AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



395 



profitable in the long run to unite them 

 with another colony, especially if you have 

 a colony with a good queen but weak in 

 bees. 



3. It may be the work of worms. The 

 worms build their webs over and among 

 the brood, then it is torn out by the bees 

 before the young bees come to full maturi- 

 ty, or else the young bees are so injured by 

 the webs that they are thrown out as im- 

 perfect. 



4. Yes, feeding may hasten swarming, 

 and giving less room in the hive may also 

 have the same effect. But contracting will 

 also have a tendency to lessen the number 

 of after-swarms. VVhile a large amount of 

 room has a tendency to retard swarming, 

 and in many cases to prevent it, when a 

 colony in a large hive does swarm, it is 

 likely to cast a larger swarm, and it may 

 do more in the way of after-swarms. As 

 you are anxious to get as many swarms as 

 possible from the same hive, you will do 

 well to follow a plan lately given in this 

 department. Get your colony as strong as 

 possible by feeding, and by giving sealed 

 brood from other hives, then when it 

 swarms hive the swarm on the old stand, 

 and set your pet colony in the place of some 

 other good colony, setting this last in a new 

 place. In a week or ten days your pet will 

 swarm again, when you are to repeat the 

 operation, each time it swarms setting it in 

 place of some other good colony. 



5. The matter of swarming is governed 

 largely by the yield of nectar at different 

 times and by the strength of colonies. In 

 your region bees gather enough so that by 

 April they are strong enough to swarm. 

 Bees don't swarm straight along, but a col- 

 ony that swarms in April must then build 

 up, and is not strong enough to swarm in 

 May. Possibly, also, there may be some 

 let up in the harvest during May. But by 

 June some may be strong enough to swarm 

 again, much as they do in the North in 

 buckwheat season. I must confess this is 

 only theory, for I never was in the far 

 South, and if I'm talking nonsense I hope 

 some of the good friends in the South will 

 tell us how it ought to be. 



t). The answer given on page 10 is in ac- 

 cordance with the general habits of bees. 

 But bees are great on variations. As a 

 rule, only young queens pipe, and so piping 

 is heard by them only before after-swarms. 

 But in the previous paragraph you will 

 notice I said, ••Sometimes an old queen 

 pipes, but not often. "" I have heard an old 

 queen pipe when I think there was no inten- 

 tion of swarming. But it's a rare thing. It 

 is also possible that in your case the old 

 queen may have been changed, and the 

 young queen was piping and killing off the 

 other young queens. But the rule is that 

 when piping is heard you may look out for 

 a second swarm. In spite of your saying 

 ••no mistake" about their swarming, there 

 might be a mistake unless some one had 

 watched closely every hour for several 

 days. A swarm may have come out, the 

 old queen might have been lost and the 

 swarm at once returned, then a young 

 queen reared without any more swarming. 



7. 1 don't know any reason why bee- 

 keeping should not succeed with you. If 

 you can have only an occasional colony 

 yield more than .820.00, as you report, you 

 ought to do a profitable business. And if 

 an occasional one can do that, it ought not 

 to be a very hard thing to get all to average 

 a fourth as well. 



It's a hard thing to tell how many colo- 

 nies can be most profitably kept in one api- 

 ary, even if you have been right on the 

 ground all your life. At a guess, I should 

 say you might keep 75 in one apiary, and it 

 might run away beyond that. 



Perhaps a Robber-Fly. 



When I was down after cucumbers yester- 

 day, something whizzed around and finally 

 alighted on a buckwheat stalk. It had a 

 body about an inch long, slim, with gauzy 

 wings and a big head, and it had a bee in 

 its mouth. What was it ? Subscriber. 



Answer.— It might be one of the robber- 

 flies, possibly A-silus Mlssouriemis. 



Getting a Surplus from Nuclei. 



I have 18 colonies in good condition, some 

 of them very strong, and have sealed brood 

 now (March 10th) . My hives are dovetailed, 

 eight frames. Can I take 12 frames out and 

 form six two-frame nuclei (returning empty 

 frames), buying my queens, feeding them 

 until well under way, giving them full 

 sheets of foundation, and get surplus this 

 season if the season is good, and not injure 

 the old colonies from which the brood was 

 taken ? If so, how early in the season shall 

 I order my queens ? E. B. E. 



Cooksville, 111. 



Answer.— It's asking a good deal to take 

 a two-frame nucleus and get surplus from 

 it. unless you commence early and have a 

 long season. It's asking a good deal to take 

 12 frames of brood from a colony without 

 hurting it. But it can be done, providing 

 yoa don't take it all at once, but you are 

 not likely to get much surplus from the old 

 colony. 



Whether you can do it aU, and have as 

 much surplus as if you had been moderate 

 in your demands, depends somewhat on 

 your pasturage, the length of your season, 

 and especially on your fall pasturage. If 

 you have had no experience in such things, 

 you may not come out the following spring 

 with as many bees as if you had only dou- 

 bled. But furnishing queens and founda- 

 tion, and feeding, will be a big help. 



Honey as Food and ^ledicine is 



just the thing to help sell honey, as it shows 

 the various ways in which honey may be 

 used as a food and as a medicine. Try 100 

 copies of it, and see what good '•sales- 

 men " they are. See the third page of this 

 number of the Bee Journal for description 

 and prices. 



