Feb. 23, 1905. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



145 



in? (It would be hard for me to find queen-cells without 

 removing the frames.) . , t ,• ■ ..u 



3 Would you put the cage with the Italian queen m the 

 new hive before letting the bees run in or immediately 



after ^ 



4. If worker foundation in full sheets is given will the 



bees rear any drones ? _ , , , . j • »t, 



5 What grade of foundation should be used in the 

 brood-chamber? In the upper story for extracted honey? 



6. Would colonies shaken in this way be likely to swarm 



7. Are queens that are reared by the bees after their old 

 queen is removed (when this has been done previous to the 

 forming of queen-cells) likely to be all right? Are they as 

 good as those reared under the swarming impulse? 



8. , If so, would it be all right after a colony is properly 

 Italianized, to remove the old queen and give it to a queen- 

 less colony, and let the then queenless one rear a new 

 queen ? 



9. If this will not work, will you please give me a simple 

 method by which an inexperienced bee-keeper could rear 

 queens from an Italian colony to supply any colonies which 

 may be left queenless, or to improve his stock? 



Canadian. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, with some modifications mentioned in 

 following answers : 



2. You can shake, without waiting for queen-cells, as 

 soon as colonies are strong enough in a good honey-flow. 



3. I wouldn't put her in the new hive, but in the old 

 one. Her reception will be more kindly, and the broodless 

 bees will be much better satisfied with their old queen. 



4. They will be likely to build a few drone-cells in odd 

 corners, and of course rear a few drones. 



5. Medium brood, unless you support the light brood 

 well. 



6. Not likely. 



7. Yes and no. As you propose to manage, I wouldn't 

 expect the best of queens. 



8 and 9. Your colonies, in the way you propose, wouldn't 

 be strong enough, and having no field- workers vvould be in 

 too discouraged a condition. You will be all right if you 

 take the queen (with perhaps one or two frames of brood 

 and bees) from a strong colony with its full working force 

 at a time when honey is yielding well. 



Feeding Bees In Winter— Pnnlc Bees. 



New Hampshire lost most of her bees last winter. My 

 9 colonies died on the summer stands. 



I bought a new supply last spring, and put 7 colonies in 

 the cellar the first of January, this year, having waited in 

 vain for 6 weeks to give them another flight. My cellar is 

 not a good one for bees. The temperature is 35, and it is 

 sometimes wet in the spring or during prolonged thaws in 

 the winter. 



Several of the colonies are small in numbers, and all 

 are deficient in stores. They are in two-story dovetailed 

 hives, the upper story empty, and inch blocks under the 

 front corners of the hives. 



I commenced feeding "Good" candy a week ago, giving 

 each colony a piece about the size of an orange. Today I 

 cleaned out about a half-pint of dead bees, on an average, 

 from each hive, and found on the bottom-board under 

 each ball of candy as much powdered sugar as it took to 

 make the candy. 



1. Was the candy too sugary? 



2. A neighbor of mine who is an old bee-keeper, says 

 he has successfully fed bees in winter with thick syrup, in 

 fruit-Jars covered with thin cloth and inverted over the clus- 

 ter. Is it safe to try this plan if the candy won't work? 



3. Ought I to cover the frames with a chaff cushion? 



4. Will it be better to put them out early in the spring 

 to feed them, or wait until the maple blooms appear? 



5. There is a continual hum in the hives, sometimes 

 sufficient to be heard across the cellar. Is this too much noise 

 to call it good behavior, and, if so, what is the cause and 

 remedy ? 



6. Have the Punic bees proved a success in this coun- 

 try, or are they still an experiment? 



New Hampshike. 

 Answers. — 1. Probably. Perhaps not as thoroughly 

 kneaded as it should have been, and perhaps too fresh. You 



will generally find directions to let it stand some time after 

 being made. That gives time for the sugar to be dissolved 

 by the honey, and if that time is not allowed it may be 

 sugary There is, however, little loss in the case, for you 

 can collect the dry sugar that the bees have thrown down 

 and use it over again, either now or in the form of syrup in 

 the spring. Possibly you might succeed better to make com- 

 mon boiled candy, merely boiling sugar in a little water till it 

 will be hard when dropped in cold water. 



2. Yes, if the candy won't work, but it will work. i 

 commend to your reading the article on page 86, by that 

 very practical and common-sense bee-keeper, C. P. Dadant. 



3. It will be better. Or, it may be more convenient to 

 use pieces of old quilts, carpets, or something of the kind. 



4. Somewhere from the middle of February till the mid- 

 dle of March it may do to take them out for a flight on a 

 warm day, and then take them back in the cellar till after 

 maple-bloom. Sometimes maples get in too much of a hurry, 

 and it's better for the bees to stay where it's warmer, even if 

 the maples are fools enough to start blooming only to be 

 frozen up again. 



5. Less noise would probably be better ; but as cold as 

 35 degrees they will make a good deal of noise to keep 

 themselves warm. Can't you warm up the cellar in some 

 way? Even if only occasionally to 45° or more, it would 

 help. Hot stones or jugs of hot water tightly corked might 



do it. . , r 



6. In the experimental stage ; reports varying from favor- 

 able to extremely unfavorable. 



Colony with an Imported Queen. 



Last May (1904) I received by express a 3-frame nucleus 

 containing the highest grade (according to price) imported 

 Italian queen. The nucleus was given a 10-frame Danzen- 

 baker hive, 7 frames containing foundation in full sheets. 

 The nucleus did not build up quite as rapidly as I had hoped, 

 but by the end of October, by dint of spreading brood and 

 feeding sugar-water, it had grown to a fair-sized colony 

 having 20 frames (double brood-chamber) of honey and 

 brood. I turned a Danzenbaker cover over the hive, simply a 

 thin j^-inch box, reaching a couple of inches below the top 

 brood-chamber. I left the entrance 1 xl4 inches open, except 

 for wire screen to keep out mice and robbers. The colony 

 seemed to be wintering well, very well indeed. On oc- 

 casional flight-days they came out actively, and there were 

 never but a few dead bees on the bottom-board or in front 

 of the hive. Dec. 8 and 31 bees were out in good force for 

 play-spells, and Dec. 21 a few were out. Jan. 1, 1905, the 

 temperature was 54 degrees in the shade, all the bees were 

 out, and robbing began. (I have 7 colonies, one a weak one 

 which I had carelessly left with the wire guard off.) Jan. 

 2 there was a snowstorm. Jan. 19 the temperature was only 

 38 degrees in the shade, but the sun was very much warmer 

 for a short while, and the bees from the 3 south colonies 

 (they are in pairs) came out in surprising force, also some 

 bees from the hive containing the queen mentioned. At no 

 time this winter has the temperature here in the daytime been 

 to zero. But a few nights before the last-mentioned play- 

 spell the temperature for a brief period was 6 degrees be- 

 low zero. 



On the morning of their last play-spell, previous to their 

 coming out, I gently pulled out with a small stick, the dead 

 bees that were on the bottom-boards of the 4 Danzenbaker 

 hives. The 3 other hives are old-style with very small en- 

 trances. In the hive containing the queen mentioned only a 

 few bees were on the bottom-board, a dozen or two at most. But 

 all alone about the middle lay the queen herself. She was 

 easy to identify as the same queen, because of her wing which 

 I clipped last May. As she was not dried up, her death must 

 have been quite recent. On the hive next to this one I had 

 used a small entrance for protection. I pulled a load of dead 

 bees out of it, and left a large entrance, as the other 2 Dan- 

 zenbaker hives with wide-open entrances showed as few dead 

 bees on the bottom-boards as the one with the queen did. 



1. Since the other 2 wide-open entrance hives (which 

 also faced the west wind) and the queen's hive (which faced 

 east and has a building at its back) seemed to have a few dead 

 bees, while the one Danzenbaker hive with the small en- 

 trance, about ^x8, was loaded with dead bees, is it likely 

 that the imported queen perished from that cold-spell men- 

 tioned ? 



2. In a cold-spell wouldn't any queen be near the center 

 of the cluster, and be among the first to die? 



