August, 1907. 



American "Bgc Journalj 



iiig part on the old stand. The flyinp; 

 force will be on the old stand, and 

 being strong that part onght to rear a 

 good queen. There is a possibility that 

 a swarm might issue in something like 

 '2 weeks after the division. 



3. Any time when bees are doing well 

 and gatiiering. Generally the old queen 

 is removed before the new queen is 

 introduced. Sometimes the new queen 

 is caged in the hive perhaps 48 hours 

 before the old queen is removed, then 

 the old queen is removed, and at the 

 same time the candy is left exposed in 

 the cage, so that the bees can liberate 

 the new queen. This latter plan is 

 safer. 



4. As soon as, or a little before, there 

 is " anything for the bees to store in 

 them. In white clover regions that will 

 be about as soon as clover is in bloom. 



I.ct me advise you very strongly to get 

 a book of instruction on bee-keeping. 

 It may be worth several times its cost 

 to you, for a good book of that kind 

 might double j'our success. 



Late Reared Queens— Wintering Vir- 

 gin Queens 



1. How late in the season can queens 

 be reared and mated? 



2. Can virgin queens be wintered over 

 in nuclei, and mated in the spring? 



Oregon. 



Answers. — -i. That depends on the 

 season. If honey is yielding, any time 

 through September. But you are not 

 likely to have good queens if you rear 

 them too late, and losses on wedding 

 flights will be greater. 



2. I doubt it. 



Nucleus and Swarming Questions 



1. Two years ago I sent away and 

 got 2 3-frame nuclei of bees. I will 

 designate them as No. i. and No. 2. 

 Xo. I I put into an 8-frame hive on full 

 frames of old comb; No. 2 in a 10- 

 frame hive with old comb. No. i in the 

 8-frame hive built up and gave me 

 one swarm. I hived them on the old 

 stand. They built up and swarmed 

 again, and gave me 30 pounds of section 

 honey. No. 2 did not swarm, and gave 

 me no honey last year (1906). No. i 

 gave me a number of swarms and 100 

 pounds of section honey. No. 2 did 

 no swarming and made no section 

 honey; and this season No. I is doing 

 fine, while No. 2 has done no swarm- 

 ing, nor has it done anything in the 

 sections. No. i has sent out 2 swarms 

 and is working well in the sections. 



What is the trouble with No. 2? What 

 can I do to make them more profitable? 

 They seem to be fairly strong and have 

 a queen and brood, but never have 

 swarmed nor given me any honey. 



2. If when the first, or prime, swarm 

 comes out and is hived on the old 

 stand with the old colony beside it, 

 and in 6 or 8 days the old colony is 

 moved and it should send out an after- 

 swarm in a few days after being moved, 

 would it do to put them in with the 

 prime swarm on the old stand, or would 

 it be better to put them back with the 

 old or parent colony? 



3. Which would be best for the pro- 

 duction of section honey? 



4. If put back with the old swarm, 

 would it be bettor to put them back 

 at once, or have them on empty frames, 

 and in 24 hours restore them? 



5. Would it be all right to return a 

 prime swarm if one did not care for 

 increase? If so, how should one pro- 

 ceed to do it? Maine. 



Answers. — i. It looks very much as 

 if the trouble lay in the character of 

 the bees themselves. If that is the 

 real difficulty, the remedy lies in chang- 

 ing the stock, which you may do by 

 replacing the queen with one reared 

 from your colony of better stock. 



2. Generally there should be no trou- 

 ble in either case, but they would be 

 more certain to be received kindly if 

 returned to the mother colony; in fact, 

 there would be no question about such 

 reception. But the usual thing would 

 be not to hav? any second swarm when 

 the treatment you mention is used. 



3. Returning to the swarm, probably 

 as the mother colony is generally so 

 reduced that it does little in sections. 



4. Generally it would make no differ- 

 ence. But if there was any danger 

 of further swarming it would be bet- 

 ter to wait 24 hours before returning, 

 for in that time the surplus queens 

 would likely be put out of the way. 



S- Yes, but you would be likely to 

 have a good bit of returning to do, 

 But if you are willing to return the 

 swarm every time it issues, the result 

 will be very satisfactory, in all proba- 

 bility. But you can cut out most of the 

 swarming in this way: When the prime 

 swarm issues, return it, killing the old 

 queen. You can kill her before you re- 

 turn the swarm or after. Then some- 

 where in the neighborhood of 8 days 

 a swarm will probably issue with the 

 first of the young queens. Have it in 

 a separate hive, and a day or 2 later 

 return to the old hive. 



Storing Honey Near tlie Apiary 



Can I store honey in or near my 

 apiary without the bees "fussing" 

 around the box or house in which it is 

 stored? The box, of course, is bee- 

 tight. • Illinois. 



Answer. — If you store honey so that 

 the smell can escape, you may count 

 on the bees "fussing" about it at times 

 when forage is scarce. Especially is 

 this the case when first put there. Af- 

 ter they have tried to get into it, and 

 failed, they are finally likely to give 

 it up. 



Bees Don't Worli in Supers 



I have lately started to keep bees. 

 I have both Itailians and blacks. The 

 hives are full, but the bees won't work 

 in the supers. Why? New Jersey. 



Answer. — Without knowing anything 

 more about the case it is not easy to 

 be sure just why the bees do not work 

 in the supers. The safest guess is that 

 they don't need to, there being too little 

 honey gathered to make it necessary to 

 store it outside the brood-chamber. If 



there is really anything for them to 

 store in supers, you can hasten a begin- 

 ing by putting some sort of a bait in the 

 supers. If you have any sections that 

 have been partly filled and then emptied, 

 they will make good bait. In lack of 

 anything else you may put into a sec- 

 tion a piece of comb cut out of a brood- 

 comb. If you use extracting-supers, no 

 bait is needed other than drawn-out 

 combs, although if you put a comb from 

 the brood-chamber in the extracting-su- 

 per (provided the frames in both apart- 

 ments are of the same size), the bees 

 will start storing there at once if they 

 have anything to store. 



Italian Bees and Yellow Bands 



1. Do Italian bees ajll show yellow 

 bands? If some show less, what are 

 they ? 



2. I have one colony that has two 

 kinds of drones. About half show yel- 

 low bands, while the others do not. The 

 workers do not all show 3 yellow bands. 

 What race are they? Texas. 



Answers.— I. The workers of Italians 

 should show 3 yellow bands, but the first 

 band — ^the one nearest the head — is nar- 

 rower and more indistinct than the other 

 two. If some of them show less than 3, 

 they are hybrids. 



2. The drones are not uniform, and 

 only the workers are reHed on to decide 

 purity. Your colony of bees that do not 

 all show 3 yellow bands are hybrids, un- 

 less some bees have entered from other 

 hives — a thing that often occurs. To be 

 entirely sure, examine the young bees 

 that have not left the hive; if all of 

 those have 3 yellow bands you may 

 count them Italians. 



Balled Queen- Jumtoo and Dadant- 

 Blatt Hives 



1. When passing through the bee- 

 yard a few days ago, I saw a ball of 

 bees at the entrance of one of the hives, 

 and placing my firmer-chisel back of the 

 ball I threw it out on the ground in 

 front of the hive. Then I smoked the 

 bees till the ball opened so that I could 

 see a queen-bee inside. I caged the 

 queen, and then made an examination 

 of the colony. I found only one queen- 

 cell, and that was sealed. When super- 

 seding a queen do bees often kill her 

 at this stage of (he operations? 



2. What is the difference between the 

 Dadant hive and the Jumbo hive? I 

 have some hives with bodies 20 inches 

 long and 12 inches deep, made to take 

 ID frames. Such hives, I beheve, were 

 called in Europe the "Dadant - Blatt" 

 hives. After making and using some of 

 these hives for quite a while I began to 

 read in the bee-papers about the Jumbo 

 hive. Does it differ from the Dadant- 

 Blatthive? Iowa. 



Answers. — i. Unless I am very rnuch 

 mistaken, the case you mention is a 

 very unusual one. So many cases have 

 been reported in which the mother and 

 the superseding daughter were in the 

 same hive together that it is not con- 

 sidered the rarity it was some years 

 ago. If no further queen-cells were 

 started, the existence of the colony 



