24 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



January 



they may swarm when they are crowded for 

 room. 



2. It is out of the question to treat of dis- 

 eases in the replies to questions. Send for 

 the book "First Lessons in Beekeeping." or 

 "The Hive and Honey Bee Revised." You 

 will find a whole chapter in each of these 

 books on diseases of bees. 



3. Queens may be reared all summer long. 

 But the best time is during the honey crop. 



4. We don't know of any such bees. 



5. Cyprian bees have not been imported, 

 that we know of, for years. They are so cross 

 that it is not likely anyone has ever tried to 

 keep them pure. 



3. It would be a mistake to lay down a flat 

 rule. But on the average Italians are much 

 better producers than blacks. 



4. Give them all facilities to breed by giv- 

 ing the queens ample room and seeing that 

 they have plenty of food. 



Requeening 



1. I have a few colonies of hybrid bees 

 which I wish to requeen next spring, and wish 

 to keep them queenless the shortest time possi- 

 ble. Would the bees accept a ripe queen-cell 

 immediately after the old queen was killed, or 

 would I have to use a queen-cell protector? 



2. Would the bees build queen-cells if I 

 should put all but one frame of brood in a 

 new hive, leaving the queen and one frame of 

 brood in the old hive, and set the new hive 

 on top of the old hive with a queen-excluder 

 between? TEXAS. 



Answers. — 1. No, they would not accept an 

 unprotected cell till fully conscious of their 

 queenlessness. That might be less than an 

 hour or more than a day. 



2. Maybe, and maybe not. The more the 

 brood is cut off from the queen^ the more 

 likely cells will be started. A zinc excluder 

 is better to get them started than a wire one. 

 A cloth nearly covering the excluder will help. 

 The higher up the brood is, the better. 



Prevent Swarming 



I intend to move my bees in the country 

 and will be with them about one day each 

 week. I would like to adopt some plan to keep 

 them from swarming, or swarra them at my 

 convenience. 



When a colony shows signs of swarming, if 

 I should put brood-chamber above a hive filled 

 with foundation and queen-excluder on it, 

 pptting the queen with one frame below, cut- 

 ting out all the queen-cells in the above hive, 

 will that prevent swarming? If not, kindly 

 give the best method generally used in out- 

 apiaries. NEW YORK. 



Answer. — Yes. the method you indicate will 

 help to prevent swarming, though we cannot, 

 with any method, make sure of having no 

 swarms at all. Cut the queen's wings, then 

 the swarm can't get away so easily. 



Size of Hive — FuH Sheets — Italian vs. 

 Blacks 



1. Bees swarm here in April, out we get no 

 surplus till the latter part of July and August. 

 Betwen these dates there is a continuous, 

 though light, flow of nectar, just enough for 

 brood-rearing. Under these conditions would 

 you advise me to use 8 or 10 Langstroth 

 frames in the brood-chamber? 



2. From a purely financial viewpoint, do you 

 consider it economy to use full sheets of foun- 

 dation? 



3. Will a colony of Italian hees gather more 

 honey in a season than a colony of blacks or 

 hybrids? 



4. Under conditions in No. 1, what can I 

 do to have ray colonics reach maximum 

 strength by July 15? TEXAS. 



Answers. — 1. Eight-frame hives are too 

 small unless you use two stories for brood. 

 Two stories are really needed if you wish the 

 full production of bees from prolific queens. 

 Have them as strong with bees as you can get 

 them at the opening of the flow. 



2. Yes. Try it comparatively for yourself. 

 That is the best way to be convinced. Don*l 

 try it on only a hive or two, but on a fair 

 proportion of colonics. Full sheets will give 

 you nearly all worker combs. Starters will 

 give you any kind of combs the bees take a 

 notion to build. 



Horse Stung — Freak Queen 



In your November issue a New Jersey man 

 wishes to know what to do for stings on a 

 horse; my experience was successful. The 

 Iiorse laid down and acted as though he had 

 the colic. I took a corn knife and scraped 

 the stings off and then took a large pail, filled 

 it half full of salt, then water, and stirred it 

 up; soaked burlap sacks and covered her up, 

 then kept them wet. In three hours I drove 

 home none the worse .off. I bought a queen 

 this summer which arrived too weak to live. 

 I ordered another, which was a fine looker. 

 When she began to lay there were from two 

 to six eggs in each cell; they never hatched 

 a bee. What is the cause? I finally killed her 

 and doubled the bees that were left (which 

 were few) with another colony. I have only 

 four, but they are good and strong. 



IOWA. 



Answer. — Your advice as to treatment of a 

 horse that has been badly stung is very good. 

 Ammonia diluted with water would probably 

 be good, too. But it is easier to find salt and 

 water than ammonia, on a farm or about an 

 apiary. 



Your queen was a freak. Once in a great 

 while we come across a defective queen and 

 we are unable to tell what is wrong. You 

 might buy 500 queens before you would again 

 have such an occurrence. It was an accident, 

 evidently, and nobody to blame. 



Increase 



Would it not be easier and cheaper for any- 

 one desiring increase to make ready for same 

 in the fall rather than wait till spring, as fol- 

 lows: 



Place a regular hive-body (filled with frames 

 and foundation) underneath the regular hive, 

 letting them have the use of both bodies; then, 

 in the spring, place the lower one on top, let- 

 ting bees fill both hives with brood and bees; 

 then introduce a queen into the one that 

 would be queenless after disuniting. 



NEW YORK. 



Answer. — It is all right to get your hive 

 ready in the fall or winter, but I cannot see 

 much to gain in giving the bees a hive full of 

 foundation until they can use it. You would 

 have to give it to them before the crop ended. 

 Otherwise it is probably better to keep it away 

 from them till spring. 



Getting Good Stock 



1. Is there the same danger of getting in- 

 ferior offspring in breeding from an extremely 

 old queen as there is in breeding from live- 

 stock that is feeble with age? Would it be 

 advisable to breed from a queen that has been 

 the best in the yard when she was young, but 

 has materially deteriorated with extreme age ? 



2. How near the beginning of the only 

 profitable honeyflow that we have, which only 

 lasts four weeks, can one retiueen colonies that 

 are as weak as to cover only six frames, if 

 he has to buy early queens, and wants them to 

 pay for .themselves in that flow alone? 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



Answers. — 1. Perhaps there would be dan- 

 ger of inferior offspring with a very old and 

 decrepit queen. This is difficult to decide. 

 Better not wait till your queen is too old, es- 

 pecially as you might not get anything but 

 drone eggs. 



3. You can requeen at any time, if you buy 

 your queens. But if you rear them, better 

 wait till the honey crop is fairly advanced. 

 Bought queens, introduced at the beginning 

 of a flow, will not produce workers in time 

 for that flow, unless it is an extremely pro- 

 longed flow. It takes 35 days before the egg 

 laid gives an active field worker. Reared 

 queens will produce them only for the next 

 flow. 



Golden vs. Three-Banded 



How do the golden Italian bees compare 

 with the three-banded Italians in honey gath- 

 ering, in disposition and in fighting foulbrood? 

 MICHIGAN. 



Answer. — The goldens are sometimes very 

 good, sometimes rather inferior. Much de- 

 pends upon whether they were bred only for 

 color or whether other qualities were consid- 

 ered also in raising them. Personally, I pre- 

 fer the pure, three-banded Italians, bred with 

 a view of securing the main characteristics of 

 tlie race, without consideration of extra yellow 

 color. 



Skunks 



I have a number of weak colonies of bees 

 this fall. They have done nothing all summer. 

 I have noticed skunks aroUnd my stand; do 

 you suppose that they have made them weak? 

 Please let me know what you think about it in 

 your next Journal. WISCONSIN. 



Answer. — Skunks are fond of bees, but it 

 is hardly probable that they could weaken 

 colonies of bees in an apiary. If your bees 

 have done nothing all summer, it is more prob- 

 able that the honey crop was short and that 

 they did not breed as they should. However, 

 if you have any skunks in the vicinity it may 

 be worth while to trap them. 



Foulbrood — Robbing 



1. I have a few hives of European foulbrood 

 in my apiary. Should I requeen the whole 

 apiary or just the hives that have it? Of the 

 two, which is the hardest to control, Ameri- 

 can or European foulbrood? 



2. Are Italian bees more resistant to Euro- 

 pean foulbrood than the blacks ? 



3. Does nosema-disease affect the flying bees 

 or the brood; is it a new disease, and do you 

 think it is as bad as foulbrood? 



4. While I was extracting honey this year 

 the honey -house door blew open while I was 

 eating my lunch. When I returned I found 

 the bees doing a land office business. It struck 

 me that the bees robbing the house were from 

 about 5 or 6 hives, for the reason there was 

 an unusual amount of bees at their entrances. 

 Do you think it was the whole yard, or just 

 these few hives? • 



5. What is the proper thing to do with a 

 bad case of pickle-brood in a hive of black 

 bees? 



6. I introduced a young Italian queen about 

 a month ago. When I opened the hive the 

 other day I found some drone-brood in the 

 worker-cells, also 2 and 3 eggs in one cell, 

 some on their side and some on end. I also 

 found some good worker brood. This is a 

 small swarm, covering about 4 frames. What 

 is your opinion of this queen? 



CALIFORNIA. 

 Answers. — 1. Requeen only the hives that 

 have it. The two diseases differ, but both are 

 difficult to cure. American foulbrood, if thor- 

 oughly treated is likely to disappear. Euro- 

 pean foulbrood often shows itself when we 

 think we have stamped it out. 



2. Yes, without doubt. 



3. It affects the full grown bee. It is not as 

 bad as the foulbroods. 



4. Undoubtedly only those colonies that 

 were excited. 



5. Be sure that it is only pickle-brood (sac- 

 brood). Then feed them on sugar syrup, pro- 

 vided they are still strong enough to be worth 

 saving. 



6. Either that queen is deficient or there is 

 also in that hive an old queen laying drone- 

 eggs. Usually, when we see eggs laid several 

 in a cell, it is a sign that there are some 

 drone-laying workers in the hive. 



Number of Bees in Pound — Shipping 

 Bees 



1. Tell me the number of bees to the pound, 

 generally speaking? 



2. Will it do to ship bees at this season of 

 the year? NEBRASKA. 



Answers. — 1. For all general purposes we 

 figyre on 5,000 worker-bees to the pound. 



