American Hee Journal 



but no brood. The honey I took out of the 

 new colony hag a dark, yellowish-colored sub- 

 stance in some of the cells scattered through 

 it ; pollen, I suppose. Some people here call 

 it bee-bread. What brood I found was not 

 black, and did not smell offensive, and what 

 few sick bees I found could move about some, 

 and their bodies were not swelled, neither 

 were the bodies of the uead bees, so I con- 

 cluded that it was neither foul brood nor 

 paralysis. If you know the cause, please 

 explain. 



There is a weed that grows here called 

 aster, that yields honey in the fall, and there 

 is always an abundance of white clover. The 

 wintera are mild, and last winter unusually 

 so. Kentucky. 



Answer. — I am puzzled to know what is the 

 trouble. Aster honey would not account for 

 it. It is possible that there is no disease 

 present, the colonies dying off chiefly from 

 weakness. Many colonies are lost in that way. 



Introducing and Rearing Queens. 



Last summer I had a good, strong colony 

 in 3 10-frame brood-chambers, one on top of 

 the other. I moved one hive with the brood- 

 chamber and 2-3 of the bees to another place, 

 contracted the entrance, but did not close 

 it, and put a queen in a cage on the top- 

 bars. A few days later I raised the cover 

 and removed the empty cage. I reason that 

 the old bees would return to the old stand and 

 the young bees would accept the new queen. 

 I was so sure that the plan would work that 

 I did not open the hive again for 2 or 3 

 weeks. Then I found it queenless, and, as I 

 had no queen, I put it back on top of the 

 other hive, and it is still there. 



Now, when the weather becomes settled, I 

 want to separate those 3 hives and make 2 

 colonies. How shall I do it ? 



I understand that under favorable circum- 

 stances the queenless part should rear a queen 

 of their own. but they did not do it. Any- 

 way it would take too long. Illinois. 



Answer. — Introducing queens and rearing 

 queens are among the uncertain things. Even 

 the most experienced have occasional failures. 

 On the face of it, one would judge your 

 queen ought to have been accepted. And if 

 not, a young queen ought to have been reared. 

 Perhaps a young queen was reared and lost. 

 You can hardly do any better than to try the 

 same plan again. The next 20 times it may 

 be a success. If you wish to have the bees 

 rear their own queen, you might vary the 

 plan a little. At the beginning of swarming 

 time, take two of the poorest frames of brood 

 with the queen and adhering bees, and put 

 thera in a hive on a new stand. A week 

 later there ought to be the best kind of queen- 

 cells started in the queenless colony. Now 

 let the two hives swap places, leaving, how- 

 ever, only one frame of brood with the queen, 

 and that the poorest. That gives you all the 

 flying force with the queen on the old stand — 

 practically a shaken swarm, ready for fine 

 super work, and the queenless part, being 

 suddenly weakened by the loss of its flying 

 force, ought to give up any notion of swarm- 

 ing, which it would have if not thus weakened. 



Loss of Bees in Winter. 



Out of 23 colonies of bees I have lost 12 

 this winter. They are in double- walled hives 

 J4-inch air-space. Some of the frames are 

 liyi inches deep, and some 9%. Last fall 

 I took some J^-inch and ^-inch boards and 

 made what I called a cap just large enough to 

 cover the frames on top. I had ^-inch bee- 

 space so that the bees could crawl over the 

 top-bars from one frame to the other. Of 

 course they glued that down air-tight. They 

 died in a cluster, and the combs were damp 

 and mostly covered with green and yellow 

 mold. The entrance is 5^ by 6 inches, and I 

 had that space reduced down most of the time 

 to 3 to 4 inches. Did I fix them too warm? 

 I think now that I missed it by not having an 

 air-hole up through that cover. Of course, 

 the hive cap went on over that cover. What 

 did I do wrong, or what killed the bees ? 

 The other ones, fixed the same way, seem 

 all right at present. They all left enough 

 honey to have run them until clover time, and 

 they were all left on the summer stands. I 

 also had the hives all covered with tar-paper 

 to keep the hives dry, and had boards to lean 

 up over the entrance when it snowed or was 

 bad, cold, windy weather. 



I am an old Union soldier and not able 

 to work any more, so I thought I would try 

 to keep a few bees to help out a little. This 

 19 my third year with them, and I have lots 



to learn yet. I take the American Bee 

 Journal, and also have "Forty Years Among 

 the Bees," by Dr. C. C. Miller, and Root's 

 "A B C" book, and "Langstroth on the 

 Honey- Bee," by Dadant. 



The outlook for white clover at the present 

 time here is not very bright. Indiana. 



AnsweK. — It is not always easy for a 

 coroner's jury to decide the cause of death, 

 especially at a long distance from the dead 

 body. It can only be guessing, at best. It 

 is not entirely clear from your description 

 just what was on top. It seems there was a 

 sealed board cover with a ^-inch space over 

 the top-bars, but it is not certain whether 

 there was the proper packing over that sealed 

 cover. Some sort of packing should have been 

 over that sealed cover to keep it warm enough 

 so moisture would not settle upon it to drip 

 down upon the bees. Possibly sucli packing 

 was present. The 6-inch entrance was closed 

 down to 3 to 4 inches most of the time. 

 An entrance H x 3 inches, making only ^ of 

 a square inch, may not have furnished suffi- 

 cient air for a strona: colony, especially if 

 that entrance was at any time clogged by dead 

 bees. If any one has a better guess, I yield 

 the floor. 



Signs of Queenlessness — Entrance 

 Ventilation, 



1. What is the best sign of a queenless 

 colony in the spring ? 



2. In Gleanings of November 1, 1908, on 

 page 1327, under the heading, "An Adjustable 

 Storm Door," I do not fully understand how 

 ventilation is secured. 



3. And do those who winter bees on the 

 summer stands need to scrape out the dead 

 bees? Wisconsin. 



Answers. — 1. The best sign is to find no 

 brood present when all other colonies have 

 started brood. Even by looking at the out- 

 side, you may be suspicious if you find the 

 bees of a colony carrying no pollen, or very 

 little pellets, when other colonies are carrying 

 in great loads of it. 



2. I do not quite see what your difficulty 

 is. The ventilation is just the same as at any 

 entrance, the sliding door merely making the 

 entrance larger or smaller. Not many bee- 

 keepers, probably, would want to take the 

 pains to be constantly changing the size of 

 the entrance. If they should, the old Lang- 

 stroth entrance-blocks are simpler. Merely 

 two triangular blocks, one side of each block 

 perhaps 3 inches, another side longer, and the 

 third side of such size that the two blocks 

 close the entrance all but half an inch. 



3. It is better, of course, to have the dead 

 bees cleaned out. With the usual shallow 

 entrance, and shallow space under bottom- 

 bars, it may be absolutely necessary ; for the 

 entrance, otherwise, may become entirely 

 clogged with dead bees. With a deeper space 

 under the bottom-bars, and entrance at the 

 upper part of the space, cleaning out the 

 dead bees is not so important. 



A Dozen Interesting Questions. 



1. I have 2 colonics of bees. I would like 

 to increase 3 or 3. Would you advise me 

 to make artificial swarms, or wait for natural 

 swarms? 



2. Can I do this and get a small crop of 

 honey, by using full sheets of foundation both 

 below and above? 



3. Does it pay to feed bees sugar syrup 

 before fruit-bloom ? 



4. Will bees work as well for a beginner 

 as an expert bee-keeper, if properly cared for? 



5. What is the average crop of honey from 

 a colony the first season ? 



6. If a bee-keeper's cost overruns the profit, 

 which is to be introduced — a new bee-keeper 

 or new queens? 



7. Is fruit-bloom a good time to make 

 artificial swarms? 



8. How far apart should a "shook" swarm 

 be set from the parent hive ? 



9. I have a nice hollow log that I would 

 like to put bee3 in for amusement. Is it 

 best to lay it down or stand it up? 



10. Would they be likely to work in a 

 super if set on the end ? 



11. If I run a swarm into another colony, 

 is there any certainty which queen will be 

 killed? 



12. Does it pay to buy queens for "shook" 

 swarms when you have good stock to rear 

 from? Virginia. 



Answers. — 1. If you have not had much 

 experience it may be as well for you to have 

 natural swarming. 



2. Yes, you ought to be able in a good 

 season to get quite a crop of honey if you 

 get a swarm from each colony and have no 

 afterswarms. 



3. Yes, if there is any danger of bees 

 running short of stores. 



4. Yes, with the same care there will be 

 no difference in results. 



5. I don't know. It may run anywhere 

 from nothing up to 200 pounds or more. 



6. It may be either way; it may be neither 

 way. The best bee-keeper with the best queen 

 may make a failure in a bad location or in 

 a bad year. 



7. No; it's better to wait till the usual 

 time for natural swarms. 



8. A shaken swarm is left on the old stand. 



9. Saw off square at each end and set it 

 on end. 



10. Yes. 



11. No. 



12. With shaken swarms there is generally 

 no change of queens, the old queen being left 

 with the bees. In general it does not pay 

 to buy queens, unless you expect to improve 

 your stock by it. Still, M. A. Gill, one of our 

 best bee-keepers thinks it pays him to buy 

 queens rather than to rear them. 



Moths in Combs — Banats or Gar- 

 ni olans? 



1. I have a few colonies of black bees in 

 movable-frame hives, and the moth- worms are 

 getting into some of them. If I should intro- 

 duce pure Italian blood of the 3-band type, 

 would it kill out and keep out the moth? 



2. How would the Banats or Carniolans be 

 for keeping out the moth, or would a cross be- 

 tween one of the above-named bees and the 

 Italians be better? California. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, even a little Italian blood 

 worked in will help to keep the moth at bay. 

 Even blacks will hold their own pretty well, 

 if strong, but Italians, even when quite weak, 

 will conquer the moth. 



3. I'm not sure about it, but I think either 

 of these bloods, or their cross with Italians, 

 would fight moths better than blacks. 



Profits on Bees and Chickens — When 

 White Clover Blooms. 



1. I own a J4 share in a farm valued at 

 $12,000. Do you think I could buy the rest 

 of it and pay out on 200 colonies of bees and 

 500 chickens? The rent of the place will pay 

 the interest and taxes. 



3. What time of the year does white clover 

 bloom in this State? Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. Doubtful. Of 

 course, however, one might clear $9,000 on 300 

 colonies of bees and 300 chickens, but he 

 would need to be pretty well up in bees and 

 ctnckens, and to live quite a few years. 



3. In the northern tier of counties it opens 

 its first blossoms in the last of May or first 

 of June, and earlier as you go south. 



Bees Deserting Their Own Hives. 



I had 32 colonies of bees, and I have lost 5 

 of them. They will swarm and come out of 

 their own hive and settle on the outside of some 

 of the other hives, and leave their own hive 

 empty, with lots of honey in them. When they 

 settle on the other hives, it causes them to 

 get into the fight and kill almost all of them. 

 What causes the bees to do this? 



Kentucky. 



Answers. — Bees sometimes seem to have a 

 mania for deserting their hives in spring and 

 trying to force their way into other hives, 

 and it isn't easy to say just why. Some think 

 because they are weak and discouraged. Some 

 think because they have started a lot of brood, 

 and then the old bees have died off so rapidly 

 that enough are not left to cover the brood. 

 In any cases the advice given is to have only 

 strong colonies in the fall. This is sound ad- 

 vice on general principles, even if there should 

 be some absconding the following spring in 

 spite of strong colonies. 



Controlling Swarming — What Ails the 

 Queen? 



1. I have about 10 good colonies of bees, 

 and have a word to say that might interest 

 some of the readers of the American Bee 

 Journal. It is that this year is the best 

 that ever has been known for honey unless it 

 changes very much before midsummer. I put 

 my first supers on Fe*)ruary 29, 1908 — the ear- 

 liest I ever knew that bees would store honey. 

 Today I put the second ones on some of the 



