April 19, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



349 



surrounding brood is capped already, these cells will remain 

 empty till the queen comes back to this place for laying 

 eggs. The greatest disturbance to the brood-nest is caused 

 by the pollen in the outside circles. 



Just opposite the outer brood-combs we shall observe a 

 patch of pollen as large, and of the same form as the brood- 

 patch on the opposite comb. If the brood-nest be enlarged, 

 and this pollen be not consumed, the queen will be forced 

 to lay eggs in the outer side of this comb before she can lay 

 on the inner side now occupied by pollen. Ten days after- 

 ward we may find capped brood on the outer side of this 

 comb, and young brood on the inner side. If this comb is 

 reversed now, the regular order is generally secured again. 



3. We know that the number of eggs which the queen 

 lays daily is gradually getting larger from early spring till 

 swarming time ; consequently the brood-nest of every fol- 

 lowing brood-period must be larger than the former one ; 

 nevertheless this brood nest is commenced in the center of 

 the former one, and should find room in it. This contradic- 

 tion needs a solution. If the queen commences to lay in the 

 center, she will, in her circling path, soon meet capped 

 brood ; then she will move on the same comb, over the 

 brood, to the surface of the brood-nest till she will meet 

 empty cells in which she will lay eggs. We call a brood-nest 

 in this condition a " brood-nest of two systems," because in 

 the center comb, for instance, we shall find brood of the 

 same age not together in one place, as in the regular brood- 

 nest, but in two separate circles. The bees avoid this con- 

 dition as much as possible, as the queen lays a larger num- 

 ber of eggs in a wide circle on the outer surface of the 

 globular brood-nest before she commences to lay in the 

 center again. While the cells would be empty in 21 days, 

 the queen does not commence egg-laying in the center be- 

 fore 24 days. 



4. Another disturbance of the brood-nest is caused by 

 too narrow or too shallow frames. If the brood reaches the 

 top and bottom (or the ends) of the frame in the third brood- 

 period, the circles can be maintained no more, and the eggs 

 are laid by the queen on the sides (or on the bottom) only ; 

 while with two shallow frames the brood of this age is en- 

 tirely wanting on top and bottom of this comb. This 

 squeezing out of the brood takes place on the center comb at 

 first, and, in extreme cases, on the adjoining combs, and on 

 «very brood-comb at last. 



5. The greatest of all disturbances is when the bee- 

 keeper changes frames from one hive to the other, inserts 

 empty comb between brood-combs, or changes the place of 

 them without any attention to this natural brood order. 



No doubt the bee has a wonderful power of accommoda- 

 tion ; and as soon as this disorder is created the bees try to 

 restore order again in this mixed-up business by keeping 

 some cells empty till the neighboring brood has gnawed 

 out. In the meantime the queen is wandering around, 

 hunting for a larger patch of empty cells, thus losing time 

 and eggs. At best the bee-keeper has enlarged the brood- 

 nest, but no more cells are occupied by brood than in a reg- 

 ular brood-nest ; so he has gained nothing in fact ; but the 

 large brood-nest needs more bees and more fuel, to be kept 

 warm. 



Sometimes the queen may find a comb with capped 

 brood, where she expects empty cells. This may disturb 

 her so much that the brood-nest on the other side of this 

 comb will be entirely neglected. One thing is sure — in 

 these disturbed brood-nests the queen will not lay as many 

 eggs as she would in a natural brood-nest. The bee-keepers 

 who manipulate their brood-frames in early spring are 

 those who doubt that an average queen can lay more than 

 2000 eggs daily, while, in fact, every queen worth keeping 

 at all should be able to lay 4000 eggs daily during the 

 height of the season, in a natural brood-nest, if the condi- 

 tions are favorable. 



In the last brood-period before swarming time it is of 

 less disadvantage to disturb the order of the brood, and now 

 is the time to manipulate the brood-combs if necessary. I 

 will give a few practical hints : 



If the queen is in the center, and a new brood-period is 

 beginning, empty combs can be placed next to the center 

 comb on both sides, without disturbing the order. 



If the queen is at the end of the brood-period, on the 

 surface of the brood-nest, empty combs should be added 

 between the last brood-comb and the pollen-comb. Gen- 

 erally empty combs must be added just next to the ib 

 where the queen is in the center to lay eggs. If another 

 brood-comb be added, it should be done in this way, so that 

 brood of the same age shall be opposite the old and the new 

 frames. Cibolo, Tex. 



=\ 



Doctor miller's 

 Question * Box 



j 



Send questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, 



or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



^g° Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



■ — 



Bees Superseding Queens in Early Spring 



What makes bees supersede their queens at this time of the year? 

 I examined my bees and found one queen in front of the entrance. 

 There were no other bees robbing them. West Virginia. 



Answer.— The same thing makes bees supersede a queen in spring 

 that makes them supersede one at any other time, namely, the fact 

 that she has become unfit for good service. Generally that happens 

 when she has lived two years or more; sometimes not till she is 4 

 yeare old ; but sometimes it occurs when the queen has lived a very 

 short time. Indeed, in some cases it can not be 6aid that the queen 

 has become unfit for good service; she is so poor that she never was 

 good ; and in such a case she may be superseded when she is only a 

 few weeks, or even a few days old. Years ago I had a queen so worth- 

 less that she never laid more than one egg that I could discover, and 

 that was in a queen-cell with the evident intent of superseding. 



The great bulk of superseding is done at or near the close of the 

 honey harvest, when one might naturally expect the queen to be worn 

 out by the arduous task of providing so many thousands of eggs for 

 the season. Only occasionally does superseding take place in the 

 spring; and then it behooves the bee-keeper to be on the lookout, for 

 the great probability is that a queen reared so very early in the season 



will be worthless. 



■* • » 



T-Supers and Sections 



How are the T-tins supported in your super? What are the 

 dimensions of your sections! I use a tin support in the supers, but 

 they are stationary. I also use a plain section and fences. I think I 

 like your super and sections best. It does away with the expense of 

 the fence, and saves labor. Michigan. 



Answer. — I use the sections that are most in use: 2 bee-way sec- 

 tions 4J^x4JiXl%. The supports for T-tins in most of my supers are 

 pieces of sheet-iron 1' 4 \1 inch. They are fastened by two wire nails 

 driven within > 4 inch or less of the inside edge of the super. That, 

 you will see, allows a projection of •'<„ of an inch to support the T-tins. 

 A few of the latest have wire staples for supports. The staples are of 

 the square form, about an inch wide, are driven in about a quarter of 

 an inch from the inner edge of the super (of course they are driven 

 into the bottom of the super). They are driven in deep enough so 

 that when bent over at right angles there will be a support of \i inch. 

 I'm not sure which are better, but perhaps the staples. 



I think you will like the T-tins loose better than fastened. It is 

 much easier with the loose tins to fill sections into the super and to 

 take them out. It is ten times as easy to clean the loose tins than the 

 fa6t ones. The loose ones can be cleaned by the hundred by dumping 

 them in a kettle of boiling lye, and the fast ones must be scraped. 



Transferring Bees 



I have a colony of bees in a box 19x19x26 inches. I would like to 

 transfer them into a hive. " A B C of Bee-Culture," page 353, says 

 that fruit-bloom is the best time. If I should happen to smear and 

 kill the queen when transferring, will the bees rear another? What 

 do you consider best for me to do? Wisconsin. 



Answer.— If the queen should be killed, the bees will have plenty 

 of young brood from which to rear another. But there isn't very 

 much danger of your killing her. 



If the colony would swarm at the usual time of swarming, it 

 would be better for you to wait for that, hiving the swarm in a mov- 

 able-frame hive, and then transferring 3 weeks later. But in a box 

 holding more than 4 bushels there is no certainty that they will 

 swarm at all. If the box is in such shape that you can cut it down to 

 about one-fourth of its size without disturbing any of the combs that 

 contain brood, that maybe your best course. Otherwise transfer in 



fruit-bloom. 



•+-+-+ 



Thin Bottom-Boards— Hive-Cover for Comb Honey 



1. Are thin bottom-boards ( 3 inch) considered as good as thick 

 one6 (jg') for wintering bees outdoors? 



2. What cover do you consider best for the production of comb 

 honey, where a part of the hives must be in the sun \ I would like a 

 description of the ones you use. Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— 1. So far as the bees are concerned, yes. Of course 

 there's more danger of breakage when so thin. 



2. Almost any cover will do in the sun, if some kind of protection 



