602 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 18, 1902. 



ony not strong it would not be safe to put all the brood 

 from another colony on it, without giving bees also, as the 

 brood might get chilled. But in warm weather, and a strong 

 colony, the more brood given the better. I could not say 

 that the colony with its double load of brood would not 

 swarm, but if the queen has room to lay below, and the 

 bees room above to store, they will not be likely to swarm, 

 or at least no more likely to than any other strong colony. 

 In regard to the colony swarming out when all the 

 brood is taken away, I suppose you fear that under such cir- 

 cumstances they might be discouraged, and desert the hive. 

 They might do so, but in my experience they never do. But 

 if they would in your locality, leave one comb with a small 

 patch of unsealed larvae, and you will not be likely to lose 

 any bees. In hiving natural swarms, I find they will some- 

 times leave a hive when given eggs and sealed brood, but 

 have never had one leave unsealed trood. 



Caufornia. 



Answkk. — It's a pretty clear -case that we will never be 

 able to learn all about bees, for when we think we are set- 

 tled upon some one thing, our bees or the bees of some one 

 else, apparently with no other object but to get the laugh 

 on us, topple over settled notions by doing just the reverse 

 of what they have done before. I felt safe in saying that if 

 there was foundation in the lower story the queen would 

 use it. and you thought better work would be done with 

 foundation than without it. Well, since the former words 

 were written, I have had a case in which foundation was 

 given and left untouched, and at the same time another col- 

 ony had empty frames given below, not even starters, and the 

 queen commenced laying with more promptness than any 

 case I had with foundation ! There are some things I know 

 all about, but not about bees. 



The practice of giving a frame of brood to the bees to 

 preven' discouragement, is, I think, the practice of Mr. L. 

 Stachplhausen. If the bees will not desert, it is no doubt 

 better to omit the brood, for Mr. Stachelhausen, if I remem- 

 ber rightly, takes it away in a day or two, because the bees 

 are likely to start queen-cells on it. 



Storing a BlacK Llauid. 



My bees for about one week after August 1 stored some 

 black, or nearly black, liquid in part of the brood-combs. 

 What is it ? May it be from huckleberry or blueberry 

 juices ? Massachusetts. 



ANS^VBR. — Your guess is perhaps as good as can be 

 made, providing such berries were ripe and within reach. 



Drone-Eggs In the Super— Pollen in the Sections- 

 Swarming, Etc. 



a very good one. She was reared in 1899, and is so large 

 that she never could go through the zinc. Could she have 

 >gone through, she would surely have laid more eggs in the 

 sections than only 2. The difference in the a^e of the 2 eggs 

 Was about 8 days. I have seen it stated that bees would 

 carry eggs to different parts of the hive, but I never believed 

 it. But this experience put me at sea, and makes me almost 

 believe they do. 



4. Out of 75 queens reared in June about SO swarmed in 

 August, and the others would have done so, too, if it had 

 not turned to the freezing-point at night. 



Wisconsin. 



Answers. — 1. I wish you had given the page to which 

 you refer, so that we could know just what was under dis- 

 cussion. For you are now talking about queens laying 

 worker-eggs in sections, whereas you quote a question about 

 drone-eggs. I suspect the answer was all right, for when 

 there is no chance for drone-brood in the brood-chamberthe 

 bees will be likely to prepare drone-comb in the super if 

 there is a chance for it, and the queen is likely to lay there 

 if she can get there. There are, however, cases in which 

 she will do as you say^enter the super and fill not only one, 

 but many sections, full of worker-brood. Just why those 

 exceptions occur where separators are used and sections 

 filled with foundation, I do not know. 



2. You are probably right, that perforated zinc has lit- 

 tle or no effect in preventing pollen from being carried into 

 the sections, and I am not sure I know what will prevent it, 

 although it is very rare to find such a thing in my own ex- 

 perience. It is possible you can prevent it by use of a 

 deeper brood-chamber, for I think the more shallow the 

 brood-combs the more likely will the bees be to carry pollen 

 into the sections. 



3. Some one has suggested that when an egg is found 

 in a story over an excluder, a laying queen being below, 

 that an enterprising laying worker has been in the upper 

 story. I don't know. 



4. If those SO queens were reared in the same colonies 

 that swarmed with them, it is something different from 

 anything on record. If they were reared elsewhere and in- 



' troduced into the colonies with which they afterward 

 swarmed, there is nothing so unusual about it. 



1. Lately a question was asked, " What makes the 

 queen lay drone-eggs in the supers ? " To this you answer, 

 " Want of drone-comb ? " Now if this is the only cause in 

 your location, and with your bees, I live in a much different 

 locality, or else have a much different strain of bees, for 

 those critters of mine will breed just as fast in the supers as 

 they will in the brood-chamber, if the conditions are right, 

 and not drones, either. For I have taken off the finest sec- 

 tions of worker-brood any bee-keeper ever saw — not a sin- 

 gle cell missed, combs attached to three sides, not a drop of 

 honey in them, but filled from top to bottom with worker- 

 brood. Those sections not having brood in them had more 

 or less pollen, which makes them unsalable. 



2. How can bi;es be prevented from carrying pollen into 

 the sections? The queen-excluding zinc does not prevent 

 the bees from working in the sections, nor do I think it 

 hampers them at all. for I have tried it on hundreds of colo- 

 nies, side by side. But the zinc does not prevent the pollen 

 from going into the sections, if the bees are determined to 

 put it in there. 



3. I had a singular occarrence recently, something I 

 never saw before. Four supers of unfinished sections were 

 placed on a hive, to be finished with extracted honey, over a 

 queen-excluding zinc. On taking off those 4 supers, when 

 finished, a few days ago, 4 of the sections had been emptied 

 by the bees, the combs reduced to brood-comb depth, some 

 pollen in them, and on the bottom of one of them a queen- 

 cell ready to be sealed; and on another one a queen-cell 

 cup with an egg in it, standing on its end as if deposited by 

 a queen, but not another ^^^ could be found in any other 

 cell, and the queen wa-s down in the brood-chamber, and is 



fl 



The Apiary of Wm. Housel is shown on the firstpage. 

 When sending the picture he wrote as follows : 



I send a photograph of my bee-yard, or part of it, which 

 contains 100 colonies ; not all is shown, as the camera would 

 not take all of them in. 



I have been in the bee-business since 1888, and have had 

 a few failures as well as success. 



I have taken the American Bee Journal since 1889 or 

 1890, and have been well paid for the money invested. 



At one time my bees were all Italians, but now they are 

 hybrids and Germans. It has taken me just 12 years to 

 find out that the Italian is no good for me for comb honey. 

 I would not give my blacks for all the Italians in the land. 

 I will give the Italian bees credit for one thing ; that is, 

 they are great swarmers. I find all alike as to swarming, 

 as I have had bees from different breeders. I spent $20 for 

 Italian queens to breed from, and never found one of them 

 equal to the ones I rear. I believe all queens are injured in 

 the mails, or in caging. The blacks always give me the 

 largest yield of comb honey, and not only the largest yield, 

 but the finest honey. The Italians never fill the sections 

 full, and do not cap the honey as white. Hurrah for the 

 little black bee ! I give the man praise who speaks up for 

 the black bee, and if you were to change color — put the yel- 

 low bands on the blacks and the dark bands on the Italians, 

 and let the temper and honey-gathering qualities be as they 

 are — they would all jump for the blacks. It is the color 

 and gentleness the most people are after, not fine work. 



The Italians do no more work on red clover than the 

 blacks, and not so much on buckwheat, and the blacks will 

 hold them a good round on anything that is fit for honey. 

 I often see it asked : " Why do the Italians store better 

 honey than the blacks ?" If those people just reverse the 

 question they will come nearer right, according to my ex- 

 perience. I give the bee the credit it deserves, minus color 

 or length of tongue. I do not know how long the tongues 

 of my bees are, but the other end is plenty long enough I 

 Monmouth Co., N. J. Wm. HoDSBL. 



The Hremlums offered this week are well worth working 

 for. Look at them. 



