April 10, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



233 



Heddon plan is perhaps as g^ood as any, but nowadays it ig 

 thougiit by many to be a better plan to let the bees swarm, 

 hiviiifj the swarm in an improved hive, and then at the ind 

 of 21 days drive out the rcmainititr bees and set the old line 

 off to one side for the bees to rob out. If you prefer not 

 to wait for this, you can transfer in fruit-bloom. 



2. Honey in sections will answer nicely. It depends un 

 circumstances how you can feed them. In a frame hive 

 they can be put in frames. Hut in your box-hive they must 

 either be above or below. If thoy can be put above .md 

 covered up bee-tight, they will be safe from robber-bees. If 

 below, give them in the evening when bees have stopped 

 flying, and be sure the bees make a start on them right 

 away. To do this it may be necessary to pound on the hive 

 to rouse them enough to come down. Sometimes, however, 

 the cluster of bees will be down so near the bottom-board 

 that the bees will readily attack a section lying on the lloor, 

 the bottoms of the combs perhaps touching the section. A 

 colony short of stores, however, is not likely to have the 

 cluster down very low. 



3. Yes, if there is room to push the sections under, or if 

 the hives can be raised from loose bottoms. 



4. Yes, if worked carefully. 



5. Yes, if it is bright and still. 



f>. Catch the queen, being careful not to hold her by the 

 abdomen or hinder part ; hold her with the left hand, her 

 stinger pointing to your right, then with a pair of scissors 

 clip off half or more of the two wings on one side. Clip her 

 at any time convenient after warm weather comes. 



7. Yes, I should want the queen clipped, even if I were 

 in the apiary every hour of the day. 



Transferring from Box-Hives— Yellow-Pine Hives. 



Has any one tried to transfer bees from box-hives to mov- 

 able-frame hives by making a cover to fit the latter hive, and 

 cutting a hole in the top just to fit the bos-hive, and set 

 the box-hive on top, stopping all cracks to force the bees out 

 through the new hive, as it is their custom to build below ? 

 "Would they eventually take up their quarters in the new 

 hive ? If so, when is the proper time to take off the old 

 box ? 



1. I am a beginner. Last summer I bought 6 colonies of 

 bees for $5.00, 3 hybrids, 1 black, 2 Italians, and want to 

 transfer them this spring into Langstroth hives. 



2. Will bees do any good in yellow-pine hives ? I use 

 white pine, but yellow is much cheaper. Ilwnois. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, that has been done, but it is not al- 

 ways the most satisfactory. You will have the old hive 

 filled with honey that is not in the most satisfactory shape. 

 If you decide to use the plan, cut away all you can from the 

 lower part of the box-hive, cutting away some of the lower 

 edge of the combs — the object is to leave just as little room 

 as possible in the old hive. You could take off the old hive 

 any time after it was so filled with honey that there was no 

 brood in it. Or, you could take it off as soon as the lower 

 hive contained three or four frames of brood, and three 

 weeks later drum the bees out of the old hive. 



2. From what I know of yellow pine, I don't believe it 

 would be as cheap as white pine, in the long run. If exposed 

 to the weather it will soak the water when it rains, and 

 soon rot. 



Transferring Bees. 



A colony of bees was given me for a present last Novem- 

 ber. The colon}- was very weak, but had sufficient stores 

 for winter, as my friend asserted. Knowing nothing what- 

 ever about bees, I sent for " A B C of Bee-Culture " and 

 studied up " wintering." I then made a good chaff hive. I 

 carefully packed the hive with the super on, and put about 3 

 inches of chaff' on top of the super cover. The whole is at 

 present on a box out in the yard under a tree. 



Shortly after I had put the hive on its stand, honey be- 

 gan to flow out of one side of the entrance. The flow is in- 

 creasing and has spread more than half way across the 

 opening. On looking in, and running a wire in, I found a 

 comb lying on the bottom-board, under the center frames. 

 I suppose that during transportation one of the combs broke 

 loose and fell against the next one. and so on. The evil 

 seems to be increasing, and I do not know what to do. 



The hive is a dovetailed 8-frame Langstroth, but in the 

 spring I would like to put the bees into a Danzenbaker hive. 

 Under the circumstances, I cannot transfer by the Heddon 

 method. 



1. Do you think the following plan practicable? I 

 would take off the Langstroth super and put a Danz. brood- 

 chamber with frames tilled with foundation on top of the 

 old brood-chamber. The Oaiiz. is 3'/i inches wider, but I 

 would make that open space bie-tight. I then would drive 

 bees and queen into the Danz. hive by drumming on the 

 sides of the old hive. Would they build comb and bring up 

 the honey and commence rearing brood in the new hive? 

 If they would do that, I would leave them in this position 

 until they had cleaned out the lower hive, then I would re- 

 move it and put the Danz. on its own liottom-board in the 

 same place, and give it a super with sections and starters. 



2. Would it be advisable for me under thecircumstances 

 to change to the Danz. system ? Iowa. 



An.swkrs. — 1. No, your plan would not work. If you 

 should drum the bees up into an empty hive every day, 

 every day they would go back to their combs in the lower 

 hive when you stop drumming. Leave them as they are till 

 fruit-bloom begins, and then drum if you must ; but if you 

 drum them out of the old hive you must not leave it below 

 for them to go back into. It may be, however, that the 

 combs are not so badly broken but you can get them cut, 

 and fasten back in the frames those that are broken out. 



2. It is not at all certain that you would gain anything 

 by the change. 



Requeening— Helping tlie Bees Get Up. 



1. I wish to requeen several colonies this spring, with 

 as little loss as possible. Will this plan work with bees with 

 queen-cells ? Place the old queen with some brood above 

 the excluder, give a ripe cell below, and when hatched and 

 mated take the old queen away. 



2. Another plan to supersede the old queen, put capped 

 brood and a cell over a wire screen on top of the hive to be 

 requeened with the entrance in front, so that when mating 

 she will return to the lower entrance and take possession 

 below. 



3. Sometimes having queenless colonies in the spring, 

 and wishing to introduce fertilequeens to them, will this plan 

 work ? Take two or more frames of capped brood, place 

 over them a wire screen, give the queen to capped brood im- 

 mediately, and when hatched unite with the bees below. 

 Which is the best way to unite ? 



4. How do bees get up among the combs when loaded 

 with honej'. when using a deep entrance ? Do they have to 

 go up the sides, or rear end ? Would it be best to put a nar- 

 row plank crosswise, thick enough for them to crawl up on, 

 about the center of the hive ? 



Answers.— 1. Doubtful. 



2. Still doubtful. 



3. It will probably work all right. Unite by shifting 

 the wire screen so the bees can have a passag'e at one side. 

 After a few days remove the wire screen. 



4. Don't you worry about giving them any help. They 



can fly right in and alight on the bottom-bars, or they can 



climb up at the sides. But don't leave a deep space under 



the bottom-bars in harvest, or the bees will build down into 



it. 



#-•-*- 



Managing tlie Increase. 



I have 6 colonies of bees and want to get 4 or 5 swarms 

 from them in June. I will be on the road at that time 3 

 days at a time, as long as a week at a time. I have the 8- 

 frame super with 5's-inch frames. 



1. Would it be better to have 2 such supers for each 

 hive, as I have not enough to change from one to the other, 

 as the one is nearly filled ? 



2. The caging of the queen and the bee-entrance guards 

 are a little out of place with me, as I am not advanced 

 enough in the business, so I will ask what I need. If I am 

 at home when they swarm, I can handle them all right ; but 

 when I am obliged to be away for 3 or 5 days, and perhaps 

 a week, I am lost, and do not know what to do to save a few 

 swarms. Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. I am not sure whether I understand )'0U. 

 You should have for each colony as many supers as the bees 

 will fill during the season, and one extra, for you will not 

 know just exactly when the season will close, and the last 

 super given may have little or nothing done with it. If 

 you mean that you intend to take the sections out of the 

 supers as fast as a superful is finished, then you may be 

 able to get along with two for each colony, but you mustn't 



