April 27. 1905. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



313 



of June with me) or when they have queen-cells? or could I do it be- 

 fore there are any indications of swarmint;? 



2. Could I transfer in the above manner during fruit-bloom, hikI, 

 it so, will any swarms issue from colonies transferred in this maniuir^ 



3. Cim 1 use only starters in the new hives, or must I use full 

 sheets of brood foundation * 



4. Could I use the brood-combs from the old hives in extraoting- 

 supers? I intend to run 3colonies for extracted and 3 for comb honey. 



5. By transferring them in the manner outlined, would not tlie 

 greater part of the honey from white clover (which blooms in this 

 locality from the beginning of May) go into the brood-chamber rather 

 than into the sections? Indiana. 



Answers. — 1. The method is practicable, and under the imposed 

 conditions perhaps Edvisable. If you do the work before swarming. 

 time, there is danger that you may hinder the best development of the 

 colony on the one hand, and on the other hand that if there is no 

 such hindrance there is likely to be swarming when swarming-time 

 comes. It will lie safer to wait till swarming-time, and it may eave 

 some work if you let the colonies swarm naturally, hiving them on 

 the new frames. 



2. If you operate in fruit-bloom, and if you don't give the bees 

 too much of a sei-back by it, they will be likely to swarm. If you 

 operate in swarming-time, they will not be likely to swarm. 



3. You can do either way, but you're likely to have so much 

 drone-comb with starters that it may be cheaper in the long run to 

 have frames entirely filled with foundation. 



4. Yes, they will do nicely, giving you 2 stories of extracting- 

 combs for each of your 3 colonies. 



5. No, you will probably find that the first thing the queen will 

 do will be to fill the frames with brood, giving way to honey later in 

 the season. 



The following plan may be worth your consideration : When the 

 colonies become strong, but before any have swarmed (it may be well 

 to even up in strength by giving sealed brood from stronger to weaken 

 treat 3 of them after this fashion : Put the empty hive of foundation 

 in place of the old hive, put a queen-excluder on, and set over this the 

 old hive. Find the frame with the queen, and shake off bees and 

 queen at the entrance. Over this, for a third story, set a story of 

 brood from one of the other 3 hives, shaking the bees upon founda- 

 tion. The 3 colonies with the 2 stories of brood above the excluder 

 will become very strong, will not be likely to swarm, and will do floe 

 work for the extractor. The other 3 colonies will not be so strong, 

 but will do fair work in sections. It you would like the stronger 

 force to work on sections, you can make the exchange in 10 days or 

 so. Lift off the 2 stories of brood ; put in their place the sections, 

 bees and all, from one of the other hives; brush off all the bees from 

 the brood, and put the 2 stories of brood where you took the sections 

 from. 



< ■ » 



Surplus Combs for Hiving Bees 



I have some surplus combs. Is it best to hive bees on these or on 

 foundations' I run for comb honey. Missouri. 



Answer. — Some prefer foundation, but I think most bee-keepers 

 would rather hav«; the combs. 



Rearlne Queens In Different Ways 



How can I rear queens in different ways? 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — I'm not sure that I know enough to tell you all the 

 different ways that are used to rear queens, but some of the ways 

 most in use are the Doolittle plan, the Alley plan, and the old plan of 

 making a colony queenless and allowing it to select its own larvie from 

 which to rear queens. Another way is to encourage a number of 

 afterswarms for the sake of securing a queen from each. Possibly I 

 don't get at the right drift of your question. If not, please ask again, 

 and I'll try my best. 



Prevention of Swarming 



I have been reading and studying your book, ■ 40 Years Amony 

 the Bees," all winter and hope to profit by it the coming summer. 1 

 have only recently become a subscriber to the American Bee Journal, 

 and so I don't know whether you have ever made any report in it as in 

 your success, or lack of it, in practicing your "foundation method ' 

 of treating bees preparatory to swarming. I note that you say iu 

 your book that the first two years this method was successful, but in 

 1902 it was not so much so. How did the seasons of 1903 and I'Mi 

 serve you in this practice, or have you some better method now? 



Massachtjsetts. 



Answer.— I'm not sure that I gave the foundation plan any fur 

 ther trial, because, even it it did nearly always succeed, I'd rathei 

 have something always successful. During the past two years the fi ; 

 lowing plan has had the right of way : 



As soon as there is danger that there may be preparation fi 

 swarming, the search every 10 days or so for queen-cells is begun, n 

 given in " Forty Years Among the Bees," page 184. When cells a. 

 sufficient in number, and sufficiently advanced, to show that the bet 

 are not to be balked in their attempt to swarm, the cells are destrovt 

 and the queen removed. About 10 days later all cells are ajju 

 destroyed and a young laying queen given. It she is found laying' a 

 right at the next visit there is no need to go into that colony ag.i 



during the rest of the season. Sometimes a colony swarms unexpect- 

 edly during our absence, and at tne next visit we find that it has 

 swarmed by the absence of young brood, the clipped queen having 

 been lost. We destroy queen-cells, and at the next visit give it a 

 young queen, after killing all queen-cells. Sometimes we have no 

 young queen ready, in which case we give them back their old queen, 

 or any other queen available. If an old queen is given the colony 

 needs further watching, for although it generally does not swarm, 

 sometimes it does ; whereas when it receives a queen of the current 

 year's rearing, there is practically no danger. 



Using Combs and Honey from Hives Where Bees Died 



1. Will it do to put a nucleus in a hive where the bees died and 

 left considerable honey? And would it do to give this nucleus a 

 couple of frames of brood and bees from a strong colony to help build 

 the nucleus up, or would they fight and kill the queen' 



West Virginia. 



Answer. — The plan you propose will work all right if you do not 

 give too many strange bees at a time. Not that the bees are likely to 

 fight at this time of the year, but there might be danger to the queen 

 of the nucleus. Don't give more than one frame of brood with 

 adhering bees at a time, and even with all that number there might be 

 danger with a very weak nucleus. In that case, don't give the frame 

 of brood, but just shake in a few bees. 



It is only fair to warn you that unless you have very strong colo- 

 nies from which to draw, the damage done to the colony from which 

 you draw will be likely to overbalance the benefit to the nucleus. 



Breeding Queens of Different Races 



I am interested in making some experiments in breeding queens of 

 different races. I expect to have queens of Carniolan, Cyprian and 

 Caucasian races the coming summer. Now I want to know what 

 would be the best method of managing the drones. I am going to 

 select a matlng-ground where I may be reasonably certain of immu- 

 nity from the races I do not want to cross with. I want to manage 

 this mating business so as not to be obliged to take u'hole colonita of 

 bees to the place. The queen-side of the proposition is, of course, 

 simple. I am going to use the " baby nuclei " for the queens. 



My question is, can I trap out a sufficient number of drones and 

 unite them with the baby nuclei containing the queens to be fertil- 

 ized, and feel reasonably certain that I will succeed? Or would it be 

 a more certain method to take the drones of the race that I want to 

 use for crossing in a colony of that race? I want, as far as possible, to 

 keep from interfering with the work of whole colonies, and besides- 

 that, I want to handle the mating problem with my horse and buggy, 

 and not be bothered with a wagon. 



This may seem a silly question to ask, but I want the benefit ot 

 your wisdom and ripe experience in these things, so that I may not 

 spoil the whole equipment at the very outset. 



I put away 25 colonies last fall, and all came through nicely, and 

 are building up in good shape now (March 31 ). I followed your 

 advice given in " Forty Years,'' where you said that if you were as 

 good a bee-keeper as you would like to be you would have frames of 

 honey stored away for feeding in the spring. I had 50 or more fine, 

 straight combs of honey to slip in where they were needed this spring. 

 It is quite a satisfaction to be able to put them in, too. 



Illinois. 



Answer. — It's all very well for you to talk about my "ripe expe- 

 rience" and all that sort of thing, but when you come at me with a 

 question outside the range ot any experience of mine, either ripe or 

 green, what is left for me but to say, " I don't know?" I can only 

 say what I do or don't think. I don't think you will make so good a 

 success with drones in baby nuclei as in full colonies; but it will be so 

 much easier to manage with the nuclei that I believe I would run the 

 risk of a larger percent of failures and not have the bother of the full 

 colonies. At least you can afford to make trial at first with the 

 "babies," and if they don't work satisfactorily you will still have 

 enough of the season left to do the other way. On the face of it, one 

 would be inclined to think there could be no question in the case, the 

 nuclei are queenless, and queenless bees cherish drones, so drones in 

 the nuclei must be all right. But exceptions occur sometimes in 

 weak nuclei. For instance, queenless bees, if they build comb at all, 

 build only drone-comb. Yet a queenless nucleus will build worker- 

 comb (/'Me«A- oioHjr/f. So unless some one has tried it and knows, I 

 should have just a little fear that a nucleus might kill off its drones if 

 weak enough. Trial, however, may show that there is no ground for 

 the fear. Let us hope so. In any case it will do no harm to make the 

 nuclei just a little stronger than is necessary without any drones. 



A Queen-Bee Free as a Ppemlum.— We are now 

 booking orders for untested Italian queens to be delivered, 

 in May or June. Tiiis is the premium offer : To a sub- 

 scriber whose own subscription to the American Bee Jour- 

 nal is paid at least to the end of 1905, we will give an un- 

 tested Italian queen for sending us one new subscription with 

 $1.00 for the Bee Journal a year. Now is a good time to 

 get new subscribers. IE you wish extra copies of the Bee 

 Journal for use as samples, let us kijow how many you want 

 and we will mail them to you. Address all orders to the 

 oflSce of the American Bee Journ .1. 



