1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



535 



all queens before they are three years old, if not before they 

 are two. For you would clip a queen this year in June, just 

 the same as you cl.pt one 2'J or 2-i months older. Father 

 Langstroth, I think it was, who suggested the plan of clipping 

 one of the large wings of a queen upon first commenciiiR to 

 lay, a year later clipping another wing, and the following 

 year a third, and perhaps a fourth a year later. 



There is no necessity for my clipping differently in differ- 

 ent years, for my record book, which always goes with me to 

 the apiary, shows at a glance the age of every queen. If I 

 depended only upon the looks of the wings, I would have to 

 find the queen herself to know her age, instead of merely 

 glancing at the book. I clip the left wings simply because it 

 is more convenient. 



2. I doubt whether drone-foundation in the supers would 

 prevent the building of drone-comb in the brood-nest. At the 

 time of the honey harvest there are two things that will 

 secure worker-comb in the brood-nest, the first being very 

 weak colonies, and the second full frames of worker founda- 

 tion. As we don't want the first, we are practically shut up 

 to the last. Supposing that we had drone-foundation in the 

 supers and worker-comb in the brood-nest, there will come a 

 demand for drone-brood, and no drone-comb being in the 

 brood-nest, the queen will go up and lay in the supers. She 

 may be prevented from this by a queen-excluder, but in that 

 case the workers will hold some drone-cells vacant in the sec- 

 tions, waiting for the queen to lay in them. I very much 

 doubt whether you will like drone-combs in supers, and advise 

 you to try it on a very small scale. 



3. I don't know whether drone-foundation is now made, 

 altho formerly I think it was. At any rate I had foundation 

 from A. I. Root that was a compromise between drone and 

 worker, but it was not found desirable, and probably is not 

 now made. 



■i. Altho I do not depend upon bee-escapes to clear the 

 supers of bees, I do to some extent call on them for aid. When 

 a super is to be taken off, I generally want it to be taken into 

 the house the same day, and sometimes it must be taken from 

 the apiary within an hour, so there is no time to wait for the 

 sole operation of a bee-escape. The cover is taken off, and a 

 flood of smoke administered for a few seconds, and as soon as 

 a large part of the bees have gone out of the super it is taken 

 off and put in a pile with others till the pile contains 10 or 12 

 supers. At the bottom of the pile is a reversible bottom-board 

 with a Lareese escape on it, thus allowing any bees that so 

 desire to get out at the bottom, and at the top is an escape 

 that has not yet been christened, being a sort of cone escape 

 attached to a robber-cloth. A robber-cloth is simply a cloth 

 large enough to more than cover the super, having lath fast- 

 ened at two opposite sides, so you readily take hold of one 

 of the lath and with one hand throw the robber-cloth over the 

 super. The cone is a three-sided affair, made of common 

 wire-cloth, each side being an equilateral triangle with sides 

 8 or 10 inches long, and being placed centrally over the rob- 

 ber-cloth is sewed there, and the robber-cloth of course cut 

 open so the bees can get up through. With a chance for exit 

 at both bottom and top, the supers will be well emptied in the 

 course of a few hours, but sometimes at an out-apiary it may 

 happen that a super just taken off is to be taken home right 

 away, so it is taken from the hive set on end, and the bees all 

 driven out with smoke. When the flow of honey is heavy, 

 sometimes It is safe to let the supers stand on the hives, that is, 

 on the hive-covers after the hives are covered, till the bees 

 have all come out of their own accord ; but a sharp eye must 

 be out for robbers. 



Hiring Swarms — Robber Bees. 



1. In hiving a swarm of bees that has settled say ?4 of a 

 mile from the original hive, and then moving the hive some 

 distance from the settling place, what becomes of the bees 

 that are left around the place where they settled ? 



2. What will keep robber-bees away, and what can be 

 done with them ? K. T. B. 



Answers. — 1. Very likely they would return to their old 

 home, unless the removal was made some days after the 

 swarming, in which case a cluster might remain at the place 

 of settling until Ihey dwindled away. 



2. You can't keep robbers from coming around your 

 hives, but you can do something toward preventing their en- 

 trance. Contract the entrance, but not so much as to smother 

 the colony in a hot day. A robber likes to have a clear 

 course, so if you do anything to make a crooked passage into 

 a hive, it will be a help against robbers. One way is to have 

 the entrance of the hive closed entirely except a place at one 



end large enough for one or two bees at a time, having a 

 frame or two left out of that side of the hive, and a division- 

 board or dummy closing up the frames. The robbers don't 

 like to run the gauntlet through this vacant space and under 

 the division-board. But the be.'^t protection against robbers Is 

 a good, strong colony, so manage not to have any weak or 

 queenless colonies. Sometimes giving a queen to a colony 

 will give it heart to protect itself. If robbers have got a fair 

 start they may sometimes be stopt by piling hay or straw 

 loosely as high as the hive all around it, then keeping it well 

 wet with water. The bees of the colony will crawl through 

 the wet mass, but the robbers don't like to take the risk. 



A QiieslioM on Queen-Rearing. 



In a text-book on bees that I have, it says that a queen 

 reared in a hive after the old queen and field-bees have been 

 taken away, is not reared under favorable conditions, and 

 should be killed. Why is she not as good as one reared in 

 some other way ? The reason I ask i^, that I have a queen 

 reared in that way, and as far as I can see she is all right, for 

 she keeps the brood-combs full of eggs and brood all the time. 



W. W. L. 



Answer. — I don't know that I can tell all about the why, 

 but it is well known that a queen reared in a weak nucleus at 

 a time when forage is scarce is not as good as a queen reared 

 in a strong colony during the honey harvest. If the field-bees 

 are all taken away, no honey is coming in, and the young 

 queen-larva may not be so bountifully fed. Still, if every- 

 thing else is favorable, a good queen may be reared after the 

 removal of the field-bees. For example, take from a strong 

 colony its queen and remove the colony to a new stand, set- 

 ting colony number two in its place, and all the field-bees will 

 go to number two, leaving number one queenless and without 

 field-bees. Colony number one will rear good queens, but I 

 think they might be a little better if the removal had not been 

 made till after the queen-cells were sealed. 



Winterius — Yellow Bees — Carnlolans. 



1. I would like to have you tell why my bees died, and 

 left plenty of stores. I think it was ventilation. I lost 8 col- 

 onies in wintering, and only one survived the cold, late spring. 

 I lost 10 in all. I have a building 20x10 feet, shut up dark, 

 and with shutters in front. Would it be better to let them 

 have an entrance on the south side all winter, as the sun 

 shines warm on the front of the hives. Will they come out 

 and get chilled ? 



2. Are the yellow bees as hardy as the 3-banded? Which 

 strain do you think is best for our northern States ? 



3. Are the Carniolan bees grav or yellow, or both ? 



H. N. L. 



Answers. — 1. It isn't easy to say just what was the 

 trouble. Ventilation may and may not have been all right. 

 But as a rule bees do not winter well in buildings above 

 ground, altho some winter well in house-apiaries specially con- 

 structed. With a south entrance they might do better, but 

 there might be times with a dazzling snow when they would 

 be better not to be out. Perhaps wintering in the cellar is the 

 right plan for you. At any rate you might try part of your 

 bees that way. 



2. Bees with more than three yellow bands are not re- 

 ported as differing generally from others in hardiness, altho I 

 believe some say they have proved less hardy. 



o. Carniolan bees are gray. There are bees that are 

 called yellow Carniolans, said to be developt in this country 

 from gray Carniolans, but some say they have an admixture 

 of other blood. 



Encyclopedia for Bees'wax. — Some time ago we 

 offered a splendid work of eight large volumes, called "The 

 New Standard American Encyclopedia," having nearly 4,000 

 pages, and over 300 colored maps, charts, and diagrams. 

 Size of volume, 2 inches thick, S'o wide, and IIM long. As 

 per that offer, last publisht on page 186, the eight volumes 

 were offered by freight for only .SL'J cash. We can furnish 

 a set or two at that price, bound in half morroco ; or will ex- 

 change a set for 75 pounds of yellow beeswax, delivered at 

 our office. You would be more than satisfied with the En- 

 cyclopedia, and a set of such books ought to be in every 

 I family for reference. 



