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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 23. 



leave on the old stand the one story with a little brood in it, 

 say one frame, and then the returning bees will take up with 

 that as their home. Or, instead of leaving one story, move 

 both, and leave on the old stand another hive in which you 

 put a frame of brood and a few bees. If the day is fine so that 

 bees will fly well, there is no need to leave enough bees to take 

 care of the brood, for enough returning bees will enter to 

 take care of it. 



Two to four days after moving, you can take the bees that 

 are on the old stand and add them to those first moved, with 

 the hope that a much larger number will remain where they 

 are put. Being queenless they are inclined to stay better 

 wherever they are put, and especially if given to a laying 

 queen. If you care to follow the matter up, you can again 

 leave a frame of brood in a hive on the old stand to catch re- 

 maining stragglers. 



Don't forget to make it as troublesome as you can for the 

 bees to fly out of their hive, by putting something In front of 

 the entrance. 



Baekivard Breeding —Oranulated Stores. 



We had a poor season last year, so the bees had to be fed 

 on sugar syrup in the fall. I winter my bees on the summer 

 stands. The last of March, on a warm, nice morming, I 

 looked them over. Out of 17 colonies one died, 16 were all 

 right in bees, very few brood in 11, and in the other 5 I found 

 the queen but not any brood. The most stores was candied. I 

 did not see any pollen-gathering yet, and working on flowers 

 like other springs. 



1. What can be the reason that the bees are breeding so 

 slow this season ? Is it the candied stores that cannot be 

 used for brood-rearing ? 



2. Why did the stores candy more last winter than the 

 years before, when the bees were fed the same way ? 



3. Will I do right to feed my bees sugar syrup for brood- 

 rearing now ? G. R. 



Bennet, Nebr. 



Answers. — 1. Hard to tell. Difference in season may 

 have something to do with it. Granulated honey might be 

 somewhat to blame. In rare cases bees fail to breed for lack 

 of pollen in the hive. 



2. Another hard question. Some kinds of honey granu- 

 late sooner than others. Some years are worse than others. 

 Some times honey is granulated before the weather is cold, 

 sometimes hardly in all winter. These facts are known, but 

 I'm not sure that any one pretends to tell why. One general 

 principle is that severe cold favors granulation. Stirring or 

 shaking the honey also favors granulation. I've seen it stated 

 that honey was slow to granulate because of a wet season, the 

 idea being that the thinner the honey the less inclined to 

 granulate. I'm inclined to think that the reverse is the truth, 

 for I've seen a crock of honey water on top and solid below, 

 and I have seen it thick and stringy with not a granule. 



If you mean that the sugar syrup fed to the bees granu- 

 lated, then the reason might be the difference in the lateness 

 of feeding, difference in rapidity, or difference in thickness of 

 syrup. If the food is given early, slowly, or quite thin, then 

 It is less likely to granulate. 



Questions About Transferring, Etc. 



1. I am just starting in the bee-business, having pur- 

 chased 4 colonies of black bees last month, moved them home 

 on a sleigh two miles, giving them a good shaking up. I 

 bought bees, honey and comb for §2 per colony ; three of 

 them are in "farmer" made 10-frame Langstroth hives, and 

 one in an 8-frame Armstrong. They are very strong colonies, 

 and I should judge that they have 25 pounds of honey to 

 the hive. I don't care for the honey this year as much as for 

 Increase. I have bought ten 8-frame dovetailed hives, and I 

 am going to try the Heddon short method of transferring. Is 

 that what you would do if you were in my place? 



2. My bees are black. When I transfer, would you ad- 

 vise me to kill the black queens and introduce eight Italian 

 queens. 



3. I live in the Sacandaga valley, which is 5 miles wide 

 and 15 long. There are no bees kept here to amount to any- 

 thing. One man to the east 4 miles, keeps 40 colonies. Do 

 you think I haife pasturage for 100 colonies? Basswood 

 grows on the mountains on each side of the valley, also plenty 

 of buckwheat. I am going to run for comb honey only. 1 ex- 

 pect to winter my bees in a cellar. I have a good one, 40x40- 

 x8 feet. 



4. Would May 1 be a good time to transfer ? 



5. Suppose I move the old hive to a new stand, put a 

 new one in its place, and transfer by Heddon's way, will not 

 the balance of the bees in the old hive desert the brood and go 

 to the new hive which is on the old stand before the 21 days 

 are up ? or will they know enough to return to the brood after 

 going out for a flight ? 



6. Will there be enough brood to be advisable to transfer 

 May 1 ? I examined my bees to-day, and they are doing 

 finely. They cover both sides of four combs to each hive. 

 The bottom-boards are on the hives, and no cloth over the 

 brood-frames, only a top-story set on, the same as when I got 

 them. P. 0. 



Northampton, N. Y. 



Answers. — 1. 1 hardly know whether I'd transfer them 

 all. If the hives they are in are in good condition, it's possi- 

 ble you might do as well to leave at least part of them right 

 where they are. The swarms would go into new hives, of 

 course, and after a year's experience you would be in better 

 condition to know what to do about transferring them another 

 year. 



2. That depends a little upon whether you think more of 

 fun or money You can have more fun, or more experience, 

 by changing all the queens early in the season. But if the 

 matter of economy is to be considered, it is hardly advisable 

 to change queens till later. The queens themselves will cost 

 less later in the season. There will be less danger of loss in 

 introducing, and if a queen is lost in introducing early in the 

 season, the damage done by having a colony left queenless for 

 some time is much greater than in the time of harvest. At 

 this later time queen-cells are generally plenty, or you can 

 have a supply of young queens on hand. If you Italianize 

 one of them early, then you will have a chance to rear queens 

 for the others. Still, the expense of tour queens will not be 

 so very heavy, and if you don't mind the expense you will the 

 sooner have all black blood worked out. 



3. I can only guess, but I should think 100 colonies 

 might be well supported at your place. 



4. Don't go by the almanac in the matter of transferring. 

 Go by the season, and take the time of fruit-bloom. 



5. Of course, you musn't "drive" too close, for if every 

 last bee is taken from the hive there's nothing left for the 

 brood to do but to die. All the field-bees that are left in the 

 old hive will go back to the old stand, but the young bees — 

 that is, the nurse-bees — those under 16 days old, will all stay 

 where they are put, and at this time there are lots of young 

 bees and more emerging every day. 



6. Most likely. It isn't a question of how much brood 

 they have so much as a question of the amount of bees. Still, 

 the two go together generally, and if there isn't a good lot of 

 brood it isn't likely there are many bees in fruit-bloom. 



Closed-End Standing Frame Hives, Etc. 



1. I wish you would give your unbiased opinion about the 

 closed-end standing-frame hive, especially about its merits 

 over the other kinds. 



2. Please inform me, if you think favorably, how to fix 

 such a hive to fit under patter slat honey-boxes, a la the Root 

 dovetail super. I think a 9-frame, standing-frame hive should 

 fit nicely a 7-frame section super. L. D. 



Answers. — 1. I have had no personal experience with 

 closed-end standing-frame hives. They have been in use for a 

 long time, and are used by some of the leading bee-keepers in 

 New York State. The one feature that seems to be most in 

 their favor is that the closed ends make the hive more like a 

 box-hive as to warmth, there being no open space for the air 

 to circulate all around the ends of the frames. There's much 

 in being used to a thing, and those who have always used 

 them will prefer them, but taken all in all, I don't believe I 

 should want them. 



2. I don't know what " patter slat honey-boxes " are, but 

 I suppose the point you are after is to know how to adjust a 

 super to a hive when super aud hive are not of the same size. 

 If the super is shorter than the hive — and some of them are 

 half an inch or so shorter — nail a cleat or cleats on the end of 

 the super to make the super cover the hive. The discrepancy 

 is more likely to be in the width, and I have had hives with 

 supers some three inches narrower. All I had to do was to 

 put the super on the hive, and use a strip of wood to cover the 

 part of the hive left uncovered. No need to fasten it on, just 

 lay it on, and I never knew any harm from rain entering be- 

 tween the strip and the super. 



