June 20, 1907 



American l^ee Journal 



got a law. I believe if you can go be- 

 fore your legislatures with something ol 

 that kind and send men who understand 

 what foul brood means, the destruction 

 that it will bring to the industry in the 

 State if not stamped out — and there is 

 no question about that, it is unques- 

 tionably spreading, and where there is 

 any carelessness tolerated it will con- 

 tinue to spread — if you will lay the mat- 

 ter before the legislature in that shape, 

 get an influential member that will work, 

 you mav get a foul-brood law through 

 that will clothe you with authority to 

 stamp out the disease. I have Been 

 twice to our State legislature and have 

 learned something about the way these 

 things are managed, and it depends 



largely upon whose hands you get it 

 into. 



Getting Better Conventions and At- 

 tendance. 



"How shall we have a big attendance 

 and a good meeting next year?" 



Mr. Taylor — Advertise. 



Mr. Jones — Everybody come again 

 and bring one with them. 



Pres. York— I think that is a pretty 

 good idea, and perhaps it could be 

 pushed a little more in the various bee- 

 papers. Is there anything further? It 

 not, we will stand adjourned until the 

 call of the Executive Committee next 

 vear. 



Docfor Miller^s^ 



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

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

 ° Dr. Miller does 7iut answer Questions by mail. 



Changine from Closed-End to Hoff- 

 man or Miller Style of Frame 



We became Interested in bees about three 

 years ago, and now have twenty colonies In 

 Danzenbaker hives. We want to increase 

 to fifty or more colonies. So far we nave 

 no reason to regret our selection of the 

 Danzenbaker hive, but we sometimes think 

 there are other brnod-frames that would 

 suit us better. Having always to cut or 

 break the frames apart is considered a 

 drawback, and it occurred to us that we 

 would fit up our next hives with Hoffman 

 metal-spaced frames, or Miller frames, of 

 the same depth as the Danzenbaker frames. 

 In this way we would be able to judge 

 which is preferable, as we have had no 

 experience with any but the Danzenbaker 

 frames. 



The only change in the Danzenbaker body 

 would be the cutting of the rabbet to re- 

 ceive the end of the Hoffman or Miller 



"Ster our trial of the other frames, the 

 hives we now have could be easily changea 

 to suit the Hoffman or Miller frames, or 

 should we decide to continue with the Dan- 

 zenbaker frames it would only be necessarv 

 to fill out the rabbet cut to receive the 

 hanging frames. 



Our preference is to run for comb honey, 

 and so far we consider the Danzenbaker 

 super equal to any in use. but we are un- 

 able to decide as to the brood-frames. 



Answer. — Your scheme is feasible, but it 

 still leaves undecided the question as to the 

 difference between the two depths of frames. 

 Perhaps, however, you do not care lor tnis. 



Management of Swarms 



On Mav 17. hive No. 5 cast a very heavy 

 swarm. 'It was hived on foundation start- 

 ers and set in place of hive No o on the 

 old stand. No. 5 being f ™7^'l J» |, ^',fi°^ 

 several feet away. Today (May 2») hive 

 No. 5 cast another swarm. I caught the 

 queen, clipped her wings, and put her and 

 the swarm back into hive No. 5. from 

 whence they came. Then I went through 

 hive No. 5 and cut out four or five queen- 

 rells or what I thought were queen-cells 

 Now I am told by a bee-keeper that I 



should not have clipped the queen's wings. 

 He says that in all probability the queen 

 was not mated. Did I do right',' If the 

 queen is not mated, what shall I do? There 

 is a great deal of unsealed brood in the 

 hive from which the bees could rear a 

 queen, but would they do so with the 

 clipped queen in the hive? It does not seem 

 reasonable to me that this young queen did 

 not mate before the swarm settled. Please 

 put me straight. Western Iowa. 



Answer. — When No. 5 first swarmed, you 

 set the swarm on the old stand. Orthodox, 

 so far. Then, at about the same time, you 

 set the old hive on a nesv stand some feet 

 away. Pleterodox, I'lease never do that 

 again — well, don't do it again unless you 

 want the bees to swarm again. Set the 

 old hive close beside the new one, and a 

 u-rck later move the old one some feet 

 away. That will throw all the flying force 

 of the old colony into the swarm, weaken- 

 ing the old colony so much at the right 

 time that it will give up all thought of 

 swarming. But you moved the old colony 

 to a new stand at once, and eleven days 

 later they had gained so much in strength 

 that they felt competent to swarm, and it 

 was the orthodox thing for them to swarm 

 with the first virgin that emerged. Then 

 you clipped the queen that came out with 

 the afterswarra. Heterodox. She may have 

 been fertilized, and she may not : but in 

 any case you were running a big risk in 

 clipping her. You returned swarm and de- 

 stroyed all queen-cells. Orthodox. Then 

 you found unsealed brood, lots of it, in the 

 hive. 



Now, look here, I'm willing to try to help 

 you out in any of yi:>ur misdemeanors, but 

 "when you get the bees to doing unorthodci 

 things, that puts me out. After the old 

 queen had left the hive eleven days, those 

 Ijees had no business to have a single cell 

 of unsealed brood, to say nothing of lots of 

 it. The whole thing looks abnormal — hete- 

 rodox. Where did that brood come from? 

 Did a laying queen from some other colony 

 get into the hive hy some freakish per- 

 formance after the hive was moved to its 

 new stand ? At any rate, there must have 

 been a laying queen in the hive after the 

 swarm issued, and if that's the queen you 

 clipped, then all right — unless the bees 

 swarm again. At any rate, with nlenty of 

 unsealed brood in the hive there is no im- 

 mediate danger. 



I don't know enough to tell you just how 

 things are, but so long as brood continurs 



to be sealed as worker-brood you neednt 

 worry. If brood in worker-cells is sealed 

 so it looks like little marbles instead of 

 having a flat surface, then you must kill 

 the queen and treat the colony as a queen- 

 less one. . ^ 

 I wish you'd tell us how it comes out. 



Managing Nuclei, Etc. 



1 I have ordered some nuclei which 

 will be here about June 1. How shall 



1 manage them for the best result? 1 

 never did any work of that kind, 



2 Early in the spring of 190b I had 

 a nice, large swarm come out. and I 

 hived them in a good hive. They 

 worked well, and in about 4 or b 

 weeks they sent out a swarm. On ex- 

 amining them, after a few days, I saw 

 no bees in my first hive. The comb -was 

 nice and white and the hive was full 

 nf it. but the bees were gone. They 

 had been carrying in pollen far ahead 

 of any other bees I had, -What was the 

 matter? Kentucky. 



Answers, — 1. Put the frames of 

 the nucleus in a full-sized hive in the 

 middle of the hive, in the same relative 

 ..rder in which they were in the nu- 

 . leus. Then fill out the hive at ea?h 

 side with frames that are entirely filled 

 with foundation. Look out sharply for 

 the matter of stores. The probability 

 is that there was not a very big lot 

 of honey in the frames of the nucleus, 

 for it is not best to ship too heavy 

 combs. If you have combs of honey, 

 it will probably be a good thing to give 



2 of them to the nucleus, one on eactl 

 side pretty close to the brood. 



2 Hard to say. The young queen 

 mav have been lost on her wedding 

 flight, but there probably was some 

 other trouble besides that, and I don t 

 know what it was. 



Rearing Queens for an Amateur 



1 Not long ago I wrote you asking 

 if good queens could be reared in a 

 ciueenless colony, and you said. Yes, 

 if rightly managed;" but you did not 

 say how. and how to do it was what 

 interested me. Again, I asked it an- 

 other plan would work. You said prob- 

 ably, but would advise me to take a 

 little more trouble and have the best 

 queens obtainable. This is what I 

 would do if I knew how, but here again 

 I was left in the dark. It was not 

 curiosity that caused me to ask the 

 questions, but because I did not know 

 better. Perhaps I did not make my 

 meaning plain. j ■„ , 



2. Can good queens be reared in a 

 queenless colony? 



3. If so, how? 



4 Is there a better way of rearing 

 queens for "an amateur without queen- 

 rearing tools, when queens are wanted 

 before the swarming season? It so. 

 please explain. , 4x.„„ ., 



5 -Would you advise getting a 

 queen-rearing outfit for one who would 

 need 10 or 15 queens a year? 



Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. One of the unfortu- 

 nate things in attempting to answer 

 questions in this department is that it 

 is not easy sometimes to know by the 

 question what is in the mind of the 

 questioner. Don't you think it s all 

 that ought to be required of me if I 

 answer the questions that are asked.' 



2. Yes. , 



3 Remove a queen from a colony 

 of best stock in the height of the sea- 

 son, and the bees will of themselves 

 rear one or more good queens. 



4 It you mean a better way than 

 starting cells in a queenless colony, I 

 think not. 



5. No. 



There, I've answered your questions, 

 haven't I? But I may as well own up 

 that I've purposely answered the mere 

 letter of your questions, without pay- 

 ing much attention to the spirit. I al- 

 ways do better than that, and answer 

 the spirit of the questions, as nearly as 

 I can guess what the spirit is, and so 



