Jan. 24, 1907 



American IBee Journal 



75 



s=^^^^r^_2 



control increase, Imt so far without success. 

 In fact, the last season their advice resulted 

 the very opposite. Swarm the bees would, 

 everlastingly. 



The advice was, after getting the colonies 

 strong in bees and lirood in the spring, to 

 lift the hive from its stand and replace it 

 with another having empty frames, and put a 

 frame of brood and honey with the queen 

 among the empty frames, using a queen-ex- 

 cluder, and then placing the hive with the 

 brood on top. 



I did that to the bestof my ability, and true 

 the queens filled the under part full of brood 

 again, the brood soon lllled the upper part 

 with young bees and some queen-cells. Now 

 the honey-llow was on, and oh, my I swarm 

 they would, and I had to rush to marliet for 

 empty hives, frames, and foundation, and, 

 when short of these, dump one swarm in upon 

 another, although several days old. 



What is your best and simplest plan for 

 controlling increase? You are long-headed, 

 and I put much value on your answers to 

 questions, generally reading them first. 



The man from California who was solving 

 the question by letting the bees swarm, and 

 then catching the queen and letting the bees 

 go back, seemed to have it; but that Iml, like 

 all /i«(.<, counts for much. If we could not 

 find her in the cluster, we would surely catch 

 her by putting the bees through a zinc queen- 

 excluder. It did not seem to me a very sim- 

 ple process — the sifting of a big swarm of 

 bees through a zinc cage. I could see them 

 going in as fast as I got them out, and the 

 queen still out of sight. 



Even if I can not learn just how to control 

 increase through the American Bee Journal 

 writers, it has given many good points in 

 producing surplus honey. My showing is 

 always good. It keeps me in line as to how 

 to have strong colonies and little robbing, 

 and good queens and plenty of them. 



I keep empty nucleus hives on hand. These 

 hold 3 or 3 frames each, the same size as the 

 regular brood-frames, and whenever I run 

 across a large, good-looking queen-cell in a 

 bright, strong colony, and in the proper place 

 in the frame, I lift it out with adhering bees 

 and put it into the nucleus hive; and by add- 

 ing a frame of brood ready to hatch, soon there 

 is a queen ready for work and ready to build 

 up a ^ueenless colony, if any is in the apiary. 



My way now of introducing these queens to 

 queenless colonies, or putting two or more 

 colonies in one, is a sure and safe way : I 

 have a board one inch or % thick, the size of 

 the hive, with a 6-inch piece cut out of the 

 center and covered with wire-cloth, so that no 

 bee can get through. When I want to intro- 

 duce a queen, I put that board with screen on 

 the hive as a honey-board. Having placed 

 the nucleus with the new queen over the 

 screen for 2 or 3 days, they have now the 

 scent, and I then put the frames with queen 

 below, and all is well, being sure that no 

 queen is below, but if there is they will fight 

 it out all right. With this board I unite any 

 kind of colonies, and no trouble comes from 

 fighting. 



We cut off queen-cells. How do you know 

 when the bees are building queen-cells to 

 supersede their old queen? In robbing the 

 colony of cells at that time it may do injury. 

 Are there any signs by which to know? 



Minnesota. 



Answer. — It you will allow me to com- 

 mence at the last end of your letter, I will 

 say that it is not easy to be entirely sure 

 whether the starting of queen-cells means 

 swarming or superseding. Generally, bow- 

 ever, you can tell by the number of cells. If 

 you can find no more than 2 or 3 cells, and 

 these with eggs in them, you can't tell any- 

 thing about it. But wait till the larv* are 

 fairly well advanced, and it only 1 to 3 cells 

 are present, you are pretty safe in saying that 

 superseding is intended. 



Your plan of rearing queens and introduc- 

 ing them is good. Some would like it as well 

 or better, instead of having the board with 

 wire-cloth, just to have wire-cloth without 

 any board, as allowing heat lo rise more 

 freely. 



Now as to the prevention of swarming. 



You tried thi jdan of putting the brood over 

 an excluder, and say it was after getting the 

 colony stniD^; in the spring, and then it 

 sounds a little us if the honey-llow came after- 

 ward. Just how late you operated is not easy 

 10 tell, but it should not bo until about the 

 time the bees begin to swarm. You say, also, 

 that you put a frame of brood below. I think 

 that is not the usual way. There should be 

 nothing in the lower story for the queen but 

 starters, full sheets of foundation, or frames 

 of empty comb It maybe worth while for 

 you to try it again, not beginning until you 



think there Ir, danger of swarming, giving no 

 brood below, and In about a week killing 

 queen-cells in the upper story. 



If that fails, try this: As soon as there !« 

 danger of swarming, remove the old queen, 

 at the same time destroying queen-celle, If 

 there are any; 9 days later destroy all cells 

 and Introduce a queen that has not been lay- 

 ing many days. It would be a sure thing " in 

 this locality," but it's not safe to warrant It 

 everywhere. But I lliink It would not fall 

 you. 



Thanks for encouraging words. 



i^t /iasty^ 



The 



' Old Reliable " as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses, 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



Qdhkns and Pickled Brood — 

 Studying Bee Diseases. 



I had forgotten, if I ever knew, that 

 the queen always disappears when the 

 colony has "pickled brood." Impor- 

 tant. Don't think we were told that 

 when pickled brood was first described 

 in the journals. 



Mr. Getaz may be going it a little 

 too strong, but I guess it's timely and 

 proper to remind our Washington 

 savants that a disease must be studied 

 for some length of time, and in the 

 hives, before conclusions can be called 

 sufficiently well-founded. A Govern- 

 ment appointment is to be respected ; 

 but it doesn't make a man blunder- 

 proof. Page 1032. 



"The Unadorned Flowers." 



That's a beautiful editorial from the 

 Toronto Globe, on page 1036— " The 

 Unadorned Flowers." And what a 

 queer circumstance that the Lombardy 

 poplars should all be males — no female 

 or seed-bearing trees ever having been 

 brought over I I imagine that it may 

 be that the female trees spread their 

 branches a little more, and so are not 

 so peculiar as the males, and therefore 

 not so desirable. 



Honey-Knife Electrically' Heated. 



Here is a bow to the electrically- 

 heated honey-knife. Good thing to 

 have something new once in a while to 

 keep us from going to sleep. The pic- 

 ture of it set me to wondering. How 

 ca7! a current be sent through a honey- 

 knife blade in such a way as to heat it ? 

 In fact, how can it be made to go 

 through it at all ? However, I am not 

 trying to suggest that it's a sham. Un- 

 less the knife was actually heated it is 

 not likely that it would have been exhib- 

 ited at an Exposition. But would not 

 gum and candy soon stop the operation 

 of a knife kept hot all the time, with no 

 water applied ? And if it must be 

 dipped in water semi-occasionally, 

 what's the advantage over the old hot- 

 water method ? Page 1046. 



Combs of Apis Dorsata. 



Be charitable, dear Boss. Might not 

 even the faultless, and slipless, and 

 spotless " Old Reliable '' say 5 when it 

 meant to say 6 ? With that correction, 

 the description of an Apis dorsata 

 comb, on page 1046, agrees pretty well 

 with what we have been told elsewhere. 

 They build a single comb under a hori- 

 zontal boagh ; and it eventually gets 

 to be 5 inches thick, and extends along 

 the limb for 5 feet or more. Of course, 

 the extra-deep cells are used only to 

 store honey in. And equally, of 

 course, down where they want to rear 

 brood, the comb thins to twice the 

 length of a worker-bee. Why should 

 a journal be bound to mention every 

 self-evident thing ? 



Making Honey-Vinegar and Other 

 Vinegars. 



Yes, sir. We consume vinegar not 

 for the actual amount of acid in it, but 

 for the acid laste of it. It's vain for a 

 vinegar to have 4 percent of acid if 

 half of it is neutralized to the taste 

 by the amount of unfermented sweet 

 in it — or do some of us like sweetened 

 vinegar enough better to pay for the 

 loss ? The look is that a 2 percent 

 sample unsweetened would serve about 

 the same purpose. We have had a 

 good deal about vinegar lately, and 

 yet C. P. Dadant finds valuable things 

 to say that are not shopworn. Usually 

 the first fermentation starts off with- 

 out anything specially put in to s cart 

 it ; but sometimes total failure comes 

 in right at that point. The example 

 of this given is quite illuminative. 

 Better to put in some crushed grapes 

 at the outset. Idea seems to be that 

 the ferment germs are not all of one 

 species, and that there is such a thing 

 as getting the best or getting the poor- 

 est — besides the danger of total fail- 

 ure. Let's have the best. I think it 

 is very common to put sweet water 

 into vinegar that is fully acidulated, 

 or half acidulated. If I get Mr. D. and 

 his authorities aright, that's a very 

 pestilent habit. If you want sweet- 



