AMERICAN BEE JOURNAU 



363 



answered by 

 Marenc.o. III. 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sulficient special interest to 

 require replies from the '-lO or more apiarists 

 who help to make ■' Queries and Replies" so 

 interesting: on another pag-e. In the main.it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— Ed. 



Fall Transferring. 



Would it be well to transfer bees into 

 different hives as late as October 1st ? 

 Lewiston, W. Va. D. S. M. 



Answer. — Better wait till spring. 



Will Extracted Honey Sour ? 



Will good, thick extracted honey sour? 

 That is, honey that weighs 12 pounds to 

 the gallon. J. V. E. 



Answer. —Yes, any honey will sour if 

 you keep il; in a damp place, unless it's 

 sealed up tight. Honey, such as you 

 mention, ought to keep till your grand- 

 children are grey, if kept in a dry place, 

 especially if a little warmer than sur- 

 rounding atmosphere. 



Transferring and Italianizing. 



I have 11 colonies of black bees in 

 box-hives, and I want to transfer them 

 into the dovetail hive. 



Also my stock of bees ; I want the 

 best possible honey-gatherers. Can you 

 give the cheapest and surest way, or is 

 it too late to get a full colony of bees 

 that has a lot of drones and drone-comb, 

 so they can rear plenty of drones after 

 my black drones are killed out? 1 would 

 like to change my stock this fall, and 

 next spring transfer the bees to other 

 hives. C. R. R. 



Harden, N. C, Aug. 28. 



Answer. — It will be of no use for you 

 to get drones this fall. Drones are sum- 

 mer birds and are not kept over winter. 

 One of the first things for you to do is 



to get a good text-book, and read up 

 thoroughly. With 11 colonies on hand 

 you may save the price of a book a good 

 many times over in a year. 



You can get a full colony of Italians 

 this fall, but you'll be about as well off 

 to get them next spring, and then you'll 

 not run any risk wintering them, al- 

 though I suppose in North Carolina the 

 risk of wintering ought not to be much. 



Instead of getting a full colony it 

 might be a cheaper plan to get two or 

 three queens this fall, but there again is 

 the difficulty that your bees are in box- 

 hives, and without much experience you 

 would be likely to make a failure of in- 

 troducing queens in box-bives. 



If you can't get a full colony near by, 

 at a reasonable rate, you can get a nu- 

 cleus next spring with a good queen. 



But now you get a good text-book first 

 thing, and you'll enjoy reading up this 

 winter, and you will work a good deal 

 more intelligently next spring. Two or 

 three books would be still better. 



A Colony with Laying Worker. 



What is the best thing to do with a 

 colony that has a laying worker ? What 

 is the best method to find her in the col- 

 ony ? It's a hard thing, because she is 

 but very little larger than a common bee. 



Pflugersville, Tex. E. W. 



Answer. — Yes, it's a harder thing 

 than you think, to find a laying worker, 

 or else you wouldn't ask how. I don't 

 believe any one can tell a laying worker 

 by her looks, and the only way to iden- 

 tify her is by seeing her at work laying. 

 This, in all "the years of my experience, 

 I never saw but once, and it's doubtful 

 if I'll ever see it again. 



Generally, the best thing to do with a 

 colony having a laying worker is to 

 break it up, uniting it where it will do 

 most good. Set it over a weak colony 

 having a good queen, having a passage 

 for only one bee between the two, but 

 allowing each its full entra'ice. In a 

 couple of days enlarge the passage be- 

 tween the two hives, and i think you'll 

 find them unite peaceably. You cau 

 also divide it among several colonies. 



If anxious to preserve it, give it a 

 frame of brood with adhering bees and a 

 sealed queen-cell. Be sure to report 

 how you come out w!th it. 



What Caused the " Matricide P" 



I went to a hive yesterday which con- 

 tained a select Italian queen which was 

 introduced on Joly 4th, and which was 



