AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



267 



her dead, and I opened it a little more to 

 help her ont. I found her dead at the en- 

 trance of the hive the next day, so I sup- 

 pose the old queen is still there. What can 

 I do about it ? When I packed that colony 

 for winter, the hive was full to overflowing, 

 but many of them appeared to me to be old 

 bees. Subscriber. 



Idlewild, Pa. 



Answer.— A good queen is not likely to 

 stop laying in August. Such a thing might 

 happen, however, if no honey was to be 

 had. 



There seems to be nothing very certain 

 in your case. I should have strong sus- 

 picion that your colony was queenless. The 

 simple fact that the new queen was lost, is 

 no proof that another queen is there. Bees 

 are freaky things, and may have concluded 

 they didn't want that new queen, anyhow. 

 Let them alone until spring, and if no 

 brood appears when there is plenty in other 

 hives, treat it as a queenless colony, and 

 may be the best thing is to break it up and 

 use the bees to strengthen a weak colony. 



Queen-Trap During a Honey-Flow. 



If the Alley queen-trap is put on during 

 a honey-flow, will it discourage the bees to 

 any great extent ? or will they work with 

 the same energy as before ? A. B. B. 



Belle Vernon, Pa. 



Answer. — It troubles them a little at 

 first, but they soon get used to it. 



Queen-Excluders — Queenless Colony. 



I saw in the Bee Journal what Mr. J. 

 H. Rupp, of Washington, Kan., said in re- 

 gard to the brace and burr comb trouble, 

 that if bee-keepers would use the Hoffman 

 fixed frames altogether, they would get rid 

 of brace and burr combs. Another great 

 thing they would get rid of, and that is the 

 honey-boards, he said. WeU, I believe the 

 former statement, but not the latter. Why? 

 The simple reason is, if we as bee-keepers 

 do as he directs us, how are we to exclude 

 the queen from the supers ? 



1. I think unless we use honey-boards or 

 perforated zinc, the queen would go into 

 the top story where the sections are, and 

 then things would be in bad condition to 

 get honey free from brood. Am I not 

 right ? I have never had occasion to use 

 honey-boards or perforated zinc, for the 

 reason I have never had any call. I am 

 going to work for comb honey altogether 

 the coming season, and use the wood-bound 

 zinc honey-boards, if it is necessary. What 

 do you think would be the best policy ? 



2. I have a colony of Italians which is 

 queenless at present, and has been queen- 

 less ever since I put them into winter 

 quarters last fall. They are as strong as ! 



they were in the fall. Can I not rear a 

 queen by feeding another strong colony 

 syrup, say one glass full every night until 

 I get the queen to deposit eggs, then after 

 the eggs have hatched into larvae, insert a 

 frame, putting it into the center of the 

 brood-chamber of the queenless colony ? 

 If so, how long will it need feeding ? and is 

 it not just as good a plan to get a queen ? — 

 that is, suppose a fellow has not the "gold- 

 dust." p. p. 

 Whitesburg, Tenn. 



Answers.— 1. A honey-board is not nec- 

 essarily a queen-excluder. I have used the 

 slatted honey-boards by the hundred, but 

 without any excluder zinc, and have pro- 

 duced tons of comb honey over them. 

 There is nothing to hinder the queen going 

 up into the super if she wants to, any more 

 than she is hindered from going out at 

 the entrance to the hive, but she doesn't 

 seem to want to. It is possible that she 

 may go up sometimes to explore, but she 

 does not find things to her mind there, and 

 it is so seldom that I find brood in the sec- 

 tions that it would not pay to be at the ex- 

 pense of having excluders. Last year I 

 tried thick and wide top-bars with no 

 honey-board, and had no brood in the sec- 

 tions. 



2. I don't believe you'll gain anything by 

 trying to hurry up matters too much. If 

 those queenless bees are allowed to remain 

 quiet they may last a good while, and I 

 don't believe I'd try to rear a queen before 

 about the time the bees begin to get ready 

 to swarm. If you force them much before 

 that you'll not have a very good queen. 

 After the bees begin to work on flowers, 

 and you have a colony strong enough to 

 spare it, will be time enough to give your 

 queenless bees a frame of brood. You may 

 lose more than you'll gain then, for as a 

 rule a colony that had no queen in the fall 

 isn't worth much fussing in the spring. 



Keeping Bees Near a Highway. 



Has a person, or persons, the right un- 

 der the laws of Missouri, to operate an api- 

 ary at or near a public highway ? If not, 

 what is the penalty for so doing ? If there 

 is a law, what distance does it require that 

 an apiary shall be from a public highway, 

 it being understood that the bee-keeper 

 owns the land on which the apiary is 

 located ? J. E. E. 



McFall, Mo. 



Answer. — I am not fully informed as to 

 the laws of Missouri, but I suppose as in aU 

 States, bee-keeping is a legitimate pursuit, 

 just as much as keeping cattle. In various 



