542 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug. 3 1905 



IjL-e-kcepers in California. The abundant rains gave great 

 promise, but the exceptional cold of the early part of the 

 year interfered greatly with success. In the East, the sea- 

 son has been one of excessive rains — indeed, one of the wet- 

 test seasons ever known. If I am correct, such a season in 

 the East is favorable to a generous honey crop. Of cour>e. 

 if the rains preclude tlie Bight of the bees so that they can- 

 not work, or if the season is too cold for the secretion of 

 nectar in the plants, there may be a dearth of honey even in 

 these wet years. 



I think the present season has been wet and cold through- 

 out the East, and I believe, until quite recently, the weather 

 has been so cold that the honey promise has been disappoint- 

 ing. This seems not to have been true in this part of Michi- 

 gan. At Owosso, where my brother has a large apiary, he 

 informs me that he has already secured a large amount of 

 honey, and the bees at the present time (July 19) are gather- 

 ing very rapidly. I believe it is generally conceded that the 

 honey crop of Michigan this year will be well to the front. 



S.^CE HONEY. 



Mr. Milo Smith, one of our readers from California, 

 writes m€ that in his section, black sage produces much more 

 honey than does the white sage. I think a good many bee- 

 keepers in California have ■ the same feeling. I think the 

 honey from all the sages is so mucli alike that it would 

 be indistin.guishable. The fact that the black or ball sage 

 pushes farther up into the canyons would certainly give it a 

 wider range of bloom. It often blossoms much before the 

 white, and the flowers continue for a long period. Its lo- 

 cality is usually also more moist, and thus adds to its cer- 

 tainty as a honey-producer. I think that very likely the 

 preference of either plant would be more due to surrounding 

 conditions than to the plants themselves. 



I did not wish to give the impression in my articles that 

 sage honey is superior to clover, linden or mesquite. The 

 lionev from all these sources is so excellent that it would 

 be invidious to make comparisons. 



=\ 



Doctor 2TttUcr's 

 Qixcstton '- ^ox 



J 



Putting on Supers— Winter Stores 



1. If one should give a super to a colony of bees when 

 the brood-frames were about half full of brood and honey, 

 would the bees leave the frames below and work in the 

 super, or would they fill up below first? 



2. If one should take only what lioney is stored In the' 

 supers at the close of the season, would there be any dan- 

 ger of taking too much away from them so they would not 

 have enough to winter on, or would they provide for that 

 in the frames below before they filled the supers? 



Z. Is there any danger of giving a super too soon? 



M.\IXK. 



AxswEUs. — 1. If strong enough they might work in both 

 places. If they had only strength enough to work in one 

 place, it would be below; and in general they prefer to 

 work as near the brood-nest as possiole. 



2. Generally not, but sometimes, especially with a small 

 hive, there would be danger of a sudden close of the har- 

 vest with so much of the brood-chamber occupied with 

 brood that there would not be enough winter stores. 



3. Yes, if you should give a super a month before the 

 harve,st it would be making the bees keep up the heat un- 

 necessarily in just so much more room. 



Cutting Out Queen Cells -Honey Sections vs. Straw- 

 berry Boxes -Yellow Bees 



1. Do you think it is all right to cut out all the queen- 

 cells in a hive when ilie second swarm goes out? I cur 

 them all out and hivi^ or catch the second swarm in a 

 liiving-box. then put them right back. 



2. At swarming tin-.;' I have some hives with full-size 

 combs, and most of Iheni with space of 1/2 inch not attached 

 to the bottom-bar. Wh. n hiving a swarm I tip the hive 



over till they will work up on the top-bar. Has this plan 

 been tried already? 



3. Are there more honey-sections or more strawberry 

 boxes used? I mean in the United States, on an average, 

 right through? 



4. Which kind of queen do you think is the better? I 

 have seen some very yellow and some pretty black ones in 

 my apiary. 



5. Do you call the yellow ones Italians? 



6. When does basswood blossom here in Marathon Co., 

 Wis.? 



7. How often is the average time to go through the 

 hives and cut out queen-cells? Wiscon.six. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, that will work all right, providing 

 you don't miss any cells. If you miss any the swarm will 

 come out again, but of course you can return it again. The 

 plan is a good one where you wish to keep up the strength 

 of the mother colony, but many prefer to have the force 

 mostly in the swarm, setting the swarm on the old stand, 

 the mother colony close beside it, then moving the mother 

 colony to a new place a week later. 



2. Yes. many have tried it, and some hives have been 

 constructed with especial reference to turning somersaults. 



3. I don't know. My guess would be that the straw- 

 berries have the majority. 



4. It isn't a matter of color. Some black queens are 

 better than some yellow ones, and some yellow ones are 

 better than some black ones. And there will be two youn.g 

 queens from the same mother, one light and the other 

 dark, one good as the other. 



5. Yes, but Cyprians and others are also yellow. 



6. The time varies in different years. This year it was 

 probably not far from July 1. 



7. That depends on the management. The majority of 

 bee-keepers do not kill cells at all. If you mean to destroy 

 cells with the object of hindering swarming, it should be 

 about once in 10 days. But in the maiority of cases that 

 will not prevent swarming, only defer it for a time. 



Itching from Bee-Stings 



Is there any danger from bee-stings that cause Intense 

 itching all over? I got a lot of stings on my right hand the 

 other day. I ptit my hand into a tub of pond-lilies, bees 

 and all, and kept it in about a minute, then took it out. 

 There were lots of stings in my hand, and I pulled them 

 out. In about 5 minutes I was itching all over. It was 

 something terrible. I knew that something must be done 

 right away, so took a big drink of whiskey. In a short 

 time I was better. I have handled bees for 10 years, and 

 never had anything like that before. I did not mind one 

 sting, nor half a dozen. Possibly my blood was poor, but 

 I am in fine health, all the same. I hope it will not happen 

 again, for once in 10 years is often enough to take a drink 

 of whiskey. Maixe. 



Ax.swEK. — I suspect you would have done just as well 

 without the whiskey, and I'm sure you would have been 

 better off without that minute in the pond-lily tub, for dur- 

 ing that time the stings were busy pumping in poison. The 

 slings should have been scraped out immediately. Possibly 

 a wet pack would have been a good thing. It is not likely 

 that there is danger of anything more severe another time, 

 although one can not always tell. 



Superseding Queens-Introducing— Building Comb— Dan- 



zenbaker Hive— Drone-Brood in Sections- Poul- 



Brood Law in Illinois 



1. What time of the year is the best to supersede old 

 queens? 



2. Should they be superseded while the bees are work- 

 ing in the sections? 



3. If I want to introduce a queen to a edlony that is 

 working in a super where can I place the introducing 

 cage? 



4. The directions on the cage say to place the cage over 

 the brood, but as there is only 14-inch space between the 

 frames and the super, I can't put the cage there, and if I 

 space the brood-combs wide enough apart to put the cage 

 between them, won't the bees build comb between the two 

 frames? 



