April, 1909. 



AnK»rican ^ec Journal j 



mends (.Koot's "A B C and X \ Z page 

 135) the following treatment: "He forms as 

 many nuclei from strong healthy colonies as 

 there are sick colonies to be treated. As soon 

 as the nuclei have young laying queens, he 

 gives to each, as fast as they can take care of 

 them, one or two frames of the oldest capped 

 brood from each of the paralytic colonies, and 

 thereafter till all the brood of such colonies 

 is used up. The diseased bees and queen he 

 next destroys with sulphur fumes, fumigating 

 the hives at the same time. ... It is im- 

 portant that in giving the combs to the nuclei, 

 there be no dead bees in the cells, as the 

 disease is transmitted by dead or sick bees, 

 although not by the brood or combs. 



2. I don't believe that bees ever carry with 

 them tne moth, its larvse, or its eggs. 



Fastening Comb-Foundation — Tiering 

 Up Supers, 



I understand extracted honey, but never 

 produced any honey in the comb in sections. 

 I have 27 colonies, all with Italian queens in- 

 troduced last season, 16 of them being in 2- 

 story hives, the balance being singles. I make 

 my own hives. As I get swarms I aim to put 

 all into single-story hives. I expect to buy 

 supers for them. I have one strong colony in 

 a box. I mean to make a swarm for one ot 

 my upper stories, then in 21 days to make 

 another from it. I also have 3 colonies that 

 I bought complete, hive and all, at a sale, tor 

 $3 50. They had 33 pounds of honey m the 

 supers. My hives are standard size, but the 

 frames run the narrow way instead of length- 



1 How do you fasten in brood- foundation? 

 Also explain all about how you make and use 

 splints. My frames are 10^^x7^ inches, in- 

 side measure. 



2 Give me all the information you can as 

 to the best and cheapest way to fasten founda- 

 tion starters in the top of the sections. Must 

 I buy the new hive the supply-men advertise.' 



3 I have seen men use the super and when 

 full' put an empty one under it. How would 

 it do to take out the sections when filled and 

 replace the empties? Kentucky. 



Answers.— 1. Many of my frames were filled 

 with foundation by pouring melted wax along 

 the angle between the top-bar and the founda- 

 tion, but of late years I wedge them in the 

 sawkerf with the wedges that supply dealers 

 send out with the frames. I never made 

 splints— it's so much cheaper to buy them. But 

 if you have a fine buzz-saw, all you have to 

 do is to saw out little sticks 1-16 of an inch 

 square and yi of an inch shorter than the dis- 

 tance between the top and bottom bars. The 

 splints are pressed into the foundation by the 

 edge of a little board kept wet. See reply to 

 "Minnesota," on page 103 of the March num- 



2' If you have only a hundred or so to fill, 

 the cheapest way is to press the edee of the 

 foundation into the wood with a case-knite. 

 If you have a considerable number, you can- 

 not afford so slow a way, and should get a 

 foundation-fastener. The Daisy foundation- 

 fastener is one of the best. You don t need 

 to buy a new hive to use sections. All that 

 is necessary is to have your super fit on your 

 hive, and almost any super may be fitted to 

 almost any hive. 



3 If you mean that you would have only 

 one super for a hive, taking out the sections 

 when filled and putting empty sections into 

 the super again, let me tell you that would 

 be an extravagant and wasteful way. You 

 wouldn't get as much honey that way as to 

 put the empty super under the other when 

 the bees have it about half filled or less. 1 

 often have 5 or 6 supers on at a time and 

 think I gain by it. 



Prevention of Increase — Transferring 

 — Making a Living with Bees. 



1. I see by your writings that you have not 

 yet succeeded in preventing swarming. Do 

 you prevent increase? 



2. What do you do with the swarm when it 

 issues when you do not want to increase? Do 

 you shake it back into the hive that it came 

 out of? „ o 



3. Do you cut all the queen-cells every 6 



*4^ I have both 8 and 10 frame hives with 

 bees in them but not many empty bodies with 



c<imh? in tb^m. I intend to work half of my 

 bees for comb honey and the others for ex- 

 tracted. I have no empty bodies but intend 

 to use supers &H inches deep, with foundation 

 in one on each hive to give the queen more 

 room Then when the honey-flow comes on. 



raise up this super with brood and put another 

 in between, some with sections and others with 

 frames. Do you think I can manage to pre- 

 vent increase with these hives and supers? 

 How would you advise me to go at it to pre- 

 vent increase.' 



5. I have 30 colonies that I must transfer, 

 but not increase them. How would you trans- 

 fer them if they were yours? 



6. Do you think I can make 1 living with the 

 honey-bee? Wisconsin. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, it is not difficult to pre- 

 vent increase. 



2. Comparatively few swarms really issue for 

 me. My queens are all clipped, and if a swarm 

 does issue, the nueen not being able to go off 

 with it, the swarm returns to the hive of its 

 own accord. 



3. About once in 10 days I look for queen- 

 cells, ana destroy any that may be present. 

 Next time around, if I find queen-cells well 

 advanced, I make the colony queenless for 

 about 10 days, or take some other measures 

 that will make the bees give up swarming. At 

 the end of 10 days, if I can give them a young 

 queen that has just begun laying, I do not 

 need to go into that hive again for the season. 



•1. When a colony swarms, you may remove 

 or destroy the uld queen, and a week later 

 destroy all but one queen-cell. There should 

 be no more swarming, and of course no in- 

 crease. 



As you intend to produce both comb and 

 extracted honey, you may do thus: When the 

 harvest begins, and before there is swarming, 

 put all the brood in an upper story, and in 

 the lower story the queen and frames of foun- 

 dation or combs, with an excluder between the 

 2 stories. There will generally be no swarm- 

 ing, and the combs above the excluder will 

 be filled with honey. Of course you can add 

 section-supers. 



If, after any or all of this is done, you 

 still have more colonies than you think best, 

 it is easy to unite spring or fall. You can 

 get much information on the subject from 

 "Forty Years Among the Bees." 



6. Wait till the colony swarms, hive the 

 swarm in a proper hive, set the old hive close 

 beside it. Ten days later move the old hive 

 to the other side of the swarm, setting it close 

 beside the swarm. Eleven days later still, 

 break up the old hive, giving the bees to the 

 swarm and melting up the old comb. _ ^ 



6. That's a hard question to answer, but it s 

 getting to be that quite a number are making 

 a living at bees, and for anything I know your 

 chance is as good as any. 



Bees Affected by Bad Winter 

 Stores — Italianizing. 



1. My bees are not doing so well this winter 

 on account of poor honey. We had a long 

 dry spell here in August and September and 

 the bees gathered lots of honey-dew. I winter 

 my bees m the cellar under my house, which 

 is a very good place for them, as the cellar is 

 very dry and keeps an even temperature of 

 about 40. I put 9 colonies in winter quarters, 

 and they were all heavy in stores, but a whole 

 lot nf it was well sealed up honey-dew. I 

 looked them over February 20, and they were 

 all living, but some of the hives were spotted 

 quite badly, and I also noticed on some of the 

 hives a yellow watery stuff was running out 

 What do you think about this? Is not that a 

 bad sign? I have been watching the American 

 Bee Journal very closely to find something 

 about honey-dew, from other bee-keepers, but 

 so far I have not seen a word. It was cer- 

 tainly not only our bees here that gathered 

 honey-dew last fall, as the dry weather in 

 August and September was spread over a large 

 territory. I see in the bee-book that it is 

 safest to extract and feed up again with sugar 

 or good combs, but last fall this was almost 

 impossible, as it was very late when the flow 

 was over, and as soon as we tried to open up 

 n hive the bees were over us robbin:;. This 

 is my third winter that I have had bees, and 

 have been very successful so far. 



2. Last year I got 642 pounds of extracted 

 honey from 5 colonies, spring count, and in- 

 creased to 9. Our bees are all hybrids and I 

 have been thinking of getting some Italians, 

 but think it would be safest for me to pet one 

 or two nuclei with queens. Where would you 

 advise me to get them? 



3. T see in the Journal that you have queens 

 to sell. Could you also furnish 2-frame nuclei 

 with queens? „ ■, ... 



When I get my bees out of the cellar I will 

 report how they come out. 



Wisconsin. 



Answers. — 1. Yes. it is not a good sign to 

 see hives spotted or to see liquid running out 



of the hive-entrance, .\lthough the two things 

 may go together, they are not one and the 

 same. Diarrhea may come from bad food, and 

 there may be no liquid running out of the 

 hive. Liquid may be running out of the en- 

 trance without diarrhea, although such a con- 

 dition predisposes to diarrhea. Lack of ven- 

 tilation, especially with too cold a temperature, 

 causes the moisture from the bees to settle on 

 the walls of the hive, condensing into water 

 there, and there may be so much of it as to 

 run out of the hive. About the only thing 

 that can be done about the honey-dew is to get 

 it out of the hive in the fall and give the bees 

 something more wholesome. Even if all the 

 honey-dew is not removed, it will help to give 

 suf^ar-syrup, as this latter will be likely to be 

 used first, being more convenient to reach. In 

 your case the thing to do now is to get the 

 bees out for a flight as soon as the weather 

 permits, and that will likely be before this 

 gets in print. 



2. You will probably be safe to oraer from 

 any of the advertisers in the American Bee 

 Journal. 



3. I do not sell nuclei. My business is pro- 

 ducing honev. I rear queens for my own use, 

 and do not make a business of selling queens. 

 My bees are mostly hybrids, and cross, so 

 they are not a very marketable article, only 

 sometimes some one insists on getting an un- 

 tested queen in spite of knowing what they 

 are. But I think not more than half a dozen 

 a year. 



leporis 



m 



Wonderful Vear tor Rains. 

 We have had another fine rain. It has been 

 a wonderful year for bounteous and timely 

 rains. Unless the cold winds prevail we shall 

 have an excellent honey-year. 



A. J. Cook. 

 Llaremont, Calif., Mar. 22. 



Wintering Well— Clover All Right. 



Bees have wintered fine in the cellar. Many 

 are hanging out in front of the hives, but_ all 

 are very quiet and in the very best condition. 



I have some nuclei on 8 frames, 6x6 inches, 

 and they are in perfect condition. Indications 

 are good for a crop of clover honey. 



Mercer Co., HI., March 25. S. F. Trego. 



Bees Have Wintered Well. 

 Last season I wintered 6 apiaries on the 



summer stands without a single loss, and would 

 have repeated the same thing this winter but 

 for a defective hive-entrance and a mischievous 

 mouse. I think that bees have wintered pretty 

 well everywhere. All we want now is the 

 blossoms. H. G. Quirin. 



Bellevue, Ohio, March 26. 



Open-Top Bee-Tent. 



In my work with the bees I have learned 

 that robber-bees will not go over an open-top 

 tent with walls 5 or 6 feet high, which is al- 

 together better than those little closed-top tents 

 which double one up like a jacknife while at 

 work. I have never seen this in print, and 

 think that perhaps if known it might be a 

 benefit to the fraternity. H. W. Lee. 



Pecatonica, 111. 



Long Winter in Colorado. 



We have had a long winter here — I think 

 the longest in over 20 years — and there must 

 surely be heavy losses in bees. The farmers 

 were just about getting started in their work 

 the last few days, when night before last we 

 had a thunderstorm and rain, turning to snow. 

 Today the snow is going off, but it will be too 

 wet for farming for some days. 



R. C. AiKiN. 



Loveland, Colo., March 25. 



Wintering Bees in Warm Room. 



On page 93 of the March number, under the 

 head of "Canadian Beedom." I note a criti- 

 cism, or at least much honest doubt expressed 

 in regard to the advisability of wintering bees 

 in a warm room. On this above subject I 



