1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



243 



that there is alfalfa, locust, tupelo, blackberry, 

 etc. There are also plenty of sumac flowers. 

 Study the flora of your vicinity and post your- 

 self. 



Beekeeping in the North 



Do you think it protitablc lo raise bees as 

 as far north as 1 live? There is a good deal of 

 white clover in the pastures and also bass- 

 wood bloom and red clover. 



MINNESOTA. 



Answer. — Yes; there are many beekeepers 

 not far from where you are. We knew of a 

 beekeeper at Parent, close to St. Cloud, who 

 succeeded well in beekeeping some 25 years 

 ago. 



6. As answer to this, read the splendid arti- 

 cle by Pangburn on page 90 of the March num- 

 ber. There is nothing better, and we could 

 not give you so detailed an explanation in the 

 Question Department. 



4x5 Sections 



I have been experimenting on bees for some 

 years, and 1 started with the 10-frame Lang- 

 strolh hives, everything new. I have equipped 

 all my hives with the new No 4 super, taking 

 sections 4x5. (1 bought these supe'rs thinking 1 

 could use them lor extracted honey, providing 

 I should care to use them for that purpose). 1 

 produced some nice sections, but they are easy 

 to turn over, and I believe 1 should like the 

 4;4x4!4 a little better, everything considered, 

 but I could never use them for extracting su- 

 pers if 1 wanted to when I get a few more 

 colonies. 



Is there any way I could use the 4 14^4 ^i 

 sections in this super? I can get all the 

 empty shipping cases 1 want of the grocer of 

 this size (.been used, but good as new), and 

 can buy them at a little price. The 4x5 sec- 

 tion I should have to buy new 



I wish you would tell me whether to go 

 ahead with the No. 4 super, or would you dis- 

 continue it. 1 will have to buy several supers 

 this spring. I am going to increase to the 

 limit, and some day 1 might have a good many 

 colonies. 



1 could not get along without the American 

 Bee Journal. ILLINOIS. 



Answer. — The 4x5 section is a nuisance, but 

 it was a matter of novelty when lirst issued. 

 If your supers for these sections are similar to 

 those I know of, you can use extracting frames 

 of the 5H depth in them. You can also use 

 4J4 sections in them, but in that case you 

 must cut those tupers down ^i inch and change 

 your inside fixtures to fit the sections. As to 

 advising you on this matter, it is difficult to 

 do so. 



Transferring, Requeening, Spray 

 Poison, Moths 



1. I have frames of honey from colonies that 

 died this winter. Could 1 not transfer from 

 a box hive into them any time before fruit 

 blossom time? 



2. When is the earliest date that it would 

 be safe to requeen here? 



3. How many days should the colony be 

 without a queen before they are given a young 

 queen? 



4. Is there any way to prevent the fruit 

 spray from kil.ing the bees? 



5. What can I use to keep moths from stored 

 combs? IOWA. 



Answers. — Yes, you can transfer onto those 

 combs at any time. But you will surely want 

 to save the brood from those box hives, and 

 you will do it with more ease during fruit 

 bloom. 



2. Any time when you have the queens. If 

 your bees must rear their own queens, better 

 wait till near the end of the crop or after. 



3. I prefer to introduce the young quten 

 just as I remove the old one. If you can cage 

 the old queen for an hour in the cage and 

 then put the young queen in her place, you 

 will have as good a chance as it is possible to 

 have. Leaving a colony queenless till they 

 know it and try to rear another is just that 

 much against your success. 



4. Try and get your neighbors to keep from 

 spraying till the bloom has about fallen. It 

 does not pay them to spray in bloom. We 

 have never had any bees killed by spray; yet 

 they spray fruit trees in our vicinity. 



Raising Queens 



1. I grafted 15 Doolittle cell-cups with royal 

 jelly, warm temperature, and gave to colony 

 preparing to swarm, after destroying their nat- 

 ural cells. Ten cells accepted, drawn out and 

 sealed. After sealing, bees built comb around 

 nearly every cell, and at end of eleventh day 

 one cell hatched a queen, one cell gave a 

 queen that died shortly after emerging and 

 the other eight had dead larvx. Larvae ap- 

 parently had just passed the oupae state, but de- 

 veloped no farther. Color, r from brood 

 disease. What happened ? 



2. For 8 to 10 cells, do you consider the 

 broodless-queenless starting colony and finish 

 over queen-excluder better than puttting brood 

 over excluder with queen below and giving 

 grafted cups? CALIFORNIA. 



Answers. — The statement that the bees built 

 comb around every cell would indicate that 

 they had some room to spare. Perhaps the 

 cells were a little bit isolated and got chilled. 

 Or perhaps you made the mistake to put drone 

 larvae in those cells. That would account for it 

 still better. If neither of these explanations is 

 the right one, let the rest of the folks guess. 



2. A broodless-queenless colony is rarely any 

 good unless just made so purposely. I would 

 prefer the other. 



Size of Dovetailed Hive — Cotton as 

 Honey Plant 



1. I would like to know the standard size of 

 the 10-frame dovetailed hive, measuring outside 

 length, width and depth of brood-chamber. 



2. Is ordinary field cotton of any value as 

 a honey plant? If so, can the Italian bees ex- 

 tract nectar from the blossoms? 



MISSOURL 



Answers. — Length 19^, depth 9 J^ , width 

 (Root make) lej^, (Lewis make) 15^. 



2. Cotton is diversely reported by different 

 beekeepers. Pellett's "American Honey Plants" 

 devotes three pages to this plant. It says, in 

 part: "In some cotton-growing districts the 

 beekeepers swear by cotton, while in other lo- 

 calities they declare that it is of little value. 

 The character of the soil seems to be a very 

 important factor in the secretion of nectar by 

 this plant." One man writes: "Cotton blos- 

 soms furnish a great deal of excellent honey." 

 — Jules Belknap, Arkansas. 



Another man writes: "Bees will not work 

 cotton if they can work anything else, even 

 bitterweed.'*— W. D. Null, Alabama. 



The Italian bees certainly work upon the 

 bloom when there is honey in it. They also get 

 honey from its extra-floral nectaries. 



Miscellaneous 



1. I have one hive this spring that never 

 seeins to work, while other, hives do. I have 

 a hive of foundation under it for them to fill 

 out so they will have room to work. I must 

 say, though that they are medium strong and 

 are very heavy in stores. 



2. What IS a good way to introduce a queen 

 to a colony of Lees? 



3. Can you suggest a means by which bees 

 can tell their own hive better when in a row? 



4. How would it be lo have one colony filling 

 out a bunch of frames? Am very short of 

 drawn comb. 



0. How would you requeen a hive? 



6. What is a good way to increase artifi- 

 cially? 



7. Is there any danger of giving a strong 

 colony too much ventilation during swarming 

 season, that is the hive set on four 1-inch 

 blocks? Would it not chill the brood on cool 

 nights ? We have fairly cool nights here in 

 May, June and July, with some hot days. 



8. Do deep hives prevent swarming? 



9. How many pounds of bees are there in 

 the average colony? 



10. How many combs (standard) will a 

 pound of bees cover? 



11. When you move a hive of bees a couple 



of blocks distance what is the best precaution 

 to take so that many of them will not fly back? 



12. Is western Washington considered very 

 good for bee culture. WASHINGTON. 



Answer. — 1. Open that colony some warm 

 day and examine it. They may be queenless. 

 They may not have enough bees to take care 

 of the brood. Perhaps you gave them too 

 much room and they have difficulty in keeping 

 the hive warm in cool weather. 



2. Cage her for 2 days, between two of the 

 center combs and release her by putting a 

 piece of honey cappings in place of the stop- 

 per. 



3. Have some marks of recognition, a bush, 

 some differently marked hives, roofs or hives 

 of different colors, etc. 



4. Certainly; by all "means have plenty of 

 combs. 



5. As we said above, by introducing. Kill 

 the old queen just before introducing the new 

 one. If you have no queen, give them brood 

 less than 3 days old. 



6. Take the brood-combs of a colony, leav- 

 ing the queen and uees at the old stand, and 

 put the hive containing those combs on the 

 stand of another hive, putting the latter in a 

 new spot. Give them a queen if you have one. 

 If not, they will rear one. Buy a text-book 

 and read it. 



7. No danger if you give the air only at the 

 bottom. But if you stagger the stories, there 

 may be a possibility of too much ventilation. 

 Watch that. 



8. Not always. 



9. All the way from 2 pounds to 20, depend- 

 ing on the time of year and conditions of sea- 

 sons. 



10. Probably an average of a comb per 

 pound of bees, if well covered, from end to 

 end. 



11. Disturb them thoroughly, so they may 

 know something is wrong at the time you re- 

 lease them. Then place a slanting board in 

 front of the entrance, so they may turn about 

 and look back. 



12. There are good spots there as else- 

 where. 



Transferring — Feeding 



I have 4 colonies, 2 in 10-frame standard 

 hives, 1 in a home-made hive, and 1 in a box 

 hive. I want to transfer all of them into 10- 

 frame hives with full sheet of foundation, 

 because when 1 hived them I gave them just 

 starters, and when transferring i do not want 

 to cut away any of the old comD. First I 

 intend to transfer the 2 I have in the 10-frame 

 hives into my 2 new 10-frame dovetailed hives. 

 In doing this 1 will put the old hive over the 

 new, with an excluder between, and leave it so 

 for three weeks. I then intend to take these 

 two hives I transferred from and transfer my 

 other 2 colonies into them the same way. 



(a) I intend to start at the beginning of 

 fruit bloom so I will have them transferred be- 

 fore the honey-fiow. Will this be all right? 



(.b; When I transfer the last 2 colonies it 

 will continue into the honey-fiow, that is,^ 1-will 

 still have the old hives over until the brood 

 is all hatched. When the honey -flow starts, 

 can I put a super underneath the old hive? 

 And will they start to work in the super while 

 the brood is hatching above? 



(.c) When you feed bees in the spring with 

 a half-gallon tin pail in a super, what size 

 nail do you use to make holes in the cover, 

 and how many holes do you make? 



(d) I want to feed the bees in my box hive; 

 would it be necessary to turn it upside down 

 and take bottom ofl, or feed right on top with 

 the tin pail feeder? 



(e) Is pollen a light brown color, and do 

 they put it right at the bottom of the cell? 



ILLINOIS. 

 Answers. — (a) It may work all right. Much 

 depends upon the weather, the strength of the 

 colonies and the crop. 



(b) The proper place for supers is not un- 

 derneath, but on top of the brood-chamber. 

 Their tendency iit to put the honey above, the 

 brood, not below it They want it where the 



