Sept. 11, 1902. 



AMEPICAN BEE JOURNAL 



587 



unusual case, except that it is very unusual for bees to pa.s8 

 over so unich space as four feet. Kven if the hives are four 

 feet from center to center, they passed over a pretty lonp 

 journey to be made on foot. 



♦-•--* 



Virgin Queen. 



1. How soon can a virgin queen's wing be clipped after 

 she leaves the cell 7 



2. How soon will she commence to lay ? 



3. Will she mate if her wing^s arc clipped as soon as she 

 leaves ? 



4. How often do they mate ? 



5. How would it work to put the entrance-guards on 

 during the swarming season, and not allow the queen to go 

 with the swarm at all ? 



6. Are the queens mated that are sent out? Is it safe 

 to clip their wings as soon as they are received ? 



Iowa. 



Answkks. — 1. A queen should not be clipped till she 

 begins to lay. 



2. She will lay at the age of ten days, sometimes sooner 

 and sometimes later than that. 



3. No. 



4. Once. 



5. It works all right if you take the proper care after- 

 ward. It will not do to leave the entrance-guard on per- 

 manently. The old queen must be allowed to take her wed- 

 ding-flight. 



6. Yes, unless it were specially stipulated otherwise, no 

 queen-rearer would send out a queen that had not already 

 commenced to lay, at least no honest one would. It is safe 

 to clip the wing of any queen that has begun to lay. 



Prevention of Swarming. 



On page 499, under the heading " Prevention of Swarm- 

 ing," you say that you never knew of a colony of bees, after 

 they had reared a queen and she had commenced to lay, to 

 swarm that season. Now, if I understand the meaning of 

 that item, I have had just such an experience this season. 

 About May 20 I made a nucleus for 2 frames of brood, and 

 all adhering bees, from a strong colony ; they reared a 

 queen, and in about 10 days after starting the nucleus I gave 

 them 2 more frames of brood, but no bees, and in due time 

 the queen commenced to lay, and, as soon as she got to laying 

 well, I commenced to spread the brood until she had an 8- 

 fraine hive full, and they increased very fast. I gave them 

 a super (shallow one) of drawn estracting-combs, and on 

 August 5 they cast as tine a swarm as I have had this sea- 

 son ; they stored a little honey in the combs, on top, but not 

 to amount to much. They were given full combs all the 

 time to work on, so they did not have to draw out any. The 

 queen is from good Italian stock, but is mated with a biack 

 drone. I think this covers the case. If I am mistaken 

 please let me know. Ilijnois. 



Answer. — Referring to page 499, I find I am quoted as 

 saying that one way to prevent swarming was to get the 

 bees to rear a queen about swarming-time, and when a col- 

 ony has itself reared a young queen (of course about swarm- 

 ing-time, as before mentioned), I never knew or heard of 

 such a colony swarming till next year. The case you men- 

 tioned does not come within the requirements I have given. 

 The queen was reared in a nucleus, not in a colony, and then 

 with some aid it grew to a colony. It is possible there may 

 be an exception to the rule given, but it was given by a man 

 of no less experience than the lamented C. J. H. Gravenhorst; 

 but you will notice that the young qneen must be reared in 

 afiill colony about swarming-time. 



A Failing ttueen— Queens in tiie Mails. 



1. July 10 I had a very strong colony to swarm, and in 

 due time the young queen was mated, and she laid only a 

 very small patch of eggs in 3 combs, and she has not, or 

 will not, lay another e.%^. All the brood has hatched, and 

 not a sign of an egg is to be seen in the combs. The queen is 

 very small. Why is it that this queen will not lay any more ? 

 Do you think she will lay in the future ? 



2. I have some queens that are 3 years old. Would you 

 remove them and introduce young queens? These old 

 queens are extra-good stock. 



3. Do you know of any queen-breeder who can rear 



queens fully equal to natural-swarming queens ? If you 

 know of such a breeder, name him ; I want to buy such 

 queens. The queens that I buy are worth about as much as 

 a one-cent postage stamp, and it cancelled. 



4. Do you know that the .\inerican Bee Journal is the 

 best paper published ? West V'ikginia. 



Answeks. — 1. I don't know why she should fail in such 

 a sudden manner, but there is probably no hope that she 

 will ever be good for anything. 



2. A queen is never old enough to kill so long as she is 

 doing exceptionally good work. 



3. I suppose a number of them can, but it would hardly 

 be the right kind of advertising to give their names here. It 

 is possible, however, that no queen that reached you is as 

 good as when mailed. The handling of mail pouches is 

 worse in some places than others, as when a pouch is thrown 

 from a mail-car when the train is going at the rate of 40 

 miles an hour, and all queens received by you through the 

 mails may have an unusually rough experience. 



4. Well, now — that is — you see, if I should say yes, the 



editor would have to get a new hat of a larger size ; if I 



should say no, he'd get mad and hire some other fellow to 



answer these questions, and then I'd lose a lot of fun. I don't 



quite like to say I don't know, so I'll say I'm keeping it a 



secret. 



♦-•-» 



Fastening Bees in Hives in Winter. 



Do you think it is advisable to fasten bees in with wire- 

 screen in winter, to keep mice out ? I did that last winter 

 but my bees were very uneasy. I carried them out-of-doors 

 several days but that would only content them for a short 

 time; they would come out and fill the entrance. They seem 

 to be doing very well this summer. Of course our text-book 

 tells us we must have our cellar mice-proof, but as we can- 

 not all be so fortunate I would like to have some advice. 



Io\v.\. 



Answer. — It's all right to keep mice out with wire- 

 screen, but all wrong to keep bees in. Use heavy wire- 

 cloth with three meshes to the inch, and the mice will be 

 kept out without fastening the bees in. 



Dragging Out Young Bees. 



I found your answer to my question, on page 473, re- 

 garding the whole destruction of "young bees'" (I note 

 your destruction to my term "brood"), and was disap- 

 pointed that you could not explain it. At the time I wrote 

 I forgot to say that not only were the young bees driven 

 from the hive, but in many cases their wings were cut off, 

 not a vestige of a wing to be seen, but in cases where there 

 were wings there was no tremulous motion as you describe 

 indicating paralysis. It could not have been from poison- 

 ing or there would have been old bees crawling about as 

 well. It seems strange that you have never met with nor 

 heard of such a case in your experience. 



The colony I wrote you of, to which I gave an Italian 

 queen, now has young Italians in the field, and yet occa- 

 sionally I see a grown bee come out dragging with it a 

 kicking, struggling Italian youngster, and either flies away 

 with it or drops it near by. California. 



Answer. — I am sorry to say that I can do nothing more 

 than to confess ignorance, and will be glad to yield the 

 floor to any one who can help out. The mutilated wings 

 suggest the work of wax-worms, but on page 473 you say 

 "all are perfectly free from moths," and paralysis and 

 poisoning ar6 now ruled out. Can any one of the numerous 

 American Bee Journal family give any hint as to the trouble 

 of our good friend ? 



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 the name of the finest bee-keeper's song — words by Hon. 

 Eugene Secor and ■ music by Dr. C. C. Miller. This is 

 thought by some to be the best bee-song yet written by Mr. 

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 furnish a single copy of it postpaid, for 10 cents, or 3 copies 

 for 25 cents. Or, we will mail a half-dozen copies of it for 

 sending us one new yearly subscription to the American 

 Bee Journal at $1.00. 



