524 



AmericaiTBae Journal} 



June 13, 1907 



PUTTING ON SUPERS. 



1. When you commence to put on 

 the supers for comb honey, would yoi' 

 examine the colony as to signs of 

 swarming? 



2. Would you leave in the hive 

 combs containing- brood, or take them 

 out? 



3. What would you do with any 

 combs that do not contain brood, 

 whether in the brood-chamber or be- 

 low it or above it? 



4. Would you take out all combs 

 found in the brood-chamber and put 

 frames in the place that have only 

 starters. Indiana. 



Answers. — 1. Generally no atten- 

 tion is paid to the matter of swarming 

 when supers are given. 



2. In most cases no change is made 

 in the brood-chamber at the time of 

 putting on sections. But in the case 

 where more than one story has been 

 given, all but one story will be taken 

 away at the time of giving sections. 



3. I'm not sure whether I fully un- 

 derstand your question. At any rate, 

 on general principles, I may answer 

 that in some cases combs without brood 

 are left where they are, and in some 

 cases taken away. If taken away, they 

 may be used where needed for other 

 colonies, and if not needed at once 

 elsewhere, they may be stored in some 

 safe place a^vv'ay from the bees, al- 

 though safer from moth if piled up 

 over colonies "U'here the bees can care 

 for them. 



4. If I understand this question cor- 

 rectly it is already partly answered in 

 answer 2. If for any reason full combs 

 are to be replaced with frames that do 

 not contain comb, it is generally con- 

 sidered advisable to have these latter 

 entirely filled with foundation, so that 

 the frames may contain no drone-comb. 



out the combs, put them in a basket, 

 or other receptacle, with enough sticks 

 between the layers of combs to pre- 

 vent crushing the bees. Be sure to get 

 all the comb cleaned out, so there wiU 

 be no attracti.on for the bees to go 

 back to the' old place, and to make 

 more sure daub where the combs were 

 with carbolic acid. Let the basket 

 hang till evening, so all the bees will 

 be settled in it. Of course you will 

 use smoke, and the work should be 

 done at a season when bees are gather- 

 ing or there will be a bad case of 

 robbing. 



2. Yes. 



3. You can take them away the 

 same day or evening, just as soon as 

 all the bees are settled, and there will 

 be a decided gain in thus taking them 

 to a distance, for it taken only a short 

 distance the bees would return the next 

 day to the old place. Taken after 

 dark, the bees will stick to the basket 

 without fastening, or you can sew a 

 sheet around them. When you get 

 them to their new place (better wait, 

 though, till next morning), you can put 

 the bees in a hive, doing as you like 

 about putting part or- all of the old 

 combs in frames. 



MAKING THE T-SUPER. 



entirely sure about a thing till you 

 try it. , .. 



2. I don't see any reason why it 

 might not work. No nectar coming in- 

 to the rear hive, it might be necessary 

 to supply water in one of the combs. 



3. It would be- likely to work all 

 right it the rear liive were removed in 

 about 3 or 4 days. 



4. If I understand you correctly, the 

 bees are not yet working in supers, 

 and an emptv super is to take the 

 place of the front hive. Certainly that 

 would not do tor sections, for pollen 

 would be put in them, if not brood. In 

 any case the plan you propose would 

 not prevent swarming. 



5. If I remember rightly, no queen 

 is to be found with the Davenport 

 plan, so the Lyman plan can not be 

 the same. I very much doubt if many 

 would use the Davenport plan if it 

 were published. 



I made a T-super on trial, but I am 

 stuck in putting in the staples. You 

 say: "Put the middle support exactly 

 in the middle of the super, measuring 

 inside." But I don't make that spacing 

 come right. My supers are 18% inches 

 long inside and sections i'A x i'/i bee- 

 way. Now suppose I put the tin ex- 

 actly in the middle and a section on 

 each side of it lengthwise, then an- 

 other tin on each side, and another 

 section on each side. This leaves a 

 space on each end. What should be 

 done with those spaces, and where can 

 we nail the flat tins? It seems hard 

 work to get us to understand all there 

 is about the T-super. 



Michigan. 



Answer. — Your supers are too long. 

 Nail in one end a board % thick, thus 

 reducing to the right inside length, 

 17%. Arrange to have the middle T- 

 tin at the middle of this inside length, 

 and the other two T-tins midway be- 

 tween the middle T-tin and the ends. 

 The flat tins that support the sections 

 at each end of the super are nailed 

 directly on the bottom edges of the 

 ends, the super of course being turned 

 upside down while being nailed. In 

 your case one of the flat tins will be 

 nailed on the block that is nailed into 

 the end. 



If this doesn't make all clear ask all 

 the ciuestions you like. 



REMOVING BEES FROM 

 CORNICE. 



A HOUSE- 



THE LYMAN METHOD OF SWARM 

 CONTROL. 



CLIPPING QIEENS 5-BAND OR 



GOLDEN BEES— WEIGHT OF 

 COLONIES, ETC. 



1. I have 2 colonies in the cornice 

 of a house. How can I get them? 



2. Can I take them away several 

 miles? 



3. When, and how? 



SoDTH Dakota. 



Answers. — 1. It isn't the easiest 

 thing in the world. Y'ou must have a 

 ladder, scaffold, or something of the 

 kind to get where the bees are. 

 Enough of the boards must be cut 

 away to expose fully the combs. Cut 



On page 411 is given the Lyman 

 method of swarm control. I wish to 

 ask you a few questions in relation 

 to his manipulations with his double 

 bottom-board. 



1. Would it do not to remove the 

 queen from the rear or old hive for a 

 day or two. as the larger part of the 

 bees would then be in the new hive, 

 and thus make it easier to find her? 



2. How would it do to introduce a 

 laying queen in the new hive and let 

 the old queen go on with business in 

 the old hive, sending her bees forward 

 into the new hive until her supplies 

 were exhausted, and thus have 2 queens 

 to supply the one hive so long as the 

 old queen could hold out? 



3. If one wanted increase, how 

 would it do to introduce a laying 

 queen into the new hive and remove 

 the old hive to a new stand? How long 

 before the old hive should be re- 

 moved? 



4. Suppose the honey-flow is on, and 

 the bees are slow to enter the supers, 

 how would it do to substitute a super 

 or two of sections, or an extracting 

 super, in place of the new hive, and 

 then in a day or two place the old 

 hive back on its stand and the supers 

 on top, with plenty of room? Would 

 not this manipulation prevent swarm- 

 ing' 



5. Can not some of our most ex- 

 perienced bee-men see through Mr. Ly- 

 man's double bottom-board the key 

 with which to unlock Mr. Davenport's 

 chest of secrets of which he spoke a 

 few years ago, but failed to reveal? 



Many bee-men doubt whether Mr. 

 Davenport made the discoveries he 

 claimed. Let that be as it will, I be- 

 lieve the very things he claimed to 

 have discovered will yet be revealed 

 to us. We have the key already in 

 our hands. Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. It probably would 

 work, but hardly so satisfactorily. 

 There would be no brood in the front 

 hive, nothing to make it seem like 

 home to the bees except what was in 

 the super, and the bees would not be 

 so well contented without either queen 

 or brood. If, however, the finding of 

 the queen in the full colony seems too 

 serious a matter, you might compro- 

 mise the matter in this way: Without 

 paving any attention to where the 

 queen is. put 2 frames of brood with 

 adhering bees in the front hive. Three 

 days later vou can tell by the presence 

 of "eggs in which hive the queen is. If 

 she is not in the front hive, find her 

 and put her there, and put the 2 brood- 

 frames from the front into the rear 

 hive. If she is already in the front 

 hive, all there is to do is to change 

 the 2 frames of brood. I think this 

 ought to work; but you never can be 



1. Are bees more likely to kill a 

 queen after her wings have been 

 clipped, if you have taken her in your 

 fingers, than they are if you clip her 

 wings without handling her? 



2. Does it happen very often that 

 the bees will kill a queen after being 

 clipped in any way? 



3. When you get a queen for the 

 purpose of introducing, is it not a good 

 plan to clip her wings before putting 

 her into the hive? 



4. Are 5-band or golden Italians just 

 as likely to be good honey-gatherers 

 as the 3-band? 



5. How much should a colony of 

 bees weigh, hive and all, at the time 

 of packing for wintering on the sum- 

 mer stands, to be sure of plenty of 

 stores for winter? Suppose the hive 

 weighed 21 pounds without bees, honey 

 or comb. 



6. How much should the same col- 

 ony weigh the next spring when pollen 

 is first carried in. to be reasonably sure 

 of its coming out strong? 



7. Do bees get much pollen from 

 the "sugar" or hard maple? 



8. What color is it? 



9. I use full sheets of foundation 

 in my Danz. brood-frames without 

 wiring. It gets a little wavy. Will it 

 straighten down with the weight of 

 the bees after it is in the hive? 



10. "rtliich. if any, of the following 

 blossoms do bees get honey, or nectar, 

 from: Chestnut, beech, birch, oak. syca- 

 more, wild cherry, and strawberry? 



Pennsylvania. 



Answers. — 1. Probably they are if 

 there is anything about the scent of the 

 fingers disagreeable to them. But I 

 have held hundrecls of queens in my 

 fingers when clipping them, without 

 any bad results. 



2. I think not. 



3. Yes; if there is any possible dan- 

 ger of the bees being unkind to the 

 queen at the time of clipping, that dan- 

 ger would be obviated by caging her 

 immediatelv after the clipping; and of 

 course she is generally caged for intro- 

 duction. A good rule as to the time 

 of clipping is to clip a queen the first 

 time you can conveniently, after you 

 know she is laying. 



4. There are some very good gather- 

 ers among the goldens, but take them 

 as a whole the 3-banders probably 



5 and 6. It's a trifle dangerous to 

 answer questions of this kind. A colony 

 sometimes will go through the winter 

 on a much lighter weight than others, 

 when there's no apparent reason for 

 the difference. It I give the lightest 

 weight that will ever do, some one will 

 let all his colonies go at that weight, 

 and will lose most of them by starva- 

 tion before spring. There may be a 

 large quantity of pollen in a hive, 

 which will be of value the following 

 spring; but the extra weight of the 

 pollen will not help any in wintering. 

 Again, there is no small difference in 

 locality and location. There is, also, a 



