December, 1907. 



/33 



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ii^American l^e JoornalJ 



that the queen alone does ii.t carry the 

 disease; so when you rcrcivc a queen 

 through the mail, and arc ot absolute- 

 ly certain as to safety froin ilie disease, 

 introduce nothing but the queen alone. 

 Take a clean cage and put the queen 

 alone in it. Better make the change 

 before a window in the house, so that 

 if any workers of the escort get out 

 you can kill them on the window. Then 

 burn the cage in which the queen came, 

 bees and all. 



4. Back of the 3 yellow bands the 

 rest of the abdomen looks about the 

 same as that of a black bee. 



Late Feeding of Bees for Winter. 



I have a colony of fine Italian bees 

 which have not stores enough to last 

 them a mouth. I had to take it away 

 last summer and have not as yet got it 

 home. How can I feed it at this late 

 day? It is in a chaff hive with extra 

 super on filled with cushions. 



Answer. — The best way is to give 

 combs of sealed honey. Carefully take 

 out the empty frames and put the combs 

 of sealed honey close up to the bees, 

 for if there is a space between the bees 

 and the honey, and it should be quite 

 cold for a time, the bees might starve 

 without ever touching the honey. 

 What's that you say? "Haven't any 

 combs of sealed honey?" Well, that's 

 about what I expected. But make up 

 your mind that you'll always have them 

 hereafter. 



Well, if you haven't combs of sealed 

 honey, maybe you have some honey in 

 sections. You can fit some sections in 

 a wide frame, or even a common brood- 

 fram^ by cutting away enough of the 

 sections to make them fit in the frame. 

 Rather an expensive way to feed ; still, 

 I've fed a good many sections in my 

 time. 



If you haven't the sections either, you 

 can do quite well with candy. Take 

 best granulated sugar and stir it into 

 a very little hot water in a dish on the 

 stove; but whatever you do, don't let 

 it burn, for burnt syrup is death to 

 bees in winter. Better not set it down 

 in the stove-hole so the fire can touch 

 the dish, but set the dish on top of the 

 stove. Keep trying it, and when you 

 find a little stirred in a saucer will 

 grain, take it ofT quickly and pour into 

 dishes making cakes % of an inch to 

 I V* inches thick. Put over the frames 

 a cake of this candy that will pretty well 

 cover the frames, or if cakes are small 

 you can use more than one. Cover 

 this with some kind of cloth covering, 

 and shut up snug. Toward spring you 

 may need to repeat the dose, but if you 

 make the cakes thick enough and large 

 enough no more will be needed for a 

 good while. Your extra super on top 

 will give you an extra chance to put 

 on the candy and to pack it up warm. 



2. All this comb is well filled with 

 pollen. Will this keep over winter, and 

 will it be all right to put in the combs 

 next spring? My intention is to use 

 these combs— 8 frames of them — in a 

 new hive next spring, for increase. 



Illinois. 



Answers. — i. If the comb is in good 

 condition except for the ravages of the 

 moth, it's good property, and it is well 

 worth your while to keep it to give 

 the bees again. Something, however, 

 depends upon how the bees fill out the 

 vacancies in the combs. If they fill them 

 up with drone-comb, you might better 

 melt up the combs and give foundation. 

 If given to a strong colony in a flourish- 

 ing condition you can count on a lot 

 of drone-comb; if given to a nucleus, 

 or to a swarm when first hived, you 

 may count on worker-comb. 



2. Pollen keeps well through winter, 

 unless you keep it in a mouldy cellar, 

 and pollen in good condition, pound for 

 pound, is often worth as much as honey. 



Moth-Eaten Combs — Pollen. 

 I. I have a "number of frames which 

 look very ragged on account of moth 

 ravages, some in which more than V2 

 of the comb is gone. Will the bees re- 

 pair this and fill out the frames again 

 if I give them to the bees next spring? 

 or would I better cut out all this comb 

 and put in new foundation? 



Amount of Sugar for a Pound of 

 Honey. 



Recently I had a suspicious customer 

 — I often have them. I told him I did 

 not know if bees would put glucose 

 syrup in comb and cap it over. I agreed 

 with him that they would put good 

 sugar syrup in comb and cap it over, 

 but from a little experience I had in 

 feeding up weak colonies I had my seri- 

 ous doubt whether there would be any 

 profit in it, or at least the profit would 

 be so small that the consumer would 

 have little to fear from that kind of a 

 fraud. 



Aside from the fraud, the work, ex- 

 citing the bees to rob, and that we must 

 feed till the body of the hive is full 

 before the bees would put anything into 

 the super, how much sugar would we 

 have to feed for each pound section we 

 would get filled? Illinois. 



Answer.- — I don't know. After every- 

 thing was filled up so that the bees real- 

 ly began storing in sections, it is pos- 

 sible that it wouldn't take much more 

 than a pound of dry sugar (of course 

 the weight of syrup would be more) to 

 make a pound of the stored — whatever 

 you would call it. If any one knows 

 anv more than I do about it, please 

 tell. 



Hives Full of Frames for Winter. 



It is perhaps a little late to ask the 

 question, still I should like to know if 

 it is good policy to keep all the frames 

 in a lo-frame hive over winter, even 

 though the cluster occupies only about 

 4 or 5 frames. Would you advise me 

 to remove some of the frames and to 

 put in a division-board? I use chaiT- 

 hives, and thought that everything was 

 in good shape as it is, without remov- 

 ing any frames. New York. 



Answer. — Some time ago an eminent 

 authority in France made experiments 

 to compare the heat in a hive having 

 part of the frames occupied by a col- 

 ony and the hive filled out with empty 

 combs, but separated by a division- 

 board, with the same thing without a 

 division-board. A thermometer showed 



there was no difference, and he decided 

 that a division-board was no better than 

 an empty comb. Since then it has been 

 pointed out that although a thcrmomclcr 

 may have shown precisely the same 

 temperature in one case as the other, 

 that does not by any means prove that 

 the division-board did no good, for in 

 the second case the bees burnt more fuel 

 (consumed more stores) to keep up the 

 heat, and we know well that the more 

 the bees eat the more their intestines are 

 loaded, and the shorter confinement they 

 can endure. 



Clearly it would have been better if 

 so much empty space had not been left 

 for the bees to keep warm. Whether 

 it is better to make any change now is 

 another question. If the bees are in a 

 cellar whose temperature is 45 degrees 

 or more, it will almost surely be better 

 not to make any change, for the dis- 

 turbance will probably do more harm 

 than the change will do good. If the 

 bees are on their summer stands— really 

 I don't know enough to say whether 

 it is best to make any change or not; 

 but I half believe I'd risk them as they 

 arc. 



Preventing Swarming — Location for 

 Observation-Hive. 



1. I have 4 colonies of bees. If I 

 take say 2 frames from each colony 

 and form a new colony just before 

 swarming time, would it have any ef- 

 fect in preventing swarming? Or is 

 there a better way? 



2. Has the Lyman method of swarm- 

 control any advantage over natural 

 swarming, except the necessity of 

 watching the bees? If so, what is it? 



3. What is the bes-t location for an 

 observation-hive? Would an attic with 

 a southern exposure be good? or 

 would the attic with a northern expos- 

 ure be best? or what is the best? 



Connecticut. 

 Answers. — i. There is a great dif- 

 ference in bees about swarming, some 

 colonies being much inclined that way, 

 others very little. Taking 2 frames of 

 brood from a colony of a very swarmy 

 disposition would be likely to have but 

 little effect. Even a colony not very 

 bad in that respect would not be much 

 affected by it if the frames were taken 

 away after preparations for swarming 

 were well on- the way and queen-cells 

 well started. Suppose, however, that 

 we have a colony not greatly given to 

 swarming. Indeed, the season is pretty 

 well along, and as yet no queen-cells 

 are started, although the colony is 

 strong, so strong that within a very 

 short time it will start queen-cells, and 

 if we take away 2 frames of brood today 

 it may be sufficient to make it give up 

 all thought of swarming. So you see 

 it depends upon circumstances. 



2. Yes, with the Lyman method the 

 forces of the colony are not divided up 

 as they are with natural swarming. 



3. The best location for an observa- 

 tion-hive is one that is most convenient 

 for the observer, and at the same time 

 comfortable for the bees. The most con- 

 venient place for you might be in one 

 of the living-rooms, and that would 

 likely be comfortable for the bees. But 

 there might be objections to that, such 



