330 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



qnence of which I have pushed off my 

 little barque with a determination to 

 stay with it until I am thoroughly con- 

 vinced that there is no profit in the busi- 

 ness. 



Last fall, about Nov. 1st, I purchased 

 23 colonies, said to be Italians, but they 

 are a cross between Italians and blacks. 

 They were in boxes of almost all shapes 

 and sizes. Eight of them were late 

 swarms, with very little honey ; 15 were 

 old, ranging from 1 to 4 years, with 

 honey ranging from 40 to 75 pounds to 

 the colony. I moved them home, and 

 started in transferring the bees and 

 honey into movable-frame hives (the 

 same kind that my uncle used). I trans- 

 ferred the 8 late swarms first, thinking 

 that if they died I would not lose much, 

 as they only cost me 25 cents apiece. I 

 drove 2 swarms Into one hive, putting 

 the 8 swarms into 4 hives, and fed them 

 until they had 20 pounds of syrup and 

 honey each. They went right to work, 

 and stuck all the comb fast to the 

 frames, and cleaned up every thing, and 

 in a short time had one or two frames 

 nearly filled with brood. (The weather 

 is warm here in the valley, so that bees 

 fly nearly every day in the year.) They 

 did so well, as I thought, that I trans- 

 ferred 3 of the old ones. They have 

 done about the same as the first ones ; 

 they have kept up their brood-rearing 

 until the last two weeks they have 

 slacked up on that business. 



1. What shall I do next — feed them 

 some more ? 



2. What would you advise about the 

 others — transfer now, or wait until later 

 in the spring ? The last that I trans- 

 ferred was Dec. 14th. If I transfer 

 now, I would lose but little if I did not 

 transfer the brood, as they have but 

 very little. They will begin to gather 

 pollen in about a month from now. 



3. When is the best time of the year 

 to introduce queens ? 



4. I am thinking very strongly of 

 going into the poultry business in con- 

 nection with bees. What is your advice 

 in regard to that ? Bees do well in this 

 country, and there is always a good 

 market for poultry. T. E. G. 



Oregon City, Oreg. 



Answers. — 1. If they are getting 

 enough from natural stores, or if they 

 have enough in their hives, there is no 

 need of feeding. 



ii. By the time this reaches you, it 

 will probably be so late that you will 

 gain nothing by waiting longer. 



3. There is less danger of loss in in- 

 troducing any time when bees are stor- 



ing. They seem better natured during 

 prosperity than when hard times come. 

 4. Bees and poultry go well together, 

 especially if you crowd the poultry busi- 

 ness so as to have most of the laying 

 and sitting over by the time the busy 

 time of bee-work comes. At least that's 

 the case in the region of Chicago, but it 

 is possible that winter layers may not 

 be best In your climate. 



Bees Sting Each Other. 



When one bee stings another, or a 

 queen, does the sting usually prove 

 fatal ? When one queen stings another, 

 does she lose her sting? Did you ever 

 see one queen sting another ? 



In introducing a queen last fall, she 

 was stung just under the wing, where it 

 joins the body. The stinger was well 

 inserted, and was removed with some 

 difficulty. I expected to find her dead 

 in the morning, but was very much as- 

 tonished to find her alive and all right. 

 The part where she was stung did not 

 swell in the least. F. E. H. 



Logan, Iowa. 



Answer. — It is a rare thing that one 

 bee stings another without the sting 

 being fatal. Yes, I have seen one queen 

 sting another, and in that case I think 

 the sting is always fatal, and that the 

 victor never loses her sting. A queen 

 thrusts her sting into the breathing 

 holes, if I am not mistaken, making it 

 easily drawn out. But I have seen a 

 few cases in which workers left their 

 stings in other bees. 



What is Wrong ? — Cleaning Combs. 



1. W^hat is wrong, and what shall I 

 do with these bees ? We had a week's 

 warm weather and the bees gathered 

 some pollen, and then there came 3 or 4 

 days of freezing weather, and my bees 

 began to die, or three colonies at least — 

 two weak ones, and one of the best 

 hybrids I had. They began to bring the 

 dead out by the hundred, and some of 

 them would be still moving but unable 

 to crawl. I opened two of the hives, and 

 there was about a hat full of dead bees 

 on the bottom-boards. The combs and 

 hives were clean and nice, and with 

 plenty of nice, sealed honey. The bees 

 that were alive appear to be all right. 

 There was plenty of honey around the 

 cluster, which was in a dry, warm place, 

 and one of the colonies was extra large. 

 I haven't looked into it yet. One of the 

 two that I examined was queenless, and 



