American IBee Journal 



February, 1909. 



the most, perhaps because warmer toward the 

 center. Possibly there may be some other 

 reason for the outside of the section being 

 behind the inside, but the fact of the differ- 

 ence I've often noticed. But other colonies, 

 you say, in the same yard, plumped out their 

 sections all right. Well, the answer is still 

 the same; there wasn't enough honey to fill 

 out the sections. Not that there was not 

 enough honey in the fields, but because the 

 bees were too few in number to bring it in, 

 or else too lazy to do so. 'That's the best 

 I can do at a guess. 



Plan for Control of Swarming. 



I have practised the plan advocated by Mr. 

 Chapman, in lifting frames of brood over the 

 zinc excluder just prior to the honey-flow. 

 After the 2 upper supers have been extracted 

 the large force of workers will fill 3 comb- 

 honey supers at once. As I like to produce 

 comb honey, I thought to use the Dudley 

 system of tubing, but after the manner rec- 

 ommended by a writer in the Review, which 

 consists in placing the hive containing the 

 brood alongside the hive in which the queen 

 is, with a tube connecting both. As you 

 claim that some heat is lost by the Dudley 

 system, how would it do to tack wire-cloth 

 on the bottom of the hive containing brood 

 and place it immediately on top of the sec- 

 tion super or supers ; then attach a Dudley 

 tube connecting said hive-body with the en- 

 trance of the lower hive containing the queen? 



Michigan. 

 ^ Answer. — The plan may likely work all 

 right. Like many other things in bee-keep- 

 ing, you never can feel sure until you sub- 

 mit it to the bees themselves. 



Hive-Entrances — Bait Sections — 

 Foundation — Supers. 



1. How large ought the entrance to be for 

 bees to do best? 



2. What do you mean about baiting to get 

 the bees to work? Do you put in sections 

 partly filled with honey? 



3. What kind of foundation is the best to 

 use? I use what is called "light brood'* in 

 the catalog. Is that all right? 



4. Do you fill all the frames with comb 

 foundation when you hive a swarm? I have 

 the 8-frame hive. 



5. How do vou manage about putting on 

 the supers and taking them off, and when? 



6. Do you fill all the supers with comb 

 foundation? West Virginia. 



Answers. — i. It may vary all the way from 

 2 to 24 square inches, according to time of 

 year and circumstances. At this moment my 

 bees have 24; but they are in the cellar, 

 and if out would not have any such large 

 entrance. As soon as they are put on their 

 summer_ stands they will have only one 

 square inch for an entrance. Then when hot 

 weather comes they will again have the big 

 entrance. 



2. Sections that are only partly filled are 

 emptied out by the bees in the fall, and the 

 next year one or more of these are put into 

 the first super to start the bees. Such sec- 

 tions are called bait-sections, or baits. 



3. Light brood, supported by wires or splints, 

 is all right. 



4. Yes, for if you leave any part of a frame 

 without foundation the bees will build drone- 

 comb there. Some, however, give only part 

 of the frames when a swarm is hived, as only 

 worker-comb is built at first, and afterward 

 give tlie rest of the frames with comb or 

 foundation. 



S- That's too big a question to be answered 

 here. You will find it fully answered in your 

 bee-book, and after studying that, if there 

 is anything you do not understand, your ques- 

 tions upon any point will be cheerfully an- 

 swered here. This department can not take 

 the place of a bee-book; but comes in only as 

 a supplement. 



6. Personally I fill each section with founda- 

 tion. Some use starters, filling only half or 

 fourth of the section. 



Colony Stored No Honey — Best Bees 



for Comb Honey — Nucleus Plan 



of Introducing. 



I. What is the matter with one of my colo- 

 nies of bees? I hived it a year before last, 

 so it has had 2 seasons. All last season it 

 would not work in the super, nor store any 

 honey, while the rest were working fine. It 

 acted weak in the fall I thought it would 

 die, as some of ray other weak ones did, 

 but it kept well all through the winter, and 



it is one of my best colonies right now, and 

 it did not swarm last season when all the 

 rest were swarming. The winters are very 

 warm here. It is not necessary to do any- 

 thing toward wintering. I looked at it to- 

 day and the bees are carrying in pollen — 

 quite a lot of it. I think it was working 

 more than any other of the 5 near it. What 

 do you think is the matter, and what could 

 I do for it? 



2. What bees do you think are best for 

 comb honey ? I have heard that the gray 

 Carniolan and Banat bees are better than the 

 Italian. Do you think so? 



3. Is the nucleus plan of introducing, as 

 stated in the "A B C of Bee Culture," of 

 1905, a good one ? Do you put the queen 

 in right away with the frames? 



The winters are very mild here. The al- 

 monds will be in bloom about February 15, 

 so that the bees get an early start. Willow 

 is almost in bloom now. Bees are working 

 on the buds now, but it is not a very heavy 

 honey-producer. California. 



Answers — i. Hard to guess without know- 

 ing more about the case. It is possible that 

 the colony bad a very poor queen and have 

 superseded her, and now have a much better 

 queen, so they are doing better. Too much 

 drone-comb in the hive may be one trouble. 



2. All things considered, you will proba- 

 bly do as well with Italians. 



3. Yes, the queen may be put in when the 

 nucleus is first formed — caged, of course — 

 and there is less hostility to her because there 

 are mostly younger bees in a nucleus. 



A Bunch of Interesting Questions. 



1. What would be the result if I were to 

 put say three supers containing extracting- 

 frames and sections over a good swarm of 

 bees about June first, particularly if they were 

 a swarm put back on the old stand in an 

 empty hive? Would they store as much honey 

 as though I put the supers on one at a 

 time? 



2. I am using a super 5^ inches deep. What 

 would be the result if I were to use two of 

 these fitted as brood-chambers? Would it do 

 as well as a hive 10 inches deep with con- 

 tinuous frames? 



3. What methods, if any, besides the knife 

 have been used since the invention of the ex- 

 tractor to get rid of the cappings of the 

 combs? 



4. Make a guess as to the thickness of cap- 

 ping of combs containing honey. 



5. I am compelled to move my bees in the 

 spring. If I leave a weak swarm in the 

 yard will returning bees go to it? 



6. In the coming season I am going to use 

 some bottom-boards open at both ends and 

 with spaces varying from J^ to 2 inches under 

 the frames. Has this ever been tried, and do 

 you not think it possible that a small space 

 open at both ends would keep a hive as cool 

 as a deeper one closed at one end? 



7. Is a "chaff" hive entirely practical? If 

 not, what are the objections to it? I have 

 no cave and do not like to contemplate the 

 work incident to packing 50 or more hives 

 with paper or other material. 



8. Would it not do just as well to raise 

 the super from the hive, and from each other 

 when there are several on, as to "slide them 

 back a little," for ventilation, besides being 

 much easier ? Pried apart and a wedge, or 

 match, shoved in, would not let so much rain 

 in, in case of a sudden storm as though they 

 were slipped over. 



9. Some years ago, before I got bees, some 

 one proposed to put the bees into a hive with 

 a large number of sections instead of frames. 

 What was the man's name, and what was his 

 plan, if not too long to detail? Otherwise, 

 where can I find an account of it? 



10. The coming season I wish to produce 

 more extracted honey than comb, in sections. 

 May I put both sections and extracting-frames 

 into one super, using fences between frames 

 and section-holders? I should use two frames 

 to one of the section-holders. Iowa. 



Answers. — i. The chief objection to putting 

 on too many supers at a time is that it makes 

 too much room for the bees to keep warm. 

 But the time bees swarm the weather is so 

 warm that it would make little difference un- 

 less there were cold spells. Even then, the 

 difference would not be so very much. 



2. It would be all right except that it would 

 leave a deep space under bottom-bars for the 

 bees to build down in. You could put some- 

 thing in the bottom-board that would reduce 

 that space to an inch or so. 



3. Turn to page 306 of the American Bee 

 Journal for October, 1908, and you will find 



description and illustrations of the Bayless 

 uncapping machine. 



4. Possibly 1-64 of an inch; but that may 

 be a wild guess. 



5. That depends on the distance. If a mile 

 or more, no bees are likely to return. If only 

 a short distance many will return, and unite 

 with any colony left there. If you don't want 

 them to return, you might try the plan of 

 Geo. W. Williams, "the shaker." As soon 

 as you put a colony on its new stand, take 

 out the frames and shake all the bees on the 

 ground in front of the hive and then let them 

 run in. 



6. Yes, practically the same thing has been 

 tried often. The opening at the back end 

 will do as well as, or better than, having a 

 deeper space. Only it isn't quite so convenient 

 at the time of year when you want to keep 

 things warm, 



7. Chaff hives have been successfully used 

 to quite a large extent, although perhaps not 

 so much as formerly. One objection is their 

 weight and unwieldiness ; ' another that when 

 the sun shines on a hive in winter it takes 

 too long for the heat to penetrate the thick 

 walls. 



8. In the long run it would be much harder. 

 You would have bur-combs galore, and a dauby 

 mess scraping off the honey built in the deeper 

 space. 



9. I don't remember hearing of any one 

 using sections instead of frames. Possibly you 

 refer to Jasper Hazen, if I have the name 

 right, who claimed great things by having a 

 big hive with sections on all sides of the 

 brood-nest. By going back years enough you 

 will find all about it in the American Bee 

 Journal. But if you have any idea of using 

 it, I advise you not to waste time hunting 

 it up. 



10. Yes, E. D. Townsend, an excellent au- 

 thority, uses both sections and extracting- 

 frames in the same manner. But it would not 

 work just the best kind along with your plan 

 of giving the bees a big lot of super-room at 

 a time. The bees would show a preference 

 for the extracting-combs. 



A Beginner's Questions. . 



1. If I were to stimulate brood-rearing in the 

 spring as much as possible, and j ust before 

 the honey-flow lift the old hive off the stand 

 and place a shallow brood-chamber with honey- 

 board and sections on in place, then shake 

 the bees and the queen off from 8 to 9 frames, 

 and set the old hive on top with a Porter bee- 

 escape under it, would that practically do the 

 swarming for the season? 



2. There is foul brood close to me. Wouldn't 

 it be better for me to work for honey than for 

 increase ? 



3. Could a man keep a queen over winter 

 by putting her in a large cage with plenty of 

 candy in it, and about 200 or 300 attendants, 

 then lay the cage on the frames of a strong 

 colony? 



4. Is a solar wax-extractor best for the 

 small bee-keeper? 



5. I have 2 colonies of bees, one strong 

 and one weak. The weak one is over the 

 strong with screen wire between. I thought 

 they could get the heat from the lower hive. 

 Was that all right? 



6. I am going to unite them in the spring 

 according to the Alexander plan, given on 

 page 432 of "A B C of Bee Culture," and 

 divide them just before the honey-flow. If I 

 left them together longer, would the bees be 

 likely to kill one of the queens? 



7. How would it do to give a colony lots 

 of drone-comb and feed them after the honey- 

 flow, so as to produce lots of drones from a 

 good queen, and then rear queens from good 

 stock? Wouldn't the young queens have a 

 good chance to mate pure? 



8. Would it be a good idea to try to have 

 Cyprian queens mated to Italian drones? They 

 claim that the Cyprians are more prolific and 

 have longer tongues, but are worse to swarm. 

 The cross just mentioned would have the pro- 

 lific queen and the workers would be half 

 Italians. How would they act in regard to 

 swarming? I rather think that cross would 

 be good if they did not swarm too much. 



9. In regard to foul brood, instead of de- 

 stroying all the combs, destroy just the part 

 that has bee-bread and dead larvae in thera. 

 Then extract the honey and wash out the 

 combs or starve the bees until they eat all 

 of it. Then allow them to fly out. Would 

 that be a good way. Indiana. 



Answers. — i. Very likely; but it would be 

 more sure if you should operate just after 

 the beginning of the honey-flow instead of be- 

 fore; also if you should use something larger 

 than a shallow brood-chamber. 



