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AMERICAN BEE JOUKNAL. 



Sept. 25, 1902 



them with a queen-excluder between. Do you know of anj' 

 better way to get ahead of the pesky things ? If you do, 

 you will greatly oblige me by telling it. Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know for sure the right answer to 

 your conundrum. Are you entirely sure that the queens 

 that behaved in such a naughty manner were the queens 

 you bought ? Unless specially stipulated that you were to 

 receive a virgin queen, no queen-dealer should send you a 

 queen that had not already begun to lay, and that laying 

 should come so early in her life that there should be no 

 question about her having mated. You do not explicitly 

 say that you found the queen in the hive that was filled 

 with drone-brood, but I take it for granted that you found 

 her from some things you say, otherwise the question might 

 be raised whether you did not have laying workers. It is 

 not probable that a queen that was all right when mailed 

 should immedately turn into a drone-layer ; but such a 

 thing is not entirely impossible. It might happen that a 

 young queen was present and that thequeen you introduced 

 was killed, but that would still leave the question a puzzling 

 one. With regard to the queen that did not lay any, if 

 there is no doubt that she was the one introduced, the ques- 

 tion is still more puzzling. A queen that lays eggs that 

 never hatch is a rare thing, and a queen that never lays at 

 all is still more rare. But such a thing has been known, 

 and yours seems to have been one of the very rare cases. 

 The flying out of the queen when the hive was opened 

 looks a little as if she was a young queen hardly old enough 

 to be laying. 



2. I hardly dare say your plan is not a good one, since 

 it is j('o;<;- plan, but you might try a plan that is at least 

 easier. The usual plan with a colony that is slow to go into 

 the supers is to put into the super one or more sections 

 partly drawn out. Indeed, it is the practice of many to put 

 a " bait-section," as such sections are called, in the first 

 super put on every hive. More surely still, perhaps, in 

 case of a stubborn colony, is the plan of putting in the mid- 

 dle of the super a section from another colony, bees and all, 

 the bees having already put some honey in the section. 



What Alls the Larvae ? 



I had 2 colonies of bees that had about '+ to '^ dead, 

 rotten brood in July. I could not see that the rotten larv;e 

 was stringy, nor did it smell badly. The colonies were 

 from two different apiaries. The rotten larva," dried up and 

 the bees could pull out the most of it, but some they could 

 not get out. Now the larvae is nearly all sealed over, but it 

 dries up and is not fully matured, and they uncap it and 

 drag it out ; some have wings and some have not. I have 

 2 more— yes, 3 more colonies — affected the same way. What 

 is the trouble with the bees ? Is it contagious 7 and what 

 is the best thing to do with them ? About nine-tenths of 

 the larva- hatches out all right, so the hives keep full of 

 bees in all but one. Iowa. 



Answer. — It does not seem like foul brood, and I don't 

 know what the trouble is. It might be a good thing to send 

 in a tin box a sample to Dr. Howard, of Fort Worth, Tex., 

 who, for S2. 00, will make a microscopical examination and 

 report to you. 



Storing Surplus Honey after Aug, 10. 



J. A. Watkins asks the question, " Do bees store any 

 honey after Aug. 10, in any of the Eastern States ? " Yes, 

 indeed ; were he living in Butler Co., Pa., he would find the 

 bees gather more honey after Aug. IS than all the rest of 

 the season. I have one colony in an Sfrarae hive from 

 which to-day (Sept. 1) I took 40 sections of nice honey ; it 

 has 32 more almost ready to seal, and is drawing out founda- 

 tion in 16 more; which I expect it will finish up, making 

 88 sections in all. This has all been started since Aug. 1,5, 

 1902. I have 13 other colonies that on Aug. 15 had no honey 

 in supers at all, and now they have in round numbers 537 

 sections, on an avenage of 41 sections per colony, all of 

 which will be completed in a few days. 



There is no need to feed bees here, as there are hundreds 

 of acres of buckwheat in full bloom, to make the busy bee 

 glad all the month of September. Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — I am thankful to say that much the same 

 thing can be said here as to the bees gathering since the 

 middle of August, so there will be no need to feed for win- 

 ter. But the hundreds of acres of buckwheat would not 

 have prevented feeding in June. 



Honey-Boards vs. Cloths— Comb Foundation- 

 Different Kinds of Bees. 



Merits of 



1. Are honey-boards better to use than gunny-cloth to 

 within one-half inch of walls of hives? A man with 13 

 years' experience here says that he has tried each way, and 

 the gunny-cloth is preferable. 



2. I received some samples of Dadant's comb founda- 

 tion, and find that between opposite angles the width of the 

 cells is 8-32 inch, while some natural comb that I have is 

 9 32 inches. Would not a 9-32 inch-wide-celi foundation be 

 the best ? 



3. How do bee-authorities stand on the respective merits 

 of different kinds of bees in regard to honey-gathering ? 



California. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. I think I should prefer 

 the board for summer and the cloth for winter. 



2. Natural comb varies, and I think the cells of worker 

 foundation will be found a trifle larger than the cells of 

 average natural comb. At one time foundation was tried 

 with cells considerably larger than made at present, but it 

 did not prove satisfactory. It is not likely that you would 

 find any advantage in having foundation with larger cells 

 than those in common use. 



3. There are more different opinions than different 

 kinds of bees ; but it is probable that the majority of bee- 

 keepers in this country prefer Italians. 



Introducing ftueens— Moving Bees. 



I introduced several queens last month, and looking 5 

 or 6 days afterward I found them laying, but in 2 or 3 cases 

 there were queen-cells, which I cut out. In looking again 5 

 days later I found in one colony some queen-cells with the 

 queens almost ready to emerge. 



1. What do you think would have happened if I had not 

 cut them out ? 



2. Is it necessary always to look for and cut out queen- 

 cells after introducing ? Last year I introduced a queen to 

 a colony of dark bees, and after seeing that she was laying, 

 I clipped her wing ; next spring I found a dark queen with 

 uncut wing there. If I had not cut the wing I should have 

 blamed the breeder for sending me a bad queen. 



3. I want to move some colonies a distance of 30 or 40 

 yards. When do you think is the best time to do it ? We 

 do not need to put bees in a cellar here. 



British Columbia. 



Answers. — 1. The bees would likely have destroyed 

 them. It is not an uncommon thing for the bees to start 

 cells when a queen is introduced, destroying them after- 

 wards. If the queen is unsatisfactory, however, a young 

 queen may be allowed to supersede her. 



2. No. 



3. Move them quietly any time after they have stopped 

 flying ; preferably soon after they have taken a flight, and 

 at a time when you think they will not again fly for some 

 weeks. 



Quiet Robbing— Honey in the Hive in Spring. 



1. My bees swarmed, unexpectedly, last Sunday, and I 

 now find that the old bees are robbing from the hive they 

 left. What would, or could, you advise me to do ? I have 

 made the entrance very small, but it is of no use. 



2. Honey that is still left by the bees in the spring, 

 shall I leave it, or take it out and extract it ? 



Minnesota. 



Answer. — This is one of those cases of quiet robbing 

 in which it is difiicult if not impossible to do anything, be- 

 cause you cannot have the cooperation of the bees. Mak- 

 ing the entrance smaller will do no good so long as the bees 

 make no attempt at resistance. Such cases — the bees rob- 

 bing the mother colony — have seldom been reported, and I 

 do not remember that any one has ever reported a cure. It 

 may be that after a little while the individuality of the colo- 

 nies will assert itself, when the robbed colony will no longer 

 allow the robbers to enter, and you will have to feed enough 

 for winter stores if sufiicient has not been left. 



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