208 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Langstroth -ten frames are nearer 

 right than eight, according to my views. 

 — W. M. Barnum. 



I don't know. I would answer the 

 question by trying the experiment, if I 

 wanted to know. — Eugene Secor. 



I think there would be little differ- 

 ence, the advantage, if any, being with 

 the combs of honey. — J. A. Green. 



Use the filled combs, every time. I 

 never yet saw the populous colony that 

 was supplied with too much honey. — C. 

 H. Dibbern. 



I would prefer the dummies, as it will 

 take bees to cover and look after the 

 honey, and not so with the dummies. — 

 Mrs. Jennie Atchley. 



The dummies, unless they carry some 

 of the two combs above. The reason 

 would be that the dummies would re- 

 lease the bees necessary to warm and 

 guard two frames of honey. — S. I. Free- 

 born. 



The question is wholly theoretical ; 

 the only way to determine it, in my 

 judgment, will be to make a trial test, 

 but even then the fact that seasons vary 

 so much in the honey yield, that a test 

 would be very uncertain. I should in- 

 cline to the dummy, though. — J. E. 

 Pond. 



I cannot see how there could be any 

 difference. If there is honey to be gath- 

 ered, and there are bees to gather it, 

 and there is room to store it, it will be 

 gathered and stored ; and bees can 

 store no more honey in combs that are 

 full than they can in a pine board. — M. 

 Maiiin. 



If you put the two frames of honey 

 into the brood-nest, the bees will very 

 likely move the honey into the sections 

 — at least a part of it. Combs of honey 

 are better than dummies. If you can 

 take two empty combs out of each hive, 

 your queen is not doing her duty. Get 

 a better strain of bees. Try the Car- 

 niolans.— E. France. 



The filled combs, every time. But if 

 in your locality you have an early honey- 

 flow, and a fall hoaey-flow, and honey 

 enough can be secured by the bees be- 

 tween the two harvests to keep the col- 

 nies in good condition, you may save the 

 expense of the two " filled " combs, and 

 use division-boards in their place. But 

 how many bee-keepers have just such a 

 location for their apiaries ? Please an- 

 swer, one at a time. — G. W. Demarkk. 



Have You Bead the wonderful Pre- 

 mium offers on page 131 ? 



Hanlliiis Sueeii-Cells Nearly HatcMng. 



Written for theA.merican Bee Journal 

 BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes to know " if it 

 will answer to shake the bees off the 

 frames of brood having queen-cells on, 

 if it is wished to save the cells for use." 

 As I have many similar questions put to 

 me, I will answer this through the col- 

 umns of the American Bee Journal. 



It is never best to shake a frame hav- 

 ing queen-cells upon it at any time, and 

 especially at or near the time of the 

 queens becoming mature. Very many 

 have been the number of queens killed 

 or injured so as to make them valueless 

 by this plan of getting the bees off the 

 cells. 



If the cells are just capped over, such 

 shaking dislodges the royal larva from 

 the royal jelly, throwing the larva to 

 the bottom with such force that it is 

 either killed outright, or, in failing to 

 get back, dies where it is. If further 

 advanced, such shaking deforms the 

 queen by her having crippled wings or 

 legs, or, what is quite often the case, 

 the queen has a dent in the abdomen, 

 certain segments of which are dented 

 inward, or the whole flattened or curved. 

 While this last is not as bad as to have 

 the wings deformed, yet it is a very rare 

 case where a queen with a deformed 

 abdomen proves to be a really good 

 queen. Sufli queens generally become 

 fertile, ana lay quite well for a time ; so 

 are of some value ; but those whose 

 wings are crippled are worse than no 

 queens at all, for they can never become 

 fertile, while they stand in the way of 

 our successfully introducing a laying 

 queen. In case such crippled-winged 

 queens are of the German or hybrid 

 race, they are very hard to find, and the 

 parties who have ordered queens for 

 supposed quoonless colonies having such 

 crippled (lueens, and lost them in trying 

 to introduce them, can be numbered by 

 the score, if not by the hundred. 



