170 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1920 



with this guarantee, and yet the honey sells 

 so well that there are really very few times 

 when the beekeeper needs to fulfill this 

 promise. 



Questions. — (1) I found out that my bees have 

 American foul brood, but did not know it until 

 after they were packed for winter. I have only 

 8 stands_ and I intend to move them a distance of 

 40 miles in the spring. I want to transfer them by 

 the Wm. McEvoy plan. I have over 500 extracting 

 combs that have been exposed to foul brood. Should 

 I burn the frames, or can I clean them? I want 

 the safest and surest way. I have 50 new seven- 

 wire queen-excluders ; how can I clean them to 

 make them safe to use again? (2) When would be 

 the best time to transfer them? (3) I had thought 

 to brush thei bees out and take them to their new 

 location about the last of May, then handle them 

 about the same as two-pound packages from the 

 South. Would this be all right? Joe Shaffer. 



Ohio. 



Answers. — (1) It is always somewhat 

 cheaper for us to burn the frames than to 

 attempt saving them. Yet, if one cares to 

 go to the trouble the frames may be disin- 

 fected by hot steam. The queen-excluders 

 may be disinfected the same as hives, by 

 burning oif the surface. (2) The best time 

 to treat them would be in the spring at 

 fruit-bloom time. If they do not obtain 

 honey to keep them till the main honey flow, 

 it will be necessary to feed them. (3) In 

 the McEvoy treatment one set of frames of 

 foundation is given, and then after the bees 

 have drawn this out into comb, the comb is 

 taken away from them and another set of 

 foundation given them. Experience has 

 shown that this is a great waste, and that it 

 is unnecessary. The bees may be shaken 

 and the pound packages taken to the new 

 location and put on to the frames of founda- 

 tion without spreading the disease. 



Question. — (1) In ray cellar there are a couple of 

 hives in which the bees are making so much noise 

 and trying so hard to get out that I have nailed 

 a little wire screen on the entrance to keep them in, 

 but they still feel uneasy. (2) I bought two swarms 

 of bees last summer. One had a clipped queen. 

 Will she be all right? She has only one wing. Will 

 she get mated that way? Tony McNutt. 



Wisconsin. 



Answers. — (1) When colonies are put in the 

 cellar the entrances should not be closed- 

 [f there are mice in the cellar and you feai 

 they may enter the hives, we advise that you 

 use a %-inch mesh screen over the entrance. 

 This will shut out the mice, but allow the 

 bees to come out at the entrance if they de- 

 sire. When bees are shut tightly in their 

 hives so that they cannot leave, - they be- 

 come uneasy and raise the temperature of 

 the hive, causing poor wintering and often 

 dysentery and death. If the bees do not 

 become quiet after the screen is removed, 

 the chances are that your cellar is too warm. 

 A temperature between 45 and 50 degrees 

 Fahrenheit is just about right. (2) If the 

 queen has the wings on one side clipped 

 she is doubtless a laying queen, otherwise 

 the beekeeper would not have clipped her 

 wings. As you probably know, the wings 

 do not grow out after they are clipped, so 



that during a lifetime a queen needs to be 

 clipped only once. As queens always mate 

 while on the wing, if a beginner should make 

 a mistake and clip a queen that had not 

 yet mated, the queen would be ruined since 

 she would then be unable to mate. 



Question. — Can you tell me how to make royal 

 jelly for queen-cups without the bees making it for 

 me? Chas. P. Johannigomier. 



Illinois. 



Answer." — There is no way that we know 

 of for making royal jelly. Some beekeepers 

 do not use royal jelly in grafting, but simply 

 pick up a little food along with the young 

 larvae. Others make a colony queenless and 

 allow them to start queen-cells, thus fur- 

 nishing them with all the royal jelly they 

 need for grafting. 



AXSWERRD BY E. R. ROOT. 



Question. — Please explain the process of taking 

 stings from bees, as I am thinking of engaging 

 in the business. We have 10 colonies of bees with 

 which we are raising ( ?) honey. Are the stings 

 taken from live bees or are the stings of value taken 

 from dead bees? Naturally, a novice in the busi- 

 ness would prefer handling dead bees. 



Wisconsin. Mrs. .James Montgomery. 



Bees' stings are used in large numbers 

 by the Homeopathic school of medicine. We 

 have ourselves filled several orders each for 

 10,000 stings. The stings are dropped into a 

 vessel containing sugar of milk. They are 

 afterward treated by a process that makes 

 what is known as Apis mellifica. We stop- 

 ped furnishing stings because it caused an 

 itching sensation on the part of the employee 

 who removed the stings. 'This was due to 

 the fact that he inhaled the fumes of the 

 poison. After he had pulled several thou- 

 sand stings he would have to rest a while. 

 The work was done as humanely as possible 

 by crushing the bee instantly when the sting 

 was removed. 



Question. — At Davis, Calif., I became very much 

 interested in Mr. Root's lecture on the 13-fr. hive. 

 I tried out 10 this season, and extracted 140 gallons 

 of honey. The season before I had 20 colonies and 

 got only 100 gallons. By giving the bees plenty of 

 stores for the winter and packing them with shav- 

 ings, I find that they come out strong in the spring 

 ready for the honey flow. H. G. Brause. 



California. 



Answer. — We have received quite a num- 

 ber of letters from California beekeepers 

 saying that they have tried out 12-and 13- 

 frame hives. Practically every one of them 

 speaks as does the writer above. This is not 

 mentioned because we advise our readers 

 to adopt 13-frame hives. The point we wish 

 to make is that strong colonies, whether in 

 two 8-franie or two 10-frame hive-bodies, 13- 

 frame or Jumbo 10-frame hives, are the kind 

 that get the honey. In some localities the 

 13-frame Langstroth hive, or the 10-frame 

 Jumbo hive is preferable to two 8- or 10- 

 frame hives tiered up. No one should adopt 

 any other style of hive than the regular one 

 without trying a few first. In all our talks 

 we have urged the importance of trying only 

 a few, and that is precisely what most have 

 done. 



