604 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug. 24. 190S 



had done the same thing. I gave one of them 

 another frame of brood. What is the matter 

 with these colonies? Wisconsin. 



AN8WEER. — The probability is that a young 

 queen had emerged from her cell. Her first 

 care would be to see that all rivals were out 

 of the way. Possibly you may say that you 

 are sure that could not have been the case, 

 for you looked the combs over very, very 

 carefully, and every queen-cell was torn open 

 at the side, the end of the cell being entire, 

 showing that no queen could have emerged 

 from it. In that case a virgin from elsewhere 

 may have entered the hive. Oftener than you 

 might suppose a virgin or a laying queen en- 

 ters some hive other than her own. Some- 

 times, however, bees take a notion to destroy 

 cells with no apparent reason for it. 



Italian Bees Practically Motli-Proof 



What bees, if any, will keep moths out of 

 hives? What bees are liext to keep moths out? 



Arkansas. 



Answer. — No bees will succeed perfectly in 

 keeping the moth entirely out of the hives. 

 Any bees will succeed to a large measure, if 

 colonies are kept strong. Itailians are very 

 much better than blacks. Even asnucleus of 

 Italians will defend themselves quite well 

 against the moth. Not a thought need be 

 given to any danger from moths in strong 

 colonies of Italians with laying queens. 



A Queen Experience 



A colony that swarmed July 19 was put on 

 a new stand and given a virgin queen, which 

 the bees apparently liberated July 20. She 

 immediately (I suppose) lore out all the 

 queen-cells. July :il the hive was opened, 

 the cage removed, and ibe frames put in or- 

 der. Twenty minutes afterward the queen 

 was dead outside the hive. Was the queen 

 accepted for a time, that is, long enough to 

 destroy the queen-cells, then killed by the 

 bees when the hive was opened? All of these 

 bees were afterwards run through perforated 

 zinc, and given brood in all stages, but no 

 queen-cells were started, nor can I tind any 

 signs of laying workers. What is the matter* 

 Would you try to reduce such a colony? 



Indiana. 



Answer.— Hard to tell just what was the 

 matter. The supposition that the virgin you 

 gave was accepted, allowed to destroy the 

 cells, and then killed by the bees within 20 

 minutes after yon opened the hive is hardly 

 tenable. Left to themselves, it is very un- 

 likely that the bees would turn upon the 

 queen after she had destroyed the queen-cells. 

 If your opening the hive made the bees at- 

 tack the queen, they would be a good deal 

 longer than 20 minutes in killing her, for she 

 would be killed by balling, which probybly 

 means starving to death. It is possible thai 

 you might accidentally have Isilled her your- 

 self. That the bees should have been sifted 

 through an excluder so as to exclude any 

 queen, and then should refuse to start queen- 

 cells, is at least very unusual. It is possible 

 that there is a queen in the hive, however. 

 Virgin queens are up to tricks, and one of 

 their tricks is to enter some hive other than 

 their own. Just as soon as you got through 

 sifting, and had turned your back, a virgin 

 may have entered from el.s'cwhere. 



If you And no eggs prcbtnt by the time the 

 queen, (it they hsve a queen), is 3 weeks old. 

 you have your choice eiih«r to break up the 

 colony or to give it a queen. In the mean- 

 Mime, it you desire to lieep the colony going, 

 give it frames of unsealed brood and eggs 

 from elsewhere, to keep up its spirits and its 

 strength. It would du no harm also to give a 

 queen-cell, which will be destroyed it any. 

 thing in the shape of a queen is present. 



Please mention Bee Journal 

 when writing; Advertisers. 



l^cpovts anb 

 (Sxpcriences 



Poor Honey P/ospeets 



The honey prospect for Grant and Crawford 

 counties is very poor this year, owing wholly 

 to the bad weather. It has been mostly rainy, 

 cloudy, and cold. It has rained every day for 

 9 days up to to-day, and it threatens now. 

 Not all the time, but from one to four showers 

 a day, some of them very hard ones. It is 

 impossible to make hay or do any farm work. 

 We have about one-third of a usual basswood 

 bloom, and it is open now. 



The season is far advanced, the honey sea- 

 son is almost over, and our hives are not full — 

 yea, they lack a good dtal of it. May the 

 American Bee .lournal still come, and we will 

 hope for a better crop next year. 



Crant Co., Wis., July 8. L. G. Blair. 



Putting Weak Colonies Over Strong 

 Onts 



On page 570, in referring to Mr. Bevins' 

 loss of queens when he put 2 weak colonies 

 over at many strong ones, Mr. Hasty says, 

 " The scheme is important enough to justify 

 more reports, large and small." Here is a 

 small one: 



Early in April 9 colonies of a little less than 

 medium strength were put over as many 

 stronger ones. For an experiment 6 of the 

 9 pairs were left in that way till the middle 

 of June, working peaceably in the same su- 

 pers above the upper brood-nest, and each 

 queen doing her full duty. The other 3 pairs 

 were taken down at the opening of clover, 

 and each pair put into an tenement hive, wide 

 enough to give each queen .5 Langstroth 

 frames on her own side of a bee-tight divisiou 

 board, and covered with a zinc-excluder. 

 They have not only gone through the early 

 harvest, but through a three weeks" tlearth, and 

 are still occupying the supers in common 

 harmoniously. I consider that in this report 



2 things should be noted which may amount 

 to conditions; First, the bees used were pure 

 3-banded Italians, and Second, The upper col- 

 onies were stron;,' enough to cover fairly well 



3 Langstroth combs. I could not be confident 

 of success with hybrids, and should expect a 

 pint of dysentery-stricken bees to lose their 

 queen regardless of purity or race. It may 

 be well to say that the 6 pairs worked one 

 above the other were on frames .t'-;., inches 

 deep, and the 3 worked in tenement hives are 

 on Langstroth franes. E. W. Diefendorf. 



Cooper Co., Mo., Aug. 12. 



" Honey, Honey Everywhere " 



I never could see much difference in the 

 honey-How one year with another in this 

 vicinity during the past 16 or 17 years. Every 

 year seemed to he about the same. Some 

 years the fall flow would be good and the 

 spring (low light, other years the spring Bow 

 would be the belter. But this year is an ex- 

 ception right through. 



I started the season with 271 colonies and 

 did not have over 'M swarms. The fact of it 

 is the bees did not have time to swarm. The 

 season started with a little robbing among 

 themselves, and they cleaned out a few of the 

 neighbors' hives. Thin fruit-bloom started, 

 and I noticed that tin- bees were humming 

 quite loudly. I got the surplus boxes on 

 nearly all, and the fruit-bloom lasted about 2 

 weeks. By this tiiiic the most of the colonies 

 had their supers liuifihed and one colony had 

 2 completely tlnished. Then the raspberry 

 and white clover Hoh started. I run out of 

 sections as I wasn't expecting such a flow, 

 but I have a horse-power machine for making 

 hives and I cut out chunk-honey frames for 

 the surplus boxes. I e; i out pieces 1'^ inches 

 wide, and just .so the' would drop inside of 

 theend-barsof theseeron-holders, and tacked 

 a piece of tin about un; inch square on each 

 end to keep them from dropping down, the 



tin resting on top of the end-blocks of the 

 section-holders. I fastened the foundation 

 on these top-bars by nailing a little strip right 

 down on the edge of the foundation. 



The flow seemed to get better all the lime. 

 The only trouble was to give the bees room 

 enough, and to get the honey off the hives. 

 Some of the colonies built comb on the out- 

 side and under the bottom-boards. The bass- 

 wood How was splendid, and there is a heavy 

 buckwheat flow on now. I hove honey piled 

 up everywhere. Butter tubs are full; I 

 bought all the barrels in the 3 nearest towns, 

 and they are full; I built a large tank; the 

 honey-house is piled full of supers clear to 

 the top, and there must be 700 or 800 full su- 

 pers on the hives that should be taken off at 

 once. There would surely be a drop in the 

 New York market if I shipped all this honey 

 at one time, but there is no danger of that, as 

 it will take me from now until next spring to 

 get it all weighed ! I can't sleep nights for 

 dreaming about automobiles, big iron tanks, 

 and bees. Wm. Kernan. 



Sullivan Co., Pa., Aug. 9. 



CONVENTION NOTICE. 



Xational. — The International Fair is to be 

 held in San Antonio, Tex., Oct. 21 to Nov. 

 1. When this Fair is in progress there are 

 very low rates in force on the railroads out 

 for 6011 or 700 miles. Then there are harvest 

 excursions from the North on the 2d and 4th 

 Tuesdays of the month. The 4th Tuesday in 

 October comes on the 24th. Considering these 

 facts, it has been decided to select Saturday, 

 Oct.. 28, as bee-keepers' day at the Fair. This 

 will give ample time for members from the 

 North to reach the city by starting the 24th. 

 The regular sessions of the convention will 

 begin Monday, Oct. 30, and continue three 

 tlmju. 



The headquarters of the National Associa- 

 tion will be a* the Bexar Hotel (pronounced 

 Baer. long sound of a), corner of Houston 

 and Jefferson Sts., and rates are only SI. 00 a 

 day, and up. The convention will be held at 

 Elks' Hall, 125 W. Commerce St., only two 

 blocks from the Bexar Hotel. 



Flint, Mich. W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec. 



If you want the Bee-Book 



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Revised by Oadant— Latest] Edition. 



This is one of tlie standard books on 

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 to be wonderfully helped on the way to 

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The book we mail for $1.20, or club 

 it with the American Bee Journal for 

 one year— both for $2.00 ; or, we will 

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 THREE NEW subscribers to the Bee 

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This is a splendid chance to get a 

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