1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



359 



enough to supply it, If not to overstock It. The Ideal place 

 would be one where nectar-bearing plants were abundant aud 

 continuous, a place where bee-keepers were still so scarce 

 that much land renoaiued to be possest. It Is self-evident that 

 I don't know of such a place, for if I knew of it some one else 

 would know of it, aaid candidates for its occupation would be 

 prompt and active. 



Probably your estimate of California is not far out of the 

 way, and still if I were looking for a location I would figure 

 somewhat ou the possibility of working so hard and planning 

 so well as to reap profit in any place where large crops were 

 possible. I don't know anything about northwest Arkansas, 

 and I don't remember seeing mention of it as a honey-produc- 

 ing region. That very fact makes it possible that it may be 

 desirable. People go in flocks, like sheep, and it may be that 

 the flock not having yet tended in the direction of Arkansas, 

 there may be a good outlook. Where strawberries are raised 

 and apple-trees are abundant, there is hope for bees. 



On the whole you will probably find that advantages and 

 disadvantages are so mixt up in different locations, a clear 

 field being so much easier to find where honey-yields are mod- 

 erate, that no one place has all the inviting features, and your 

 own tastes and desires can alone help to make the proper esti- 

 mate after you are on the ground. Indeed, it may be that 

 what you would consider the most desirable location, all 

 things considered, might be found on the same side of the 

 ocean where you are now. 



2. With that amount of money the investment would be 

 mainly in bees and their hives, some part being needed for the 

 necessary supplies and tools. The purchase of land for a 

 permanent location would have to come later, unless- in some 

 location where land had little value. 



3. It wouldn't do to depend for a living on the sale of wax 

 and honey. A man should at least have enough ahead to sup- 

 port himself for two years, for it isn't so very uncommon to 

 have two successive years of entire failure, and the line of 

 years of failure might stretch out farther than that. 



4. The field of queen-rearing is greatly overworkt. To 

 be successful, time, experience, and money in advertising 

 must be freely used. 



5. Probably more Italians by far than any other race are 

 now demanded. A catalog before me gives select tested 

 queen, January, February, March, .S3. 00; April, May, June, 

 S2.50; July, August, September, October, §2.25; Novem- 

 ber, December, $2.50. But the number of such queens sold 

 is exceedingly small — probably not one for every hundred un- 

 tested sold for a dollar or less. 



6. That depends altogether upon your own proficiency in 

 any line. Nearly anything that you can remuneratively do 

 can be workt along with bee-keeping. Poultry-raising might 

 be mentioned as specially suitable. 



Putting on Super§ — Swarming;. 



What time should the supers be put on ? Does it inter- 

 fere with swarming ? I would like to have all colonies swarm 

 that will. W. J. S. 



Answer. — Putting supers on early has some tendency to 

 prevent swarming. If you want to make sure that they shall 

 swarm, let them be somewhat contracted for room. But this 

 might be carried too far, and it isn't best to delay too long 

 patting on supers. 



^M « ^^ 



Plans for Transferrine. 



1. I have a few colonies of bees in movable-frame hives 

 that I wish to transfer into other and better frame hives. I 

 to-day set a second brood-chamber filled with full sheets of 

 foundation on top of two of them, with nothing between them, 

 thinking they would move upstairs shortly. Can I reasonably 

 expect them to do so, after which I will destroy the old in- 

 ferior hive, or will I have to adopt some other plan, the Hed- 

 don plan, for instance ? 



2. If not that, how would the following plan do : After 

 a week or 10 days, chauge places with the brood-chambers, 

 putting the old one on top, shaking all the bees down into the 

 other, then put between them a queen-excluder, allowing 

 them to run in this manner for 21 days, then shake all the 

 bees out of the upper hive and destroy it. If you know of any 

 better plan, please tell it. Northern Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. This plan is not at all sure of being a suc- 

 cess. One reason for this is that bees naturally put their 

 stores above their brood, working downward. You're expect- 

 ing them to work upward. With no excluder to confine the 



queen above, you will probably not get the brood out of the 

 lower story all summer. Even with an excluder, I've known 

 queens to sulk — In one case for weeks — refusing to lay up- 

 stairs. On the other hand, it happens only too often, that 

 queens will go upstairs and lay there when it is not desired. 



The Heddon plan is used chiefly in transferring from box- 

 hives, but there is no reason why it might not also be used 

 with frame hives. 



2. Your second plan is all right, and you needn't wait any 

 10 days, providing the colony is strong. At the end of three 

 weeks you'll have honey to extract from the upper frames, 

 with no brood in the way, unless It be a little sealed drone- 

 brood. 



If the colony is not strong (or if you had begun a little 

 earlier in the season), a good plan is to take out of the old 

 hive all combs not containing brood, filling up the space with 

 dummies, setting the old hive on the new one, obliging the 

 bees to use the new one for any entrance. Then as the colony 

 needed more room it would of its own accord begin to occupy 

 the frames of the lower hive with brood, when you could put 

 an excluder between, making sure that the queen was in the 

 lower story. 



Honey Crowding Out Brood. 



What ought I to do ? I have 20 colonies, and about one- 

 half of the hives are so full of honey that they have not room 

 enough for brood. I have no extractor. J. T. K. 



Answer. — One way of remedying the trouble is to get an 

 extractor. Another is to take out one or more frames of 

 honey from each hive, replacing with frames of foundation. 

 Quite possibly, however, you may find the trouble correcting 

 Itself, for this time of year bees consume a large amount of 

 honey in brood-rearing, and don't gather as fast as they use it. 



A Beginner's Questions. 



1. Last fall I "took up" a few colonies of bees, and put 

 out the brood-comb, as there was some unsealed honey, for 

 the other bees to clean out. Does that teach them to rob, as 

 they went to robbing a short time after ? 



2. Will the hive that they robbed last fall do to put a 

 swarm in this summer, as the comb looks clean ? 



3. Do bees rear a queen (in the spring) themselves when 

 the old one dies in the winter ? 



4. How long does a worker-bee generally live? 



5. May I come again ? V. E. H. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, that would do something toward mak- 

 ing them inclined to rob other colonies, providing there were 

 others too weak to protect themselves, biit it would not affect 

 them at the present time to any noticeable extent. Probably 

 not many engaged in the affair last fall are now living, and 

 those that are still alive have not a vivid recollection of it. 



2. Yes, it's all right. 



3. If a queen dies in the winter, leaving no eggs in the 

 hive, it is impossible for the workers to rear a successor. If 

 she dies in early spring, before bees get to flying much, the 

 bees may rear a successor from eggs or larva5 present, but 

 such queens are not likely to prove of much value. 



4. A worker that first sees the light now, will live about 

 six weeks. That is, six weeks is about the life of a worker 

 during the season of busy work. They literally wear them- 

 selves out at work, and the less they do the longer they will 

 live, within reasonable limits. Bees hatcht late in the season 

 live several months, continuing throughout the winter and 

 helping to get work started the next spring. A queen lives 

 usually two or three years, altho sometimes a 4-year-old may 

 do good work, and in rare cases they may attain the ripe age 

 of 6 years. 



5. Yes, come on whenever you have some good, healthy 

 questions. 



The Horse— Ho-w to Break and Handle.— 



This is a pamphlet of 32 pages, giving complete instructions 

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 which have never before been publisht, and which are the re- 

 sult of the author's experience covering a period of 20 years. 

 By Prof. Wm. Mullen, with whom the editor of the Bee Jour- 

 nal is personally acquainted. Price, postpaid, 20 cents : or 

 given as a premium for sending us one new subscriber to the 

 Bee Journal for the rest of the year at 50 cents. 



