1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



103 



because bees are produced there much earlier 

 than in the North. 



However, those matters can only be settled 

 by actual trial. 



Increase 



I am just a beginner. I want increase by 

 the Alexander plan, but a little different: 

 Queen killed in old hive and one frame given to 

 new hive. Set new hive under and old hive 

 upon queen-excluding board Introduce a 

 queen to each hive by cage method. Afttr 4 

 or 5 days take down the old hive and set both 

 side by side on old stand. After some days 

 separate little by little each hive. Will it 

 work or not? WASHINGTON. 



Answer. — Yes, it will work; but a much 

 more simple way would be to divide the colony 

 in two and put a new queen in the queenless 

 part. As bees are more likely to go where 

 their old queen is, you must put the new queen 

 and hive a little nearer than the other to the 

 spot originally occupied by the old colony. 



Improving Pasture 



What would you do for beekeeping, if you 

 lived in a vicinity where the only resources for 

 honey were flowers in August, with nothing 

 between ? 



Answer. — In such a dilemma I can see but 

 two things *o do, either move the bees to bet- 

 ter locations or get your farmers to plant 

 alsike clover in place of red clover. If they 

 try it they will be pleased with it. You might 

 also secure the sowing of sweet clover in out- 

 of-the-way places and in land that needs reno- 

 vating. Nothing is better than sweet clover 

 for this purpose, as its roots reach 2 feet or 

 more in the soil. It is not a dangerous weed, 

 for it is easily eradicated when you no longer 

 need it. 



Italians 



Please tell me if Italian queens of pure 

 stock are ever marked with black on the au- 

 domen, similar to the workers. I bought two 

 colonies of pure Italian bees and tried to re- 

 queen my hybrid colonies. The two Italian 

 queens were solid leather colored and the bees 

 were all three-banded. T; e o.ueens I raised 

 were marked with black on the back like my 

 hybrid queens and produced hybrid bees. Were 

 these queens pure and all impurely mated, or 

 do you think my bees were not pure Italians? 

 There were no drones in my hybrid hives, and 

 an abundance in the Italian hives. 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



Answer. — Queens are very irregular in their 

 markings, and I have seen very dark queens 

 that looked like hybrids produce as fine bees 

 as any. The only way to test this matter is to 

 judge by the worker progeny of those queens. 

 Nothinc can be positively decided by the color 

 of either queen or drones. 



Size of Hives 



1. I am making a permanent brood-nest 

 out of one 10-frame deep body and a standard 

 extracting super. How does this compare in 

 size with your large hives? 



2. Will I have to rotate these shallow su- 

 pers every year to keep candied honey out of 

 the brood-nest? 



3. Do you have trouble with candied honey 

 in your large hives? I do not want to rotate 

 supers, for the reason that I use only S-frarae 

 in my extracting supers. I want to leave that 

 super of honey there year after year., I know 

 that more or less brood will be reared in it, 

 but I expect some of the honey in the out- 

 side combs will remain there for years. 



OHIO. 



Answers. — 1. The story-anda-half Lang- 

 Langstroth 10-frame hive is a little larger 

 than our Modified Dadant, so it would be large 

 enough if the queen went readily up and 

 down, especially down. 



2. If you have candied honey every year in 

 your supers and the bees do not remove it, it 

 may be necessary to "rotate," as you call it; 

 but if the bees will remove that candied honey 



when the super is put below, which I under- 

 stand is what you mean by "rotating." they 

 will surely remove it from the upper story 

 when they are in need. 



3. We have never had any trouble with 

 honey candying and embarrassing the bees. 

 But we do not believe it is due to large hives, 

 only to climatic conditions. Your 8-frames in 

 a 10-frame super ought to keep the queen 

 out of it generally, for the cells of such 

 combs are too deep for her to lay in. The 

 workers have to cut them down for her use, 

 and she must be very positively short of room 

 for them to do this. Without the shallow su- 

 per for brood the 10-frames hive is much 

 smaller than the Modified Dadant hive. 



Melon Juice — Size of Hives 



1. Does watermelon juice do any harm to 

 old and young bees; also to brood in fall and 

 winter? 



2. I have introduced queens in three 

 swarms of black bees. First I killed the old 

 queen and smoked them good ; then I let the 

 young queen run in at the entrance. The 

 queens are good layers now. Was this the 

 right way to requeen them? 



3. I have two swarms of bees and gave them 

 full sheets of foundation in spring, wired the 

 frames and extracted forty pounds of honey 

 from each swarm, eighty pounds in all. The 

 bees are in good condition now and are still 

 working. They were well shaded from the 

 sun. Was this a correct way to keep bees? 



4. My bees are in eight and ten-frame 

 standard, regular depth hives. Which is the 

 best hive, eight or ten-frame? 



SOUTH DAKOTA. 



Answers. — 1. Watermelon juice has very lit- 

 tle sweetness in it and would probably prove 

 inj urious for winter. But the bees rarely 

 gather enough to m. ke it a matter of consid- 

 eration. If it could be reduced enough to 

 make fairly sweet syrup, it might do for them 

 to use in breeding in the summer and fall. 



2. Smoke introduction is safe during the 

 honey crop. We never succeeded with it at 

 any other time. 



3. Yes, shade is not injurious to bees, 

 though some people think too much shade rs 

 objectionable. 



4. Eight-frame hives are too small for good 

 queens to develop their fertility. Kven ten- 

 frame hives are a little short for a good queen. 

 Many people use two stories at the time of 

 breeding. We prefer deeper frames and at 

 least ten of them. 



Dark Honey — Uniting Swarms 



1. A year ago last spring, I sent for a 

 three-banded golden queen from California. 

 The comb honey they have gathered is dark 

 in color and the capping is much different in 

 its makeup — much rougher than from my 

 other Italians. This hive gave a swarm this 

 summer; they, too, make the same kind. It 

 surely must be sweet and white clover honey, 

 as that is our main crop here. This honey is 

 the same color the whole season through. 



2. Can I treat honey with carbon oisulphide 

 without hurting the honey for sale? 



3. Would gunny sacks be all right to put 

 next to the brood-frames, and then make a box 

 that will extend down over each hive, half 

 way or more, then chuck straw between hive 

 and box, for outdoor wintering? 



4. This summer I had three swarms come 

 out about 15 minutes apart. The first one 1 

 hived, and the other two hived themselves in 

 the same hive. A few days later three more 

 swarms issued, a few minutes apart, and they 

 all clustered in one bunch in an apple tree. 

 Does this happen very often? IOWA. 



Answers. — 1. The bees have nothing to do 

 with the color of the honey. However, some 

 colonies may gather honey from some flowers 

 farther away than others, and of a different 

 kind. We have seen some colonies gather 

 boneydew, while other colonies in the same 

 apiary gathered white honey. 



2. Yes. The carbon bisulphide will not in- 

 jure the honey. It evaporates readily. 



8. Yes; but it is best to shelter hives all 

 the way down and even on the underside. 



4. Yes; swarms are likely to unite when is- 

 suing, and the oldest writers on bees give di- 

 rections on separating swarms when they have 

 united. Usually, the best way is to find the 

 queens and cage them, putting each queen in 

 front of a separate hive, and trying to give 

 each a portion of the swarms. 



Partly FiHed Supers 



1. Is it good to put the haK-filled sections 

 back on the supers next spring so the bees can 

 fill them, or eat them out? I have about 65 of 

 them. 



2. I put 24 supers on the 12 hives; is that 

 right? 



Answers. — 1. It is all right to put the sec- 

 tions back on the hive next spring so the bees 

 can either fill them or use the honey. The 

 only drawback is if the honey is not of the 

 same quality as that which is already in the 

 sections. In that case, it' might be better to 

 extract it in the fall and let the bees clean 

 them, so the honey will all be of one grade. 



2. Your colonies were probably not strong 

 enough to fill two supers each. That is why 

 so many sections were not filled. There are 

 seasons when colonies will Jill -several supers 

 and others when one super is even too much. 

 It takes a great deal of experience to foresee 

 such things, and even the best beekeepers 

 make those mistakes. 



Bees on Roof 



Please tell me what you think of keeping 

 bees in an upper story or attic, two or three 

 stories above ground, compared to the usual 

 way on the ground. As bees seem to naturally 

 choose a home high above ground in a tree or 

 building, T see no reason why it will not 

 prove successful. GEORGIA. 



Answer.- — No, there is no objection whatever 

 to keeping bees in an attic, if you have room 

 for them and can supply them with entrances, 

 so they may fly back and forth without hin- 

 drance. Several large apiaries have been 

 kept on top of buildings, in cities, and there 

 are certainly many such yet. Mr. Chas. F. 

 Muth, of Cincinnati, used to keep quite a 

 large apiary on the top of his house, as he 

 had a flat roof. 



Feedingr for Winter 



I began feeding about September 10 for 

 outside wintering, bringing the average weight 

 per hive to 75 pounds. But the weather was 

 exceedingly warm for the season; frost, which 

 generally appears September 12 to 15, held off 

 until October 2. Upon re-weighing them I 

 find a reduction of about 6 pounds, in one 

 case even 12 pounds. There has been much 

 brood-rearing, hives being full of bees. Should 

 feeding have been postponed until cooler 

 weather, or until first killing frost? 



WISCONSIN. 



Answer. — Part of that loss is probably evap- 

 oration, part wax production and another part 

 breeding. The condition which you describe 

 is excellent and the bees should winter splen- 

 didly, with sufficient feed. 



Sowing Sweet Clover — Increase 



1. I live adjoining the railroad right-of-way, 

 and was thinking of sowing the right-of-way in 

 sweet clover, any particular variety. When 

 is the best time to sow it? 



2. I noticed in your questions and answers 

 in the Journal for September, page 312, you 

 outline a plan for increase. Can one expect 

 any surplus from a division like this? This 

 boy's case fits mine. I am a farmer and my 

 farm lies two and a half miles from where I 

 live. My bees swarm too much for best re- 

 sults. I usually have two swarms per colony 

 a season. 



3. Why is it bees don't work on buckwheat 

 after dinner. INDIANA. 



