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Vol XXXII. 



AUG. 15. 1904. 



No. 16 



You KNOW that oftentimes bees will 

 start afresh to build cells right on top of a 

 sealed surface if there is room for it. I 

 wonder if you also know that the bees will 

 never uncap honey that is under capping-s 

 upon which they have started the second 

 tier of cells. 



Comb-building is likely to stop when a 

 colony becomes queenless; and if any comb 

 is built it will be drone comb. The build- 

 ing of worker comb is a pretty good sign 

 that a queen is present. But worker comb 

 maj' be built in a queenless colony i/ weak 

 enough. [Correct so far as we can observe 

 at Medina.— Ed.] 



A foreign journal — I don't recall which 

 — gives as one way of improving stock the 

 plan of leaving undisturbed all queen-cells 

 in a colony which has swarmed, and then 

 returning after- swarms as fast as they is- 

 sue. If all cells but one are cut out, that 

 one which is left may be the poorest in the 

 lot: if all are left, and after-swarms re- 

 turned, there will be a battle royal each 

 time, and finally the best queen of the lot 

 will remain victor. 



After slumbering quietly for years, 

 that foolish canard that, before sealing 

 their honey, the bees sting poison into it 

 and then use their stings as trowels to cap 

 it over — a wild imagining with no sort of 

 basis in fact — I say that foolish canard has 

 again come to light. The Western Bee 

 Journal prints it, apparently in sober ear- 

 nest. Bro. Adelsbach, b tter tell your read- 

 ers that the item should have come under 

 the head of romance. 



In reply to J. A. Phillips, the same can- 

 dy used in introducing queen-cages is also 



used for feeding bees. Take perhaps an 

 eighth as much best extracted honey as the 

 candy you want; heat, but don't burn; mix 

 in all the powdered sugar you can; then 

 knead in more sugar on a bake- board till 

 you make a stiff dough; let stand two or 

 three days, and, if it has softened any, 

 knead in more sugar. [This accords with 

 our experience. — Ed.] 



To find from which colony an after- 

 swarm came, J. Georges gives this in 

 L^Abeille Alpine: Early next morning, be- 

 fore bees are flying, take a hundred or 

 more bees of the swarm, shut them in a 

 tumbler with some flour, tumble them about 

 till they are well floured, then free them 

 and run to the apiary to see which hive 

 they enter. " Early next morning " is per- 

 haps new. [This may be a very useful 

 kink to remember. Sometimes it is desira- 

 ble to know whence the bees come. — Ed.] 



H. C. Morehouse says in Western Bee 

 Journal that the rule to put on supers when 

 the bees begin to whiten the combs at the 

 top is about ten days too late out West. 

 Isn't it too late anywhere? Do they ever 

 put white wax on the upper part of combs 

 till crowded for room? and will not as much 

 crowding as that go a long way toward 

 starting them to swarm? [It all depends 

 on what is meant by "the bees begin 

 whitening -the combs. ' ' I fear the language 

 is liable to be misunderstood by beginners, 

 with the result that they wait too long, and 

 swarming is the result. Perhaps our text- 

 books should be a little more explicit. — Ed.] 



No question about it. Swarthmore, 

 Laws, and others in the miniature fertiliz- 

 ing business have led to the settling of the 

 fact that virgins may be fertilized in a nu- 

 cleus without any brood, and with a much 

 smaller number of bees than we have been 

 in the habit of supposing necessary. The 

 question is, will the queens be as good as 

 those reared in the old way? Many years 

 ago I reared queens in very weak nuclei, 

 and the queens were worthless. But then 

 the whole business, from the starting of 

 cells to the laying of the young queen, was 



