1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



351 



Transferring — Drones 



1. How late in summer can I change bees 

 from old hives to modern hives? 



2. My bees look to be one-third drones at 

 times. What can I do to get rid of them? 



a What is the trouble when bees bring out 

 larva: that are black in color? Have they a 

 disease? If so, what is the treatment? 



TENNESSEE. 



Answers. — 1. Don't attempt to do it when 

 the crop is over. You might succeed, but the 

 chances are against you. The best time to do 

 it is spring, when the first fruit trees are in 

 bloom. During the honey crop you may drive 

 the bees out into a box and then hive them in 

 a good hive just like any other swarm. Then 

 place the old hive near the new one and at 

 the end of 21 days shake all its bees in front 

 of the new hive and remove it to use what 

 honey and comb there is in it. 



2. You might use a drone trap, but that is 

 a nuisance at best. Better remove all the 

 drone comb in the spring and replace it with 

 worker comb. That is the only rational way. 



3. Carrying out of dead larvae by the bees 

 may be caused by starvation, or sacbrood, or 

 European foulbrood. Open the hive, and if 

 you find dead brood in the combs cut out a 

 piece of comb and forward it to Dr. E. F. 

 Phillips at the Bureau of Entomology at 

 Washington. He will tell you just what it is 

 and give you advice free of charge. Be sure 

 and pack it so it will carry safely without 

 leakage or breaking. If you write to Dr. 

 Phillips beforehand, he will send you a box 

 in which to mail the diseased combs. 



Sweet Clover — Mating 



1. Does melilotus always yield nectar, or is 

 it like other plants, a failure sometimes? 



2. Should I devise a way to mate a young 

 queen with the drone that I wanted to and 

 know that it was done, would it be profitable? 

 That is, would it be a money-making business? 

 Has such a thing ever been tried? If so, will 

 you give some of the ways that have been 

 tried? MISSISSIPPI. 



Answers. — 1. Melilotus is just like any other 

 plant. There are times when there is no 

 honey in its bio m. Honey yield depends 

 much upon the weather. There are also lo- 

 calities where one honey plant will yield while 

 it may not in another. So far, there is no 

 valid explanation of this. 



2. If you can devise a way lu rTiate a young 

 queen with the drone of your choice, you will 

 achieve something that no one has been able 

 to do. It would be profitable, of course. The 

 thing has been tried, by artificial or forced 

 copulation, by shutting the queen with the 

 drone in a glass cage and also by putting the 

 queen and a lot of drones in a vast screened 

 house. An occasional success has been 

 claimed, but it was either an accidental suc- 

 cess or a sheer mistake. We don't believe it 

 can be done; yet in this time of aeroplanes 

 and wireless telegraphy, who knows what 

 might not be done? 



Martins 



I have my first colony of bees, also a num- 

 erous family of martins. Now comes my 

 neighbor, a mountain Kentuckian, and tells me 

 the martins will eat all my bees. I killed one 

 of the martins and could find no bees in him. 

 and now I am teeling rather badly about it. 

 Please tell me if I should get rid of the 

 birds. If so I will take down their box, for I 

 don't believe I want to kill another one of 

 them. 



P. S. — This is the box martin, not the so- 

 called bee martin or kingbird. 



KENTUCKY. 



Answer. — If you refer to the purple martin, 

 known as Prognc subis by scientists, we have 

 never heard of its eating an/ bees, though it 

 feeds on insects, as do all the swallows, 

 to whose family it belongs. As to the king 

 bird, or bee martin, Tyrannus tyrannus, al- 



though it eats bees, there is a question as to 

 whether it eats any but drones. The Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, in 1895, published 9 articles, 

 at different times, on the kingbird. The 

 statement was made there that in 1893 exam- 

 inations made under the direction of the Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture showed that, among 171 

 stomachs of bee martins or kingbirds exam- 

 ined, only 14 contained bees. Out of these I-l 

 stomachs, 50 bees were taken, but only 4 ot 

 them could be identified as workers, 40 of the 

 others proving positively to be drones. The 

 conclusion is that, except in a queen-rearing 

 yard, where they might eat young queens at 

 their wedding flight, the bee martin is more 

 beneficial than injurious, for it eats thousands 

 of other insects. As to the one to which you 

 refer, we find nothing against it anywhere. H 

 any reader of this knows facts on the subject, 

 we will be glad to have them. 



Will Bees Do Well? 



Will bees do well one or one-half mile, more 

 or less, from the ocean? WASHINGTON. 



Answer. — An apiary one half mile from the 

 ocean will lose a part of its pasture, since 

 bees go at least a mile for honey and pollen. 

 But if the pasturage is very ample on other 

 sides, it may not hurt the crop. We would 

 prefer to have them about two miles from 

 the sea. Then there would be little or no loss 

 of pasture. 



Outdoor Wintering 



What is your opinion in regard to the 

 method of outdoor wintering as recommended 

 by Dr. Phillips, viz.: packing in four colony 

 cases ? I have studied his bulletins quite 

 closely and his reasoning appeals to me. i 

 intend to adopt his plan, as- I have no cellar 

 suitable for wintering. WISCONSIN. 



Answer. — The method recommended by Dr. 

 Phillips is certainly good. The only objec- 

 tion is its cost. But it probably pays to follow 

 it, even if the outlay is large. Where we are 

 located, the winters are rarely very cold 

 without some warm days, and bees winter fair- 

 ly well. But in the North, it is best to follow 

 some method of heavy packing. We would 

 prefer 2-colony cases to 4-colony cases, be- 

 cause we do not have to move the bees for 

 winter, and none of them need face north. We 

 don't like a north entrance. Wintering de- 

 pends so much upon locality that each man 

 must decide for himself what method to fol- 

 low. But the Phillips methods will certainly 

 not disappoint you. 



Honey Vinegar 



Kindly give method of making honey vine- 

 gar and explain how a hydrometer should be 

 used; also what degree of sweetness this 

 liquid should be; number of days to ferment. 

 MISSOURI. 



To make good vinegar there is no particular 

 need of a hydrometer. Those instruments are 

 not found easily, except in well furnished drug 

 stores, and they are made of different kinds 

 for different purposes. 



To make good vinegar, take a pound and a 

 half of honey for a gallon of water. Mix 

 thoroughly and add some yeast, or some fruit 

 juice, to start the alcoholic fermentation, which 

 must precede the acetic. If you are trying to 

 make vinegar out of water used in washing 

 cappings and you don't know what proportion 

 of honey you have in the liquid, just put an 

 egg in it and add honey till the egg floats so 

 as to show itself at the top of the liquid. If 

 the egg shows more than the siz€ of a dime 

 at the top, the liquid is too sweet, and more 

 water must be added. 



To cause it to ferment, it must be kept 

 warm, about 70 to 80 degrees. The length of 

 time of fermentation will depend upon the 

 temperature, and there is nothing definite about 



it. In good circumstances it will require a 

 week to go through the alcoholic fermentation. 

 Then, if the liquid has access to plenty of air, 

 it will begin to sour. A little vinegar or 

 vinegar mother, will help it to become acid. 



They use all the way from one pound of 

 honey to two and a half pounds, to make 

 vinegar, but about the amount mentioned above 

 is best. The more air you will give it, the 

 faster it will sour, if kept warm. Vinegar 

 makers let the vinegar drip through oak shav- 

 ings to hasten the fermentation. Be sure and 

 keep the flies away with either screens or thin 

 muslin. Grape juice or apple juice, not boiled, 

 will hasten the fermentation considerably. 



Races of Bees — Ants 



1. I caught a swarm of bees August 3, 1919. 

 They are bright yellow bees. Some tell me 

 they are Italians. They are very gentle, but 

 they don't seem to gather much honey. Can 

 you tell the race of bees by looking at them? 



2. I live in a small village and tiowers are 

 not very abundant in this locality. I was 

 thinking of sending for a Cyprian queen, as I 

 read that Cyprian bees gather lots of honey. 

 As for managing them, i suppose I could get 

 supers on and off by u.ing a veil and gloves. 



3. What would you advise getting, a Cyprian 

 or Italian queen ? Also where can I get Cy- 

 prian queens? 



4. How do beekeepers having outapiaries 

 keep their bees from being robbed by thieves, 

 especially at night? 



o. How do you keep ants away from hives, 

 especially from double-walled chaff hives that 

 are packed for winter? 



6. Can you tell me who the apiary inspector 

 of Illinois is? Have they also a county in- 

 spector? ILLINOIS. 



Answers. — 1. Italian bees have 3 yellow rings 

 on the abdomen or 3rd section of the body, 

 next to the thorax or middle section. Probably 

 there is no honey to gather at the time of 

 your writing. 



3. Cyprian bees cannot gather honey if the 

 Italians cannot. 



3. We would advise buying Italian bees. 

 There are very few Cyprian bees left in this 

 country, probably none pure. 



4. Thieves steal hives of bees once in a 

 while. But if your outapiaries are near a 

 farmer's home, there is no more danger of 

 their being robbed than his hen roost, or his 

 grain bins. 



5. You will find answer to the question of 

 ants in the July number. 



G. The Illinois apiary inspector is A. L. 

 Kildow, of Putnam. 



Swarms Clustering 



1. Why do the bees form a cluster on a tree 

 while swarming, instead of going straight to 

 the place that they prepared for a home? 



2. How do the bees manage the hunting and 

 preparation of their new home before they 

 swarm, and do the bees that expect to stay in 

 the old hive have a part in that work? 



NEBRASKA. 



Answers. — 1. The bees form a cluster, be- 

 cause the old queen, being heavy with eggs 

 when she goes, appears to be unable to take 

 a long flight without preparation. At least 

 that is the surmise of all experts. To 

 strengthen this opinion comes the fact that 

 secondary or afterswarms, often fly away 

 without settling, because the young queen is 

 able-bodied and evidently does not hesitate 

 to take flight. If anyone knows of a better 

 explanation, let's have it. 



2. We did not believe that bees hunted for 

 a home before a swarm left, until we had the 

 following experience, which we have recorded 

 in the "Hive and Honey Bee"; 



About fifty yards from our home apiary 

 there was a hollow oak tree, which we called 

 the "squirrel's oak," because every season it 

 sheltered a family of these pretty animals. One 

 summer we noticed several bees flying in and 

 out of a hole in one of its largest limbs. It 



