58 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



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Increase — How to Make it. 



1. Which method is preferable in making rapid 

 increase — the Biegle way of allowing the nuclei to 

 liuiid their (lucen-cells after division, or theSomer- 

 lord way of casing llie cjueen and dividing after the 

 folony as a wlioie lias built and sealed sufficient 

 cells? If the latter, what should be done with the 

 ciiieen in the mean time? and would it not l>e prac- 

 ticable to remove a couple of frames of capped brood 

 and form one nucleus with her .at once, and let the 

 cells be built on the remaining frames? This 

 would not deprive one oi the services of the ciueen 

 at all. l-"urther, assuming that in neither case 

 would there be any surplus stores, would there be 

 enough difference in the condition of the nuclei at 

 the end of the season to warrant one purchasing 

 (lueens for each one when dividing ? 



:;. i have three colonie.s— one Italian and two hy- 

 brid — and wish to increase to six the coming sum- 

 mer. T also want some honey. Now, if I divide my 

 Italian colony 'now in an eight-frame hive), and 

 prevent swarming in the two other ones, it will 

 make it: or if 1 increase by the method outlined by 

 (,;. C. Chase, p. 655. Nov. 1, which is practically the 

 Alexander way, I shall then have six. Which way, 

 under ordinary circumstances, will be more profit- 

 able, taking into account the honey crop and out- 

 look for the following year? Of course, in the for- 

 mer case I would have four Italian queens; in the 

 latter, four hybrids : but as there are far more hy- 

 brids and blacks in this locality than Italians it is 

 doubtful if all would be mated purely. 



3. Another question: Suppose the Somerford plan 

 is employed, and more than one cell is built on a 

 single frame, and it is desirable to save the surplus 

 queens to requeen black or hybrid colonies. I un- 

 derstand that West protectors can be used: but I 

 have never seen the niodus overundi described from 

 the placingof the protector to thequeen at work In 

 the colony requeened, nor even the time limit in 

 removing the virgin from the protector. 



i. I have read that combs of honey partly sealed 

 would be taken down into the brood-chamber in 

 the fall. I took the surplus from one colony about 

 .^ept. 25: but as there were two or three combs that 

 were not entirely sealed I placed these in a full- 

 depth super along with frames that I had cut the 

 honey from, all but a .starter, and put them on a 

 colony to be cleaned up. One week later the hive 

 was opened, and I found that most of the starters 

 had been drawn out and were being filled, and the 

 queen had left empty combs in the brood-chamber 

 and laid about ten or twelve thousand eggs in the 

 super, and went downstairs again. After the brood 

 had all hatched I took the super off about Oct. 25, 

 and there was not half a pound of honey in the 

 brood-nest. 1 could not u.se the combs from the su- 

 per, as they h.id been spread apart to get fat combs; 

 and no more tiian six would go into it, so I fed 

 them for winter. Why did the colony act that way? 

 I took this sui)er, cut out all the capped honey, and 

 put the suijer on my Italian colony, and they will 

 not move a drop of it. They all seem to be loafing 

 around on the combs, and eating when they get 

 hungry. As I leit but five combs in it would they 

 not be apt to choose it for a winter nest? What is 

 the answer — Dr. Miller's " kick the hive and run'" 

 idea? I have tried this, but the bees seem to chew 

 the comb badly. 



.5. In .luly, 1910. 1 had a black queen mate with a 

 yellow drone, her progeny being 90 per cent band- 

 ed—from one to three light-yellow bands. This 

 year there has been a constantly increasing rever- 

 sion toward the blacks, until at present there are 

 not -10 per cent showing any bands whatever. Why? 



6. Vou said editorially, about a month ago, that 

 you had never seen any particular feeling shown 

 against newly hatched bees. A few weeks ago I 

 saw a very young bee yanked out of the hive and 

 thrown out in the gra.ss. 1 picked it up at once but 

 could not find any thing wrong with it. It .seemed 

 sound in wind and limb, so 1 opened the hive and 

 tossed the bee down on the frames, where it was in- 

 stantly grabbed by as many as could reach it, and 

 hustled down and out again. Why ? 



7. There was a (juectlon raised in Gleanings as 

 to whether the bee-moth ever lays eggs outside of a 

 hive. It doe.s. J melted up some old comb— stewed 

 It. In fact, for half an hour; then made It into cakes 

 about four Inches in diameter, and put a handful 

 of them In a closet In my shop. About ten days af- 



ter that, 1 happened to shift them and found wax- 

 worms, about ^i inch long, very busy making sub- 

 ways in it. As all eggs that might have been in it 

 when the wax was rendered must have been hard- 

 boiled, the wax must have been visited by the 

 moth afterward. 



Newfield, N. .!., Nov. 9. G. E. Nightingale. 



[1. We would recommend the Somerford plan. 

 Thequeen that is caged is caged inside the hive, 

 and you will find that the bees will build cells after 

 she is confined, about the same as if she were out 

 of the hive entirel.v. 



2. We would advise you to make the division en- 

 tirely with the Italian, and run the two hybrid col- 

 onies for honey — not because the hybrid colonies 

 are any i-etter for the production of honey, but be- 

 cause it is more desirable to liave your increase of 

 the pure stock of Italians. If you use drone-traps 

 on the entrances of the hybrid colonies, and allow 

 the drones of your Italian colony to have free 

 flight, the chances are that the queens will be pure- 

 ly fertilized. 



3. The surplus of cells can be put in a West queen- 

 cell protector with a West queen-cage over the 

 protector, so that, when the young queen hatch* s 

 out, she will be caged therein. As it is usually 

 very difficult to introduce virgin queens that are 

 three, four. five, and six days old, we advise you to 

 introduce as soon as she hatches, or as soon there- 

 after as possible. 



4. When there is a little honey In the upper sto- 

 ry of a colony, the bees sometimes take it down 

 and sometimes they will not. A good deal will de- 

 pend uiion conditions. As a general thing, it will 

 take a colony a good wlille to take the honey down 

 from the upper story into the lower one, and, as a 

 rule, they will not do it. A better way would be to 

 extract these combs if you have an extractor: then 

 put the combs in the hive and let the bees clean 

 them up: then put them back in the honey-house 

 for use next season. If you have no extractor, store 

 the combs containing a little lioney, and use them 

 next spring in the brood-nest tor spring feeding. 



5. Referring to the black queen that mated with 

 a yellow drone, it is hardly probable that her origi- 

 nal stock would change after she once met the 

 drone. It would be our guess that the original 

 black queen had been superseded, and that her 

 daughter* had taken her place. This thing will 

 happen very often, and a beginner would not no- 

 tice the change had taken place, especially if the 

 young queen lookfed very much like her mother, as 

 she often does. 



6. There must have been something that the bees 

 discovered that was wrong with that young bee, 

 and yet you failed to see it. From your statement 

 we should conclude that the bee hatched prema- 

 turely. Sucli bees are never tolerated, for the rea- 

 son they will never be of any use. 



7. There has been a great amount of proof intro- 

 duced of late, showing the bee-moth and the wax- 

 worm will work in old combs or even in cakes of 

 wax outside of the hive. Our old friend Dr. C. C. 

 Miller was certainly wrong on this propostion. 

 The best of us make mistakes.— Ed.] 



Bees Wintering Without Protection of Any Kind. 



One of my neighbors has a colony of bees in a 

 hive that stands on the top of a hill, and is not pro- 

 tected in any way. The brood-chamber is single- 

 walled, and the owner never looks into it, although 

 he gets considerable honey from the super every 

 year. 



My brother has a hive of bees that stands on a ta- 

 ble, the top of which is not level by any means, for 

 it looks as though it might almost fall over. The 

 hive is single-walled, and the fiat cover is badly 

 warped, so there is nothing to keep the cold wind 

 from blowing right in on the bees; but, at the same 

 time, they wintered well last year. 



1 am wintering some of my colonies by piling 

 cornstalks over the hives on the back and both 

 sides. I put deep supers on the brood-chamber, 

 with a few thicknesses of muslin underneath, con- 

 fining the bees to the lower story. The corn fodder 

 piled around serves as a protection. 



Westfield. Ind. A. L. Beals. 



[The two ca.ses first mentioned are the exceptions 

 that prove the rule. You are very wise in protect- 

 ing your bees.— Ed.] 



