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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



November 



it must be adjusted by the parties themselves, 

 without regard to other people's ideas. 



Requeening 



1. I have been having some trouble in get- 

 ting a hybiiti colony of beee to accept an Ital- 

 ian queen. I tried removing Ihe old queen and 

 introducing the Italian simultaneously. 



Would it be more sure to remove the old 

 queen, say 6 or 8 days prior to the introduc- 

 tion of the new one, and remove all queen- 

 cells? 



2. Would the bees be hopelessly lost after 

 8 days without fresh brood or queen? 



3. Do you think peppermint is practical in 

 the introduction of queens or uniting hostile 

 colonies, as discussed on page 359 of the Sep- 

 tember Bee Journal. MISSOURI 



Answers. — 1. No; the removal of the old 

 queen immediately previous to introducing the 

 new one is generally considered as the safest. 

 You might try to place the old queen in a cage 

 for an hour or so before introducing the other 

 in her place in that same cage.. That gives the 

 cage the odor of the old queen and helps some. 

 Then put the introducing cage in a central 

 place between two combs of brood, and do not 

 release the new queen until she has been in 

 the hive 48 hours. After releasing her, be 

 sure to leave them alone for a few days, until 

 they get fully acquainted with her. 



2. Being 8 days or more without either brood 

 or queen might induce some drone-laying work- 

 ers to lay eggs. Then the introduction of the 

 queen would be just that much more doubtful. 



3. Peppermint or other strong smelling drugs 

 would help in introduction. The only danger 

 is in the use of such drugs in sweetened water. 

 This attracts the robbers, and there is always 

 more danger of a queen being killed when rob- 

 bers are about. For that reason, we have never 

 used such methods to any extent. 



Care of Queens 



A neighbor brought me some queens which 

 had been given to him. I thought it risky to 

 introduce them at this time of year and never 

 heard of it being done, so I put the queens 

 confined in the cages aoove the clu ter in the 

 hives. Will the bees take care of them there, 

 and for how long? Will they live till spring con- 

 fined in this way, and will they be any good 

 after being shut up so long, or will it do to 

 introduce them now, if we get a warm day? 

 At what temperature cart it be done? 1 do not 

 like to take too much risk at this and have a 

 queenless colony. TENNESSEE. 



Answer.- — You certainly have me cornered, 

 for I must reply, as Dr. Miller so often did: 

 I don't know. I have kept queens quite a 

 while over the brood nest in the warmest part 

 of the hive. But I have never tried to winter 

 them there. I believe, however, that the bees 

 will take care of them as long as they have 

 their cluster close enough to keep them warm, 



A warm day when the bees fly might be all 

 right to kill an old queen and introduce a new 

 one. But here, also, I have to acknowledge 

 that "I don't know." A day when the tem- 

 perature is about 65 degrees ought to be warm 

 enough to open the hives. 



If you try all this, you will have some ex- 

 perience worth while, and I would be glad to 

 hear how you succeeded. 



Late Feeding — Frame Spacing 



1. Would it be safe to fted a colony of bees, 

 short in stores, sugar syrup this late in the sea- 

 son, and would you feed it at the entrance? Do 

 you suppose this would start the queen to lay- 

 ing, and. if so, would the young brood perish 

 during the winter? The hive is an old gum 

 made out of 2-inch material. 



2. If you were buying new hives, would you 

 get the 1>^ inch spacing or the 1^ inch? 

 Which, in your opinion, is the better? 



MISSOURI. 



Answers. — 1. It is rather late to feed liquid 

 food to a colony in November. Better give 

 them sugar candy. To make candy, add water 

 to sugar and boil slowly till most of the water 

 is evaporated. Stir constantly, so it will not 

 burn. To know when it is done, drop a little 

 into cold water; it should become brittle at 

 once. Pour it into pans to make cakes about 

 an inch thick. With a box hive, it will probably 

 be necessary to cut a hole in the top, large 

 enough to reach t e cluster with your candy. 

 Don't give it to them at the entrance, as it will 

 be found by robbers as quickly as it will be 

 found by the bees of the hive. In the cellar, 

 one can turn the box hive bottom up and put 

 the candy right on the combs. The queens will 

 not be likely to be induced to lay, by the use 

 of candy. 



2. I much prefer the IJ^ inch spacing. 



Temper 



I have a stand of bees with a young queen in 

 my yard that for some reason are extremely 

 hard to handle, fighting and stinging upon the 

 slightest provocation, and frequently attacking 

 me while working with other stands near by. 

 This hive was started in the spring with a ripe 

 queen-cell taken from a colony of pure bred 

 Italians, and until lately gave no trouble. As far 

 as I can tell, the young queen, in mating, met 

 an Italian drone, as the bees do not show any 

 indication of being mixed, but show all the 

 marks of the pure Italian. They are in a ten- 

 frame cedar hive and cover nine frames with 

 stores and brood nest. 



Can you tell me of any reason why they 

 should get the disposition of a hornet ? 



The other bees in my yard are pure Italian 

 and have always been gentle and easy to handle. 



OREGON. 



Answer. — No, I cannot see any reason for tne 

 behavior of those bees, if they are pure Italian 

 and bred from quiet Italians. Some of the 

 Golden Italians are of that color and temper, 

 because they have been bred with a mixture of 

 Cyprian blood, from some remote mating at 

 the time when Cyprians were in vogue. But 

 if your other bees — and especially the ones 

 from which this queen was bred — are of gentle 

 disposition, I can only surmise that the ill- 

 disposition is a return to some ancestral type 

 or what is called "atavism." 



But wait, there may be another reason. The 

 hive in question may have been disturbed by 

 mischievous boys. I have seen colonies be- 

 come very irritable when ill-treated. 



In either case, I see but one remedy. Change 

 the queen at the first opportunity, unless their 

 behavior changes, 



Transferring — Bee Pasture 



1. I have 15 colonies of bees in eight and 

 ten-frame hives, but the combs are built cross- 

 wise, so it is impossible to move them. I wish 

 to transfer them to ten-frame hives with toll 

 sheets of foundation. When is the best time? 



2. What number of colonies can be kept in a 

 locality where there are about 100 tulip trees, 

 20 acres of alsike clover and about 40 acres of 

 buckwheat within one-half mile of the bees. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



Answers. — 1. The best time to transfer bees 

 is at the time of fruit bloom in spring. We do 

 not advise transferring late in the fall. 



2. If there arc 100 tulip trees, 20 acres of 

 alsike clover and 40 acres of buckwheat inside 

 of a half mile, there would i)robably be ten 

 times that amount inside of two miles. In that 

 case you could keep 80 to 100 colonies there. 

 Bees can go much farther than a half mile after 

 honey. Of course, the amount of honey to ex- 

 pect from a radius of two miles is all guess 

 work and never the same, for much depends 

 upon the weather. 



Syrup for Feed 



Would you kindly let me know how to pre- 

 pare a syrup for wintering bees? 



WISCONSIN. 



Answer — Melt 10 pounds of good sugar with 

 5 pounds of water, and when dissolved add 11 2 

 pounds of honey of such quality as you are sure 

 of. Unknown honey might bring germs of 

 foulbrood. Put into friction-top cans, the lids 

 of which are pierced with a number of very 

 small holes, and invert on the hives to be fed. 



You may also feed your bees by laying over 

 the tops of the frames ^;akes of candy made in 

 the way that "fudge" is made for the children 

 This is for emergency. Syrup is better. 



Do not feed either corn syrup or molasses. 

 They would kill your bees, in winter. 



Queenless Colony 



1. I have one swarm of bees that was queen- 

 less for 30 days o more and had no fresh eggs 

 during that time. I went to give them a queen 

 and there was a nice young queen that had just 

 begun to lay. Could a mating nueen have 

 made a mistake and got into the hive? I 

 missed one in a hive about 8 feet from there. 



2. How will I fix my bees? There are so 

 many bees I don't think one hive will hold 

 them all. Would a super do on top or under- . 

 neath? NEBRASKA. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, it is possible that a young 

 queen would make a mistake of that distance, 

 especially if there was a row of hives, all alike 

 in color and shape. There is another possi- 

 bility, however, and that is that there may 

 have been a little brood from the previous 

 queen, which you did not notice, and that the 

 bees reared a queen themselves. 



2. We do not believe there will be any diffi- 

 culty jn your bees all getting into the brood- 

 chamber where they were hatched. When the 

 weather turns cold, you will find that they will 

 shrink the volume of the cluster a great aeal, 

 because they will hang closer together. How- 

 ever, if there i« not enough room for them, I 

 would place an empty super or body under the 

 brood chamber. Perhaps it might be well to 

 give them another body with honey in it. In 

 that case, better put it at the top. 



Unripe Honey 



1. What is meant by "unripe honey?" 



2. Is unsealed honey unripe honey? 



3. Can unripe honey be preserved without 

 change? 



4. Is the crop greater when honey is unripe? 

 What per cent? 



5. Do they sell instruments to test honey and 

 find whether it is ripe or not? What are they 

 called, and where can we buy them ? 



6. Will honey ripen in tanks without heating? 

 7 By what process can we keep honey from 



granulating? CANADA. 



Answers. — 1. Unripe honey is nectar har- 

 vested by the bees which has not been suffi- 

 ciently evaporated. Instead of flowing like 

 thick molasses or maple syrup, it flows some- 

 what like water. Ripe honey weighs about 12 

 pounds to the gallon. Water weighs about 7 

 pounds. Unripe honey may weigh anywhere 

 between these two weights. 



2. Unsealed honey may be ripe, if it has 

 been in the hive a numbe of days and the 

 bees have worked to evaporate it by fanning 

 the hive. The heat also helps to ripen it. 

 Sealed honey may be more or less unripe, if 

 the bees have sealed it too soon, during a heavy 

 honey flow. It may then burst the cappings. 

 Usually, however, sealed honey is ripe. 



3. No, unripe honey will not keep. Its fer- 

 mentation, more or less rapid, depends upon 

 the temperature. 



4. The nectar of blossoms, when harvested 

 by the bees, sometimes contains as much as 75 

 per cent of water. Sometimes it is so thick that 



