312 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



September 



an opening for free ingress and egress above it. 

 If you have many drones and confine them, bet- 

 ter have a drone trap and get rid of them when 

 they try to take flight. I would keep close tab 

 on thdt colony and see that everything went 

 well with it Any abnormal management needs 

 close nttention. 



Laying Workers — Foulbrood 



1. I have a colony of bees that rather puzzles 

 me. On April 24 there was no brood in the 

 combs. On May 1 there were two frames that 

 had about a hundred eggs and young larvs- 

 They also had a queen-cell. On May G the 

 queen-cell had been opened, as if the queen 

 had emerged. But there was no sign of her, 

 and the bees had another cell started and 

 capped over. Now what I would like to know 

 is, what is the reason of this? Are the bees 

 preparing to supersede? That is my guess. 



2. In 1917 I bought a queen, and she is 

 about the most prolific queen I have ever 

 seen. In some cells she will lay two eggs. I 

 have her in a standard 10-frame hive and can 

 see no reason for this, unless she is just an 

 exceptionally good queen. She would not do 

 for a breeding queen, as she was not purely 

 mated. Last year my bees had European 

 foulbrood, and in spite of this the colony that 

 was headed by this queen gave 45 pounds sur- 

 plus and a good swarm. What do you think 

 of that? ILLINOIS. 



Answers. — 1. My guess is that your colony 

 has a drone-laf.'ing worker, or perhaps sev- 

 eral, and no queen. The reason the queen- 

 cell was opened was that it contained only a 

 drone, and it died. The one built later wnl 

 have the same fate. It may be that they 

 have a queen, but in that case the queen is old 

 and no longer able to lay eggs that are im- 

 pregnated, therefore you should either give 

 that colony some young brood from another 

 colony or unite it with another. Hunt for that 

 queen, if there is one, and kill her. 



2. Your experience with foulbrood shows 

 that beekeepers should not get discouraged 

 when they encounter it. In nearly every case, 

 those who have had to fight foulbrood have 

 proven more successful afterwards than before. 



Manufactured Honey 



As I am a small beeman and sell most of my 

 honey to my fellow workmen, I bump up 

 against some queer imaginations. One of the 

 men said that three-fourths of all the comb 

 honey on the market was artificially made of 

 parafin wax and syrup, and none but an expert 

 or chemist could detect it. He offered to bet 

 any amount of money on it, for he claimed 

 he saw it made with his own eyes by a Green- 

 ville manufacturing company at Greenville, 

 Texas; also a bee supply manufacturing com- 

 pany. I would like to know if any comb 

 honey can be manufactured. MISSOURI. 



Answer. — Your fellow workman only repeats 

 what he heard said by others. Some 40 years 

 ago, Dr. Wiley, who has been U. S. Chemisi, 

 told that story for a hoax, but it was repeated 

 in many papers, and is still believed by thou- 

 sands of honest people. There is absolutely no 

 truth in the statement, and A. I. Root, of Me- 

 dina, Ohio, who is worth several hundred thou- 

 sand dollars, offered $1,000 for a single comb 

 of manufactured honey. Nobody ever took 

 him up. Your man did not see a manufacturer 

 of comb honey at Greenville, Texas, or any- 

 where else. He perhaps heard of a comb 

 foundation factory and took that to be a comb 

 honey factory. 



There is a very good way in which anyone 

 could tell manufactured combs, if such could 

 exist. As all things made by machinery, they 

 would be all alike, or at least there would be 

 only a few patterns. But if you go to a crate 

 full or a carload of comb honey, you will see 

 that no two are alike, just like the leaves in 

 the woods or the trees of the forest. Anyone 

 who will look at sections full of honey, un- 

 less he is decidedly weak in the brain, will 

 readily see that it is impossible to make such 

 ft variety of &bape§, except jn the natural way. 



Weak Colonies 



I have two colonies of bees that have been 

 packed in chaff all winter. I opened them the 

 other day and found that most of the bees 

 were dead, but each had a queen. There is an 

 abundance of honey in the frames. I found 

 so many dead bees on the bottom that the 

 entrance was stopped. I cleaned it off and 

 opened the runway. I found one late swarm 

 dead that had plenty of honey. I have two 

 other colonies, one with a fair amount of 

 bees and the other an 8-frame hive full of 

 bees. How would be the best way to build 

 up the weak hives? Could I take a frame out 

 of the strong hive and put it in without in- 

 juring the strong hive? Or would it Pe oet- 

 ter to buy bees by the pound? How many 

 would I need for the two hives? I am using 

 10-frame hives with nine frames in them. Is 

 it a good plan? NEW YORK. 



Answer. — The winter has been very hard on 

 bees in your State, and those bees have suf- 

 fered from long confinement. If each colony 

 has a quart of bees left, it may save it to give 

 it a small comb of brood. Of course it will 

 weaken the healthy colonies, but may pay in 

 the long run, as it will save the queens. If 

 there is less than a quart of bees left in the 

 hive, it would probably be a waste to try to 

 save them. Much depends upon their con- 

 dition. Of course, buying bees by the pound 

 is a very good way, if you can secure them 

 in time. A pound of bees for each colony 

 would probably be ample, but the more the 

 better. 



Shipping Bees — Division, Etc. 



1. I am buying a colony of a friend, which 

 will be shipped by express. He tells me that 

 lyiless they arrive on a warm day they will 

 all die, because when disturbed they fill up 

 with honey, and unless they can make a 

 flight upon their arrival, they will die. Is 

 this so? 



2. About June first, or as soon as I can 

 see that there are queen-cells formed, I will 

 divide the colony by taking 3 frames with 

 at least one queen-cell and place in a new 

 hive on the old stand and move the old hive 

 with the queen to a new stand and place a 

 slanting board in front of the entrance, so that 

 they will notice their n^"' location when 

 emerging. Is this proper? 



3. I have purchased everything the Cornell 

 University, of Ithaca, N. Y., advises the be- 

 ginner to have, including five hives with su- 

 pers for comb honey. If I buy one or two 

 pound packages of bees would it be safe to put 

 them on the full sheets of foundation, or 

 would they break it down? 



4. If I buy nuclei or packages I understand 

 the queen is safely introduced by the dealer 

 before shipping to the purchaser. Is this so? 



NEW YORK. 

 Answers. — 1. No. If the bees are supplied 

 with enough food, enough ventilation, and 

 are handled carefully enough not to break their 

 combs, they will stand confinement easily a 

 week. They fill themselves with honey when 

 first disturbed, but they finally quiet down, es- 

 pecially if kept in a fairly cool place. 



2. Yes, it will do. But you may not find 

 queen-cells with brood in them as early as 

 you expect. 



3. The bees of a pound package are not 

 likely to cause the foundation to break down. 



4. The queen is usually shipped with her 

 own bees. 



Texas Laws — Transferring 



1. What arc the laws of Texas, in regard to 

 taking bees into the State? Do bees have to 

 have a certificate of inspection? 



3. I have some bees I would like to change. 

 They are in movable frame hives, but the 

 frames are getting rotten; combs are most all 

 straight and frames are regular size. They 

 have lots of honey and brood. Could I put 

 a new hive under, with old frames above and 

 new ones oelow, with an excluder between 

 them? ILLINOIS. 



Answers. — 1. A certificate must be se- 

 cured from the State Entomologist or State 

 Inspector of the State from which the bees 

 are shipped, showing that the bees are 

 healthy. A copy of this must be filed with 



the State Entomologist of Texas at least ten 

 days before the bees are shipped. The law is 

 very lengthy and you had best write to the 

 State Entomologist at College Station, Texas, 

 to secure a copy and some information. 



2. You can certainly put new hives below 

 with the old ones above. But why use a 

 queen excluder? You certainly want the bees 

 to go into your new hives, and the sooner the 

 queens move out of the old combs the better 

 it will be. After the queen goes into the new 

 combs, you can sort out the old combs and 

 save all that are still good. 



Increase — Swarm Control 



1. On page 134. "Dr. Miller's Thousand 

 Answers." in recommending the Alexander 

 plan of increase, he advises killing all queen- 

 cells in the second story at the time of placing 

 same on new stand; then to give a cell from 

 another colony. Why is this done? 



2. Was the Hand switch lever system of 

 swarm control not a success? I see nothing 

 printed in the bee papers about its being used 

 at present. Please give some reasons for its 

 discontinuance KANSAS. 



Answers. — 1. On the page to which you re- 

 fer, I think you will find nothing about killing 

 cells in upper story, but that cells are to be 

 killed on the frame with the queen on the 

 lower story. However, as ivlr. Alexander ad- 

 vises, later on cells are to be killed in upper 

 story "unless they are of a good strain of 

 bees that you care to breed from," and then 

 you are to give a queen-cell of other choice 

 stock or else give a queen. 



2. The system devised by J. E. Hand was 

 enthusiastically advocated by him as a success, 

 but it never came into general use. You want 

 "some reasons for its discontinuance." I 

 don't know just how many reasons you want, 

 but if I were collecting a set of reasons I 

 might begin by asking you why you discon- 

 tinued it, or why you never adopted it. Like 

 enough you might say only one reason was 

 needed, and that was that you never saw 

 reason enough for using it. Inventions by 

 beekeepers are many, but only now and then 

 does one appear that is considered a success 

 by any but its inventor. 



Increase 



I am a school boy just starting to learn bee 

 culture. I have one colony of bees. 1 am 

 pretty likely to be at school when my bees 

 swarm. I would like to divide my colony so 

 as to keep them from swarming while I am 

 at school. If you think the following plan 

 will work, when would you advise me to do 

 it? 



Take half of the brood frames, with the ad- 

 hering bees and put them in a new hive. Fill 

 the empty space in the brood-chamber of both 

 colonies, with frames with full sheets of foun- 

 dation in them. Put the new colony on the 

 old stand. _ ILLINOIS. 



Answer. — A good time to operate is when 

 other bees in the neighborhood begin to swarm, 

 perhaps at the beginning of clover bloom. 

 There could hardly he an easier way than the 

 way you outline — simply dividing the colony 

 into two equal parts and letting the queenless 

 part rear its own queen — but it may not work 

 with entire satisfaction. If you put the queen 

 on the old stand there is danger that a swarm 

 will issue with her. Also the young queen 

 reared on the new stand is not likely to be 

 of the best, because all the field bees will go 

 to the old stand, leaving the bees on the new 

 stand too weak and discouraged to rear a good 

 queen. If you put the queen on the new 

 stand there will pretty certainly be one or 

 more swarms from the old stand as soon as 

 the young queens begin to emerge. 



You might modify your plan in this way: 

 Take from the old hive and put in a new hive 

 on a new stand two frames of brood with ad- 

 hering bees and the old queen and shake into 

 this new hive the bees from a third comb, re- 



