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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



2. How can you tell best and quickest, 

 without looking over the combs very long, 

 if possible, if a colony is queenless in winter 

 or spring, whenever warm days allow the 

 examination of the hive 1 



3. As it is hard to find a black queen 

 preparatory to introducing an Italian 

 queen, can you give me any ways and 

 means to find her best and quickest ? 



Subscriber. 



Answers.— 1. That depends altogether 

 upon circumstances. If your drones are 

 no better than those of your neighbors 

 within half a mile, you needn't be to the 

 expense of saving any of them. In general, 

 I should say kill off all drones, or prevent 

 their being reared, in all colonies except 

 one or two of your best, preferring to rear 

 queens and drones from different mothers, 

 so as to have them not nearly related. 



2. Brood-rearing begins very early, and 

 if you will pull a comb out of the middle of 

 the brood-nest any time after February, it 

 will take you a very short time to see 

 whether there is any brood present. Even 

 if the queen has not yet commenced laying, 

 a strong force of bees with no appearance 

 of anything wrong may leave you hopeful 

 that all is right. But why bother about 

 anything of this kind until late enough for 

 the queen to be laying for certain ? If 

 they are all right, you will not do any good 

 to stir them up, and if they are all wrong, 

 you can hardly help them any till "flying 

 weather" comes. 



3. Strain the bees through a queen-ex- 

 cluder. It may take a longer time than 

 looking over the combs, and it may take a 

 good deal shorter time, for in looking over 

 the combs you may find her first thing, and 

 you may not find her at all ; but the strain- 

 ing process makes a sure thing of it. 



A Question on Management. 



I am engaged somewhat in bee-keeping, 

 in partnership with my son, and would like 

 to have a little information on some points. 



We have 55 colonies on the summer 

 stands, mostly in good condition. Hereto- 

 fore we let them swarm mostly at will, ex- 

 cept that we restrained after-swarming as 

 much as possible; but now we don't care 

 so much for increase, but want to work 

 more for honey, yet we do not want to pre- 

 vent swarming altogether. We have a few 

 Italian and a lot of hybrid and black colo- 

 nies ; in some, the queens are several years 

 old. We want to rear some queens during 

 the coming season, and re-queen all hybrid 

 and black colonies. I want to clip all 

 queens' wings in the spring. 



Now what I want to know is this : If 1 

 let those old queens alone until swarming 

 time, and then take them away and thus 

 keep them from swarming, or let them 

 come out with a swarm and then destroy 

 them, and let the swarm go back, then at 

 the proper time give them an Italian queen- 

 cell, or a virgin queen (or a fertilized one, 

 if I have it), will the colony work as well 

 and store as much or more honey than the 



swarm and old colony would have done had 

 I let them swarm in the regular way and 

 prevented after-swarming? 



Which would be the better plan — to take 

 the queen away before they swarm, or let 

 her come off with a swarm and then kill 

 her? and how soon, and in what way, 

 would you introduce a cell, or queen, if 

 either kind ? In any way, I suppose all 

 queen-cells would have to be destroyed. 



Huntington, Ind. A. H. S. 



Answer. — It isn't very easy to answer 

 your question as to whether you can get as 

 much honey from an old colony and its 

 swann as from the old colony alone if it 

 does not swarm. Some will answer you 

 one way, and some the other. It depends 

 a good deal upon circumstances. In places 

 where there is a big yield of honey late in 

 the season, there may be a decided gain ta 

 have the swarm. Throughout the North, 

 however, most beekeepers look upon swarm- 

 ing as a damage to the honey crop. It must 

 not be forgotten, however, that a colony 

 that refrains from swarming, of its own 

 will, is one thing, and a colony that is pre- 

 vented from swarming by some bungling 

 intermeddling is quite another thing. 



I don't see anything you would gain by 

 letting the old queen come out with a 

 swarm to be killed, letting the swarm re- 

 turn. It will be full as easy to find her and 

 kill her before swarming, providing the bees 

 don't get the start of you. 



In your case, I'm not sure but the follow- 

 ing plan might suit you : 



Suppose A has an Italian queen and B, C, 

 and I) have queens that you want to kill. 

 Encourage A to swarm first, by giving it 

 brood or by early stimulative feeding, al- 

 though the brood may be the best, and it 

 doesn't matter if the brood is black. When 

 A swarms, hive the swarm on the old stand 

 and put A in place of B, setting B on a new 

 stand. The flying force of B will all join A, 

 making it again strong, and in a week or 

 so from the time the first swarm issued it 

 will send out a strong second swarm ; hive 

 this on the stand from which it issued, and 

 set A on C's stand, setting C in a new place. 

 In a day or two another swarm will issue, 

 when the process will be repeated, and A 

 set on D's stand, and this may continue as 

 long as swarms issue. Thus all swarms 

 have queens from A. 



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