June 6, 1907 



489 



Anuarican IBee Journal 



l^^^Mll 



guaranteed it to the railroad, under the 

 interstate commerce hiw. 



Mr. Arnd — As being pure honey? 



Mr. Abbott — Yes. 



Dr. Bohrer — I voted in favor of re- 

 quiring the bee-keeper to guarantee the 

 purity of the honey. I will do that, 

 and I have now ordered Labels, and as 

 long as the package upon which I place 

 the label is unbroken, I will guarantee 

 it to be absolutely pure as the bees 

 stored it in the combs; but if the dealer 

 that purchases it from me breaks that 

 package and repacks it, I won't agree 

 to be responsible any farther. 



Mr. Moore — 1 have been making quite 

 a number of calls on the grocery trade, 

 and in every grocery I am met by the 

 question. "How do you know this is 



pure?" Ami it was suggested here that 

 we volunt:inl\ offer to guarantee our 

 honey. Th.il is good business sense. 

 Vou must nni wait until they come with 

 a club and niiike trouble for you, but 

 you must nuri ihem more than half way 

 about these ni.i iters. For my own spec- 

 ial trade I li.i\e gotten this up; at the 

 top is my he.iding, you see: "I hereby 

 guarantee my honey to be pure at all 

 times, in all si/rd packages, and to com- 

 ply with all new and old pure food 

 laws." I sign this and hand it to my 

 customers, saving, "There is your 

 guarantee," and it satisfies every one. 

 In the absensc of anything better, I 

 shall continue to use that, and I am in- 

 clined to think that it covers the ground. 



Cjuiinu.d utxt V:,»C I 





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Send Questions either to the ofliue u/ lue Anjeiicau bcc Juuiual, ur to 

 Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 

 ' Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Tested and Untested Queens- 

 2-Frame Nucleus 



1. What is a tested queen? 



2. What is an untested queen? 



3. What is a 2 frame nucleus? If I were to 

 buy a 2-frame nucleus, how many swarms 

 could I get in one season from it ? 



Indiana. 

 Answers. — 1. A tested queen is one which 

 has been laying more than 3 weeks, and 

 whose worker progeny all show 3 yellow 

 bands; thus showing that she is purely mated. 

 Since the days of Sbanders this test is not so 

 reliable as it formerly was, tor it is possible 

 now to have 3 yellow bands with some black 

 blood. 



2. An untested queen is one which has not 

 been laying long enough to show the charac- 

 ter of its progeny. 



3. A 3 frame nucleus is nothing more nor 

 less than 2 frames of brood and bees taken 

 from any colony and put into a separate hive. 

 It may do no more than to build up into a full 

 colony for winter without any increase; or it 

 may make 3, 3, or more, according to the sea- 

 son and the management. Left to itself in a 

 poor season it migtit hardly hold its own. In 

 a good season, something depending upon 

 how early the nucleus is obtained, it may 

 make the increase mentioned. In a poor sea- 

 son feeding may help out, but no feeding is 

 quite so good as a heavy flow from the flowers. 



Management for Increase 



I am a beginner in the bee-business. Last 

 year I came into possession of about 25 colo- 

 nies of bees, and about 17 more hives and bee- 

 fixtures. The hives are S-frame, made in our 

 local " Novelty Works." I have lost all but 

 5 colonies since I set them out this spring, 

 and will probably lose all but 2. These 3 

 seem to be strong and all right. These bees 

 had never been cared for, so the comb in the 

 brood-chamber is built in every shape. I 

 want to cut out the old comb, put any new 

 swarms on straight foundation, and attend to 



them as they ought to be attended to. How 

 shall I handle these 2 colonies to get the most 

 increase? Of course it will be almost impos- 

 sible to remove the frames without tearing 

 the combs all to pieces. The bees are Ital- 

 ians. Iowa. 



Answer. — It is not an easy thing to say 

 just what will be the best way for you to in- 

 crease, as what is best for one may not be al- 

 ways best for another. In the first place, 

 don't condemn too hastily all those old combs, 

 even if at first sif,'ht they do not appear usa- 

 ble. Every old comb you can save will help 

 just so much in increasing, as it will save the 

 bees work. Take a saw and cut down at each 

 side of a hive, so as to sever all attachments, 

 then turn the hive upside down and jar out 

 its entire contents. Now see if there are not 

 some combs that are straight enough to be 

 used, the same being of good worker-comb. 

 If they are a little dirty or mouldy, the bees 

 can clean them up ; only you should brush off 

 the dead bees. If a comb is nearly all in one 

 frame, cut away its attachment to the next 

 frame, straighten it into place, and fasten it 

 in place with strings or otherwise. The comb 

 should be quite warm when this is done, so it 

 win not break instead of bending. If some 

 combs are too much out of place, perhaps 

 running straight across the frames, of course 

 they must be cut out; but some of them may 

 be fastened in frames after they are cut out. 



In making increase, the most rapid way 

 will be to start nuclei, giving to each nucleus 

 a laying queen that you will buy. If you 

 want to save the expense of buying, you may 

 still like the uueleus plan. You will lose 

 rather than gain liy beginning too early. Wait 

 till the colonief liuild up strong; then from 

 one of them take i he queen with 2 frames of 

 brood and adhering bees, and put in another 

 hive as a nuclen- In 8 or 10 days put this 

 nucleus with tlji old queen back on the old 

 stand, and out • : the old colony make as 

 many 2-frame v< • i as you can, putting one 

 of them in the pi ice from which you have 

 just taken the O: ' lueen. Of course each nu- 

 cleus must have at least one good cell cen- 

 trally located where it will be in no danger of 

 being chilled. > ulony No. 2 you have not 



disturbed at all, and you can now take from 

 It 2 frames of mostly sealed brood and give to 

 colony No. I. If It has any more brood to 

 spare you can give a frame apiece to as many 

 nuclei as you can ; but don't reduce No. 1 nor 

 No. 2 at any time to less than 4 frames of 

 brood. You see you must keep them fairly 

 strong all the time, drawing from them as you 

 can to strengthen the nuclei. Indeed it may 

 be best not to take more than the 2 frames 

 from No, 2 to give to No. 1, for in a little 

 while you will want to treat No. 2 just as you 

 did No. 1, making It queenless and starling 

 more nuclei. If the season is good enough 

 and long enough, some of your nuclei will be- 

 come strong enough to yield help to the later 

 nuclei, and just how far you can go will de- 

 pend on circumstances. Hut don't make the 

 mistake of trying to go too fast and then 

 being caught in the fall with a lot of weak- 

 lings that will die in winter. 



Italianizing-Working for Increase 



Having made up my mind to get rid of my 

 hybrid bees, I have bought 3 Italian queens. 



1. Can I, by having 3 pure queens, increase 

 my 3 hybrid colonies, and at the same time 

 have all pure stock next fall '. 



2. If possible, I would like to increase to 10. 

 What are some of your plans? I don't care 

 if I do not get much surplus honey this sea- 

 son. I am more for increase. Michigan. 



Answers.— 1. When we say "all pure 

 stock," that means that the queens are not 

 only of pure descent but purely mated. So if 

 there are any but pure drones for some dis- 

 tance from vou, you can not be sure of " all 

 pure stock," for although you may make sure 

 that all your young queens are of pure de- 

 scent, you can not make sure that they are 

 purely mated. 



2 If I understand correctly, you want to 

 increase the 3 to 10 colonies. If the season is 

 sufficiently good and also sufficiently long 

 there ought to be no trouble in doing that. 

 The easiest way will be to let each colony 

 swarm naturally, putting the swarm on anew 

 stand and leaving the old colony without 

 being disturbed on the old stand. In some- 

 thing like s days, each old colony may send 

 out a second swarm, and a day or two later a 

 third swarm. Even if only one colony sends 

 out a third swarm, that will make 10. 



3 If you do not wish to trust to their 

 swarming enough, you can take the matter 

 into your own hands. A week after the first 

 swarm has issued, divide each old colony into 

 3 or 3 parts, making sure that each has a 

 good queen-cell centrally located. 



Feeding Pollen Substitutes in Empty 

 Combs 



I have just begun to overhaul my bees to 

 note their condition, etc.; have examined, 

 this afternoon (April 22), 19 colonies, and 

 while but few need feeding, I do not find a 

 single cell of pollen in any of the hives, nor a 

 single cell of brood in any stage of develop- 

 ment; in tact, I have not discovered an egg 

 in all my search so far. Now, I have thought 

 it might be a good plan to take dry combs 

 which I have, sprinkle rye or other flour in 

 the cells, and hang them in the hives next to 

 those of honey. What do you think of the 

 plan? Would it be better to put it outside 

 where the bees could get it for themselves? 



Wisconsin. 



Answer.— It would be a nice thing if you 

 could have what the Germans call " stamp- 

 honey "—combs of honey and bee-bread all 

 smashed up. If any of your neighbors had 

 colonies die in the winter, you might get from 

 them combs containing pollen ; although con- 

 ditions that brought about such a remarkably 

 unusual thing as colonies utterly without 

 pollen may have left theirs in the same con- 

 dition. Unless there is no weather for bees 

 to fly, better give the meal outside, although 

 it will do no harm to try it inside at the same 



