1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



313 



turning the comb of brood to the old hive. 

 The bees in the old hive will be in condition 

 to rear the best kind of queencells. About a 

 week or 8 days later let the two hives change 

 places. The old bees from the new stand will 

 go to the old stand, thus weakening the 

 colony so that there will be no swarming al- 

 lowed, and the colony will be so strengthened 

 that it will do good work at storing. 



Finding Queens — Feeding, Etc. 



1. How may I lind the queen in my hive? I 

 have looked for her many times, but do no/ 

 find her. I have hybrid bees; am positive I 

 have a queen. 



2. Do capped cells ever sink in after being 

 chilled? 



3. Where can I get some pamphlets on the 

 different kinds of foulbrood? 



4. Would sorghum be all right to feed my 

 bees? 



5. How can I make my bees eat sugar syrup? 

 I put it out for them in front of the hive in a 

 saucer with white cloth over it about 2 feel 

 away from the hive. This was about April VS. 



6. In your March number, on page 101, there 

 is an advertisement of paint without oil, by 

 A. L. Rice. Would this be all right to paint 

 bee hives? IOWA. 



Answers. — 7. If you cannot find a queen by 

 looking over the combs, one after another, 

 shake the bees on a sheet in front of an 

 empty box, just as if you were hiving a 

 swarm. Watch for the queen. If you don't 

 find her, shake them again. You must, of 

 course, smoke them sufficiently before you do 

 that. W^e never failed to find a queen by this 

 method. 



2. Yes, more or less. But they never show 

 holes, as in foulbrood. 



3. Bulletin 1084 on American Foulbrood is 

 just out. Bulletin 975 on European Foulbrood 

 may still be had. Both are issued by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture at Washington. We 

 can recommend nothing better. 



4. No; bees will hardly take sorghum, and 

 it is not good for them. 



5. Bees will take sugar syrup when there 

 is no honey in the field. But as it has very 

 little odor, they must be attracted to it. Pour 

 a little on a piece of old comb. After they 

 taste it they will come back. 



6. We have never tried that paint. It takes 

 a few months' trial to know whether a thing 

 of that kind is going to prove good. 



Queenless Colonies — Uniting 



I want to know the best way to save a colo- 

 ny of bees where the queen dies early, say the 

 first of March, and the best way to turn them 

 together and what time of the day. I have 

 had some trouble in this line. I have been 

 spraying them with sugar syrup. I had 9 

 colonies this spring; now just 6, 3 queenless. 

 ARKANSAS. 



Answer. — If the colony is strong in bees and 

 you want to save it, you may be able to get 

 them to raise a queen by giving them a comb 

 of young brood, part of it less than 3 days old, 

 from some other colony. But probably the 

 best way is to unite them with some other 

 colony which has a queen. 



It is not a bad plan to sprinkle them with 

 sugar syrup in the evening before uniting 

 them. Then, when night has come, give them 

 a little smoke, take the hive body in which 

 they are and place it right over that of a 

 good colony with queen, with a sheet of paper 

 between the two brood chambers. During the 

 night they will gnaw the paper and unite 

 quietly. If the queenless bees have been fed, 

 they arc not likely to be ill-treated by the 

 queenright colony. 



A good way, also, is to put a swarm in the 

 queenless hive 



mixed with pollen, during the winter. Would 

 you advise me to disinfect the hives and frames 

 before using them again? Is this disease con- 

 tagious? 1 do not believe those bees would 

 have died if I had not allowed them to keep 

 that kind of honey. IOWA. 



Answer. — As far as our experience goes, that 

 disease is not contagious. Expose those combs 

 to dry air for a while if possible, then give 

 them, one at a time, to a strong colony. They 

 will clean them thoroughly. This would not 

 be advisable in bad weather, and you should 

 not do it until the weather is warm. 



In long, hard winters, any honey that con- 

 tains grains of pollen is objectionable. Many 

 people object to sugar syrup, but we are 

 very much of the opinion that sugar syrup is 

 much the best for long confinement. 



Nearby Fields Neglected 



Last year was a lean one for honey in 

 Hawaii. We got very little. In order to help 

 things out for this season, I had a good-sized 

 alfalfa patch very close to the location and 

 gave explicit instructions that none should be 

 cut until fully in bloom. My object was to 

 provide the bees with a close-at-hand supply of 

 nectar, to insure the making for them and 

 make it possible also for them to find their 

 supply without much of a trip. Not a 

 blessed bee has touched it, as far as I have 

 been able to observe, and I have watched the 

 patch very closely ever since the bloom ap- 

 peared. Miss Bee appears to circle around, 

 squint one eye at the alfalfa and then hike 

 away to other fields. She appers to prefer 

 the long haul. Why is this? I am perfectly 

 willing and anxious to help out, but my bees 

 scorn my help. HONOLULU. 



Answer. — My guess would be that it is not 

 the "long haul" the bees are seeking, but per- 

 haps the better crop. Are you sure other 

 patches of alfalfa were yielding honey at that 

 time? I would say that they were working on 

 some other blossoms. Try it again some other 

 time. 



Dysentery 



I have two colonies of bees that died of dys- 

 entery by eating honey from the brood-combs. 



Moths — Care of Combs 



1. Four of my colonies died during the win- 

 ter, some of the combs of which still con- 

 tained considerable honey. These hives, with 

 the combs, I stacked up near the bee-yard, 

 leaving only a small entrance at the bottom for 

 the bees to get in and out, so that they would 

 clean them out. My bees are in the country 

 and I can only see them about once a week. In 

 looking over them a few days ago I found that 

 they were doing this, but I also found that the 

 moth worms had made a start in one or two 

 of them. Dr. Miller having stated several 

 times in the Journal that the best way to pro- 

 tect them was to give them in the care of the 

 bees. I have been wondering if, in case I 

 try this, these combs could be left there during 

 the flow. Won't the bees be likely to store in 

 them instead of going up into the supers? 



2. Will it matter any whether these hive- 

 bodies with the combs are placed above or be- 

 low the strong colonies? 



3. Not being with the bees every day. I 

 cannot depend on natural swarming for in- 

 crease, but shake when I find cells well ad- 

 vanced, vv'ould these empty combs be all 

 right to shake on ? Some writers advise start- 

 ers only, but whenever I try this the bees al- 

 ways build too much drone como. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



Answers. — 1 and 2. By placing the combs 

 full of honey of these hives under the brood- 

 chamber of strong colonies, they will probably 

 use up the honey in a very short time. It is 

 quite probable, however, that -they are already 

 cleaned out. In that case, just treat them 

 with disulphide of carbon, as recommended 

 in our March and May numbers. They will 

 then do to use for swarms. If you were lo 

 place them on top of full colonies, and leave 

 them there, the bees would, of course, fill them 

 again, as soon as the crop begins. They would 

 even fill them if they are at the bottom. This 

 must be looked after. 



3. Yes, those combs are good to use for 

 hiving swarms or making divisions. But be 

 sure and do away with the drone comb in 

 tbem. Also be sure, when you hive a swarm 



on comb already built, not to give them much 

 room without foundation, as they will be more 

 likely to build drone comb if they have worker 

 combs ahead than if they had it all to build. 

 When you cut out drone comb, you should re- 

 place it with worker comb, or the bees will 

 very probably rebuild in drone comb. 



Size of Hive — Cotton 



1. What is the exact size of the standard 10- 

 frame dovetailed beehive, measuring length, 

 width and depth of outside of brood-chamber? 



2. I notice in the May number of the 

 American Bee Journal that field cotton is 

 spoken of as a honey plant. Please describe its 

 *a'"e- MISSOURI. 



Answers. — 1. Size of broodchamber of 10- 

 frame Langslroth hive, outside: Length, 19% 

 in.; width, 15% in.; depth. 9yi in. 



2. Field cotton is not spoken of in equal 

 praise by every beekeeper in cotton regions. 

 Pelletfs "American Honey Plants" devotes 3 

 pages to it. Some say that bees will not work 

 upon it if they can get anything else. Others 

 speak of most of the honey harvested upon it 

 being extra floral, some also being secured 

 from plant lice. Others still, like J. J. wilder 

 and Louis Scholl, speak well if it. Location 

 humidity and perhaps other causes affect it. 

 That it yields honey both in the blossom and 

 in extra-floral nectaries is not to be doubted. 

 The opinions as to its quality vary a great 

 deal. So we cannot give a positive and defi- 

 nite opinion of its advantages. 



Combs 



I had 6 good strong colonies of bees last 

 fall. I wintered them in a small building 8x20, 

 open on the east side. Two colonies were in 

 Woodman protection hives, nothing between 

 the walls. They are in fine shape this spring; 

 no mold in the hives. Four colonies were in 

 Champion double-wall hives, packed with shav- 

 ings; 2 colonies dead and 2 very weak. Hives 

 were damp and combs moldy. I left about 60 

 pounds of honey in the hives for the b'ees to 

 winter on; most of this honey is left. Can I 

 use these combs again, and the honey, or must 

 I destroy them? OHIO. 



Answer. — No; do not destroy those combs, 

 unless there is foulbrood in them. We have 

 never known mold to injure bees after winter, 

 when the weather gets warm and the colonies 

 begin to gain in strength. If you will give 

 those combs to good colonies, one at a time, 

 they will soon cleanse them, and it will be a 

 fine help for your new swarms. The only 

 combs that you should destroy are those that 

 contain disease. If we had the Isle-of-Wight 

 disease in this country, this might be bad au- 

 vice. But in a practice of 55 years, we have 

 never seen any bad results from such combs as 

 you describe, though they would not do to give 

 to weak colonies. 



Your experience with heavily packed colonies 

 is similar to our experience of 35 years ago. 

 Methods to recommend for winier depend 

 much upon the climate of the locality where 

 the apiarist finds himself. So we abstain from 

 giving advice on this subject. 



Decoy Hives 



1. How is a decoy hive made? 



2. How large should it be? 



3. Where does it do best, on the ground or 

 in a tree? 



4. I have 3 hives of bees and 1 empty onfe. 

 If I put the empty one near these three would 

 a swarm (from any 3) settle there? 



NEBRASKA. 



Answers. — 1 and 2. Any hive suitable to 

 hive a swarm will do for a decoy hive. It 

 should be all ready, with frames and guides 

 of foundation, so that you may not have to 

 disturb the bees when they go into it of their 

 own accord. 



3. Most people think it is more likely to be 

 adopted by the bees when it is up from the 

 ground a few feet. 



