278 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 30. 



hive) that my queens fill 12 to 14 frames solid with brood. 

 Now will using this 16-frame (two-story) hive prevent swarm- 

 ing ? and will I get as much comb honey per hive? What do 

 you think of a 16-frame 2-story hive for a brood-chamber, if 

 they average IS frames solid brood to the hive ? 



J. b; g. 



Answer. — You have struck on one of the unsettled ques- 

 tions. Some will tell you that with 16 frames and 13 frames 

 of brood you'll fiud the bees will not work much in supers. 

 Others say they will. I haven't had a chance to settle the 

 matter from my own experience, as there has been no crop 

 here for the past two years, but if you keep 13 frames well 

 filled with brood I'd at least let them have the chance to try 

 what they'd do in supers with 16 brood-combs. The Dadants 

 claim that with their large hives they don't have five colonies 

 swarm in a hundred, and the probability is that you'll have 

 very much less swarming with 14 or 16 frames than with 8. 

 If you hive your swarms in a single story they'll give you more 

 surplus from the early harvest, but whether hiving on two 

 stories may not be more profitable in the long run is a ques- 

 tion. Possibly you might do well to try a few cases of reduc- 

 ing to one story after the early harvest had fairly begun, and 

 then restoring the second story at the close of the early har- 

 vest. But you would likely have more swarming by that. 



What Hivo to Use. 



What kind of hive do you use, or would you recommend ? 



J..B. W. 



Answer.— I'm trying to find out what hive I want myself, 

 and have some 11-frame hives in use, besides the 8-frame 

 hives I've had for a good while, but mostof the new hives I've 

 got lately are the S-frame dovetail, and I'm in hopes they 

 may be satisfactory by running them part or the whole of the 

 year in two stories. 



The Liizard a Bec-Encmy in Brazil. 



I am now settled in Olinda, in Brazil, 8^ south of the 

 equator. My bees have much to suffer from the lizunls that 

 hide themselves under and near the hives, and snap the harm- 

 less pets when striking near the ground to enter their homes. 

 What is to be done to remove that enemy ? ME 



Olinda, Brazil, March 1, 1896. 



Answer.— I've looked over all the answers I have now in 

 stock, and the only one that seems to fit the case is, " I don't 

 know." Possibly setting the hives up on stakes a foot high 

 with a good, wide entrance-board for the bees to alight on. 

 Perhaps some one of successful experience will be kind enough 

 to offer something to help out. 



Number of Bees in a Quart. 



How many pints or quarts of bees will it require to make 

 4 pounds? There is a man that wants some 2-frame nuclei 

 and 4 pounds of bees. I have no way to weigh them, only by 

 guess or measure. I want to give him plenty, and would 

 rather give him }^ pound too much than not enough. 



J. H. S. 



Answer. — It isn't an easy thing to be sure about bees 

 either by weight or measur* A good deal has been said and 

 written as to the number of bees in' a pound, but I don't be- 

 lieve any man living can tell how many bees are in a pound 

 weighed out before him. It may vary all the way from 3,0U0 

 to 10,000. In the first place, there's a difference in the dif- 

 ferent kinds of bees. Cheshire found that 7 Carniolan work- 

 ers weighed as much as 10 Cyprians. So take the smallest 

 and bring them down to the starving point, and you may h*ve 

 10,000 in a pound, while the largest well crammed with 

 honey may go only 3,000 to the pound. For ordinary pur- 

 poses, it is quite common to consider 5,000 a pound, when 

 bees are not well filled. Less attention has been given to the 

 number in a quart, and I don't believe you will find ai.ything 

 on record that will give any very satisfactory answer. When 

 you come to actual practice, it's'doubtful whether you'll want 

 to know anything about the number of bees in a quart, or 

 how much a given number of pounds will measure when meas- 

 ured in a quart measure. The variation would probably be 

 such as to make your measure very unreliable. Get the e.xact 

 weight of a quart of bees, and in five minutes later it may 

 weigh differently. If the bees are cold and quiet when first 

 weighed, they will be elosely packed .together, and there will 



be a large number In a quart. Then as they become excited 

 and warm up your quart will swell. 



As already said, you probably will find it a very difficult 

 thing to get bees to stay in a quart measure long enough to be 

 nieasured. After you try It I think you'll be glad to turn to 

 the weighing. If you have no convenience for weighing, go 

 to the nearest store and have them weigh whatever you intend 

 to put the bees in. Then when you have your bees fastened 

 in. have them weighed again. Then charge in proportion to 

 the weight, or else fill in a few more if the weight is short. 

 But every bee-keeper who sells honey would do well to have 

 something with which he can weigh. 



Probably a Wild Bee. 



I send you an insect, of which I found hundreds in my 

 bee-hives this spring. Please tell me what they are, their use, 

 name, etc. L. C. 



Answer. — The specimen sent, as nearly as I can judge 

 from its dried and crushed condition, is one of the small wild 

 bees. I'm not entomologist enough to give you its correct 

 name, if indeed I'm right as to its being a bee at all. If it's a 

 bee, it probably came to get some chance at the sweets it 

 smelt in the hive. 



^ I w 



Hunting Wild Bees. 



1. What is the best bait to be used in summer time when 

 flowers are abundant, in lining or tracing wild bees to their 

 home ? 



2. What is the best method of hunting wild bees in sum- 

 mer ? E. S. G. 



Answers. — 1. I don't suppose there's anything better 

 than honey, and if I should venture a guess as to the kind of 

 honey, I should say that with the strongest odor. Making a 

 smudge by burning old comb is practiced by some to get the 

 first attention of the bees. 



2. I've no personal experience in hunting bees, except 

 going with A. I. Root a short time one day, and I suspect he 

 wished I was out of the way, but I suppose the orthodox way 

 is to line and cross line. Establish a line by watching which 

 way the bees fly after fairly at work, then go some distance 

 in the same line and try another spot, and so on until you 

 come upon the place. Or, after having one line established, 

 start the bees to work at another spot outside your first line, 

 and then try to find the place where the two lines cross. 



You'll probably find it a very difficult thing to get bees to 

 work on bait when flowers are abundant. 



Using Old Combs — Cutting Out Queen-Cells. 



1. There is a man in this place who had six colonies die 

 for want of food. The boxes or hives are full of empty comb 

 from one end to the other. Would any of this comb do to 

 use? It seems to be all right. 



2. Mr. Newman tells in his book how to prevent bees 

 from swarming, by cutting out the queen-cells. I don't un- 

 derstand it rightly. I don't know what time in the spring to 

 do this, nor how often. 



It is very windy hero, and everything is fresh and green, 

 but bees are working right along, rain or shine. We have 

 had hardly any winter. R. W. 



Coal Gate, I. T., April 11. 



Answers. — 1. The old combs are all right to use again, 

 and are valuable. Even if they're not entirely clean and nice, 

 the bees will make a nice job cleaning them up, only if they're 

 very bad don't give too many of them at a time to the bees. 



2. Cutting out queen-cells will not usually prevent first 

 swarms, although it may soineiiraos. But second swarms may 

 be prevented by cutting out all the cells but one. Lift out the 

 frames about 6 or T days after the swarm issues, and break 

 off or cut out all the queen-cells but one, saving one of the 

 largest and best looking. But you can generally prevent the 

 issuing of second swarms in a way that has been many times 

 given. When the swarm issues, hive it on the old stand, and 

 set the old hive close beside it. In six or seven days move the 

 old hive to a new place a rod or so away, and a large number 

 of the field-bees will join the swarm, and this will weaken the 

 old colony so much that it will in all probability give up all 

 thought of swarming. You will make the matter more sure if 

 you move the hiye at the time of day when the bees of the old 

 hive are out for a play spell, just before the young bees begin 

 to return to the hive. 



