AMERICAN BEE JOURNAU 



7T7 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufHcient special interest to 

 require replies from the 25 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 



Yellow Sweet Clover. 



I send a specimen of a flower that has 

 come to my notice within the last two 

 years. I don't know what it is called. 

 Will you please tell what it is ? It looks 

 like sweet clover, only it has a yellow 

 bloom instead of white ; and it blooms 

 earlier than sweet clover, which makes 

 it a great honey-plant in this locality, 

 coming into bloom, as it does, between 

 fruit-bloom and the general clover 

 bloom. H. C. White. 



Jewell, Kans. 



Answer. — The clover is the yellow 

 sweet clover — Melilotus officinalis, re- 

 ferred to in Prof. Cook's " Bee-Keeper's 

 Guide," page 354. All melilot clover is 

 excellent for honey. 



Questions on Queen-Rearing. 



1. Is it best to rear queens in the 

 brood-chamber, or above in the supers, 

 using queen-excluding zinc ? 



2. What is Alley's new method of 

 rearing queens ? 



3. Is it best to use some kind of a pro- 

 tection for the queen-cells ? 



4. If so, what, how and when ? 



5. Is it necessary to have bees with 

 the capped queen-cells in order to en- 

 able the queens to emerge from their 

 cells? Or what benefit are bees to 

 capped queen-cells except to keep them 

 warm ? 



6. Can they be hatched by incubation, 

 and how ? 



7. Should the colonies of bees be 

 divided before the queen-cells are sealed? 



8. How long is it after they are sealed 

 until they issue from their cells ? 



9. Can they emerge without aid from 

 the bees ? Dk. S. M. Kimsey. 



Tesnatee, Ga. 



Answers. — 1. Queens may be reared 

 in supers, among sections of honey, but 

 the practice is not considered advisable. 

 Perhaps you mean in vxpper stories of 

 brood-combs. This plan is considered 



desirable by some, because the queen 

 may be allowed to continue laying below 

 while queen-cells continue to completion 

 above. 



2. Space will hardly permit to give 

 Alley's method in full, which may be 

 found in his book, which we can send for 

 50 cents; but a special feature of it is 

 that the cells are reared so as to be 

 easily detached by having them reared 

 on little strips of comb, taken with very 

 young larva-, every other cell having its 

 larva destroyed. 



3. That depends. Perhaps it can do 

 no harm in any case to have something 

 like West's protectors, and if cells are 

 left in the same place until one of the 

 young queens hatches out, something of 

 the kind is absolutely necessary. 



4. Put the cells in West's protectors, 

 after they are sealed over. 



5. No, queen-nurseries have been ex- 

 tensively used containing no bees, and 

 depending entirely on artificial heat. 

 We have known queens to hatch out in 

 good shape lying for several days on the 

 shelf of a kitchen cupboard. After the 

 queen-cells are sealed, bees seem to be 

 of no further use except to keep up the 

 heat. 



6. After being sealed over, you can 

 have them hatched out anywhere you 

 like, providing you keep them warm 

 enough. 



7. It is not necessary to have nuclei 

 formed more than a day or two before 

 time for queens to hatch. 



8. About a week. 



9. Yes. 



Bees Died with. Plenty of Honey. 



Why did bees die the past winter when 

 they had plenty of honey in the hive ? I 

 lost 5 colonies, and some of them had 

 50 pounds of honey each, while others 

 having not more than 10 pounds each, 

 wintered all right. My bees were in 

 Simplicity hives. It was the first bees I 

 have lost in six years. I have had as 

 high as 40 colonies, and did not lose 

 one. For three years I have been fol- 

 lowing the directions found in Mr. 

 Root's book. E. W. Brooks. 



Hoop, Tenn., May 15, 1893. 



Answer. — Not a few colonies died 

 from starvation last winter with abun- 

 dant stores in the hive. There might be 

 50 pounds of honey in a hive, and not a 

 very strong force of bees. In some 

 places — although one would hardly think 

 in Tennessee — the cold spell continued 

 so long that all the stores within imme- 



