458 



AMERICAN BEE JOUKMAU 



July 17, 1902. 



with the queen. I suspect, however, that the supposition is 

 that they are at least such that there is no question about 

 the safety of the queen with them. I also take it for granted 

 that the old queen has been removed from the colony placed 

 over. In that case I should expect the plan to succeed, 

 especially if honey was coming in freely. But I should 

 expect a good manj- bees to perish during the 36 hours im- 

 prisonment. Having the queen all right with two frames 

 of brood and bees, perhaps you might like better the follow- 

 ing way: Let the colony to be requeened be queenless a 

 day or two ; then place over it a hive with two brood, bees, 

 and queen, having between the stories a heavy piece of 

 paper or two or three thickness of newspaper, with a hole 

 large enough to allow just one bee to pass from one story 

 to the other. If honey is yielding when this is done, you 

 need have little fear as to the result. 



2. I would respect a queen whose workers were doing 

 exceptionally good work, no matter what her color or pedi- 

 gree. 



3. I have studied over this question quite a little, and I 

 can't make out what you mean. I should understand it to 

 mean the method of requeening mentioned in the first 

 question, you buying the new queens, as you speak of its 

 being as profitable as to bother with rearing queens; but 

 right after that you say new blood would have to be added, 

 and you wouldn't need to add new blood if you bought your 

 queens. If you will tell me what method you mean, I'll try 

 my best to answer. 



4. In using bisulphide of carbon stack up the supers 

 and place the drug on top, as you say, and the length of 

 time is not very material. At a guess, I should say that 

 the work might be done fairly well in an hour ; but 24 

 would be better. 



5. The gas evaporates and diffuses itself through the 

 air very rapidly, so that after the cellar is opened and aired 

 for a few hours there would be no danger of an explosion. 



Swarming Qiuestions. 



1. I had a small colony of bees in a hive for about a 

 week ; I then had a large swarm come out, and hived it ; it 

 stayed in the hive over night, but in the morning came out 

 and went in with the small colony. After they left the 

 hive I looked to see whether they had any comb, and there 

 were two queens, and two bunches of bees inside with a 

 queen about dead. Do you think they had all of these 

 queens with them when they swarmed ? They went into 

 this other hive and carried out another queen. 



2. Yesterday I was watching a swarm work, and I saw 

 a queen come out and fly away ; she was gone about three 

 minutes and came back again ; it was a second swarm. 

 What made her do this ? 



3. I had a second swarm yesterday, and this morning 

 I saw a dead queen lying on the alighting-board. Why did 

 this queen die ? Was she an old or a young one ? The dead 

 queen was on the old alighting-board. New Jersey. 



Answers. — 1. It will not do to be too positive about 

 such things, but this may be a fair guess : There was a 

 plurality of queens in the strong swarm, and for some rea- 

 son the bees divided into factions, and part swarmed out 

 with one of the queens, going in with the small swarm. 

 The small swarm had a queen before, and now two were in 

 the hive, and you saw one of them carried out dead. Some- 

 times a half dozen queens may be in an after-swarm. 



2. She was out on her bridal trip. 



3. Two or more queens were in the swarm, and all but 

 one were killed — not an uncommon thing with an after- 

 swarm. 



Why Dead Cells ?-Separators Races of Bees— Bitter- 

 weed Honey. 



1. I gave a colony young brood from which to rear a 

 queen. They made as fine cells as I ever saw. After wait. 

 ing some time I opened them and found both were dead. 

 What caused them to die ? We did not have weather below 

 56 degrees during that time. 



2. Suppose I use drone-comb starters for extracting 

 frames, will the bees be likely to build the whole comb 

 drone-comb? If so, how wide should the starters be? If 

 not, how can I get drone-comb built ? 



3. Suppose I use separators, would the bees be likely to 

 build nice comb honey without starters ? If not, how can I 

 fasten the starters without a regular outfit ? 



4. Do you know anything about the Carniolans, 



Syrians, Holj' Land or Cyprian races of bees ? If so, how 

 do they work and sting compared with the full-blooded 

 Italians ? How do they do crossed with the blacks or Ital- 

 ians ? 



5. Would you advise me to have a few colonies of either 

 or all four races with 75 colonies of blacks, hybrids and 

 Italians ? 



6. Some times I see 3 or 4 bees around one bee ; they 

 don't seem to be trying to kill it, but act as if they were 

 talking to it. What are they doing ? 



" Mississippi " asked you if bitter-weed honey was bitter ; 

 you told him you thought it was. You should try to eat 

 some of it. I would like to see you when you try it. It is 

 very pretty honey — looks as yellow as gold. 



Al,AB.\MA. 



Answers. — 1. With weather at S6 degree there might 

 be no danger of chilling brood, providing the weather con- 

 tinued at that or near that all the time. But if the weather 

 were a good deal warmer than that for a good many days, 

 and then a drop to 56 degrees there might be danger. For 

 during the warm weather the circle of brood would expand, 

 and then thq cluster, shrinking on a cool night, the edges 

 of the combs — the place where the queen-cells are most 

 likely to be — would be exposed and cells killed. 



2. With starters of drone-comb there will be more drone- 

 comb built than with starters of worker-comb, but I should 

 hardly expect bees to fill a whole story with drone-comb. 

 The only sure way would be to have drone-foundation — a 

 thing not easily obtained because there is no demand for it. 

 Are you sure you want drone-combs ? 



3. You cannot depend upon the bees building in the 

 right place without starters. Some who have no regular 

 foundation-fastener use melted wax to fasten the founda- 

 tion. 



4. There are those who prefer each one of these differ- 

 ent kinds, but the majority prefer Italians. 



5. It would do no harm to try them, so long as your bees 

 are not unmixed at present. 



6. They act that way toward a strange bee, sometimes ; 

 just as a policeman might hold you up and question you if 

 he should find you on his beat in the middle of the night in 

 a strange city. 



Virgin Queens Uniting with a Swarm. 



When a swarm issues from a colony having a clipped 

 queen, and a virgin queen comes out to mate, and goes 

 among the swarm, will she return to the nucleus from which 

 she came, or will she settle with the swarm ? 



Bees are about starving here (June 30) ; the weather has 

 been so cold, and now it is so wet the bees cannot gather 

 anything. Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — When a virgin issues from the nucleus to 

 make her wedding-trip, she generally returns to the nucleus, 

 but occasionally enters a wrong hive, and there is a possi- 

 bility that she might be induced to unite with a swarm 

 without any reference to the drones in that swarm. 



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