Nov. 1, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



out some of the most valuable part of Dr. 

 Phillips' highly valuable article on "Experi- 

 mental Apiculture," and we got only the pith 

 of the thing on page l?'.i of the Canadian Bee 

 Journal for September, after being recently 

 informed by a fine man, and a prominent bee- 

 keeper, that the paper was " no good." He 

 should now be able to change his opinion. 



Canada. 

 Answers.— 1. 1 am not entirely certain 

 from your description whether none of the 

 queen'6 eggs ever hatch, or whether " she 

 has a batch of eggs in the same, frame, that 

 never hatch," while eggs in other frames do 

 hatch. I suppose, however, that none of 

 them ever hatch, for such a case does occur 

 in rare instances, and I never heard of a case 

 of the other kind. In any case. I don't know 

 what's wrong, only that sometimes there Ts a 

 case in which there seems some imperfection 

 about the eggs, so that they never hatch. 



2. On the supposition that not an egg 

 hatches that she now lays, you may be sure 

 she will be of no value next spring. 



3. It is probably not worth while to re- 

 place her, for practically the colony has been 

 queenless all the while that queen has been 

 present, and the probability is that that has 

 been a good while, since you 6peak of " about 

 every second week," as if there had been a 

 number of " second weeks." In that case you 

 will see that the bees mu6t all be old, unfit to 

 go into winter quarters, and there would not 

 be much chance to get a strong force of 

 younger bees by introducing a normal queen 

 after Oct. 1. 



4. You are hardly correct in your surmise 

 that hybrids prevail here because Italian 

 drones have not been encouraged. A stronger 

 reason is that hybrids have not only not been 

 discouraged, but they have had actual en- 

 couragement, both queens and drone6. With- 

 out regard to color, I have bred queens from 

 the colony which showed the best work in 

 supers, and drones from colonies that have 

 distinguished themselves as good storers. 

 These best workers have almost invariably 

 been of crossed blood. By constantly breed- 

 ing both queens and drones from the best 

 storers, I have materially increased the aver- 

 age yield per colony. The unfortunate fea- 

 ture in the ca6e is that by getting this crossed 

 blood I have at the same time got very cross 

 blood; so much so that I am now getting in 

 pure Italian blood so as to compare. This 

 Italian blood is supposed to be of an extra- 

 good strain, and if it does not fall too far be- 

 hind my hybrid blood in storing qualities, it 

 will be likely to replace entirely the hybrid 

 blood, so that my association with my little 

 subjects may be of a less warlike character. 

 So you see that while you are quite right in 

 thinking that the encouragement of drones 

 of the right kind is an important matter, you 

 are wrong in thinking that I have not been 

 working with that in view. If I had worked 

 as carefully for pure blood as I have for large 

 yields of honey, I would surely have more 

 yellow bees. 1 am hoping that I can get back 

 to the gentler yellow bees without too much 

 loss in crops. 



5. Don't be too hard on bee-papers. It 

 seems to me they allow very free discussion, 

 and I have no doubt they would be willing to 

 leave it entirely to their readers what should 

 be published and what left out, if said read- 

 ers would be unanimously agreed. But some 

 things you would want in I might want out; 

 and some things I would want in you might 

 want out; so it isn't likely we would be any 

 better satisfied than as things now are. Al- 

 though it does not seem a good thing to have 

 long papers at a convention, I agree with you 

 that Dr. Phillips gave an exceedingly valua- 

 ble paper; but it might be that if you were 

 editor you might have on hand matter that 

 you felt must be published, and you might 

 feel that space could not be afforded for the 

 whole of even so valuable paper as the one in 

 question. I feel like saying about the editors 

 as the placard said about the man playing the 

 piano in the saloon out in the wild West. Over 

 the piano was suspended a placard saying, 

 "Don't shoot the man at the piano; he's 

 doing his best." 



Queen-Introducing Experience 



Is this an exception? I sent for an un- 

 tested .jueen. Queen received all right, ex- 

 cept the candy was all gone. I did not have 

 any more candy to put in the hole, so I in- 

 troduced the queen without it, but leaving 

 the pasteboard over the hole. In about 3 days 

 I removed the cage. The pasteboard was all 

 gnawed away and queen liberated. I did not 

 look for queen but closed the hive imme- 

 diately. In a week or so I looked for the 

 queen, but she was missing, and 5 or 6 queen- 

 cells were present. The candy was crumbled 

 and scattered over the cage. What was the 

 matter? Was the queen introduced too 

 quickly to the bees, that is, liberated too soon 

 by them* Minnesota. 



Answer. — The case is an exceptional one, 

 and it is hard to be positive in answering 

 either of your questions. The trouble seems 

 to have been with the candy, either as to 

 quantity or quality — apparently as to quan- 

 tity, there not being enough to last uatil the 

 introduction of the queen. Whether the 

 queen was liberated too soon or not can not 

 be told. If she was not liberated till the 3 

 days were about up, then it ought to have 

 been all right; but if the bees gnawed away 

 the paper within a few hour6, then it was all 

 wrong. Naturally one would think the bees 

 would make rather slow work gnawing the 

 pasteboard when there wa6 no candy present, 

 for somelimes, even with candy present, they 

 are too slow about it. 



Chaff-Packed Bees in Winter 



1. Whenpackin' bees with chaff for win- 

 ter, do you leave the entrance open? 



2. What kind of chaff i6 best to pack them 

 in? Iowa. 



Answer. — Yes, the entrance is left open, 

 and provision is made for keeping the pack- 

 ing from clogging the entrance by a sort of 

 little portico or tube. Oat-chaff and wheat- 

 chaff are good. So are dry leaves. Planer- 

 shavings are much used, being readily ob- 

 tained in most places. 



Supers Above or Under the Brood- 

 Chamber -Other Questions 



1. I am fond of experimenting with bees, 

 and have tried several experiments the past 

 season. I have several colonies of mismated 

 bees which prove very good workers. I trans- 

 ferred them into 10-frame dovetail hives, 

 using 2 supers. I have placed one super on 

 the oottom, and on top a queen-excluder next 

 the brood-chamber, and above same again 

 one 6uper. The idea of this is to keep the 

 queen in the brood-chamber, and should they 

 desire to swarm, it would be impossible for 

 the queen to leave the hive. 



The reason I use a super below the brood- 

 chamber is, the bees, when returning from 

 the field, carrying a heavy load of honey, may 

 have an ea6y and quick place to deposit their 

 load, without making such bees pass first 

 through the brood-chamber into the super 

 above, giving them much annoyance. By the 

 old method, it would seem as if mankind 

 should carry their winter stores into the attic 

 or garret, instead of depositing the same in 

 the cellar. My experience with this hive is 

 that I have had 2 supers filled below the 

 brood-chamber before I had one filled above 

 the brood-chamber. Next season I shall try 

 to keep all my supers below the brood-cham- 

 ber, after the brood-chamber is filled with 

 6tores 



I al60 use an entrance between the brood- 

 chamber and upper super, so as not to compel 

 the bees to pass the brood-chamber and lower 

 super, and found many bees using this en- 

 trance. I use the Danzenbaker super with 

 fences and 4x5 sections. I have some times 

 taken out all the sections from the super 

 when half-filled and placed them in different 

 parts of the super, as I believe that a certain 



amount of bees work at one section till full 

 before starting on another. I have, some- 

 times, when bees desire to swarm, taken out 

 the brood frames and changed ends so that 

 bees will be subdued; or, in plain words, it 

 will seem to them some thing new, and forget 

 the swarming-fever. I have had no trouble 

 ever since. This plan works in 4 trials 

 out of 5. 



2. Will a queen, which when introduced to 

 a colony has not been fertilized, lay worker 

 or drone eggs? 



3. Should I introduce an untested queen to 

 a colony and use queen-excluders to prevent 

 her from leaving the hive to become ferti- 

 lized, would such a queen become fertilized 

 in the hive' or can't a queen be fertilized in 

 the hive? 



4. What eggs would an untested queen lay 

 first when introduced and not yet fertilized? 



5. How soon will a queen be fertilized when 

 introduced? 



6. Does a queen lay eggs that are never 

 hatched? 



7. Have you ever seen two different kinds 

 of drones in one colony? 



8. Will a 2-frame nucleus and queen, pur- 

 chased in May, make a full-sized colony by 

 fall, and also produce some surplus honey? 



Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— 1. It is very kind of you to re- 

 lieve the bees of so much labor, but I am 

 afraid they do not appreciate your kindness. 

 Left to their own devices bees always prefer 

 to have their brood-nest near the entrance, 

 carrying their honey above the brood or back 

 of it, even though that may seem to you un- 

 necessary labor. Week before last I saw a 

 man shoveling a pile of stuff from one end to 

 the other of a box perhaps 10 feet long. Then 

 he turned about and shoveled it all back to 

 the end where it first was. Some might have 

 advised him that it would have been better to 

 have left it where was in the first place, sav- 

 ing himself a lot of hard shoveling, seeing he 

 left it just where he found it; but he would 

 have replied that if he had left it where it was 

 in the first place that the sand, gravel, and 

 cement would not have been mixed. Un- 

 doubtedly the bees could give just as good 

 reasons for doing what seems to you unneces- 

 sary work. Bee6 can be made to store honey 

 beneath the brood-chamber, but after suffi- 

 cient experience you will probably conclude 

 it isn't the best way. But the experience in 

 finding it out will probably be worth some- 

 thing. 



You have an excluder under the brood- 

 chamber, 60 that "should they desire to 

 swarm it would be impossible for the queen 

 to leave the hive." I wonder whether you 

 have tried that out fully. If not, let me tell 

 you what is likely to occur. When the lime 

 comes for the bee6 to swarm, they will leave 

 the hive the same as if the queen were not 

 confined, but not finding her with them they 

 will return to the hive, except in some cases 

 they would go to some other hive. A week 

 or 10 days later the old queen will be killed 

 and a young queen will be ready for swarm- 

 ing. After swarming out a number of times 

 and returning, providing they did not unite 

 with some other swarm, the bees would have 

 a queen that for lack of being fertilized could 

 produce only drones. That, you understand, 

 is what is likely to happen if the excluder re- 

 mains permanently under the brood-chamber 

 bo no queen can leave the hive. 



2. If an unfertilized, or virgin queen, be in- 

 troduced into a colony, she will not be likely 

 to lay till after she is fertilized, and will gen- 

 erally begin by laying worker-eggs. 



Before answering your further questions, 

 allow me to correct what seems to be a misap- 

 prehension on your part. You are evidently 

 under the impression that an untested queen 

 is unfertilized. Instead of that being the 

 case, an untested queen is one which has been 

 fertilized and has begun laying, but none of 

 her progeny has yet emerged, so it is as yet 

 unknown whether she has been purely mated 

 or not. It is very seldom that an unfertilized 

 queen is sold, but if one is sold, she is sold as 

 a virgin, and not as an untested queen. 



3. Occasionally there have been reports of 



