538 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug-. 23, 1900 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. O. O. MILLER. A/areng-o, Ul. 



[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 



The "Premium Queens" Are Clipt. 



A correspondent writes that he received his premium 

 queen all right, but is puzzled to know whether the one in 

 the hive now is the same queen, as this is a clipt queen, and 

 the one he received as a premium had whole wings. Another 

 says his queen is clipt, and wants to know if I did it. 



At the request of the publishers, I have clipt the queens 

 sent out. It would be a little less trouble to send them out 

 with whole wings, but most nowadays prefer to have 

 queens clipt, and it sometimes helps to decide the question 

 whether the right queen is present. When a queen has her 

 wings closely folded together, it is not so easy to tell she is 

 clipt, but it is easily told when she spreads her wings, and 

 that probably accounts for the correspondent thinking his 

 queen was unclipt when received, and clipt when found 

 later in the hive. 



To another question, I reply that I have not previously 



sent out queens to exceed perhaps half a dozen, rearing 



them merely for my own use, and that I now send out only 



as ordered thru the publishers of the American Bee Journal. 



C. C. Miller. 

 .♦-•-». 



Combs and Fixtures from a Paralytic Colony- 

 Bees's Length of Life. 



1. Would it be safe to use combs and fixtures taken from 

 a colony that has bee-paralysis ? 



2. Do you think the life of the worker-bee is prolonged 

 during a period of enforced idleness in summer, when there 

 is no honey or very little coming- in ? Minnbsot.\. 



Answers. — 1. It is probably entirel}' safe. 



2. Yes, a bee grows old not altogether according to the 

 number of daj-s since it was born, but rather according to 

 the amount of work it has done. 



Building Queen-Cells Over Drone-Eggs. 



To-day I send a queen, some drone-brood in worker- 

 cells, and a sample of queen-cells, cut from the same comb. 

 I desire you to make a post-mortem examination of the 

 same, and report at an early date in the " Old Reliable." I 

 will give a history of the queen, viz.: In the first place I 

 will say that I have the stands, or places where my colonies 

 rest, numbered as we do land sections, and keep a regular 

 diary of each colony. In this way I can give a correct his- 

 tory of the colony and queen therein. May 16th No. 7 was 

 very good; clipt queen's wing, and gave two frames for 

 new colony at No. 11. May 30th queen-cells started, nearly 

 ready for capping. Made new colony at No. IS by giving 

 seven frames with cells for new colony, and filling up No. 7 

 with empty combs. I find this an easier way to hive swarms 

 than to climb trees, or be bothered watching for swarms, 

 and if the queen is not clipt the swarm may be lost. 



June 9, No. IS, saw fine queen, colony good. June 21st, 

 saw queen laying all right ; put on upper story — 8 frames in 

 the upper story, and 10 in the brood-chamber. I use the 

 standard Langstroth 10-frame hive, and upper story the 

 same size. These I can make into an 8-frame or any other 

 size, by the use of division-boards. June 27th, working- in 



upper story. July 26, need attention, as I found one frame 

 in the upper story that contained a lot of drone-brood in 

 worker-comb, and queen-cells started. July 27th, removed 

 upper story, found a fine, large queen, but seemed to have 

 quit laying, as I found no brood in any stage from the egg 

 up to capt brood in the brood-chamber. Queen seems to 

 have been injured. Her last laying seems to have produced 

 drones, as stated above. July 30th, gave upper story to No. 

 13 ; took away queen, so as to be ready for one that will lay. 



Now, the query is, will bees start queen-cells over eggs 

 that produce drones ? I have fears of this, and send you a 

 sample of them. I did not find any worker-cells at all in 

 this comb that contains the drones. The queen, as you will 

 see, is only a few weeks old. Most of my other colonies are 

 doing well, especially in brood-rearing, and we hope to have 

 a good honey harvest yet from heartsease and other fall 

 flowers. Almost too much rain during basswood, white 

 clover, etc., so our early honey crop is not large. 



There is an immense growth of all kinds of veg^etatiou 

 and weeds, especially the latter, hence the reason why, if 

 the weather proves favorable during August and early Sep- 

 tember, we may get a good crop of honey. All bee-keepers 

 I have met report about the same. 



I run my apiary mostly for extracted honey, as I find as 

 a rule it pays best. The American Bee Journal is always a 

 welcome visitor. J. S., Marshall Co., Iowa, July 31. 



Answer. — It is a rather common thing for queens that 

 are failing with old age to lay an increasing number of 

 drone-eggs, until all the brood is drone-brood, but is an un- 

 usual thing for the queen no older than the one in question 

 to fail in that way. Still, it does sometimes happen. I 

 once had a queen which laid eggs that never hatcht at all. 

 Another laid worker-eggs all right for three or four days, 

 then stopt laying altogether. 



When bees have nothing but drone-brood, you may 



count on their starting queen-cells, but nothing ever hatches 



out of such cells, the poor drone pampered with royal food 



dying in his cell. 



^-'-r- 



Weak Colony. 



I have a colony of bees which have been very poor the 

 whole season. First they lost the old queen, then the other 

 died, and the combs have had brood which has changed to 

 maggots, as the queen died, and the colony is in very bad 

 shape. I lookt it over every day and cut out the tracks left 

 by the worms, and I could not get them out, so I have bought 

 a new queen and have put a neve colony on the old stand 

 with some comb-starters in the frames, and left the old hive 

 stand near by. Have I done the right thing with the bees, 

 by changing the hive? What can I do in regard to the 

 comb of the old hive ? Brooklyn. 



Answer. — Furnishing a queen was a wise move — 

 doubtful about changing combs. Fumigate the old combs 

 with sulfur to kill the worms, and then if the bees are strong- 

 enough return the combs. The great danger is that the 

 colony has become so weakened as to be worthless. When 

 a colony has been a long time without a queen and has 

 dwindled away, it is hardly worth fussing with. 



Variations in Brood-Frames. 



I wish that some of the manufacturers of bee-keepers' 

 supplies would be on the program in the bee-keepers' con- 

 vention, and discuss the sameness of the inside of bee- 

 hives. I have been buying 1,000 brood-frames here, of dif- 

 ferent makes ; some go in the hives while others do not, or 

 vary up to about 'i inch. Such goods are no better to me 

 than a common box, or even that. California. 



Answer. — The trouble you mention is a grievous one. 

 In the main, manufacturers are not the chief sinners in this 

 regard. They try to make what bee-keepers demand. A 

 good way to do is to stipulate when ordering goods that 

 they shall be of certain dimensions. It does seem, however, 

 that a frame varying '/i inch from the standard size, 17^sx 

 9)s, if that is what you have, must have been made by a 

 mistake of the manufacturer, and should be rectified by him. 



