps daubed 

 with bee-glue. B. Taylor's " Handy 

 Leveler " is the nicest thing I know of 

 for this purpose. 



Young Bees Leaving the Hive, Etc. 



1. What is the cause of young bees 

 leaving the hive before old enough to 

 fly ? I have a nucleus that the bees act 

 in this manner. I covered it well, to 

 keep them warm, and tried them uncov- 

 ered, but they, leave just the same. 

 They have plenty of honey. They crawl 

 away in the grass never to return. 



2. This colony has an Italian queen 

 purchased of a noted queen-breeder; 

 her bees show no more yellow bands 

 than I have colonies that were bought 

 for black. I have 55 colonies ; about 

 two of these colonies have bees that 

 show three yellow bands; some hives 

 are % yellow, and the rest black ; some 

 less. Now these bees must all be from 

 the same queen — both three-banded and 

 black. It was just the same last yaar. 



The most of them are very vicious. I 

 don't think there is any Italian blood in 

 this section, as I can't hear of any with- 

 in 8 or 10 years, until I got this queen 

 that I have just spoken of. Can she be 

 pure ? C. N. W. 



Joy, N. Y., July 25. 



Answers. — 1. Without being present 

 to see— and then perhaps I couldn't tell 

 any better — I can think of nothing to 

 make young bees act so unless it be that 

 worms have been at work in the cells 

 from which these young bees came, and 

 so they are imperfect. 



2. If you bought that queen for a 

 tested Italian, it's all wrong. If you 

 bought it for an untested queen, then it 

 may be all right. From what you say — 

 some of the bees three-banded and some 

 black — the probability is that it is a 

 queen of Italian blood but mated with a 

 black drone. You run your chance of 

 the mating if you bought it as an un- 

 tested queen. If, however, you bought 

 it as a tested queen, there has been some 

 mistake, and if you write to the man 

 from whom you purchased, no doubt he 

 will make it all right. 



Bees Didn't Swarm — Wintering-. 



I commenced the bee-business this 

 year on a small scale. Last November 

 I bought two colonies of bees — one of 

 them full-blooded Italian and the other 

 hybrids. My bees are in the Langstroth 

 hives. They wintered finely in the open 

 air without any protection except the 

 hive that contained them^ and I think it 

 is all that is necessary in this sunny 

 clime. 



On June 22nd I took 34 pounds of 

 honey from the hives, and they are now 

 again rich with honey. Surely, this is a 

 fine country for bees, though but very 

 little attention is given to the business. 



I read the American Bee Journal 

 with interest, and have profited by the 

 information gathered from it. One of 

 my colonies of bees is very strong, but 

 neither has shown any signs of swarm- 

 ing this year ; if so, they left without 

 being discovered. 



1. What is the cause of their not 

 swarming ? 



2. Before winter comes is it best to 

 remove all the supers from the hives for 

 the bees to winter, or leave one of them 

 on ? M. E. L. 



Aberdeen, Miss., July 27. 



Answers. — 1. Now if you can only 

 keep those bees in the same frame of 

 mind, and offer for sale queens whose 



