188 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 





I find in some of my hives worker pupae 

 unsealed. The pupie have the shape of 

 the perfect bee, yet perfectly white except 

 the eyes, which are of a dull blueish 

 color. Have these pupae been sealed and 

 again unsealed by the bees, or have they 

 never been capped over ? Will they come 

 out and be as good as those which have 

 been sealed and hatched in the natural 

 way ? How do you account for their be- 

 ing unsealed? Again I find among 

 naturally capped worker-brood some cells 

 lengthened and capped over as if they 

 contained brood from a drone-laying 

 queen or a fertile worker. How do you 

 account for them? How do you deter- 

 mine whether a swarm has a drone-lay- 

 ing queen or a fertile worker, finding 

 worker cells lengthened and containing 

 drones, but not being able to find a queen, 

 who may nevertheless be there, or may 

 not. Which is the best way of getting 

 rid of a fertile worker, and supplying a 

 hive thus effected with a queen ? 



Wm. Muth-Rasmussen. 



These pupae have died from some cause, 

 they will never "come out" but the bees 

 will remove them. Sometimes this is 

 caused by worms eating off the caps be- 

 fore the pup* is grown. 



The cells that are lengthened out prob- 

 ably contain drone brood. This often 

 happens when there is little or no drone 

 comb in the hive. There is no way to 

 ascertain whether it is a fertile worker or 

 a drone laying queen in the hive, except 

 by finding the queen. If there is no 

 queen there, a fertile worker is the mon- 

 arch. 



There is no way to get rid of a fertile 

 worker but to break up the colony. Do 

 it in this way. Put a hive where the one 

 now is that has the fertile worker— and 

 put in it a comb or two of brood and 

 stores. Take the other out of the way a 

 rod or two off' and leave it there. Nearly 

 all the bees will go to the old spot and 

 begin to rear a queen from the brood giv- 

 en them. 



The fertile worker does not leave the 

 hive and she will be left there with a few 

 others. After two or three days, take the 

 combs of this hive to the old spot, brush- 

 ing all the bees off. Let them starve if 

 they will— there will not be enough to 

 mourn over. You will then have in the 



old spot the bees of the old hive (or nearly 

 all), and they will soon rear a queen, or if 

 you have one to give them, they will ac- 

 cept her without trouble. 



I am but a beginner in the bee busi- 

 ness. Have six colonies — four in mova- 

 ble comb hives. Am so well pleased 

 with the movable comb hives that I shall 

 hereafter use no other kind. I used the 

 extractor last season with success. I 

 winter my bees on their summer stands. 



The movable comb hives came through 

 all right with one exception, and that 

 was this: On examining these colonies 

 a few days ago, I found several of the out- 

 side combs in each hive mouldy. Now I 

 desire to know what was the cause of 

 this and what is the remedy. My hives 

 are plain boxes with movable sides and 

 tops. Will you in your next issue give 

 full particulars for artificial swarming, as 

 I presume there are more of your new 

 subscribers besides myself who would 

 like to have information upon this point? 

 I find the Jouknal very interesting and 

 instructive. Forest Preston. 



The ventilation of the hives was im- 

 perfect in some way. The moisture accu- 

 mulated and this caused the comb to 

 mould. 



We have never kept honey over in tin 

 cans, but do not see why it would be in- 

 jured by being kept in them if the tins 

 are new and bright. 



For directions about swarming, see 

 " Seasonable Hints," in June number. 



One of my strongest swarms of bees are 

 killing off the drones, while the other col- 

 onies that have swarmed have not killed 

 theirs. This stock has not swarmed, but 

 the bees hang on the outside nearly all the 

 time. I had a weak swarm and I changed 

 places with it and this strong swarm. The 

 weak swarm seemed to be greatly helped, 

 but the strong swarm killed their drones, 

 in about ten days, although full of bees, 

 and the honey pasture ought to be good 

 now. Did the taking away of so many 

 honey gatherers scare the rest into killing 

 the drones? 



Mrs. Morris McHenry. 



Strong colonies of bees will kill oft 

 drones, on any occasion when a scaj'city 

 of honey occurs or is threatened. In this 

 case, your strong colony had its supplies 

 much lessened by the outside bees going 

 to the weak hive — its numbers also were 

 less, and it became alarmed as to its 

 " ways and means." Wisely, they began 

 to get rid of useless consumers. 



Probably the mode of yours was a good 



