AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



809 



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 page. In the main, it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— Ed. 



Italianizing an Apiary Cheaply. 



I am starting with 22 colonies of 

 black and mixed bees, bought from 

 farmers near. I wish to Italianize all of 

 them as soon as I can, without the ex- 

 pense of buying queens for all of them. 

 Could I practically start with one Italian 

 queen and rear queens myself for the 

 entire lot ? What troubles me is the 

 drones. If I shut up all but my one col- 

 ony of Italian drones, the chances are 

 small for the queen finding a drone 

 among 21 colonies of bees with only one 

 colony of drones flying. And while I am 

 keeping drones up in 21 colonies, there 

 may be some queens in the same colonies 

 wanting to fly out to mate. What per 

 cent, of drones could be trapped and 

 killed without damage to the apiary? 

 By trapping all the drones from the new 

 colony, the queen could be allowed to fly 

 and mate with Italian drones. 



Russellville, Mo. L. G. C. 



Answer. — Yes, get one good queen, 

 then rear queens for the rest. Of course 

 it will take a longer time than to buy 

 queens for each one, but it will cost less. 

 There is no trouble about drones enough. 

 One colony can rear drones enough for a 

 large apiary. But it will be better to 

 have two Italian queens, rearing young 

 queens from one of them, and letting 

 the other have plenty of drone-comb, so 

 as to rear a good lot of drones. Not 

 that such a large lot of drones is neces- 

 sary, but the more Italian drones you 

 have, the better your chance of pure 

 f ecundatio«, with black bees around you. 



There is nothing to hinder your trap- 

 ping all the drones in all the hives ex- 

 cept the one that you want to rear 

 drones in. But I would take preventive 

 measures. Cut out all the droue-comb 

 in each hive except one or two inches 

 square. Put in patches of worker-comb 

 in place of the drone-comb you cut out. 

 Then take Dooliitle's plan, and every 

 two or three weeks shave the heads of 

 the sealed drone-brood in the drone- 

 comb you have left. If you are thorough 

 in this, there ought to be very few 

 drones to trap. 



Changed from Blacks to Hybrids. 



Will you please explain the following : 

 I purchased three colonies of as black 

 bees as one often sees, about two years 

 ago, and the same summer I found a 

 cluster of hybrids in the woods and 

 brought them into my yard also ; and 

 now my bees are all the same color as 

 the hybrids, and much gentler. How 

 this change with the advantage so much 

 in favor of the black bees? A. H. W. 



Walnut Springs, Tex. 



Answer. — Ordinarily I should have 

 expected the bees to have worked toward 

 the black blood, but should say that you 

 have been peculiarly fortunate in that 

 the queens of your black colonies, as 

 they were renewed, met Italian or hy- 

 brid drones. The fact that you found 

 hybrids in the woods indicates that hy- 

 brids or pure Italians are near you, and 

 your queens may have met drones from 

 these outsiders. 



Using Q,ueen-Excluders. 



Is it necessary in all cases to use a 

 queen-excluding honey-board between 

 the brood-nest and extracting case ? 

 And is a wood-zinc board the thing to 

 use ? J. C. L. 



Brooklyn, Pa. 



Answer.— In running for comb honey 

 I do not find a queen-excluder necessary, 

 and while it may not be absolutely nec- 

 essary in running for extracted, still I 

 should prefer to have excluders. If you 

 have no excluder the queen is pretty 

 sure to go into the surplus story, and I'cl 



