i8y7. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



247 



on top of other sections. But bees don't seem to mind cross- 

 ing a ;'4-inch space, and there are two objections to having 

 one section rest directly on another. One objection is, that 

 you will find it almost Impossible to put one super of sections 

 on another without crushine bees, unless there is a space be- 

 tween the two supers of sections. Another objection is, that 

 if one super rests directly upon another the two will be thor- 

 oughly glued together, making the bottoms of the upper sec- 

 tions and the tips of the lower sections much worse daubed 

 with glue than if a space was between. 



Keeping Extra Queens Over Winter— Inlrodiic- 

 Ing Queens. 



1. What is the best way to carry extra queens through 

 the winter, that are not needed the summer before? 



2. Can a queen be introduced into a colony in an hour, or 

 later in the day, after a swarm has been sent out? or will I 

 have to cut out all the queen-cells before inlrodnciug her? 



Colorado. 



Answkrs. — 1. Keep them In a nucleus. But it isn't easy 

 10 winter a nucleus, so it isn't an easy thing to carry extra 

 queens through the winter. You may, however, have pretty 

 fair success by giving them the advantage of the heat of a 

 strong colony. Have a bee-tight partition in your hive, using 

 lumber % thick or less. Let the colony occupy the larger 

 apartment, and the nucleus the smaller. So far as I have 

 tried it, the two colonies will nestle up against the division- 

 board, making what would be a single cluster if the division- 

 board should be quietly removed. I have tried it in a great 

 many cases, but the two colonies or nuclei were generally of 

 nearly equal strength. If one was very weak and the other 

 very strong, the strong one migbt possibly cluster away from 

 the partition, leaving the weak one to perish from cold. The 

 safer plan would be to have the division-board in the middle, 

 as mine always were, have the two nuclei about equal, and of 

 such strength that the two united would malfe a good colony. 

 Then in the spring you could take away the extra queen and 

 unite, or take away one queen with enough to make a weak 

 nucleus, uniting the rest. 



2. Most likely she would be kindly received, but if the 

 colony was sufficiently strong she might come out next day 

 with a swarm. This might be avoided by brushing off all the 

 bees that could be spared from the brood, uniting them with 

 the swarm, and setting the old hive in a new place. 



Cause or Apiaries Being Wiped Out in 1§79. 



On page 46 of Gleanings, for 1894, W. S. Fultz says : 

 "[In] the winter of 1871 fully 75 per cent, of all the apiaries 

 of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois were wiped out of exis- 

 tence, and the others were so decimated that in nearly every 



case, not more than three or four hives were left, etc The 



cause of the great mortality to bees was said to be poisoned 

 honey that had been gathered by them during the previous 

 summer." This bears closely on subjects discust on pages 

 24:8 and 249 of the August Review, and I am anxious to 'Tun 

 it down." The American Bee Journal was the only journal 

 publisht then, I believe, and probably contains more detailed 

 accounts, and perhaps theories of the matter, which it might 

 be useful to compare with the recent outbreak around Denver. 

 But I have not the American Bee Journal for those years, and 

 probably very few have. Can I be helpt out here? I am 

 afraid the trouble may repeat itself this year. Denver. 



Answkr. — I've spent no little time looking carefully 

 through the American Bee Journal, but not with most satis- 

 factory results. On page 212 of the March number for 1872, 

 Father Langstroth, who was then staying at Washington, 

 where the editor, Samuel Wagner, lived, writes : 



"Both Mr. Wagner and myself have this winter had nu- 

 merous letters, informing us that the mortality among bees 

 from dysentery has been unusually severe. Several persons 

 have attributed it to the large quautitesof new cider stored up 

 by the bees. In many localities, large quantities of very thin 

 honey were gathered too late to be thickened or sealed over by 

 the bees. This thin honey in cold weather soon becomes thin- 

 ner still, and then by fermentation sours, and is almost sure 

 death to bees, especially if they are entirely conflned to their 

 hives." But no special refereuce is made to Iowa. On page 

 253 he says : " We learn from several prominent bee-keepers 

 that if our suggestion in the last number about using the 

 Hruschka [extractor] to empty thin honey, in the fall, could 

 have been made last September, many colonies which have 

 died of dysentery might have been saved." 



On page 252, May number, Elisha Gallup, then at Or- 

 chard, Iowa, makes some remarks about wintering in general, 

 but says nothing about any special mortality in Iowa. On 

 page 254, he says : "We are wintering our large hives on the 

 summer stands, and thus far (Feb. 15,1872) we are highly 

 pleased with the results." 



On page 257 is an article that seems to bear more directly 

 on the subject, written also by Mr. Gallup, who contributed 

 oftener than any other writer to that volume of the Bee Jour- 

 nal. He commences : " In order to throw some light on this 

 Bee-Disease," and then tells about the wintering of " 10 colo- 

 nies on the stands," in four different kinds of hives, and 42 

 colonies and 5 nuclei in the cellar. The substance of the re- 

 port is that three colonies died outdoors because they were in 

 hives so tall that " the cluster was in a wrong position, tall up 

 and down," and the other three that wintered outdoors came 

 through in spendid condition. In the cellar three of the nu- 

 clei, having all young bees, wintered well, and two having all 

 old bees died. He continues : 



" Bees left to themselves stopt breeding earlier last season 

 than common on account of the drouth. Old queens stopt lay- 

 ing from two to three weeks earlier than young queens ; con- 

 sequently five colonies in the cellar with old queens had the 

 dysentery when I set them out March 26, and large quantities 

 of dead bees; probably two weeks longer of confinement 

 would have used up the entire five colonies. I discovered that 

 two colonies were queenless in September, and introduced 

 young queens after it was too late for them to breed, hence 

 they had all died with dysentery the first week in March. If 

 the weather had been mild enough to have allowed them a 

 purifying flight I could have saved them." 



That's all I can find in any way bearing on the suppcsi- 



tion that the winter of 1871- 



meant. If the previous 



winter is meant, then 1 can find nothing at all relevant. 



A Case of Weak Colony. 



I have one colony of bees that seems to be weak. What is 

 the matter with it? Does the queen want to meet a drone? 

 She has been coming out and flying around in the warm part 

 of the day ever since the last of February, and, if so, will she 

 be too late ? I saw young drones the last of F'ebruary. 



A. R. Y., Scott Co., Ark. 



Answer. — There are many cases of weak colonies, and it 

 may come from many causes. It is possible that your queen 

 may turn out all right, for when a queen comes out at any 

 other time than at swarming, you may count that she is not 



yet mated. 



^ ■ ^ 



Preventing lncrea<>e of Colonics. 



In preventing increase of colonies, have you ever practiced 

 the plan of hiving the first swarm on frames with starters only, 

 and then gradually replacing these frames with those belong- 

 ing to the parent colony ? If so, will you kindly give the re- 

 sult? 



I have 46 colonies to open the season with. I will work 

 for both comb and extracted honey, and desire to keep my 

 number as near SO as practicable. If you have a better plan 

 than the above, will you be good enough to give that ? (If it 

 isn't patented). My bees are in 8-frame hives— Hoffman 

 frames. My best swarm for 1896 filled seven supers of sec- 

 tions. They were hived June 10. They had also about 20 

 pounds for wintering. Clark Co., Wis. 



Answer. — I have followed exactly that plan, and have no 

 patent method. Indeed, I may as well tell you privately that 

 I don't know enough to know just what is the best method to 

 pursue to get good crops and keep down your numbers. Very 

 likely your plan will not turn out exactly as you expect or de- 

 sire, but by starting out in the direction you indicate you may 

 eventually reach something desirable. One danger is that you 

 may return the combs of brood too soon and make the colony 

 swarm again. If you wait too long, brood in the new combs 

 will be so far advanced that little will be gained by changing. 



If I were to try the plan, I think I would give the swarm 

 only half its number of frames to start with, then in ten days 

 or two weeks fill up with combs from the old hive containing 

 most brood. If the old hive, after furnishing combs enough to 

 till up, had left some combs containing much brood, I'd swap 

 for combs of the swarm containing the least sealed brood. Of 

 course, you will put the swa.-m on the old stand, and leave i« 

 the old hive barely enough bees to care for the brood, or else 

 give the swarm all the bees and otherwise dispose of the brood. 



