February, 1909. 



I --Ms^^^Cj 



67 



American ^ee Journal 



^^^■^^^E] 



by hia black dronea? I u»e full •liccts of 

 foundalion. and have very few drones. He 

 >i»c« nnly ilartrrs, and I »aw whole frainet in 

 his hives that were built out solid with drone- 

 comb, except J inches where the starter was. 

 He had 6 colonies, and got no surjilus. They 

 swarmed as soon as they got a half-Kallon 

 of bets in a hive, and I don't want any of 

 his stock, but would like to rear most of my 

 own (lucrns. Two of those 1 reared were 

 larKer, and belter layers than the one I 



boURllt. NEBRASKA. 



y\NS\VKiis.--I.iicalion or no location, you 

 have a riuht to bran of your success, especial- 

 ly if all 5 colonies are stroni for winter. 



1. One-fourth inch is the belter space. But 

 shrinkage may bring ii down to ',i. With 

 1^ Ion much bur-comb is built in. 



2. In some way a bee-space ^must be pro- 

 vided between any 2 stories. There may be 

 a space at the lower part of each story, or a 

 half-space at both the bottom and top of each 

 story, but the usual way is to have a space 

 at the top. The hive must furnish a bec- 

 spaci- at the top, and each super the same. 

 Wilhnut such space at the top of Ihe super 

 you'll have trouble galore with glue. 



1. You can easily make the length of the 

 super .ill right for T-tins by tacking a block 

 or board in one end, or a thinner board in 

 each end. leaving the inside length of the 

 super 17H inches. You wouldn't like sheet- 

 iron T-tins to fill up the space. 



4. Some of my T-tins are H and some yi 

 inch high. Either does. No place is sawed 

 in the separator, which rests directly on the 

 T-tins. It would be bad to have the separa- 

 tor come down lower. 



5 That's not so very far off from the truth. 

 Some of the best Italian queens are quite dark, 

 although their workers are yellow. 



6. The probability is that your neighbor's 

 drones will be obliging enough to meet most of 

 your (juccns. Can't you get him to change 

 to Italian blood? 



Eight and Ten Frame Hives. 



I would like to know wlu-n to use an 8 

 and a 10 frame hive, and what is the advan- 

 tage of each? Wisconsin. 



Answer- — Perhaps no one thinks of using 

 anything less than a 10-frame hive for ex- 

 tracted honey, and some even want something 

 larger. "I'he' question as to the choice of the 

 two relates only to comb-honey. If you are 

 going to give only ordinary care to your bees, 

 a 10-frame hive is the safe thing. More room 

 for winter stores, hence less danger of starv- 

 ing in winter, and more particularly of starv- 

 ing in spring. But some who give fullest 

 attention to their bees prefer an 8-framc hive, 

 partly because they want something smaller, 

 and partlv because they want something larger 

 than a 10-frame hive. Early in Ihe season, 

 when bres are building up, a queen may need 

 more than 10 frames, and then a second 

 storv can be given to the smaller hive, mak- 

 ing 16 frames. 'Then when the harvest comes, 

 one story can be taken away, and only 8 

 frames left for the queen, the rest of the room 

 being in supers. 



Rearing Queens — Italianizing. 



I commenced July i, by purchasing a colony 

 of Italians; a few days later a small after- 

 swarms of hybrids: then I caught a runaway 

 black swarm: and by dividing and buying 

 queens, I now have 5 good colonics — 3 pure- 

 bred and 2 hybrids. 



I fed 4 of them some in September, and 

 they are all now well stocked for winter. The 

 fifth was started .Tuly 15, with 2 frames of 

 brood and honey, and about a gallon and a 

 half of bees. With no feeding it filled the 

 6 other frames, having full foundation start- 

 ers, and stored 16 sections in the super. These 

 were not fed because they seemed to be work- 

 ing strong. This is the colony that I am anx- 

 ious about. I never knowingly saw the 

 leather-colored Italians, but think this is that 

 kind. I would like to requeen from this 

 colony, but there are so many black bees 

 about me that I fear I shall not get many 

 pure-bred queens. 



1. What percent of pure-breds could be 

 counted on if I place my bees a mile from 

 other bees? 



2. How would it do to get some queen- 

 breeder to take my queen and pay me in her 

 progeny? 



3. How many untested queens from her eggs 

 should I have for the queen? 



It was so dry after I started this colony, 

 and so little honey-flow, that I think she is a 

 great queen. 



4. I have a hybrid colony that did not 

 work well. Should I put in another quecfi 

 early in the spring, or wail until after the 

 lumcy flow? Which will probably p.iy belt? 



MiftSorai. 



.\NSWIts. — I. Poatibly 35 percent, possibly 

 a (•erccnt. 



J. That would almost certainly give you 

 more pure matings. 



3. 'That's altogether as you can arrange 

 with the breeder. He might set a very high 

 or a very low value on your queen, which 

 wiiuld make a wide difference. 



.1. Likely it will pay best not to make 

 Ihe change till the flow is well along. 



How Many Colonies for a Certain 

 Field? 



From reading the bcc-papers and text-books 

 on bce-cuiturc, 1 know it is no easy matter 

 to say how many colonics of bees a location 

 will support, but I would like to have you 

 give your opinion o. the following. 



Could I keep 75 colonics or more, on a 

 range that furnished an abundance of early 

 pollen from willow, hazel-brush, elms, and 

 other sources, followed by fruit-bloom and 

 dandelions; about 40 acres of alsike clover, 

 grown for seed; white clover, which springs 

 up abundantly along roadsides and in all pas- 

 ture lands; and lastly, if all the basswood 

 scattered through the timber here were col- 

 lected into one lot, a conservative estimate 

 would put it at from 140 to 160 acres of a 

 fair stand of timber ? We also have enough 

 fall forage to keep bees busy, and some sea- 

 sons to gather some surplus. All land is oc- 

 cupied, the farms averaging about 100 acres 

 here, and all have a fair-sized upland pasture 

 with the grazing area being increased yearly. 



Judging from the above, how do our loca- 

 tions compare in white clover? I understand 

 you depend upon this source alone for your 

 surplus. Minnesota. 



Answer. — If there are no other bees within 

 2 or 3 miles of you, it ought to be a safe 

 guess to say you could keep ioo_ colonies 

 or more. Hard to say how your white clover 

 compares with mine. You have white clover 

 in all pastures, but how much of the land is 

 occupied with pasture? Here dairying is the 

 chief interest of all the farmers with scarcely 

 an exception. "Elgin" butter, you probably 

 know, looms large in the market, and more 

 Elgin butter is made here than at Elgin. But 

 even if I have more clover than you, Td 

 be glad to swap the extra amount for your 

 basswood, and pay you something to boot. 



and I thouffht I would make my Increue that 



way, until T read wh- -■■' ■• •*— f '-*-ri- 



can Bee Journal. y:>, l»-d 



to aik you how 1 ^ imt, 



and in your antwci f* *f i% 



to put all brood into an over an 



excluder, leaving the 'i ■ th<^n a 



week or 10 day» later vt thr u; n a 



new stand, giving it a <^|uern ' ^ly 



cell." In what way doet th; ; r -m 



Mr. Alexander'i way' And di<in t y>ai »ay, 

 page 85, fourth aniwrr, "No, not for me, 

 and probably not for one in a thoutand in 

 Ihe North?' If my been winter well thtt 

 winter, I believe I will try one colony Mr. 

 Alexander's way. 



2. In the November number, page 344, you 

 say, "drum out a swarm, hive it in a new 

 hive, and set it on the old stand, chanfing 

 No. I to another old colony. No. 2." 1 

 find this is practically the same way as given 

 in "Langstrolh on the Honey-Bee," page 24a, 

 by Dadant & Son. Would this mcthmj give 

 as good (juccns as those of any other method? 

 Of course I would use the brood from my best 

 queen. Mainc 



Answers.— I. Evidently things bare become 

 mixed, and I'm the culprit to blame for the 

 mixing. Let me try to straighten it out. Mr. 

 Alexander gave as a plan to increase the crop 

 to divide each colony before the harvest. That 

 I do not consider a good way to increase the 

 crop "for me nor for one in a thousand in 

 the North," although the plan he gives for 

 making increase is good. If you want to 

 try that plan of increase of bees, you will 

 find it works all right; but if vou expect 

 it greatly to increase your crop of boney, as 

 recommended by Mr. Alexander, you will 

 probably be greatly disappointed. As I think 

 I stated, Mr. Alexander depends mainly upon 

 buckwheat, and he can double his colonies 

 and have 2 full colonies from each to work 

 on buckwheat, so the plan is all right for 

 him or for bee - keepers in the South who 

 have late harvests; tor me, and almost cer- 

 tainly for you, it's another story. But the 

 plan of increase is all right. 



2. The plan mentioned should give queens 

 of best quality if worked when there is a 

 good yield of honey, for the cells are started 

 and the queens reared in a full colony. 



Disagreeable Hive-Odor. 



I have just read an article on page 306, 

 "A Buckwheat Story." During the latter 

 part of this season I had very much the same 

 experience as the "farmer bee-keeper." We 

 have no buckwheat in this country, and no 

 disease of any kind that I know of. My 

 bees are all in very good condition. We no- 

 ticed a strong, disagreeable odor coming 

 from our bcc-hives, especially in the after- 

 noon and evening. My wife kept insisting 

 that something was wrong. "Foul brood, 

 more than likely." I examined hive after 

 hive and opened cells in all, but conditions 

 were always the same. The hives and combs 

 were all clean, brood in a healthy condition, 

 and plenty of it. 



I finally gave up my search for the cause, 

 believing that it was due to the odor of the 

 honey, which was quite dark, although to 

 hold a comb close to the nostrils nothing 

 disagreeable could be detected. It puzzled 

 me " a right smart." I have 3-banded Ital- 

 ians. Can you give any light upon the cause. 



Louisiana. 



Answers. — Your "believe" in the case is 

 about right. There are times when certain 

 kinds of honey givr out a very disagreeable 

 odor that pervades the air of the apiary, al- 

 though, as you say, you cannot locate it 

 easilv. Fortunately it does no harm, and 

 doesn't last long. A worse affliction is the 

 carrion plant, with which I've had some 

 trouble — a sort of fungus or toadstool that 

 smells like a dead animal, and is not very 

 easy to find. 



Caucasian Bees — Requeening. 



I see on page 338 an article on Caucasian 

 bees, by J. J. Wilder, of Georgia. He sayi 

 that they winter well. That might well be 

 there, but not in this latiude. 



1. Do Caucasians winter well in the North? 



2. Do they resist the moth as well as the 

 Italians? 



3. Are they inclined to fasten their combs 

 together? 



4. Which would you advise, requeening with 

 Italians or Caucasians? 



I have now 8 colonies of common black 

 bees. I wish to requeen at least some in the 

 spring. My average this year was 24 sec- 

 tions, although I had one colony which stored 

 60. This was my second season. I started 

 with 3 colonies and have lost 3. I have a 

 friend who purchased a 3-frame nucleus last 

 spring, and it built up on foundation and 

 stored some surplus. So I am inclined to- 

 ward Italians. 



I like the bees very welL I am 17 years 

 old. Perhaps I can make something of a 

 bee-keeper of myself. New York. 



Answer. — I'll not attempt to answer your 

 questions categorically, chiefly because I don't 

 know enough. I have had no personal experi- 

 ence with Caucasians, and only know about 

 them from the reports of others. These re- 

 ports are so contradictory, and some of them 

 so unsatisfactory that I don't care to intro- 

 duce any of the blood until there seems to 

 be something more firmly established as to 

 their general character. If I had black bees 

 as you have, I should get pure Italian blood, 

 breeding always from the best, and trying to 

 keep the stock pure. I didn't do that my- 

 self, but that's what I would do if I had 

 it to do over again. 



Making Increase of Colonies. 



1. I asked some questions last spring, page 

 152. I told then how Mr. Doolittle both- 

 ered me. Now, I don't know as you know it, 

 but you have bothered me, too. This is 

 what "bothers me: I read what Mr. Alexander 

 said in Gleanings in Bee Culture, page 423, 



Repressing Swarming — Alternating 

 Hives. 



1. How can I repress swarming to the best 

 advantage in producing comb honey ? 



2. Would it pay for me to change queens 

 in the spring to get out the swarming blood? 



3. If the queen of a colony has swarming 

 blood, will all swarms going out from that 

 colony be of the same nature? 



4. i am an amateur at the bee-bnsiness, 



