July 13 190S 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



491 



sure to have a good deal more drone-comb 

 built than you will like, and the loss from 

 rearing and feeding a big crop of drones will 

 more than counterbalance all you will save 

 on the foundation. 



3. Yes, you can help in that way, but it is 

 the bees themselves that must be depended 

 upon to keep out the moths. Don't lay the 

 blame on the old hive. A weak colony, espe- 

 cially if the bees are of black blood, will allow 

 the moths to get the start of them in a new as 

 as well as an old hive ; and a strong, active 

 colony of black bees, or even a weak colony 

 of vigorous Italian blood will not suffer the 

 presence of moths. 



Lift out the frames one after another, shake 

 or brush off the bees, and look for the silken 

 galleries of the worms. They will be found 

 more especially in the cappingsof the sealed 

 brood. Take a bis pin, wire nail, or some- 

 thing of the kind, and tear open the gallery 



at one end. Then begin at the other end, 

 tearing it open as you go, and you will thus 

 drive along Mr. Worm till he comes out at the 

 hole you first made. Tnen when he is at your 

 mercy you can end his existence in any way 

 that suits your fancy. 



4. The combs containing the brood can be 

 cut out and fastened into the new frames in 

 the regular way of transferring, filling the 

 frame with combs and tying strings about it 

 till the bees fasten it in. Perhaps an easier 

 way will be to leave in the old hive all the 

 frames with just enough bees to keep the 

 brood from chilling, and then when all the 

 brood is hatched out, which will be in 3 weeks 

 from the time of transferring, drive or shake 

 out all the rest of the bees. But it may be 

 that your bees will do all right m the old hive. 



Don't send any postage stamps when you 

 write to this department, and write just as 

 long letters as you like. 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Db. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 

 Dr. Miller does 7iot answer Questions by mail. 



Unltlns Bees-Some Difficulties 



Why does a colony sometimes unite peace- 

 ably with a strange swarm, and at other times 

 fight it off until apparently not a bee is left? 



The case is this: Last Saturday I put out 

 a few boxes with strips of foundation fastened 

 to the top. On Wednesday I found a swarm 

 of black bees in one of them, so I brought it 

 home after dark and placed it at the side of 

 the Jtahaii colony with which I expected to 

 unite it. I left them there until Thursday at 

 about 6 p.m., when both were smoked some. 

 The box was then turned upside down, the 

 bottom removed, and the bees shaken on a 

 board in front of the old colony. The black 

 <iueen was found and disposed of. The black 

 bees rushed in, and those that were slow 

 about it were helped along with smoke. 



They were at once attacked by the Italians 

 inside the hive and on the alighting-board. I 

 smoked them through the entrance, which 

 seemingly stopped the fight, but only for a 

 very short time. I smoked them again, this 

 time sufficiently to take all fight out of them — 

 so I thought. Results: Truce until the 

 smoke had passed away, then wholesale exhi- 

 bition of Jiu-Jitsu. 



After dark 1 brushed all dead and dying 

 bees from the alighting-board, and this morn- 

 ing I found not only the alighting-board cov- 

 ered with dead bees, but also the entrance 

 (^S,xl4i4) blocked so that hardly a bee could 

 puss in or out, and they were under the 

 frames as far in as I could well remove them 

 with a stick. 



Now I am quite sure that had I hived the 

 swarm on regular size frames, hunted the 

 queen out, and then placed the hive over the 

 other, or the frames between the frames of 

 brood in the Italian colony, they would have 

 kinited peaceably. But last year I captured 

 12 strange swarms, and every time united 

 them with other colonies that I had at home, 

 and in the same way, not even bunting up the 

 queen in every case, and of the 12 just one 

 acted as the one did to-day. That one, how- 

 ever, was as bad as, if not worse than, this; 

 for the day after I united them the colony was 

 seemingly weaker than before, and the 

 ground was just covered with dead bees, 

 r While I do not intend to unite 2 colonies in 

 this way again, yet I would like to have your 

 opinion of the cause and the prevention of 

 the trouble. • 



ti At present the bees are gathering well from 

 white clover.- Iowa. 



Answer. — It is difficult to pay why bees 

 unite at one time peaceably and at another 

 time fight when conditions seem just the 

 same. I don't know just what was the 

 trouble in the case jou mention, but it is just 

 possible that the black swarm was an after- 

 swarm, having a virgin queen. If the 



weather was bad, and the bees were not gath 

 ering, that would make trouble about uniting' 

 You would have had less trouble if you had 

 killed the black queen 2 or 3 days before 

 uniting. Also if you had united in a some- 

 what piecemeal manner. Bees seem to wel- 

 come the accession of a small number when 

 they resent the entrance of a whole family. 

 In hundreds of cases 1 have given to a colony 

 a single frame of brood or honey with adher- 

 ing bees, and never knew any fighting. 



Swarmliis 



1. Will bees swarm before building any 

 queen-cells? If so, are they likely to do so? 



2 It is impractical for me to stay at home 

 and watch for swarms, so I must resort to ar- 

 tificial swarming or dividing — probably the 

 brush-swarm plan. At what stage of the 

 erection of queen-cells should the swarm be 



shaken, when queen-cells are started without 

 brood in them yet — after brood can be seen in 

 them, or after they are capped over I 



3. In removing the old hive to a new loca- 

 tion, and putting a new hive on the old stand, 

 is it essential that the old queen should re- 

 main or be shaken into the new hive on the 

 old staml? or can she be put into the old hive 

 on the new location? 



4. Do afterswarms come out only when the 

 old hive remains on the old stand? 



5. Do they always fail to come out when 

 the old hive is put in the new location? 



6. If no afterswarm comes out when the old 

 hive is changed to the new location, is there 

 any need of cutting out queen-cells? 



Wisconsin. 



Answers.— 1. Bees do not generally swarm 

 until a number of queen-cells are started and 

 the most advanced ones are sealed. Some- 

 times they do not wait till cells are so far ad- 

 vanced, and in rare instances they have been 

 known to swarm without having even eggs in 

 queen-cells. This refers to prime swarms. 

 Afterswarms have sealed cells with quahking 

 queens in them ready to emerge as soon as 

 the swarm has issued. 



2. Swarms may be shaken without paying 

 any attention to queen-cells as soon as the 

 season of swarming comes, or as soon as colo- 

 nies are sufficiently strong. Some prefer to 

 wait until a number of cells are found con- 

 taining eggs or larvse. It would hardly do to 

 wait till sealed cells are present, for at that 

 time a swarm is likely to issue. 'The presence 

 of queen-cell cups with neither egg nor larva 

 in them need not be considered, for these may 

 be found at any time, even in winter. 



3. The queen is to remain on the old stand 

 with the shaken swarm. The point is that the 

 brood is to be taken away. 



4 and 5. Afterswarms are likely to issue if 

 the old hive is left on the old stand, and are 

 less likely if the old hive at the time of 

 swarming is removed to a new place ; but may 

 occur then. If the swarm is put on the old 

 stand, the old hive close beside it, and then a 

 week later the old hive removed to a new 

 place, you may count quite safely on no after- 

 swarm. 



6. According to what has just been said, it 

 will be seen that removal of the old hive to a 

 new location will not prevent the necessity of 

 cutting out cells, unless such removal occur 

 some days after swarming. 



/T 



K 



Vih\ ^asty s Ctftcrtl^oUijI^ts 



=\ 



The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



J' 



NATIONAL ASSOCIATION HONET-LABEL. 



If a sore spot has anything of the pathetic 

 quality about it, surely we may say that the 

 spot that's ynni] to bt: .sore is still more pathetic. 

 Our Editor touches a spot that's going to be 

 sore, on page 355 — that prospective honey- 

 label of the National Association. A label of 

 this sort says to the public, " We produce 

 better honey than do the common herd of our 

 craft, because, you see, we are the progressive 

 men." Is this going to be true? I am almost 

 for conceding that our progressives exercise 

 themselves to get more honey, to harvest 

 honey easier, to have things look nicer, to test 

 and adopt novelties, to have some specially 

 desirable kind of bee — anything and every- 

 thing except quality of product, secured in 

 the only reliable way — ripeness. 



Ripeaess involves time (among other 

 things), and our typical progressive is scanda- 

 lized by the expenditure of that one thing. 

 His words are, "Hurry!" "Push things 1" 

 Honey just barely ripe enough to keep with- 

 out fermenting and changing flavor, is the 

 mark many set before themselves to strive 

 for. The. true mark should be a great deal 

 higher than that. 1 even fear that the gen- 

 tleman exists who wants to lean on a label — 

 and thereby sell houey more unripe than be- 



fore. Also, a practical minimum of ripeness 

 for Association enforcement is going to be 

 very hard to set. Capped honey is not always 

 ripe; and uncapped honey is not quite always 

 unripe. Honey may be very ripe and yet not 

 taste very good. And, t'otherwise, honey 

 may (if right from the comb) be delicious to 

 the taste and yet be very unripe — totally unfit 

 for keeping, i'et it there is not some sort of 

 enforcement from the start the label will be- 

 come a sione around the neck instead of a 

 benefit— like the name of an immensely adver- 

 tised ginger snap that might be named— all 

 will soon expect it to be below average quality 

 instead of above, and persist in that expecta- 

 tion. 



AUGER-HOLE ABOVE USUAL ENTRANCE. 



Somehow I don't believe bees prefer an 

 auger-hole entrance to the usual form. I'll 

 admit that ii jften looks that way. Many 

 hives have iiii ordinary entrance at the bot- 

 tom and an a J ;,'er-hole 2 or 3 inches above. 

 We see thu iaiior popular and the former un- 

 popular — hikI ump to wrong conclusions. 

 Theauger-h :c is the nearest road to where 

 the bees w.ini u go. Also every inch away 

 from the t't ■ ''id (up to a certain limit — 10 

 feet or sot ud Ij a little to the desirability of 

 an alightinsr place, from the bee's point of 



