1896. 



V,.. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



875 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. C. AirLLER, ALARENGO, ILL. 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.') 



Rearing Queens from 3-Days-Old Larvse. 



After putting a comb of sealed brood and eggs in a hive 

 to rear a queen, how long will the eggs remain for thein to 

 rear a queen from ? Can they rear a queen from the eggs 

 after six days, allowing the eggs to be three days old when put 

 into the hive ? J. M. 



Answer. — No, if you put in eggs already three days old, 

 six days later, or nine days from the time the eggs were laid, 

 no queen can be reared from them, for in nine days from the 

 time the eggs were laid the larvK ought to be sealed over. To 

 rear a good queen the larva3 ought not to be more than 3 days 

 old — that is, si.x days from the time of laying the eggs. Dur- 

 ing the first three days of its existence, a larva intended for a 

 worker is fed the same as if intended for a queen. After that 

 time the food of the worker is changed, less concentrated, and 

 not so fully digested, while to the queen is continued the same 

 food it first had. To the queen, food is given so lavishly that 

 Jelly half the size of a pea is left in the cell after the queen 

 emerges while no such wasteful feeding occurs with workers. 

 Their rations are carefully measured out so that they have 

 just enough to supply their wants, and not a fraction more. 

 If to a queenless colony be given a larva four or five days old, 

 that is, seven or eight days from the laying of the egg, the 

 bees will rear a queen from it, but it will be a very poor queen. 



Trying to Keep Down Increase. 



I thought I would keep down the increase of my colonies 

 this year, in this manner : When the first swarm came out I 

 gave them three frames of brood from tbe mother hive. The 

 next day two swarms coming out were given the seven re- 

 maining frames, after all queen-cells had been destroyed. I 

 thought this would work nicely, plenty of empty frames for 

 the bees to work out their swarming-fever, and three frames 

 of brood to keep them strong. But it did not turn out as I 

 expected ; one swarmed out in four days, and another on the 

 seventh day. In one case I would find no queen-cells ; in the 

 other four just started, none sealed. Is this what I should 

 have expected, or is it unusual ? 



I thought I had hit on a good idea, but the bees did not 

 seem to think so. F. T. B. 



Answer. — Perhaps the occurrence cannot be said to be 

 anything more than might be expected. Suppose a colony 

 on eight frames should send out a swarm and you hive it and 

 give it back its eight frames. You would expect nothing else 

 than that it would swarm again. If you gave it no frames it 

 would not swarm. Now, somewhere between no frames and 

 eight frames I suppose the bees draw a line and say, " If you 

 give us more than this number of frames of brood we'll swarm 

 again ;" and very likely that line may be between one frame 

 and two frames. In other words, if you give a swarm more 

 than one frame of brood they'll swarm out again. In some 

 cases they might stay content if only half their frames of 

 brood were replaced with empty frames, there being no fixed 

 rule about it. 



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Dividing a Colony — Dark Pollen. 



I received two 3-frame nuclei May 8. When they ar- 

 rived one was a great deal better than the other — it contained 

 two full frames of brood, and some in the other, and they 

 have increased so rapidly that they are now a monstrous col- 

 ony, and X want to divide about June 15. 



1. Now, as I am going to divide them, will it pay me bet- 

 ter to order a queen, or divide and let the old colony rear one 

 for themselves ? 



2. Would you advise me to divide the brood as nearly as 



possible, or take say three frames of brood and leave the rest ? 



3. When I divide and take the frames of brood out, and 

 put three frames of foundation in the old hive, would you put 

 the three side by side, or one of foundation then one of the 

 combs of brood, and so on ? 



4. What kind of a plant is it my bees are getting black, 

 or a terribly dark-green, pollen from, between the hours of 4 

 and 7 in the afternoon ; they carry bright yellow all the rest 

 of the day. H. W. S. 



Baraboo, Wis. 



Answers. — 1. That depends somewhat upon circum- 

 stances. If your time is valuable, or if you have little time 

 to work with bees, or if you are anxious to have them build up 

 rapidly, better buy a queen. If you are anxious to increase 

 your practical knowledge of bee-keeping as much as possible, 

 rear your own queen. 



2. Again that depends. If you want to have one colony 

 store as much honey as possible, and only care to have the 

 other build up into a good colony for winter, then take three 

 frames of brood with adhering bees for the new colony, leav- 

 ing the remainder with the queen on the old stand. If you 

 want to have the two colonies more nearly alike, take one 

 more than half the frames of brood for the new colony, or 

 possibly two more than half. The old colony on the old stand 

 will have the advantage of retaining the larger force of bees. 



3. With a strong colony and honey yielding well, it 

 doesn't make a great deal of difference about the arrangement 

 of the frames. If the colony is not strong it will be better to 

 have the brood all together. Less danger of chilling brood in 

 that way, and if a frame of foundation is between two frames 

 of brood when little honey is coming in, the tendency is to 

 make the cells of the old combs deeper, and leave the cells of 

 the new combs shallow. 



4. I don't know. The blackest pollen I ever saw was 

 from poppies, but poppies were hardly in bloom to any extent 

 June 1. Red clover yields dark-green pollen, but that again 

 would hardly be worked on by the bees so early. 



Early Sivarming — Remedy for IMotli- Worms. 



1. My colony of bees that were swarmed March 31, 

 1896, sent out a new swarm last Thursday (May 14). Is this 

 not something unusual, to send out a swarm so soon ? Some 

 one may say that it was the swarm of March 31 leaving, but 

 not so, for there is a strong working force yet. The box that 

 they were housed in is, in the clear, 23xlOxllK inches, and, 

 from its weight, seems to be full of honey. The last swarm 

 hied away to the woods. There are large quantities of mes- 

 quite and horsemint (both fine nectar-producing plants) now 

 in bloom. 



2. I eaclose the following clipping from a Beeville, Tex., 

 paper — is the suggestion practical ? 



"Hives of black bees can bo saved from the ravages of 

 the moth-worm by scattering salt over the floor of the hive. 

 It is there the moth lays her eggs which hatch out young 

 worms, that as soon as they are able to crawl go up into the 

 cells where the young bees are and eat them out. The worms 

 grow rapidly, and soon destroy a colony of bees. I tried it on 

 some of our bees last year, and they are all doing well, but 

 those that were not so treated are all gone. — Estella." 



Mathias, Tex. Mrs. M. M. D. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, it would be called a very remarkable 

 case in some places, but in others not so very unusual. 



2. It may be that colonies in hives treated with salt lived 

 while those left without treatment died, but that does not 

 make it certain that the salt had anything to do with it. I've 

 known hundreds of colonies to live all right without salt, and 

 if a weak, queenless colony of black bees should have salt an 

 inch deep on its floor-board, I should be afraid the combs 

 would fall a prey to the wax-worms. Neither do all the worms 

 that are found in combs climb up from the floor-board. Take 

 a hive of combs left by a colony that died in early spring, and 

 set it on a slab of solid salt and when warm weather comes 

 if you don't find worms hatching out from eggs in the combs, 

 I shall be very much surprised. 



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A New Binder for holding a year's numbers of the 

 American Bee Journal, we propose to mail, postpaid, to every 

 subscriber who sends us 15 cents. It is called "The Wood 

 Binder," is patented, and is an entirely new and very simple 

 arrangement. Full printed directions accompany each Binder. 

 Every reader should get it, and preserve the copies of the Bee 

 Journal as fast as they are received. They are invaluable for 

 reference, and at the low price of the Binder you can afford to 

 get it yearly. 



