May 9, 1907 



395 



Amorica i VBcc Journai ^0^^^^^l^^ 



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The 



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

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



Requkening a Laying-Worker 

 Colony 



It is so seldom worth while to save a 

 colony with laying- workers and try to 

 make it accept a queen, that we might 

 well afford to ignore the whole subject 

 so far as direct profit is concerned. But 

 if one brother succeeds and the rest of 

 us mostly fail, we ought to be stirred 

 up a little to find out the reason why. 

 Can't afford to let our knowledge-box 

 go empty. H. Piper, who evidently 

 knows what he is talking about, has a 

 method which he says succeeds tvery 

 time. Queer that such simple varia- 

 tions should make such a difference. 

 First, the queen must be an old one. 

 Second, she must be as hungry as she 

 can well be without getting weak. 

 Third, put her on comb where she can't 

 find any open honey to help herself 

 to — and not in any crowd of bees. 

 Watch and boss matters until you see 

 her accept honey from the bees, and be 

 sufficiently fed. Then quietly close 

 up — they won't kill her after that. 

 Well, what is there in this, 1 wonder ? 

 Puts her under slight bonds not to mis- 

 behave herself — that's good so far. 

 Stomach well filled with food just re- 

 gurgitated by citizens, makes her a 

 little more at one with the other citi- 

 zens than a meal drawn out of a cell 

 could do. (Breathing exactly the same 

 kind of onions that the rest breathe!) 

 And why an old queen ? Is it that 

 young queens have a great deal more 

 of the ineradicable individualties of 

 odor ? Possibly have also learned in 

 their lives to be more tolerant both of 

 manners and smells. Still, I would not 

 have predicted success for the plan. If 

 it's all right, something profitable to 

 ordinary introduction ought to come 

 out of it. He properly reminds us that 

 the colony must have some young bees 

 in a few days, else they can't rear 

 brood much. 



It's a sharp, and probably good, idea 

 to use on bees united from above, to 

 get them down at the rear rather than 

 down over the entrance. The savage 

 bees are down at the front. Help on 

 this improvement by turning them end 

 for end — so they will incline Xo go down 

 at what seems to them to be the front, 

 but is now really the rear. Page 319. 



That Tallest Bee-Keepkr. 



So bee-keeper Rehorst kind o' upset 

 the State of Wisconsin with his chal- 

 lenge for a taller man. Also upsets 

 the rule that giants die young, as he is 

 63. Upsets my notions of how much 

 stature goes down with age- I thought 



it was but a fraction of an inch ; and 

 he has decreased 1% inches. Only b 

 feet S inches now. Of course, he up- 

 sets the old proverb, "Like master, 

 like man." If his bees were like him- 

 self, they would be worth going to see. 

 Page 319. 



Scale Records. 



A. E. Patton's report of his scale 

 hive is interesting. And reporting 

 gains by weeks instead of by days 

 gives something of a different turn to 

 the thing in reporting a quite moder- 

 ate flow. Scale records, we have never 

 had a surplus of, I believe. Page 319. 



New Mouse for Moth-Larv.e— 

 Those Mouse Experiments. 



No, Mr. Pryal, we don't need to breed 

 a new mouse to exterminate moth- 

 larvx". The one we now have is tip- 



top, as I long ago found out. And, 

 sometimes, as in yourcase, he does very 

 little damage except in digging out 

 the small, silk-bound nests that get 

 formed. Hut I fear it won't do to as- 

 sume in advance of experiment that he 

 will do so good a job except when very 

 hungry— which same is his normal con- 

 dition when he gets into a comb closet. 

 I shall have to ask the forbearance 

 of the brethren for not, even yet, re- 

 peating and verifying the important 

 mouse experiment I gave a while ago — 

 and for not getting to the new ones 

 which I had in view. Be merciful to 

 the everlasting worthlessness and do- 

 nothingness of the invalid. But here 

 is one experiment fresh as yesterday, 

 that has its lesson as an experiment 

 that went wrong: At 11 a.m. I put in 

 the cage of two captive mice a frame 

 taken from a starving colony. It had 

 fresh-capped brood, and some bees 

 scarcely dead crawled into the cells. 

 What I expected was that the mice 

 would eat quite a meal of the brood. 

 What I hoped was that they would 

 spend some of their leisure time pull- 

 ing the bees out. Didn't do either one. 

 What they did do was to gnaw the 

 comb quite a bit in about five different 

 places. Why was this thus? I had 

 taken the comb out 6 hours after it was 

 put in. Did they enjoy the taste of 

 the comb as they chewed it ? Or was 

 it the simple joy of having something 

 available to nibble ? Or was it a little 

 of both ? Hoc docet Our theories 

 and expectations and hopes and notions 

 ofttimes go all to pieces the minute 

 they run up against some simple ex- 

 periment. Page 333. 



vV 



Uocfor Millers 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, or to 

 Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, III. 

 ' Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Transferring Bees, Etc. 



1. Some time ag:o I discovered bees in a tree 

 after cutting it. 1 cut off as close on each 

 side of their entrance as I thought I could 

 without culling through the honey, and 

 brought them to the house. Can I transfer 

 them to a hive? If so, how? 



2. Musi 1 have foundation-starters for ihe 

 brood-frames? 



3. Are the bees likely to swarm if left in 

 the log ? 



4. The bees are dark with 3 yellow bands. 

 Whal race are they ! Illinois. 



Answer.— The bees are likely to swarm un- 

 less ihey have too much empty room in the 

 log. If so, better saw off the empty part. 

 Then leave them until they swarm, hive the 

 swarm in a movable-frame hive, set it in place 

 of the log-hive, and set the log-hive close be- 

 side it. A week Liter set the log-hive on lop 

 the other — of course, no communication be- 

 tween the two. Three weeks after the swarm- 

 ing you can set the log-hive in a new place to 



build up for the next year. Or, you can cut 

 open the log-hive and transfer into a frame- 

 hive. If you care for honey and not increase, 

 cut open the log-hive 3 weeks after swarming, 

 brush all the bees into the swarm and melt up 

 the combs. In any case the swarm is the one 

 to count on for surplus. 



If you give empty frames without starters 

 the bees may build combs crosswise, and your 

 combs will not be movable. Small starters 

 will give too much drone-comb; full sheets 

 will give all worker-comb. 



If all the bees have 3 yellow bands they are 

 likely Italians. If some have less than 3 

 bands, they are hybrids. 



Perhaps Affected Only by Bad 

 Weather 



What is the matter with my bees? I had 

 36 colonies to start in Ihe winter and lost 4. 

 The 32 did Bnely in the warm spell in .March, 

 and I thought i never had had bees doing 



