588 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.^ 



manufacturers who commenced to adver- 

 tise and sell it, but although there is much 

 more foundation used now, I don't think 

 there are half as many manufacturers. 

 The fact is. the little manufacturers found 

 they could do better to buy from the larger 

 ones. Running a foundation mill is a trade 

 of itself, and takes no little skill and experi- 

 ence. 



I never made any foundation, but 1 ve 

 seen a good deal of it made at three differ- 

 ent places, and I've no desire to own a mill. 

 I think, as a rule, that bee-keepers with 100 

 colonies and more, buy instead of making. 



In Europe I think more bee-keepers make 

 their own foundation, as there are more 

 than 6,000 of the Rietsche presses in use ; 

 but I think it requires much less skill to 

 run one of these presses than to run a foun- 

 dation mill. 



A 6-inch mill costs $15.00 ; a 10-inch one, 

 $20.00 ; and a dipping tank, $2.00. Dipping- 

 boards cost 4 cents per inch in width. 



Transferring and Moving Bees. 



I have two colonies of bees in box-hives, 

 that I wish to transfer into movable-comb 

 hives, and about 10 feet into a new location 

 in a house. If I drive them up into a box, 

 then dump them down in front of the new 

 stand, and drive them in, of course, during 

 a honey-flow, will they stay there, or go 

 back to the old location ? R. R. 



Ogden, Utah. 



Answer. — You may count on their going 

 back to the old location the first time they 

 fly out and come back from the fields, at 

 least most of them. But if those two colo- 

 nies are the only ones within a few rods, I 

 think they will finally find the right place 

 and accept it as their home. 



Bees Dying Out— Q,ueens, Etc. 



1. My neighbor has a great many bees in 

 old-fashioned gums. They commenced 

 swarming a few weeks ago, and are now 

 dying out, leaving no comb at all. What 

 is the matter with them ? 



2. Can bees rear queens at all times of 

 the year ? If not, at what times ? 



;i Can bees make a qneen out of any egg 

 in the hive I 



4. If a queen gets away while handling 

 her, and flies away, will she return, or not ? 



5. How long will a queen live, and do 

 good work ? 



6. How late in the year can bees be trans- 

 ferred from old-fashioned hives into frame 

 hives, and be safe ? J. T. S. 



Holloway, La. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. I'm not sure 

 that I ever heard of such a case before. If 

 I understand you, a swarm was hived in an 

 empty hive, built no comb, and staid there 

 till it died. If they were poisoned they 

 might do so, otherwise I should expect 

 them to build at least a little comb if there 

 was a drop of honey to be had. 



2. As a rule they don't make very good 

 work at rearing queens except when honey 

 is coming in. 



3. No, they sometimes try it. but never 

 succeed in making a queen out of what 

 should under ordinary circumstances turn 

 out a drone. But there is no difference be- 

 tween the egg from which a queen is reared 

 and one from which a worker is reared. If 

 there are no queen-cells in a hive, and yon 

 take away the queen, the bees will rear a 

 queen from an egg, or a larva that would 

 have turned out a worker if you had not 

 taken away the queen. 



4. It is said they will, and perhaps they 

 generally do, but I've lost two or three 

 queens in that way. 



5. I have read of queens 6 years old. Or- 

 dinarily they would give up the ghost long 

 before that, and some think best not to 

 have queens more that 2 years old. If bees 

 are left to themselves, they will probably 

 not allow queens to continue more than 3 

 or 4 years, generally. But something de- 

 pends on the work a queen does. If kept in 

 a nucleus so as to lay very little, she may 

 live much longer than if she lays profusely. 



6. It is generally done early in the sea- 

 son, but can be safely done any time before 

 the harvest closes, providing you are skill- 

 ful enough to transfer full combs of honey 

 without making a mess of it. 



What Caused the dueenless Colonies. 



About the first of February I found a 

 very fine colony of bees queenless. I re- 

 moved from it a few pounds of honey and 

 doubled the colony with another colony in 

 good condition, and in about ten days I 

 found the last-named colony queenless. 

 Still later I used one of the heaviest frames 

 of honey, taken from the first colony, to 

 feed another colony, and in a few days the 

 queen of that colony " turned up missing.'" 

 This last colony was strong in bees and 

 brood, and had sufficient stores. What 

 was the matter ? I fix it up that the honey 

 was poisonous, but if so, why did it affect 

 the queens and not the bees ? 



Tennessee. 



Answer. — I can hardly believe a queen 

 would be killed by poisonous food and not 

 the bees. I should expect the queen to be 

 the last affected, rather than the first. I 

 really can give no reason but that it just 

 happened so ; but it almost looks as if there 

 must have been some special reason. 



They Are Hybrid Bees. 



In the afternoon of April 15th a swarm 

 of straggling bees came to my bee-yard, 

 and attempted and did enter my bee-hives. 

 My bees are all blacks, and there is no other 

 kind within 15 miles of me. that I know of. 

 My bees went to work on these stray bees 

 and killed them off, and when I came to 

 notice it, each one of these straj' bees had a 

 yellow band around the forepart of their 

 back body — just one band — and covering 



