278 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



May 3, 1900. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. O. MILLER, Marengo, 111. 



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



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do dot ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail.— Editor. 1 



Methods of Making Nuclei. 



Will this plan do for making- nuclei ? I have a colony 

 on 8-f rames ; would it do to take 2 frames of bees and brood 

 (one having- the queen on it) and place in new hive, and 

 then let the 6 remaining frames rear a queen ? Phila. 



Answer. — The plan will be all right providing you put 

 the queen with two frames on a new stand and leave the re- 

 mainder on the old stand. But it will be rather expensive 

 to do all that for one queen. Cheaper to bu3' a queen, if 

 your colony would do any good at storing honey. You 

 might vary the plan in this way : Nine days after taking 

 the (jueen away, put her back again with her hive on the 

 old stand. Make 3 nuclei of the 6 frames, taking with the 

 combs the adhering bees, and put the weakest of these tiu- 

 clei, if there's any difference in strength, on the stand the 

 old queen was just taken from, and put the other two in 

 new locations. Divide the queen-cells among- the three 

 nuclei as nearly equal as possible. 



ftueen-Excluders— Granulated Honey. 



1. My bees wintered well. I have 15 colonies in mova- 

 ble-frame hives of my own construction. I want to run 8 

 colonies for extracted honey. Would you advise me to put 

 on queen-excluders with an entrance to each story ? 



2. I sold a 60-pound can of extracted honey to my local 

 druggist; it was fall honey, and now it has granulated so 

 that he cannot let it out to put it into his medicines. He 

 thinks I adulterated it. How can I convince him that it is 

 pure ? I would like to supply him further on. 



3. Would you advise queen-excluders for comb-honey 

 production ? Indiana. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, use excluders and have full entrance 

 to the upper story. While this upper entrance might not 

 do for comb honey, it is well to have a big entrance for ex- 

 tracted honey, as it helps no little to keep down swarming. 



2. Tell him to get some honey that he knows is pure, let 

 it run out of the comb and keep it over a year. If the honey 

 was produced in Indiana, it will be sure to granulate, altho 

 some honey in the South may not granulate. Those who 

 are informed will tell you that honey that stands over the 

 winter without granulating is pretty surely adulterated, for 

 glucose is the principal adulterant, and will not granulate. 



3. In most cases they are not needed. 



Keeping Down Increase, Etc. 



1. I do not wish any increase in the number of the colo- 

 nies of ray bees. What and how must I do with the swarms ? 



2. I notice granulated honey in the brood-chamber of 

 some of my colonies. What causes it ? 



3. Can the bees use it ? 



4. What time should I put on the supers ? Will it do to 

 put them on any time in the spring so they will be certain 

 to be there when the bees need them ? Tenn. 



Answers. — 1. A very, very hard question to answer, if 

 you are working for comb honey. You inight give the 

 swarm all the bees from the old colony when they swarm. 

 or in other words take away all the frames of brood and 

 honey, leaving all the bees on the old stand with the queen. 

 The brood can be distributed among other colonies .so long 

 as there are those which need it, and afterward it can be 

 piled up two or three stories high on the weaker colonies, 

 and later some uniting may be necessary. 



Perhaps this way may suit you better : When a colonj' | 



swarms, kill or remove the old queen (the bees will do it for 

 you if the queen is dipt, altho she may be left a number of 

 days.) When the first young queen emerges, which will be 

 8 days or so after the prime swarm, cut out all queen-cells, 

 and there should be no more swarming. If you are work- 

 ing for extracted honey the problem is easier. Just before 

 time to swarm, put all the brood in a second story, leaving 

 the queen in the lower story with frames of foundation or 

 empty comb, an excluder between the two stories, and there 

 will be little or no trouble with swarms. 



2. I don't know just why honey seems anxious to gran- 

 ulate as soon as it can, but it is a very common thing to find 

 some honey granulated in brood-combs. The colder it is, 

 the worse the granulating. 



3. Yes, but sometimes they throw out the granules. It 

 has been recommended to take out such combs, spray or wet 

 thoroly with water, and when returned the bees will work 

 up the granules. 



4. It is unwise to put supers on early in the spring. It 

 cools off the hive, and if sections are put on they will not be 

 kept so clean. It is better to put them on a little too soon 

 than to put them on too late. Try to get them on about a 

 week before you think the bees will need them. If white 

 clover is your first harvest, put on supers about the time 

 you see the very first clover in bloom, for the bees will not 

 be fairly at work on it till a week or ten days later. 



Separating United Swarms. 



How can 1 separate two or more swarms of bees that 

 unite irr swarming ? Iowa. 



Answer. — First hunt out the queens. You will often 

 find each queen surrounded by a ball of bees. Put each 

 queen into the hive prepared for it, a few bees with each 

 queen, then distribute the bees equally. 

 < ■ » 



aueenless Colony. 



I have a strong colony that has been queenless for 12 or 

 15 days ; they have S queen-cells, some nearly ready to 

 hatch^ Do you think the colony will be all right, or should 

 I get a queen 7 Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — The probability is that the colony will come 

 out all right. If the queen begins to lay within two weeks 

 after issuing from the cell, there is little danger of any- 

 thing being wrong, altho there is a bare possibility that she 

 might be a drone-layer, which cati be decided as soon as 

 brood is sealed. If the brood in worker-cells, instead of 

 being sealed over so as to have the usual flat appearance, 

 looks rounding like a lot of little marbles, the queen is a 

 dronc-laver and worthless. 



Stimulating Brood-Rearing Getting Increase. 



1. When using an extra hive-body underneath in the 

 spring, do you feed or otherwise stimulate brood-rearing ? 



2. What plan would you adopt to build up colonies in 

 the spring where the honey-flow commences about June 1, 

 and there is apt to be considerable cold, windy weather 

 during April and the forepart of May, the bees being win- 

 tered outdoors ? 



3. Suppose you wanted to double your number of col- 

 onies and have the new queens in the new hives with the 

 new combs, leaving the old queens with the old hives and 

 combs, the young queens to be reared from brood of one or 

 two selected queens, how would you manage it ? Colo. 



Answers. — 1. Generally not. 



2. See that they have abundance of honey and are as 

 snug and warm as possible, then let them severely alone. 



3. The case is hardly a supposable one. One way would 



be to build up on the nucleus plan, then take all old combs 



out of your new hives and exchange for new combs found 



in other hives. 



*~-*-¥^ 



May fie Paralysis-Working for Extracted Honey. 



1. One of my colonies with a select tested queen which 

 I got last summer seems to be losing a larger number of 

 bees than the others; every day I .see from 10 to 20 dying 

 bees outside the hive, some very dark and shiny, and some 

 have the abdomen swelled. There are no half-dead bees in 

 front of any other hive. Would it be owing to some weak- 



