592 



American ^ee Journal 



July, 1907. 



b. One select tested Italian queen, by 

 W. H. Laws 2 50 



22. Best display of extracted honey in 



granulated form : 



a. One breeding queen, by Udo Toep- 

 perwein 3 oo 



b. Comb foundation, by Udo Toep- 

 perwein 2 oo 



23. Best sample cake bright yellow bees- 



wax, not less than 2 pounds : 



a. Two Italian queens, by Grant An- 

 derson • 2 00 



b. One select Italian queen, by Grant 

 Anderson 1 50 



24. Best and largest display of beeswax: 



a. Comb foundation, by Udo Toep- 

 perwein 5 00 



b. One select tested Italian queen, by 

 Victor-Knolle Apiary Co 2 50 



25. Best display in special designs in bees- 



wax: 



a. Select Italian queen, by Udo Toep- 

 perwein 2 00 



b. Mushroom spawn, by Udo Toep- 

 perwein i 50 



26. Best display of fruit preserved in 



honey: 



a. One Italian queen, by Udo Toej)- 

 perwein i 50 



b. Mushroom spawn, by Udo Toep- 



Vt^ 



perwein 1 00 



27. Best collection of honey-plants, pressed 



and mounted: 



a. Comb foundation, by Udo Toepper- 

 wein 3 00 



b. One Jumbo smoker, hive-tool, 

 brush, and gloves, by Texas Seed 



and Floral Co 2 50 



28. Best Honey-Vinegar : 



a. One tested Cyprian queen, by 

 Willie Atchley 1 50 



b. One "Atchley Improved" queen, 



by Willie Atchley i 50 



29. Best instructive display in apiarian 



products and of various uses made 

 of honey and beeswax: 



a. One 8-frame colony of Caucasian 

 bees, by Willie Atchley 5 00 



b. Three untested queens, by Victor- 

 Knolle Apiary Co 3 00 



30. Best and largest display of bee-keep- 



ers' supplies: 

 (7. One Italian breeding queen, by 



\'ictor-Knolle Apiary Co s 00 



b. One Italian breeding queen, by 



\'ictor-Knolle Apiary Co 3 00 



Louis H. Scholl. 

 Cliainuan Committe on Exhibits. 

 New Braunfels, Texas. 



DocforMiileri J 



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



DR. C. C. MILLER, Marengo, 111. 



Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Bees Deserting a Nucleus Hive 



.\s I am a young bee-keeper and have 

 run "up against it," I'll come to }'OU for 

 help. I have the Italians and the 

 "blacks," as I call them. I bought 

 an observation hive for one frame and 

 I took out one frame of comb with 

 brood and enough bees to cover the 

 brood well, but the next day the bees 

 came out of the observation hive and 

 into the old hive, and there was not a 

 single bee left. What was the trouble? 



MiNNESOT.A. 



Answer. — There is nothing unusual 

 in the case. Take a frame of brood 

 with plentj' of bees to cover it, and with- 

 out any precautions put it in a new 

 hive, and the proper thing on the part 

 of the bees is to go back to their old 

 home. If you had fastened the bees in 

 for about three days they would have 

 staid. If you had taken bees that had 

 been queenless for three days or more, 

 you would have had less trouble. If you 

 had taken the queen with them, return- 

 ing her after 2 or 3 days, more of the 

 bees would have staid. But you prob- 

 ably took them from a hive with a good 

 queen, and they very properly resented 

 such treatment. Please read "How to 

 Start a Nucleus," page 409. 



cinder, on a strong colony of Italian 

 bees, which had also a dozen or more 

 queen-cells be-low the excluder. 



Ohio. 

 .\nswer. — Cases have been reported 

 in which such carrying has occurred, 

 although many are skeptical. Lately a 

 case was reported in a foreign bee-pa- 

 per by one of the prominent bee-keep- 

 ers in- which it seemed hardly possible 

 that there could be any mistake. To a 

 colony that had been queenless for more 

 than a week, larvae were given in Doo- 

 little cell-cups. These cups were emptied 

 out and 2 cells on the edge of the comb 

 had larvae in them. 



Keepinz ftueens Over Winter- Re- 

 placing Queens that Die In 

 the Mails 



Do Bees Carry Eggs or Larvae? 



Two partly-filled queen-cells were 

 found on combs (that had neither eggs 

 nor larvae) placed above a queen-ex- 



1. How can I winter queens reared 

 this summer? 



2. What is the most complete book on 

 queen-rearing? Is the "A B C of Bee 

 Culture" a complete book on rearing? 

 I have read it, but I think it does not 

 give me the information I want. 



3. I have a number of queens that I 

 reared, and will have no use for all of 

 them for some time. In what way can 

 they be kept alive until I should want 

 them. I keep them now in small cages 

 in a colony of bees, but this colony has 

 a queen, and once in a while I find 

 dead one of these queens that are in the 

 cages. 



4. I ordered a queen some time ago. 



and the advertiser had queens for sale 

 at this and that price. I sent him my 

 order, and when I received her she was 

 almost dead, and only two of the at- 

 tendants were alive. The queen died an 

 hour after I received her, and I did not 

 get time to introduce her. I wrote about 

 it. also stating that it looked as if they 

 had been on the road a very long time, 

 and it was only about 400 or 500 miles. 

 The queen was very dark. He wrote 

 me if I would return to him the dead 

 queen he would replace her. I did not 

 think to take care of the dead queen, but 

 threw her away. He said it looked to 

 him as if some one must have exchanged 

 queen on the road, as the queen he sent 

 me was yellow. I sent him my money, 

 but have no queen for it. Do all queen- 

 breeders require the return of queens 

 that happen to die? Nebraska. 



Answers. — i. The usual way is to 

 winter them in weak colonies or nuclei 

 in- the cellar. Some have tried winter- 

 ing in cages, but not generally with suc- 

 cess. 



2. Doolittle's "Scientific Queen-Rear- 

 ing" is a book entirely devoted to that 

 subject, and Alley's "New Method of 

 Queen-Rearing" mostly so. 



3. You can probably do no better than 

 you are doing, unless it be to keep them 

 in nuclei. You can economize in the 

 number of bees in each nucleus by hav- 

 ing several compartments in the same 

 hive separated by bee-tight partitions, 

 having a nucleus in each compartment. 



4. I think it is common to ask the re- 

 turn of the dead queen. 



Rearing Queens and Superseding 



I have been trying y«ur method of 

 rearing queens by putting a frame with 

 small starters in my best colony. Nine 

 days later, on taking it out, I find the 

 bees have filled the frame with all drone- 

 comb. I have tried this a number of 

 times. It is always the same — drone- 

 comb full of honey. 



Seeing so much about letting bees do 

 their own superseding, I will tell you 

 my experience of last fall. Fifteen colo- 

 nies out of 75 had queens in their third 

 year. I knew they ought to be replaced, 

 but on looking them over in August I 

 found the hives full of brood, the queens 

 doing good work, so I let them alone. 

 The result was that 7 died during the 

 winter, and 6 superseded during April. 

 The colonies are now worthless, so far 

 as storing honey from clover. I find 

 this so every year. Queens die during 

 the winter or in early spring. I keep all 

 queens clipped, so I can tell their age. 

 After a good How from clover a great 

 many colonies will supersede the queens 

 themselves, but there are too many that 

 do not. It pays to look after the 

 queens. 



This has been the worst spring on 

 bees ever known. The blacks are all 

 starved out. The weather the past ten 

 days has been fine and the bees are roll- 

 ing in honey (June 24) where strong 

 enough. 'The Italians are in good con- 

 dition. New Jersey. 



Answer. — When bees are "rolling in 

 honey." as you say yours have been, 

 especially if they have little or n-o drone- 



