May 17, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



309 



g^ether for a hive-body, and can alternate or change frames 

 easily. What do you think of it ? 



3. Latbk. — Those colonies I transferred were robbed out, 

 except one. Well, I'll live and learn. There being- a dc.irth 

 of honey, somewhat, I had to do something' with those new 

 hives, so finding another queenless colony with some 

 straight comb and frames nearly the same size of the Latig- 

 stroth frames, full of honey, I divided them around with the 

 adhering bees. The balance I left in the hive and set them 

 on top of another colony, bees and all, smoking them well. 

 How will they do ? Will they fight or live peaceably ? 



4. I have met quite a number of bee-keepers, and loan 

 them my journal, as I am anxious to have them subscribe. 

 There seems to be a fraternalism among bee-keepers. So 

 far I have not found a tobacco-user among them. Is that 

 generally the case ? Washington. 



Answers. — 1. If those bees that you let " scatter to the 

 four winds " had nothing left on their own stand in which 

 to enter, they no doubt entered other hives near by. It will 

 be well for you to keep a sharp lookout for foul brood. The 

 moths cut no figure in the case. 



.2. For extracting-supers you will like these shallow 

 bodies. Some also like them for brood-chambers, but the 

 majority seem to prefer something deeper. 



3. It's a toss-up whether it's peace or war. You ought 

 to be able to tell very shortly after putting the queenless 

 bees on top. If they did not unite peaceably you would find 

 dead bees thrown out at the entrance. It's rather risky to 

 unite bees in that way when no honey is coming in. 



Look here, won't you please quit trj'ing to transfer or 

 doing anything else with bees that will tend in the least to 

 start robbing, unless at a time when they are gathering ? 

 Transferring is usually done when fruit is in bloom, with 

 no tendency to robbing. 



4. There are tobacco-users among- bee-keepers, espe- 

 cially in other countries, and in the German bee-journals it 

 is a common thing to find tobacco and bee-keepers' pipes 

 advertised. But for some reason the number of bee-keepers 

 that use tobacco in this country is small. At bee-conven- 

 tions, or any place where a crowd of bee-keepers is found, 

 the absence of tobacco-smoke is very noticeable. Perhaps 

 bee-keepers get all the smoke they want when smoking bees. 



Amount of Brood in a Hive by April 20- 

 in Brood-Frames. 



Foundation 



1. I have IS colonies of bees in chaff hives, 14 of them 

 having Italian queens, but only 4 mated with pure drones. 

 I got a tested queen a year ago last fall, and have reared 

 rrfy queens from her. April 18 there was brood and eggs in 

 8 frames in the hive that queen is in. 



1. Do bees usually have that amount of brood by 

 April 20 ? 



I found in another hive 6 frames of brood and eggs. 

 But most of them had only 3 or 4 frames. 



2. Does it pay to put full sheets of foundation in brood- 

 frames ? • 



My hives are all 10-frame except two ; they are eight. 



Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. The amount of brood in a hive April 20 

 depends not only upon the colony, but also the place and 

 the season. Two apiaries 3 miles apart may show a decided 

 difference. In the present case the colony seems to have 

 Ijeen unusually good. 



2. Yes, if for no other reason than to get all worker- 

 comb. 



'*-•-*■ 



Some May-Day Apiarian Questions. 



1. In looking thru a colony about the first of May, how 

 is a beginner to judge whether there is enough stores to 

 last the bees " at least two weeks ?" 



2. Is it likely, or possible, that one will find enough 

 honey left over in an 8-frame Langstroth hive, wintered on 

 the summer stand, to make the use of an extractor advisa- 

 ble in May ? 



3. If so, on what basis should one determine to use the 

 extractor ? 



4. Why do you not, in your department, insist that the 

 editor shall print the questions and their answers alter- 

 nately instead of seriatim ? Nebraska. 



Answers. — 1. That's a very sensible question, but the 

 answer is not so easy. One with experience in judging the 

 matter will find it easier to decide than to tell another how 



to decide. Generally, however, if you see a single spot of 

 sealed honey along the upper jjart of any comb without lift- 

 ing out any of the frames, you may judge there is no imme- 

 diate danger of starvation, for the bees will have at least 

 a small store of unsealed honey in or near the cluster. If 

 sealed honey is to be seen along a number of the combs, 

 you may feel easy for the next two weeks. Lifting out the 

 frames, you can estimate pretty well by inspection how 

 many pound sections of honey would e(|ual the honey in the 

 hive, and if two pounds are there they may be left for two 

 weeks with no anxiety. 



2. To say the least, it is a very remote contingency. 



3. If you find less than three combs in which the queen 

 can lay, it may be worth while to consider the question of 

 giving more room. This answer at a guess, for I think I 

 never felt called upon to extract in spring to make needed 

 room. 



4. I have all I can do to scrape up answers to fit all the 

 questions that come, without getting into a row with the 

 printer, his devil, and other angels, about the order in 

 which the questions are printed. That's his part of the 

 business, and if I should go to interfering I'm afraid the 

 reputation of the " Old Reliable " would suffer. 



Transferring After Swarming. 



If I have bees in box-hives, and combs in poor shape to 

 transfer, can I let them send out a prime swarm, then catch 

 the virgin queen in a trap as she comes out for her yred- 

 ding flight, put her in a new hive with full foundation, and 

 place the box-hive above with queen-excluder, and in 21 

 days have the box-hive empty of bees and brood ? If not, 

 what is my best way to get them into new hives, with good, 

 straight combs, with the least loss of time and bees ? 



Iowa. 



Ansvi'ERS. — It is somewhat doubtful whether your plan 



would work to your satisfaction. It may work better to 



leave the j'oung queen undisturbed till 21 days after the 



prime swarm, and theif drum out the bees and queen. If 



you put the prime swarm on the old stand, setting the old 



hive close beside it, a week later putting the old hive on a 



new stand, you will have a strong force for surplus in the 



prime swarm, and no second swarm will be sent out. By 



waiting 21 days before making the drive, you will lose a 



little in the way of eggs and brood from the young queen, 



but not much. 



*-•-♦ 



Cottonwood and a Wax-Plant. 



Cottonwood yields plenty of pollen, but is no good for 

 honey. Better plant "measly box-elders," as Mr. Secor 

 calls them — he might get a little honey from them. 



I have a vine in the house that beats all the honey- 

 plants I ever saw to yield honey. When it blooms, the flow- 

 ers look like wax, and the nectar stands in drops that a bee 

 could fill up on in short order. We call it a wax-plant, and 

 the book calls it Hoya. Kansas. 



Answer. — The wax-plant, or Hoya. is a great yielder 

 of nectar, and several other greenhouse plants are so rich 

 in nectar that a field of them would make bees disgusted 

 with such slow-yielding things as clover and linden ; but 

 the trouble is that they are so expensive that the honey 

 from them would cost a dollar a pound or more. 



Thanks for information aboat cottonwood. 



ttueen-Excluders That Were Used Over Foul-Broody 

 Colonies. 



Late last season I purchast a quantity of queen-exclud- 

 ers which had been used (unknown to me) over bees having 

 foul brood. Could they be used again, and with what pre- 

 caution, or would it be safer to discard them altogether ? 



OnT.\rio. 



Answer.— It will be all right to use them if they are 

 first thorolv boiled. 



The American Fruit and Vegetable Journal is just 

 what its name indicates. Tells all about growing fruits 

 and vegetables. It. is a fine monthly, at SO cents a year. 

 We can mail you a free sample copy of it, if you ask for it. 

 We club it with the American Bee Journal — both papers one 

 year for $1.10. 



