AuR. 3, 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



543 



o. When I receive a queen from the mail, should 1 lake 

 out the escort bees before introducing the queen? 



6. If I take a queen from a colony and replace lier 

 with a caged queen will they build queen-cells while the 

 queen i^ caged? 



7. Have you ever tried Doolittle's plan of getting 

 worker-comb and section honey built at the same time, as 

 described in "Gleanings," pages 723 and 724? It so, what 

 is your opinion of tlie plan? 



8. Will bees build comb behind the division-board of a 

 hive if there is more than a bee-space behind it, say % of 

 an inch, if they have room to work in the sections? 



9. What are your objections to the Danzenbaker hive? 



10. I have one colony of bees in a 10 frame dovetailed 

 hive that has all the frames filled with brood, and one of 

 the supers has drone-brood in the bottom of the sections. 

 What shall I do with it? 



11. Has Illinois any foul-brood law? Ii,t,ixois. 



Answkks. — 1. Most of the superseding by the bees oc- 

 curs toward the close of the honey harvest, and there is 

 probably no better time. 



2. There would be no objection to a change of queens 

 during the latter part of the honey flow; no bee is living 

 in the time of the harvest that hatches from an egg as late 

 as three weeks before the close of the harvest. 



3. Anywliere where the bees "do congregate"; there 

 being no better place than right between the combs in the 

 brood-nest. 



4. You will find that you will not need very wide 

 spacing if the brood-combs, right where there is brood, are 

 shoved together till the cage is crowded into the brood, and 

 the bees are not likely to trouble by building comb there. 

 If they do build a little it can easily be cut away. 



5. Generally they are not taken out. 



6. Yes, unless you follow Mr. Abbott's plan — a good 

 plan, too — of caging the queen for 2 or 3 days, leaving her 

 so the bees can free her, at the same time you remove the 

 old queen. 



7. No. for I have combs built on full sheets of founda- 

 tion : but I think Mr. Doolittle's teachings, as usual, aro 

 sound. 



S. I think not. 



9. Difficulty of handling rapidly without killing bees, 

 and trouble with pollen in the sections, are two of the rea- 

 sons. Another reason is that I don't know of advantages 

 enough to make them preferred to the dovetailed. 



10. There is nothing but to cut the brood out of the 

 sections, using the rest of the section as chunk honey. To 

 avoid the same thing again, use a queen-excluder under the 

 super, or, what is perhaps better still, fill the sections full 

 of worker foundation. 



11. Strictly speaking, no; a sum is appropriated to help 

 toward keeping down the disease, but there is no law cum- 

 pellinsj me to do anything about it if I have foul-broody 

 colonies. It is hoped, however, that what has been done 

 so far may help toward getting a satisfactory law. 



Alfalfa -Bee-Sting Remedies 



1. 1 have an abundance of white clover, and I have 

 read about alfalfa being such a good honey-plant. Would 

 you advise me to plant some, or would the white clover bo 

 plenty? 



2. What is a good remedy to keep bee-stings from 

 poisoning me so? T'his must seem a silly question to you, 

 but it is an important one to me. 



3. What is the latest in the season one can start a 

 nucleus and be safe? 



1 read the American Bee .Journal and can not recom 

 mend it too highly. MtNXE.soTA. 



Answkks. — 1. I doubt your gaining much by alfalfa so 

 long as the bees have more white clover than they can taks 

 care of. 



2. A great many remedies for bee-stings have been 

 given, and what is commended by one seems to fail with 

 others. The important thing is to get the sting out in- 

 stantly. Among remedies offered are ammonia, saleratus 

 or soda, juice of onion or plantain leaves, kerosene, cloths 

 wet in cold water, etc. A homely remedy, perhaps as good 

 as any, is to lay on the place moistened clay or mud. Don't 

 rub or scratcff. 



3. That depends upon the kind of season, the strenstU 

 of the nucleus, and the amount of help you give it. Two 



Langstroth frames well filled with brood and well covered 

 with bees the 1st of Augusi. with the right kind of a season, 

 may build up to a fair colony without help. Usually however, 

 commencing as late as that, they would need help in the 

 way of bees or sealed brood, or both. 



Wine Barrels for Extracted Honey 



How would wine barrels do for holding extracted 

 honey? I have a number of them, and they are clean and 

 almost new. Iowa. 



AxswEH. — I have an indistinct recollection that some 

 one has objected that honey was inclined to ferment in 

 such barrels. 



Mosquito-Hawks Catching Bees 



I have 5 colonies of bees, and the mosquito-hawks are 

 catching them very rapidly. Do you Know any way to stop 

 it? They come only early in the morning and late in the 

 evening! I am about two blocks from the woods or swamps. 



LOUISIA.NA. 



Ax.swER.— In an early volume of Gleanings a writer 

 said they were easily scared away by boys or brought down 

 by whips. 



Best Bees for Super Work 



Which is the best bee for super work, the black, the 

 Italian, or the golden? I have all three kinds and the 

 goldens are in the lead so far, but some people tell me they 

 are no good for super work. Kansas. 



Answer. — The way to decide is by their work, and as 

 you have the three side by side you can tell better than 

 any one else which does the best work for you. You wilt 

 find bees of either of the three kinds that are good for 

 super work, as well as some that are poor. You can't 

 always tell by the color of a man's hair how big a day's 

 work he can do. 



Transferred Bees Rearing No Brood 



I have a colony that 1 transferred from one hive to 

 another, and they seem to have the hive about half full or 

 better. I made the transfer about 3 weeks ago, and there 

 is no sign of any brood yet that I can see. I also took 

 one out of a tree about 2 weeks ago, and they haven't any 

 sign of brood. The one I transferred first had no queen, 

 and I nut in another aueen. but I think they killed her. 

 How long after they are transferred do bees begin to rear 

 brood, and what shall I do with them? I can never find 

 a queen. Iowa. 



AxswEH.— The queen should go right on laying with 

 scarcely any interruption, and in 3 days after an egg is laiit 

 a larva will hatch from it. You are probably correct in 

 your supposition that the queen was killed, and another 

 should be given. A queen should also be given in the 

 other case, as well. 



Uniting Weak Colonies 



Last fall I attended a sale near here where a bee-keeper 

 was selling out to remove to California. As the bees were 

 put up and bid off colony after colony, I thought it would 

 be a fine thing to own a colony or two to provide honey 

 for family use, so I bought a couple of colonies in Lang- 

 stroth hives. 



Afterwards I bought a colony in a box-hive. Then I 

 brought them home and packed them for winter. They 

 came through in good condition. This was only the begin- 

 ning. Soon after I bought them I discovered I had an 

 "elephant on my hands." 1 knew about as much about 

 bees as a hog does about Sunday. 



So I subscribed for the American Bee Journal, bought 

 a text-book, and straightway liecame almost inextricably 

 mixed up in a maze of qucm-cells, brood-frames, supers, 

 etc. I persevered in my stndi. s all winter, and this spring 

 I laid in a stock of bee-sup:''i-s and began puttering with 

 the bees. When those in tn- ..angstroth hives prepared to 



