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QUESTIONS. 



Mow to Select Colonies — Ex- 

 tracting; from Brood-Combs. 



Written Sor the American Bee Jawmal 



BV G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspoudent writes, "I desire 

 to purciiase some bees in tlie Spring, 

 Will }-ou please tell me how to select 

 good colonies, and what prices I ought 

 to pay? " A majority of persons, 

 ■especially beginners, are apt to think 

 that if a hive is heavy with honey and 

 there are live bees in it, such are the 

 ones to purchase, without any regard 

 to what kind of comb there is in the 

 hive, or the size of the colon}'. 



This is a mistaken idea. Good 

 combs and plenty of bees are of far 

 more value than honey. As there are 

 those at the present time who still 

 persist in keeping bees in box-hives, 

 and the bees in such hives can be pur- 

 chased for less money than they can in 

 "frame-hives (besides, the frame-hive 

 might not be to the purchaser's liking), 

 I would select box-hives, and then 

 transfer to such hives as suited me. 



The colonies ma}' be selected any 

 -cold day during the months of March 

 and April, by turning the hive over 

 carefully, so as not to arouse the bees. 

 Examine the combs carefully and see 

 that they are all straight and nearly 

 all worker comb, and tliere should be 

 bees in at least five spaces ; or in 

 -other words, the bees should enclose 

 lour combs, while six to eight spaces 

 filled with bees would be all the better, 

 with from ten to fifteen pounds of 

 honey. If possible, select such colo- 

 nies as cast a swarm the previous sea- 

 son, or a second swarm, as such will 

 have young prolific queens. 



Persons having bees for sale in box- 

 hives, do not, as a rule, read the bee 

 papers, so they do not know the differ- 

 ence between a good stock-hive and a 

 poor one, and will make no distinction 

 in price as to those having j'oung 

 ■queens and good combs, for all are 

 alike to them. 



About the price. Four dollars is 

 the usual amount asked for bees in 

 such hives during April, but I have 

 seen colonies sold for eight and ten 

 <lollars. that were worth but little 

 more than the houey tliat was in the 

 hive : and I have seen colonies sold 

 for two dollars that were better worth 

 ten dollars than others would be as a 

 gift. The same holds good as to frame- 

 hives. A person had better pay ten 

 ■dollars for a hive that has the frames 

 filled with straight worker combs, 



well-stocked witli bees, than have a 

 hive with the combs built cro.sswise of 

 the frames, with two-thirds of that 

 drone comb, and an old, poor queen, 

 given to him for nothing. 



EXTRACTING FROM THE BROOD-COMBS. 



"When lam working for section- 

 honej', my bees are prone to store 

 more or less honey in the brood-combs. 

 Had I better extract this honey occa- 

 sionally ? " is a question sent in by 

 another correspondent. I have been 

 a careful observer, and find that when 

 bees are at work best in the sections 

 there will be scarcely a pound of honey 

 in the brood-frames, providing that 

 the body of the hive is not too large. 

 I mistrust that the trouble with this 

 correspondent, is that his brood- 

 chamber is too large, so that the first 

 honey which comes in goes into the 

 brood-combs instead of the sections. 

 But the extracting of this honey would 

 only make matters worse, for it would 

 give the bees a chance to put more 

 honey below, instead of going into the 

 sections as we wish. 



If any one expects to get a large 

 yield of comb-honey and use the ex- 

 tractor on the brood-combs at the 

 same time, the}' certainly will not 

 realize their expectations. After the 

 bees get thoroughly at work in tlie 

 sections, let the brood-combs alone, 

 and you need have no fear of the 

 queen being crowded, for as soon as 

 the bees are thus occupied they will 

 carry the little honey they may have 

 in the brood-combs, with a hive of the 

 proper size, np into the section, thus 

 giving the queen abundant room. 



For instance: I have taken nine 

 Gallup frames, well tilled with sealed- 

 honey, hiving a good strong swarm of 

 bees with a good queen in such a filled 

 hive, putting on the sections before 

 hiving the swarm, and in form 14 to 

 18 days (if honey is coming in from 

 the fields) every bit of this honey and 

 all the bees had gathered, not con- 

 sumed by the brood, would be in the 

 sections. 



Once more : If you let a first swarm 

 issue from a hive and keep them from 

 swarming again, (allowing the hive 

 the swarm came from, to remain on the 

 old stand,) by the time the young 

 queen commences laying, every avail- 

 able cell in the brood-chamber will be 

 filled with honey, and still no start be 

 made in the sections ; but as soon as 

 the queen gets to laying to any amount, 

 the bees will commence to work in the 

 sections, and I have known every sec- 

 tion to be completed in ten days from 

 the time of commencing, under such 

 circumstances. 



Examine that hive in IS days and 

 you will find scarcely a cell of honey 

 in the brood-combs, and as nice a lot 



of brood as you ever witnessed. Now, 

 we will suppose that just as this queen 

 was fertilized the honey had all been 

 extracted from the brood-combs, not a 

 single pound of section honey would 

 have been obtained, in all probability, 

 unless it came late in the season from 

 buckwheat or Fall flowers. 



Bee.s will always store honey in tlie 

 brood-chamber, in preference to the 

 sections, when there is empty comljs 

 or empty cells there, and the more 

 extracting of these brood-combs the 

 more empty cells we give, unless the 

 queen has the cells occupied with 

 brood, in which case there will be no 

 honey to extract. Again I repeat it. 

 if you wish a large yield of section- 

 honey, keep prolific queens, and let 

 the brood-combs alone, after they are 

 once filled with brood in the Spring. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



BEE CELLARS. 



Ratsi and Itliee in a Bee Cellar. 



Writttn tor the Amerifj'.n Bee Jourtial 

 BY G. B. REPLOGLE. 



I was somewhat surprised to find my 

 query (No. 742) answered in this week's 

 Bee Journal. It has been so long 

 since I sent it, that I had given up 

 ever hearing from it. Well, it was 

 like the doctor coming several days 

 after the death of the patient. The 

 following item will tell how it turned 

 out. I must explain a little. We did 

 not fasten the bees into the hives, but 

 left the entrances open and the covers 

 on. I believe it would have been 

 better to have had screens on toj), 

 than the covers. The cellar was very 

 dark and rather warm, with no chance 

 to ventilate it properly. The explana- 

 tory item is as follows: 



On the 17th of November we put 60 

 colonies of bees into a cellar ; on the 

 l!8th we took them out again. They 

 had never become quiet during the 11 

 days of their confinement, and, when 

 taken out, quite a number of the colo- 

 nies showed symptoms of diarrhea. The 

 second day after taking them from the 

 cellar, they had a good flying time 

 and spotted the hives as badly as bees 

 usually do after a confinement of six 

 weeks. We now have them snugly 

 packed at the sides and back, with 

 leaves and soft blue-gra.ss hay, and 

 shall await with considerable anxiety 

 the outcome of the experiment. 



Too high a temperature and annoy- 

 ance by rats running over the hives 

 seemed to be the cause of their uneasi- 

 ness in the cellar. When bees are 

 uneasy in confinement they will con- 

 stantly gorge themselves with honey, 

 which accounts for the symptoms iu 

 the present case. 



