262 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



April 26, 1900. 



advice given in the various bee-papers in regard to the 

 proper methods for rearing- queens. The latest advice and 

 suggestions come from a man who has reared but a 

 few queens. All the things this man has advised and sug- 

 gested have been practiced nearly 37 years. They are 

 known to all breeders of queens. They are " up " on all 

 points. Yet they do send out some queens that prove on 

 test to be inferior. Thej'do not knowingly do this thing. 

 The queens, when taken from nuclei, seem all right in all 

 respects. No one is trying to see how poor queens he can 

 rear, but how good. The breeders make every effort to 

 please all. Every precaution is taken to guard against in- 

 jurj' or loss of queens in the mails. What more can be 

 done ? A good many queens are injured in the mail ; but 

 more are ruined by the methods used in introducing them 

 to full colonies. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. O. AIILLER. Marengo, ni. 



[The Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail. — Editor. 1 



Colony with Virgin Queen Introducing Queens. 



1. I have 4 colonies of bees wintered outdoors in good 

 shape, but in looking them over I found one colony with a 

 virgin queen just hatcht, and no brood whatever. Did the 

 bees supersede the old queen, or did she die ? 



2. I have sent for a tested queen of last j'ear's rearing, 

 as there are no drones to fertilize the virgin queen. Shall 

 I kill the virgin queen a couple of days before I introduce 

 the new queen, or shall I kill her at the same time I intro- 

 duce the new queen ? Iovv.\. 



Answer. — 1. In an ordinary case of superseding, prep- 

 arations for the rearing of a queen are made while the old 

 queen is doing duty, the old queen continuing to laj' until 

 the young queen emerges, and in some ca§es even longer, 

 one or more queen-cells being constructed in the same maia- 

 ner as when preparations are made for swarming. As you 

 relate the case, there seems to have been no brood in the 

 hive at the time the j'oung queen emerged, so all laying 

 must have stopt with the laying of the egg from which the 

 young queen was reared. This would hardly fall under the 

 head of ordinary supersedure. 



2. It may be better to kill the queen a day or two before 

 the introduction of the stranger, altho if introduced in the 

 way itistructions are generally giveio wheti the queen is 

 sent, the bees being allowed to liberate the queen bj' eating 

 thru the candy, there would be little risk in killing the vir- 

 gin at the time the new queen is put in the hive. 



Double-Deck Management— Controlling Swarming. 



1. For the "benefit of a whole host of readers of the 

 American Bee Journal, will you not please give a detailed 

 account of the management of an apiary on the " double- 

 deck " plan ? Also, how you manage to control swarming 

 by placing the queen in a nucleus on the hive ? Mich. 



Answer. — It is by no means an eas)' thing to tell you 

 about any management that is constantly changing, but 

 I'll try to tell you what I do with two-story hives, which is 

 not a very long story. I use 8-frame hives, and the great 

 desideratum is to get colonies as strong as possible for 

 white clover, which is the first, and about the only thing, 

 upon which I depend for surplus, for I am not in a rich 

 honey region. At no time is a queen allowed to be crowded 

 for room. Whenever there is danger of that a second story 

 is added. It may be added long before that. For the added 

 story is alwaj's put underneath the story with the brood- 

 nest, and it takes away none of the heat of the upper story 

 to have another story under it. On the other hand it would 



take away a great deal of heat from the brood-nest to have 

 an empty hive placed over it. 



This added under storj* is a nice place to put combs that 

 have a little honey in them, always having a sharp eye on 

 robbers ; and worraj' combs, or combs in danger of becom- 

 ing wormy can hardly be in any safer place. When the 

 colony becomes crowded above, it will of its own accord 

 work its way down into the lower story. Sometimes, in 

 order to hurry up matters, a comb of brood is taken from 

 the upper story and put in the lower story, but such a thing 

 is not advisable until there is brood in all the eight frames 

 above. The comb so moved is taken from one side of the 

 upper story, putting a frame from below in its place, thus 

 leaving no gap to be filled above, for putting the comb be- 

 low is all the spreading they ought to stand. 



That's about all that's peculiar to the plan (and there's 

 nothing very peculiar about that) up to the time of putting 

 on supers. I have tried leaving strong colonies with two 

 stories when putting on supers, and one poor season the 

 only colony that workt in a super was a two-story colony, 

 but in general I have not obtained good results by leaving 

 the two stories. So one story is taken away, and a super 

 put on within a few days after I see the very first stray 

 clover blossom. This first blossom appears before the gen- 

 eral bloom, and I can generallj' count that the bees will not 

 begin to store until about 10 days later, and it is well to 

 have a super on 3 or 4 days before it is needed for storing. 

 The first super always has at least one bait-section, and at 

 least that one section is promptly occupied. 



At the time of ptitting on supers, the strongest colonies 

 may have 12, 13, and in very rare cases even 16 frames with 

 brood in them. Eight of the best of these frames are left, 

 the others taken away, of course taking no bees with them. 

 Any colonies that have less than 8 frames of brood are 

 brought up to the 8, and whatever of surplus brood there 

 maj' be is piled up on some of the weakest colonies, making 

 them 4 or S stories high. These can then be used for in- 

 crease or otherwise as desired. When the supers are taken 

 off, a second story may be given, but in this case it is given 

 above with an excluder between, so that it can be easily 

 taken away before time for cellaring. If the colonies were 

 to be wintered outdoors, very likely each one would have a 

 second story put under upon removal of supers, and the two 

 stories left till the time of putting on supers the next year. 



The plan of managing swarms by "putting up" the 

 queen over the iiive is a good one where there is any one on 

 hand to watch for swarms, and the queens are dipt, and is 

 given in " A Year Among the Bees," as fdllows : 



"When a swarm issues and returns, it is ready for 

 treatment immediately ; altho usually it is put down in my 

 memorandum of work to be done, and the time set for it 

 may be the next day or any time within 5 daj'S, just as suits 

 my convenience. The queen is caged at the time of swarm- 

 ing, and put in the vacant part of the brood-chamber — pos- 

 sibly in the upper part of a super — where the bees can care 

 for her. 



" Within the S days, I take off the super, and put most 

 of the brood-combs into an empty hive. Indeed, I may take 

 all the brood-combs, for I want in this hive all the combs 

 the colony should have. In the hive left on the stand, I 

 leave or put from one to three frames, generally two. These 

 combs must be sure to have no queen-cells, and may be 

 most safely taken from a young or weak colony having no 

 inclination to swarm. The two combs are put in the south 

 side of the hive, a division-board and dummy next to them, 

 and the supers again put on. If I did not do so at the time 

 of taking out the frames, I now shake oft' the bees from 

 about half the frames, not being particular to shake them 

 off clean. This hive is then put on the top of the supers, 

 the queen let free on top of the frames, and the hive cov- 

 ered up. A plenty of bees will be left to care for the brood, 

 the queen trill commence laying, all thought of swarming 

 is given up, and every queen-cell torn down by the bees. In 

 perhaps t%vo days I take a peep to see if the queen is laying, 

 for it sometimes happens that at the time when I ' put up 

 the queen." as I call the operation I have just described, 

 there is already a young queen just hatcht, and then the 

 old queen is pretty sure to be destroyed. In this latter case 

 I may remove the young queen and give them a laying one. 

 or I tnay let the young queen remain. 



" In 10 days from the time the swarm issued — some- 

 times 10 days from the time I ' put up the queen * — I put 

 down the queen. If, by chance, a young queen is in the 

 upper hive, I do not like to put her down until she com- 

 mences laying and her wing is dipt, for fear of her taking 

 out a swarm. It seems a foolish operation for them to 



