506 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 20, 190S 



the colony weak, they may not build down 

 into the new hive. If strong, and the season 

 good, they may build down satisfactorily. If 

 they do not build down, it is perhaps as well 

 to leave them right where they are, so as to 

 build up strong for winter ; then next year 

 you can transfer 3 weeks after swarming, 

 ■when there will be no worker-brood in the 

 hive, driving out the bees, and melting up the 

 ■comb, unless you want to save some of the 

 best of it. The probability is that the bees 

 will winter better and be stronger next spring 

 if you leave them in the old hive, as the col- 

 ony was probably not so very strong after 

 swarming. 



Bees That Never Swarmefl 



I bought 7 colonies 3 years ago, and they 

 liave never swarmed. Isn't that a very un- 

 •common thing? Illinois. 



Answer. — Yes, it is a most decidedly un- 

 usual thing, and if you have bees that will do 

 good work and not one of the whole 7 colo- 

 nies offer to swarm in 2 years, you have some- 

 thing to be greatly thankful for. 



Fastening Foundation Starters in 

 Sections 



1. How do you fasten starters in the sec- 

 tions where you put them in say 3Jjj' inches 

 long? I can not keep them straight, as they 

 are not fastened at the bottom. 



2. I find that when 1 leave as much as Ji of 

 an inch space between the bottom of the su- 

 per and the frames, the bees invariably till in 

 the space with comb and honey. Is it not 

 best to leave a space about -^o-inch? 



MiSSOCRI. 



Answers. — 1. At our house they are put 

 in with a Daisy fastener. The best way to 

 have the comb fastened well at the bottom is 

 to use a bottom starter »,' inch. 



2. Of course they will build in a space of 

 J;, of an inch. And they'll build no little in 

 a 3^-inch space. Don't have it more than J^ 

 inch. 



Preventing Robbing— Using Queen- 



Cells-Italianizing-Startlng 



Nuclei Late 



1. How can I prevent robbing among bees? 



2. I have a queenless colony with 6 queen- 

 cells started. Can I use some of them to any 

 advantage? 



3. I have several colonies of goldene and 

 two of blacks. Would I best get rid of the 

 black queens? 



4. Is it too late in the season to start a new 

 colony with two frames and a queen? 



Kentucky. 

 Answers.— 1. Robbing is likely to be 

 started if honey is left exposed where bees 

 can get at it, especially at a lime when bees 

 are not gathering. Avoid anything of that 

 kind. When there is nothing to be had in the 

 fields, sometimes robber-bees are so trouble- 

 some that even opening a hive and taking out 



the combs will start robbing. At such times 

 avoid opening hives, or if you already have a 

 hive open and see by their darting into the 

 top of the hive that robbers are getting the 

 start, close up at once, and if for any reason 

 you must handle the bees, do it under a tent, 

 or wait till nearly dark before opening the 

 hives. Weak, queenless colonies fall an easy 

 prey to robbers. Either break them up or 

 supply them with a queen. Keep all colonies 

 strong an^ provided with good queens, and 

 don't do anything to tempt the robbers, and 

 you'll not be likely to have much trouble. 



2. Yes, if you wish to have more queens, 

 each cell may be given to a nucleus. 



3. Yes, if you find them inferior to the 

 others, as they probably are. 



4. No, you can start in August, by giving 

 enough help. 



Location for Keeping Bees 



I am thinking of going to Arkansas, or 

 western Kansas, to keep bees. The forage is 

 sweet clover in both places. In which place 

 will bees do the best? Kansas. 



Answer. — That isn't a question that can be 

 answered in a single word. You will find 

 good and poor locations in both States. The 

 best way will be to make a personal visit and 

 find out whether a certain location will suit 

 you. The number of bees already on the 

 ground must be taken into consideration. 

 The best location in either of the States is not 

 the best place for you if the ground is already 

 occupied by others. If you find a place where 

 there are no apiaries, only some one with a 

 few colonies who has no intention of increas- 

 ing the business, and whose bees are doing re- 

 markably well, that's likely to be a good 

 place for you. But remember that you can't 

 count on as good results with 50 or 100 colo- 

 nies as you can with only 2 or 3. 



Queen Laying Several Eggs in a Cell 



I have a queen that I reared in a nucleus. 

 She is of good size and pure Italian; very 

 gentle. I have seen her lay while holding up 

 the comb, but I have counted as many as 6 

 eggs in one cell. What do you think is the 

 matter with her? She is in a hive, but the 

 bees cover only 4 frames in it. Do you think 

 there ought to be more bees in it so the queen 

 could have more room? Indiana. 



Answer. — It is nothing unusual for a good 

 queen to lay more than one egg in a cell when 

 she has so small a force of bees that she hasn't 

 room to spread herself ; although it is unusual 

 for her to lay so many as 6 in a cell. If she 

 keeps supplied with eggs all the cells that the 

 bees cover, you needn't worry about her 

 throwing in a few for good measure. If, how- 

 ever, she lays duplicates in a few of the cells 

 and leaves other available cells empty, there 

 is something wrong, and if she persists in 

 that line of conduct she should lose her head. 

 But it happens sometimes that a queen will 

 lay in an abnormal manner for a week or so, 

 and then Ftraighten up and lay as a good 

 queen should. 



The' 



Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

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



BEES AS A NATURE STUDY. I 



Prof. Bigelow, on pages 373-5, gives us a 

 most delightful article. Hard work to handle 

 it adequately in the limits of this department. 

 It is well adapted to stir up some of that 

 strangely large proportion of intelligent peo- 

 ple who keep themselves oblivious to Nature's 

 multiple and perennial miracles as shown in 

 the transformation of insects — things are 

 created before our eyes, not out of nothing, 

 but out of incongruous previous things. And 



what an enormous mass of world-work — 

 world's scientific work — is yet to be done re- 

 lating to insects! Of insect species 30,000 

 have been describnl (how little that is!), but 

 of undescribed species there yet remain nine 

 or ten times as many— say over 250,000 1 Most 

 of the lesser host of 30,000 still need to have 

 their life history and characteristics studied 

 up. I suppose many ambitious young men 

 and young women have mourned that there 

 was nothing of world-embracing significance 



handy for one to do any more. Just let them 

 look around here. Here's original scientific 

 work that will last as long as the coal-beds do. 

 Let such a youth select one or more insects 

 for close acquaintance, and put himself in 

 communication with some institution or uni- 

 versity that works at this branch of Nature 

 work. 



" How to Make a Cage for Your Canary 

 Out of Old Umbrella Ribs," is it now? Fine 

 specimen of Prof. Bigelow's scorn for the 

 clap-trap arrangements of previous workers 

 when they studied bees a little. It seems that 

 they have been very inconsistent, in that they 

 use costly and nice apparatus to study crea- 

 tures of much less importance than bees. Still 

 we must not forget that sometimes very 

 costly and fine-looking apparatus works — not 

 half so well as the clap-traps. I object decid- 

 edly to calling the one-frame observation hive 

 a failure. Allen Latham has recently been 

 making it a success to a remarkable degree. 

 There is room for both the Bigelow Educa- 

 tional Hive and the one-frame kind. Let there 

 be no fighting and calling names between 

 them. The former is new; and a season's 

 work with it is likely to result in consider- 

 able modifications — strange if it didn't. I 

 notice Prof. Bigelow speaks of letting the 

 bees run in, and letting the bees run out, in- 

 stead of speaking of putting the bees in and 

 taking them out. I infer, therefore, that he 

 has not continued very long working with 

 bees— in all weathers, and in all their moods 

 and tenses — and hardly knows yet how con- 

 trary they can be about doing just what one 

 wants them to do on mere asking. Students 

 well inured to bees are likely to prefer in 

 large measure free manipulations in the open 

 to bee-tight ones indoors. 



The feeder arranged with a powerful mag- 

 nifying lens attached, to study the bee's mem- 

 bers "on the critter," and especially the 

 ligula and its way of taking in honey, I would 

 commend in the highest terms. I sadly fear 

 that most of our folks have never taken in the 

 idea yet that bees can not suck honey through 

 a straw as breathing creatures can. Just how 

 far sucticin is got up some other way than by 

 breathing, and just how far the fiuid is pad- 

 dled up, or chain-pumped up, or swallowed 

 up, or by capillary attraction wheedled up, are 

 fascinating propositions to study. 



What we are after most greedily is the 

 seeming impossibility of a hive in which any 

 part can be seen at will without disturbing a 

 bee. We especially need to see them " at 

 home" with home feelings and quietness. 

 We want also a prosperous colony and not an 

 abnormal and woe-begone one. We can dis- 

 pense with great populousness, but we don't 

 want the colony too small. The Bigelow Edu- 

 cational Hive provides for a colony of maxi- 

 mum strength (which is very well so far) ; 

 but some of the bigger desirabilities, one can 

 hardly see how they are provided for. 



THE PUCKERING ALUM-WEED HONEY 1 



Alum-weed honey, eh ? warranted to pucker 

 a child's mouth so it can't bawl for seven 

 hours ! The demand for it should rise with 

 the progress of the anti-race-suicide reform ; 

 but Brudder Smith will have to shell out 

 advertising rates when he tells us his price 

 for it. Page 376. 



SUMAC HONEY AND BLOOM. 



The honey that I call sumac (still a possi- 

 bility of mistake) is amber or yellowish in 

 color, and in quality not bad — but still not as 

 good as I wish it was. When raw nectar it 

 has a tang, a sort of sour, reminding one of 

 the taste of sumac fruit (the red bobs), it you 

 ever tried to eat them. My locality is strong 

 on sumacs, especially Jihus copallina, which 

 blooms far along in summer, much later than 

 the other species. Page 361. 



COMB HONEY in CONFECTIONERY. 



All right to experiment with honey, using 

 wax and all, for confectionery, but look a lit- 

 tle out. So little way as my experience goes, 

 it is that honey always gets more or less of 

 bad taste from contact with melted beeswax. 

 Rather queer. Don't seem as though it ought 

 to be so. Wonder if it is the detergent 

 quality that makes the mischief — washes tne 

 wax and takes the impurities to itself. If 

 that's really the case a little invention may 

 come in here, too. Page 360. 



