748 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



ANSWERED BY 



DK,. C O. 1,^IIjI-iEK,, 



Marengo, III. 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of suflBcient special interest to 

 require replies from the "JO or more apiarists 

 who help to malie " Queries and Replies "so 

 Interesting on another page. In the main, it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— Ed. 



Clipping the Queen's Wing. 



I noticed in the Bee Journal that a 

 writer said he clipped the queen's wing 

 to keep her from leaving. Another said 

 the queen mated in the open air. If so, 

 how does she mate when clipped ? 



O. C. A. 



Answer. — If you clip a queen before 

 mating, you will have a drone-layer. I 

 never clip a queen till after she com- 

 mences laying. 



Starved Brood, Gathering Honey, Etc. 



1. How can a beginner know when 

 the brood is starved ? 



2. How can he know when the brood 

 is chilled ? 



8. How can one know when there is 

 plenty of honey coming in to supply 

 the brood ? 



. 4. How much honey should there be 

 in the hive to be on the safe side, in 

 April and May ? 



5. Will there be starving brood even 

 if there is a comb of old honey in an out- 

 side frame in the hive ? 



6. What are bees gathering around 

 pig pens and such places ? 



7. Will a foul-broody colony cast any 

 swarm, or will they dwindle any in one 

 season ? 



I ask these questions for the reason 

 that I found dead brood in the cells on 

 May 28th, when I last examined the 

 bees. I have 16 colonies, and none 

 seem to be any better. Some of them 

 commenced to store in the upper stories 

 from dandelions. The brood dying is 

 advanced so far that they seem to fill 

 the cell, but the head seems to dry up in 



a point, and seems to be the worst in 

 the center frames, most of them un- 

 capped. I would not think that is foul 

 brood, but I don't know. S. O. L. 



Stanchfield, Minn. 



Answers. — 1. You will find the bees 

 carrying out brood more or less torn to 

 pieces, as the yonnger brood has all the 

 juices sucked out of it. 



2. It will be in the outer portions of 

 the brood-nest, and you will be likely to 

 see some of the young bees that have 

 been fully matured, with their heads 

 sticking out of the cells, dead. 



3. I don't know any way by which 

 you can tell just how much honey is 

 coming in, even if you could tell just 

 how much the brood would use. But 

 you can easily look in the hive and find 

 out something about the amount of 

 honey there. If you see plenty of sealed 

 cells of honey along the upper parts of 

 the combs, you needn't take the trouble 

 to lift out any frames, but if no sealed 

 honey is to be seen, lift out some of the 

 frames and see what they have. 



4. The safe thing is to have about 

 three times as much as you think they 

 will need. Every spring I am surprised 

 to find colonies running out of stores 

 that I thought had plenty to last till the 

 main harvest. It isn't an easy thing to 

 say just how much they should have 

 Some colonies will use twice as much as 

 others. Some seasons will require twice 

 as much as others. But to give some 

 kind of an answer to your question, I 

 should feel better to know that every 

 colony had 10 or 15 pounds to go 

 through April and May. 



5. As a rule, no. If the weather 

 should be so cold that bees could not 

 leave the brood-nest, both bees and 

 brood might starve, although you should 

 put a comb of honey at the outer part of 

 the brood-nest. But there is very little 

 danger if such honey is there straight 

 along, for every time there is a warm 

 spell the bees will bring a supply in easy 

 reach. 



6. Likely they are after salty matters. 

 Some furnish salt water to their bees, 

 and it may do good. Indeed, some think 

 it a preventive of disease. At any rate 

 it can do no harm. 



7. I suppose that depends much upon 

 the violence of the case. If very bad, I 

 should expect no swarm, neither should 

 I expect them to flourish the next sea- 

 son. 



There is nothicg in the symptoms you 

 mention but may come from chilled, or 

 more likely, starved bees. By this time, 



