22 THE AMERICA 



I 

 it may be from several hours to several 

 days before the next queen comes out 

 oi her cell: but at the latest, the last 

 young queen to emerge :s due to come 

 forth from her cell in sixteen days af- 

 ter the old queen left the hive with the 

 prime swarm. And as this young queen 

 will generally be laying, if she ever 

 lays, within twelve days after she comes 

 out of the cell, we have twenty-eight 

 days as the maximum time for the lay- 

 ing of the young queen after the prime 

 swarm issued. Therefore, the wise 

 apiarist will know, by examination 

 or otherwise, on the date above given, 

 that each old colony having cast swarms 

 has a laying queen, and if no eggs are 

 foimd at this time a queen should be 

 given that colony at once, before the 

 bees composing the same become so 

 old that thev die of old age before the 

 bees from the introduced queen become 

 competent to take the management of 

 the hive. The experienced eye can 

 generally tell from outside indications 

 whether the young queen from the par- 

 ent colony has become lost from any 

 reason, and, surely, an examination of 

 the combs for eggs will tell the most 

 inexperienced novice. 



Now to the question. Did I have 

 those combs of pollen, I should consid- 

 er them worth almost, if not quite, as 

 much as though they were filled with 

 honey. The very best way of removing 

 such pollen is to insert one of these 

 combs in each hive having a prosperous 

 colony of bees in it, in the spring; and 

 if I had enough of these combs to go 

 around, one to each colony, I should 

 consider myself extremely lucky. I 

 would put one into each hive, next to 

 one of the outside frames of brood, 

 which is just where the bees would put 

 it were they gathering pollen, and the 

 work should be done in early spring, 

 on some warm day, before the bees pro- 

 cure pollen from the fields. This will 

 save you all necessity of feeding your 

 bees rye or wheat flour, or corn or oat 

 meal, as many advise, and will be 

 of more advantage to the bees, as it 

 will give the pollen right where they 

 wish it. and save the loss of bees which 

 usually occurs from their going out in 

 cool, wintery weather in search of pol- 

 len, as they are sure to do where there 

 is a scarcity of the same in the hive in 

 early spring. It has been recommend- 

 ed scores and hundreds of times that 

 we feed our bees flour or meal in the 



.V BEE-KEEPER 



February 



spring to stimulate brood-rearing; but 

 after years of experience along this line 

 I have become satisfied that such pro- 

 cedure is a waste of time and material, 

 where the bees have pollen in their 

 hives, and causes a loss of old bees to 

 a greater extent than that gained in 

 young ones. Thus, it will be seen that 

 these combs are very valuable for early 

 brood-rearing, before pollen is plenti- 

 ful in the fields. 



Should the questioner be so situated 

 that his bees can secure pollen from 

 the fields as soon as they can fly in the 

 spring, so that he can not use the 

 combs to advantage as above given, the 

 next best thing to do is to give one to 

 each new swarm when hived. In this 

 way the swarm is spared the trouble of 

 searching for pollen, and can devote 

 all of its energies to gathering honey; 

 and in a few days it will be found that 

 the pollen will all be turned into brood, 

 :f the hive is opened and an examina- 

 tion made. But should anyone desire 

 to remove the pollen without using 

 either of these plans, then they could 

 either soak the combs in tepid water 

 for a week, till the pollen in the cells 

 becomes soft, so it could be thrown out 

 with the extractor, or the combs could 

 be cut out of the frames, melted up, 

 and the frames filled with foundation. 

 Should any one wish to do this last, it 

 'A'iil be best to render the wax from 

 these polienized combs by the hot wa- 

 ter process, otherwise not enough wax 

 will be gotten to pay for the trouble, 

 as the pollen in the combs will absorb 

 all the wax, or very nearly so, where 

 they are melted in the solar wax-ex- 

 tractor, or by any means of dry heat. 



Borodino, N. Y., Jan. 2, 1902. 



The Germ That is Killing the 

 Market for Extracted Money. 



(By W. W. McNeal.) 



IF THE reader of the American Bee- 

 Keeper will forego his business 

 cares for a few brief moments, I will 

 endeavor to point out to him the germ 

 that is killing the market for extracted 

 honey. 



That which was but a mere speck on 

 the commercial horizon of liquid honey 

 has developed into conditions of such 

 magnitude that in many places the 

 very mention of "extracted" honey in- 

 vites reproach. One who has felt the 



