July 27,, 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



523 



the hive-body, and left the zinc over the en- 

 trance for nearly a week, and found them 

 gathering pollen and working. 



Hive No. 4, not having time on Monday, 

 when I removed the other queens, to remove 

 the queens in the other 3 hives, I just placed 

 the caged queensover the frames, and il being 

 bad weather I couldn't do anything with them 

 until the following Monday, when I went to 

 hive No. 4, and finding the queen I killed her 

 and removed the stopper in the end of the 

 cage. 



No. 5, not finding any queen I took an 

 empty hive-body, placed a piece of perforated 

 zinc oyer the entrance, shook all the bees in 

 front, and let them run in, placing the frames 

 in the empty hive-body. I put a queen-ex- 

 cluder over the hive-body containing the bees, 

 and placed them on their stand. I did like- 

 wise with No. 6. I noticed that they are all 

 working and gathering pollen. Do you think 

 I was successful? After introducing a queen, 

 and the bees gather pollen and go to work, 

 doesn't this signify that everything is satis- 

 factory? Delaware. 



Answer. — Your plan of making the 4 new 

 colonies will work, although there are objec- 

 tions to it. The loss of time while the bees 

 are imprisoned 4 days is quite an item. The 

 bees will fret no little at the confinement, and 

 you will find an unpleasant number of them 

 dead when you open the entrance, especially 

 if the weather is very hot. Better keep them 

 in the cellar during their time of imprison- 

 ment. 



Here is another plan that is not open to the 

 same objections: From the colony in the 

 Danzenbaker hive, take one frame of brood 

 without any bees. Put it in one of the empty 

 Danzenbaker hives, the rest of the hive being 

 filled with frames of foundation. Set this 

 new hive on the stand of one of the Lang- 

 stroth hives; shake into the new hive the bees 

 from half the frames in the Langstroth hive, 

 after first finding the queen, which you will 

 also put in the new hive, and set the Lang- 

 stroth hive in a new place, putting into it 

 year new q ueen caged. Do this with each of 

 the four hive?, and the bees will work right 

 along with no interruption. 



After introducing a queen, if the colony is 

 working vigorously and carrying in big loads 

 of pollen, it is pretty good evidence that the 

 queen is all right ; but the safe plan is to look 

 and see whether eggs are in the frames. You 

 were certainly successful in introducing, if 

 the whole 6 are laying well. 



I thank you very much for your kind words 

 in appreciation of this department. 



Seir-Requeenlng-HlvJngWIld Bees 

 In Trees— Where to Fasten Sec- 

 tion Foundation— Ants In 

 Hives 



1. A week ago I transferred a frame of 

 brood from an Sframe hive to a Danzenbaker 

 hive, cutting the comb of course to fit 1he 

 Danzenbaker frames, but I did not transfer 

 the queen, and 1 gave them the %-inch en- 

 trance. Do you think that was right, or 

 should I have given them the small entrance? 

 How long will it take them to rear a new 

 queen? I put the new hive on the old stand. 



3. I would like to know some good method 

 of getting a colony of bees out of a hollow 

 tree into a frame hive. 



3. When one receives a queen from a queen- 

 breeder, does the cage always have the name 

 of the kind of a queen on it? 



4. In putting foundation in sections on 

 which end or side of the section should the 

 foundation be put, the one that has the dove- 

 tailed end. or the other? 



5. Why not use full sheets of foundation in 

 every other frame instead of every one, to in- 

 sure straight combs in the brood-chamber? 



6. A neighbor of mine has one colony of 

 bees whose hive is fairly alive inside with lit- 

 tle black ants, although the bees seem to be 

 working well, but the ants are on the bees, in 

 the combs, and everywhere else. What can 

 he do to get them out? I thought mine might 

 get that way, and I would better find out 

 what to do. Kansas. 



f* Answers.—!. Unless tley build down into 

 it the larger entrance is better. Probably 



they will not build down. If no queen-cells 

 were already starti'l when the queen was 

 taken away, it would be about three weeks 

 before they would have a laying queen. It 

 is a severe drawback to leave a colony so long 

 without a laying qucon at the beginning of 

 the season. 



2. Something depends upon the tree and 

 the hight from the ground to the swarm. If 

 the bees are low down, the side of the tree 

 can be chopped away, leaving the brood-nest 

 exposed, when the coinbs can be cut out and 

 fastened in frames. If the bees are too high 

 for that, it will depend upon circumstances 

 whether to cut off the tree above the bees and 

 below, letting down with a rope the section 

 containing the bees, or to fell the tree and 

 run the risk of some smashing. 



3. Generally not, I think, although I do 

 not know. 



4. I prefer to put in the foundation so that 

 the dovetailed corner shall be at the bottom, 

 but a certain gentleman who does some very 

 interesting afterthinking for these pages, and 

 for whom I have very great respect, prefers 

 the dovetailed corner at the top. But I think 

 he does not use bottom starters, and I do. 



5. It will not make as even combs as to have 

 all frames filled alike. Rather than have 

 every alternate frame filled and the rest 

 empty, I would have all the frames filled half 

 full. In either case you are likely to have 

 more drone-comb than is profitable. 



6. I have known auts to be troublesome at 

 the hives on account of getting on the hands 

 of the bee-keeper, and apparently annoying 

 the bees, but the bees always kept them 

 driven out, and I never knew them to be 

 allowed on the bees as you say. (Down South 

 it is different.) Trace the ants to their nest, 

 and destroy them with gasoline or bisulphide 

 of carbon. 



Taking Off the Hlve-Cover-Sowlng 



Buckwheat-Perhaps Milkweed 



Pollen 



1. Is there any danger of the brood getting 

 chilled if the hive-cover is taken oft when it is 

 warm, and if off for any length of time? 



2. What do you think is the best to sow as 

 a honey-plant? Is not buckwheat about as 

 good as there is ? About what time should it 

 be sowed? 



3. What is the cause of bees coming out of 

 the hive with their legs fastened together? 



Iowa. 

 Answers.— 1. On a warm day a frame of 

 brood well covered with bees may be left out 

 a long time without any harm, perhaps all 

 day if the bees do not leave it. Without bees 

 the larger larvae will begin to crawl out of the 

 cells it left out too long— starving, probably, 

 rather than chilling. It the weather is too 

 cool tor bees to fly freely, avoid taking out 

 brood, or at least keep it out as short a time 

 as possible. 



2. Buckwheat is good, and probably there 

 is no better time to sow than the usual time 

 farmers sow for a crop in your locality. Sweet 

 clover is also good, and perhaps rape or mus- 

 tard. 



3. The pollen from milkweed sometimes 

 adheres to the feet of the bees, and thus gives 

 them the appearance of clinging together. 



Perhaps Motherwort- Red Clover 

 Bees— Don't Swarm or Work 



1. 1 am sending the top of a plant that 

 grows OQ our farm in great abundance, when 

 not restricted. Thtre is none of it on adjoin- 

 ing farms, and no one seems to know what it 

 is. It grows from 2 to 3 feet tall, and the 

 blossoms extend up and down the stalk for 8 

 or 10 inches. It seems to be a great honey- 

 plant, for I have seen the stalk black with 

 bees when in blossom. What is it? 



2. What kind of bees is the sample en- 

 closed ! 



3. Can red clover Italians get honey from 

 red clover? There :i re great amounts of red 

 clover here, but ni.v bees can not get it. I 

 know this, for the ilher day while looking 

 over my bees I foii.id a red clover blossom 



I which had grown nt'ht in the entrance of one 



hlvt; I pulled it up and found in it a largo 

 amount of nectar. 



4. I have some bees in box-hives, and 2 

 colonies of them have been covering the 

 fronts of the hives for three weeks and 

 haven't swarmed yet. They will not work, 

 either. What is the matter with them, and 

 what can I do for them? Missouri. 



Answers.— 1. It looks like motherwort. 



2. It is hard to tell anything about bees that 

 are mashed in the mail ; but the sample looks 

 like blacks. 



3. There is difference in the length of the 

 tongues of bees, and there would consequently 

 be a difference in the depth to which bees can 

 reach in red clover ; so there is no reason why 

 there should not be obtained a strain of bees 

 able to do a good deal more than other bees 

 on red clover. There is also a difference in 

 clover. Sometimes, either because the blos- 

 som tubes are shorter, or because they are 

 more fully filled with nectar, even black bees 

 may be seen working on red clover. 



4. I don't know. I'm afraid there's lazy 

 blood in them. It is possible that they have 

 young queens, and don't care to swarm, and 

 are crowded out of the hive for want of room. 

 If you drum them out, and put them in frame 

 hives, it might stir them up to work; at any 

 rate you could then see more about their con- 

 dition. Likely, however, they will shortly 

 swarm, and the swarms may then show better 

 industry. 



How Much to Smoke Bees-Requeen- 

 ing to Change Stock 



1. How much smoke should I give a cross 

 colony of bees? 



2. When and what is the best way to re- 

 queen some of these warrior colonies? I ex- 

 pect to try some of those gentle long-tongued 

 yellow queens. O, no, they don't "bite!" 

 Well, just come to my apiary and I will show 

 you some of those "yellow jackets." But 

 they store lots of honey. Wisconsin. 



Answers.— 1. As in other cases, use as 

 little as possible, but enough to subdue them. 

 That isn't very definite, is it? Perhaps I 

 might say, keep on smoking so long as the 

 bees keep darting out at you, and stop as soon 

 as they beat a retreat. With most bees a very 

 little smoke is necessary, and it you keep on 

 smoking they will boil out and run over the 

 sides of the hive at the top. That's too much. 

 Some have reported bees of such disposition 

 that smoke seemed to have little or no effect 

 on them, if indeed it did not make them 

 fiercer, and the only thing to do was to 

 manipulate very carefully. Yours are hardly 

 of that kind. 



2. Right away, or as soon as you can give a 

 queen of gentler nature, put her in the hive 

 caged so the bees can not free her. In two or 

 three days open the hive, kill the old queen, 

 and leave the new one in the cage, but with 

 candy which the bees can eat out to liberate 

 her. 



Reports ani) 

 Experiences 



Uniting Weak Colonies witli Strong 



Dr. Miller asks for reports from those who 

 have had experience with uniting a weak col- 

 ony with a strong one in the spring with the 

 use of the excluder, to save both queens. 



The past spring I had a strong hybrid col- 

 ony in two e.'iLtraoting-supers for a brood- 

 chamber— call it No. 6. About 4 rods to the 

 southeast was a colony in a 10-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive Willi a fine queen and about one 

 pint of bees— tail It No. 7. About 8 rods to 

 the northeast was a colony in a Jumbo 10- 

 frame hive which had lost its queen but had a 

 fair-sized cluster of bees— call it No. S. 



I put 2 wooil-zinc honey-boards on No. 6 

 so the queens could not get their heads to- 

 gether. I then placed No. 7 on No. 6. Of 

 course a few rk-lders were lost from No. 7, but 



