1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



295 



worker. I cleaned the hive out nicely, and carried them away 

 quite a distance, and shook and brusht every bee into the air, 

 altho it was not very warm, and I lost some bees by it. I cut 

 the brood all out of the two frames, and placed them next to 

 the outside of the hive; took a nice frame of brood and eggs 

 from another hive, and placed in the center, and am now 

 awaiting developments. 



1. Did I do the right thing ? 



2. Will they try to rear a queen from the eggs in the 

 frame I put in ? or will they be apt to try it from some of the 

 scattering eggs left in those outside frames ? 



3. I am rearing some queens in an observatory hive In 

 the house, which are due to be out on the 12th, and I shall 

 give them one of these. If she mates with one of those drones, 

 will the result be the same as if mated with any other drone ? 



The "Old Reliable " comes every Thursday as regular as 

 clock-work, and I can hardly put it down until I have read 

 every word, advertisements and all. I would not think of 

 keeping even a few colonies of bees without it. May it live 

 long and prosper, and be as great a blessing to its worthy 

 editor as It is to its readers. 



Weeping Water, Nebr., April 'J. 



Answers. — 1. Treatment still more heroic would probably 

 have been more profitable. It would have been less trouble 

 to break up the colony, giving the whole of it to some colony 

 that needed strengthening, putting the hive under the hive of 

 the colony to be strengthened, or else dividing the contents 

 of the hive among two or more. Especially is this advisable 

 in early spring. At this time a colony having bees enough to 

 cover four or five frames will make progress increasing, 

 whereas if you divide it in two parts each part will seem to 

 stand entirely still for weeks. So instead of taking brood to 

 help the laying-worker colony, if you increase by so much the 

 force of some rather weak colony with a good queen, you will 

 be able later on to take a colony from it and be farther along 

 than by keeping up the name of a large number of colonies in 

 the first place. 



2. They will be likely to use the brood you gave them, 

 even if they use some of the drone-brood as well. 



3. Opinions differ as to the virility of drones from layiug- 

 workers, some saying they are as good as any, others that 

 they are not. In any case, queens reared early in the season, 

 before drones abound, are not likely to prove the best, and 

 may be superseded while comparatively young. Which makes 

 another argument against trying to tinker up a colony that 

 has laying-workers. 



In general, it isn't worth while to fool with a colony of 

 laying-workers. They are old, worn-out bees, not worth 

 much anyhow. 



A Beginner'§ Clue§tions. 



1. Is It the old or new queen that goes out with the 

 swarm ? 



2. Do you clip one or both wings of the queen ? 



3. If dones are killed, how is it best accomplisht? How 

 repress the rearing of them 1 



4. When sections are not finisht in the fall flow of honey, 

 can the bees be fed and cause them to finish them ? If so, do 

 you advise this plan ? 



I have five colonies; they are hybrids, and I wish to Ital- 

 ianize them the first of May. I want gentle bees and good 

 workers. Edgar Co., 111. 



Answers. — 1. The old queen goes with the first swarm, 

 and a young queen with each after-swarm. 



2. A bee has four wings, a large one and a small one on 

 each side. It is sufficient to cut the large wing on one side, 

 and better than to cut a little from all. L. A. Aspinwall re- 

 ports that he has cut off about an eighth of an inch from the 



.wings on both sides of virgin queens, and finds they become 

 fertilized all right, showing they can fly with that amount cut 

 from both sides. (He does this to secure fertilization from 

 his own drones rather than to have them fly off to a distance.) 

 But if the same amount be cut away from one side only, It 

 throws them out of balance when they attempt to fly, and 

 they tumble to the ground. If you cut off just the one large 

 wing, takeoff all you can conveniently. With only one wing cut 

 away, the defect is scarcely noticed, so that if you care greatly 

 for the beauty of your queens, you will cut only one wing. 

 But the very fact that such clipping is not so readily noticed 

 makes it objectionable to one who has much work in the api- 

 ary, so I prefer to cut off all I can conveniently from both 

 wings on one side, then I can tell at a glance whether a queen 

 is dipt or not, 



3. You can kill drones by means of a drone-trap in front 



of the hive, catching them In It and then destroying them. A 

 better plan is to slice the heads off the drone-brood after it is 

 sealed. Much better than either is the plan of having no 

 drone-comb in the hive. Fill every frame full of worker foun- 

 dation. But bees are sometimes so desperately in earnest 

 about rearing drones, that they will work a few drone-cells in 

 every possible place, and will even build some cells on worker 

 base. G. M. Doolittle thinks it better to allow thera one or 

 two square Inches of drone-comb in the hive, and this satis- 

 fies them, and gives the bee-keeper no trouble to fir.d it, so he 

 can slice it every two or three weeks. 



4. Most bee-keepers decide that it Is not easily practica- 

 ble, and not profitable. 



Management of Swarms at Out-Aplaries. 



I have just noticed that you have been hauling bees to 

 out-apiaries. That's just what I will do to-morrow, but only 

 three colonies. I will take them away some 20 miles, where 

 there Is a lot of basswood. The man, where I want to put 

 them, is the owner of a large farm, and would not like to do 

 a thing among them, and that's just what I like, for I want 

 to manage them myself. Would it be wise, or best, to use the 

 Alley trap at swarming-time, and look after them every Sat- 

 urday, and when I find a colony that had swarmed, at the 

 right time to cut out cells, and put that hive on a new stand, 

 and have no after-swarm ? I will give them more room in the 

 brood-nest than at home. E. B. K. 



Answer. — You can probably make your plan work. You 

 don't give very full particulars, but if I understand you 

 rightly, you intend to put part of the bees and the queen that 

 you have found in the trap in a new hive, leaving them on the 

 old stand, putting the old hive on a different stand. If you 

 leave in the old hive barely enough bees to keep the brood 

 from chilling, there will be little likelihood of swarming, even 

 if you cut out no queen-cells. You may do well to brush at 

 least half the bees off the combs, and would risk little in 

 brushing off two out of every three combs, for the weather 

 will most likely be warm, most of the brood will be sealed 

 brood, and it does not chill easily. 



Buying and Shipping Bees. 



Mr. A. must buy bees and have them shipt 200 miles, 

 from Mr. B., who will send him by express, c. o. d., a good 2- 

 frame nucleus with laying queen ; and at the same time a 10- 

 frame hive nailed and containing 8 brood-frames, also nailed, 

 and having 1-inch starters. Or, instead, he will send him a 

 pound of bees an-d a laying queen by express, c. o. d., and by 

 freight, a 10-frame hive, nailed and containing 10 empty 

 extracting-combs. Which should A. buy? E. B. 



Answer. — That's a little too hard for me, but I'll make a 

 guess at the answer, trusting that if it isn't orthodox some 

 one will set me right. You don't say so, but I suppose you 

 mean that the first hive is to be sent by freight as well as the 

 second, and of course in each case the hive will be shipt ear- 

 lier than the bees, so as to be ready for use on their arrival. 

 The hives are sent by freight to save expressage. The ex- 

 tracting-combs sent with the second hive are simply empty 

 brood-combs. 



With my present light, if I were in A.'s place I think I'd 

 take the first lot. It will cost more for expressage to get a 

 nucleus than a pound of bees, but he has a small colony in 

 full working order to start with, it being understood, of 

 course, that the two frames are well filled with brood. Altho 

 they will have to build their own comb, they will be gaining 

 every day in strength, while the pound of bees will be losing 

 strength every day for three full weeks before a single young 

 bee Is added to the number. 



■White Clover Seed.— We have quite a quantity of 



White Clover Seed on hand that we will send you at a bargain. 



A little of it goes a good ways. It usually retails at 25 or 30 



cents per pound, but we will mall you 2 pounds for 40 cents, 



or for sending us one new subscriber to the American Bee 



Journal for a year. 



-*-»-* 



Tbe ItlcEvoy Foul Brood Xreatmeut Is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet on " Foul Brood ; Its Natural 

 History and Rational "Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price, 25 cents ; or dubbed with the Bep Journal for one year 

 —both for $1.10. 



