AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



809 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufficient special interest to 

 require replies from the 25 or more apiarists 

 who help to make "Queries and Replies" so 

 Interesting on another page. In the main, it 

 win contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— Ed 



Why Did the Bees Swarm Out ? 



I had a colony of bees to leave for the 

 woods on March 22nd. I opened the 

 hive after they left, and found two 

 frames partly filled with brood, three 

 filled with capped honey, and two frames 

 partly filled with honey. The hive was 

 clean and nice, and there was no moth 

 to be seen. Will Mr. Doolittle please 

 tell why they left ? C. L. Bowen. 



Louella, Mo. 



The question was referred to Mr. Doo- 

 little, who answers thus : 



Such swarming out as the above is 

 something that has baffled our best api- 

 arists for years, and the question has 

 often been raised why bees thus swarm 

 out in early spring, and so far as I have 

 ever seen, always unsatisfactorily an- 

 swered. The prevailing opinion is that 

 the bees become dissatisfied with their 

 surroundings for some reason, and 

 swarm out, hoping to better their con- 

 dition. G. M. Doolittle. 



Nine or 10 Frames ? — Button-Willow, 



1. I use the Langstroth hive with 10 

 frames in the brood-chamber, and 9 

 frames in the upper story. Could I get 

 more honey if I should use 10 frames 

 above ? 



2. Is button-willow a good honey- 

 plant ? T. W. Wheeler. 



Menardville, Texas. 



Answers — 1. If the two stories are of 

 the same size, then 9 frames will give 

 a little more room for each frame than 

 10, and as the spaces left between the 

 combs will probably be of the same size 

 whether 9 or 10 frames be used, having 

 one less space with 9 frames ought to 

 allow room for a little more honey. 

 That doesn't say that the same number 

 of bees will put more honey in a season 

 in the 9 frames simply because there is 

 more room there, but if you wait till the 

 story is full each time before extracting, 

 you are sure that you will have less 

 labor in extracting 9 than ten, with the 



possibility of more honey. So far as the 

 work of the bees is concerned, when left 

 to themselves they seem to prefer to 

 have the outside combs, which are used 

 solely for storing, a little thicker than 

 the brood-combs, and they will have less 

 capping to do on the 9 than the ten. 

 Some of this is theory, but you will 

 probably find in actual practice that 

 those who have tried the 9 above and 

 10 below, have not gone back to 10 

 above. 



2. Ignorance prevents an answer as 

 to the value of button-willow, but it is 

 pretty safe to say that any of the wil- 

 lows are good for both honey and 

 pollen. Perhaps some of our readers 

 will tell us about button-willow. 



Why Was the Queen "Balled?" 



Will you please tell me why my bees 

 " balled " their queen ? I opened a hive 

 of my best Italians, and found the queen 

 in a ball of bees as large as a teacup. 

 The queen was a young and prolific one. 

 I found two queen-cells started. I 

 caged the queen and laid the cage on 

 top of the frames, and the bees clustered 

 on the cage in hard knots. 



Bishop Hill, Ills. G. E. Nelson. 



Answer — It is no easy matter to tell 

 why bees do many things. This balling 

 a queen sometimes, when there seems to 

 be no occasion for it, is one of the puz- 

 zles. Sometimes a queen will be balled 

 after you have handled her, especially if 

 you drop her near the entrance. The 

 smell of your fingers left upon the queen 

 may have something to do with it. 



When a queen is about played out, 

 the bees may ball her, seeming to be dis- 

 satisfied with a queen which does not do 

 better work. 



Sometimes the bees ball a queen to 

 protect her, when they are disturbed. 

 This might be the solution of your prob- 

 lem, but those two queen-cells rather 

 look as if they were getting ready to 

 supersede her. Although she might be 

 " young and prolific," yet for some 

 reason her prolificness might be about 

 at an end, and the bees seem to fore- 

 know this, preparing queen-cells and 

 maltreating the queen. All things con- 

 sidered, this seems the most plausible 

 answer to your question, After all, it 

 is only a guess, and it is doubtful if you 

 can have a positive answer. 



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