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21! 



[American Hee Journal 



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back into the hives. I gave them a super 

 and they have gone to work. Would you 

 advise me to rear queens from this one, or 

 buy full-blooded ones? Of course the queens 

 I would rear from this one would be only 

 hall-breeds, as they would mate with drones 

 that they chanced to meet. Virginia. 



Answers. — 1. At the risk of being accused 

 of getting in an advertisement here, I cannot 

 help wishing you had got a copy of my book 

 Forty Years Among the Bees," and followed 

 the plan there given. Still, on page 551 of 

 the number you mention is a succinct state- 

 ment of the plan, which I advise you to 

 follow. The plan you outline may work out 

 all right, but the plan I give is, I think, 

 simpler, and i suspect you will be more sue- 

 csssful with it. There is a point, however, 

 that should be mentioned. You are told to 

 give a frame with one or two small starters 

 to your bist queen, in order to get a frame 

 of virgin comb with eggs and young brood to 

 be used to get good queen-cells. If your best 

 queen is in a strong colony it is likely that a 

 large part of the comb built will be drone- 

 comb, possibly all drone-comb, and you can 

 rear good queens from drone-comb. To make 

 sure of worker-brood, let the frame be filled 

 with worker- foundation. A better way, how- 

 ever, is to keep your best queen not in a 

 strong colony, but a colony or nucleus having 

 only 2 or 3 frames of brood. Then the bees 

 will build all worker-comb with small starters. 

 Another reason I keep my best in a weak 

 colony is that she may live as long as possi- 

 ble, for in a strong colony she will wear out 

 sooner than in a nucleus. My best queen, 

 so far as I now know, was reared in 1906, 

 and her colony will not be expected to pro- 

 duce any honey this year, for I want her to 

 live till next year if she will be so obliging. 

 Of course, 1 may not want to use her another 

 year, for I may happen to have a better queen 

 then. 



2. It will be perhaps just as yell to rear 

 queens from the Caucasian queen you have, 

 for even if you get all pure queens you will 

 have mixed stock in a year or so. Then if 

 you decide you want to keep the Caucasian 

 stock you can get a new queen another year. 

 It may be well for you not to be in too 

 great haste about deciding as to the merits of 

 Caucasians, so long as views regarding them 

 arc so conflicting. 



Getting Straight Combs. 



How do you get straight combs built? 

 Last year I used full sheets of foundation. 

 The frames were wired with 4 horizontal 

 wires. Almost every one "buckled" between 

 the wires, and they arc a bad lot of combs. 



Kaxsas. 



Answer. — I wonder if you didn't depend 

 entirely on the wires. The foundation should 

 be fastened securely to . the top-bar, either 

 by means of the kerf and wedge, or what 

 some think better in a very dry climate, wax- 

 ing the foundation to the top-bar, that is, 

 running melted wax along the edge of the 

 foundation on the top-bar. But you will 

 probably have less sagging of foundation if 

 you use foundation splints that have been 

 heretofore described in these columns, as 

 well as in the book "Forty Years .\mong 

 the Bees." 



Porter Bee-Escapes — Killing Bees in 

 Manipulating — Honey from Box- 

 Hives Into Sections. 



1. Will queens and drones pass easily 

 through the Porter bee-escape? 



2. I)ocs the Porter bee-escape often get 

 clogged up with bees trying to carry out dead 

 bees, larvae, etc. ? 



3. I can not yet avoid killing from one to 

 12 or more bees at each opening and closing 

 of hives. About what is the average number 

 of bees killed at each manipulation by tlie av- 

 erage experienced bee-keeper with say 100 col- 

 onies? 



4. What is the color of locust honey? 



5. On a Friday 2 swarms cam:: out to- 

 gether and formed one cluster. I prepared 

 2 hives and put a frame of eggs in each. 

 I divided the cluster between thos:- 2 hives 

 and each got a queen the following Sunday 

 morning. The bees in one of the hives 

 dragged out the queen nearly dead. I res- 

 cued her, and whilst in my hand she deposited 

 an egg, so she was the old queen (one of the 

 Awarms was an aftcrswarm). The swarm then 

 started queen-cells. Why was the queen 

 killed after she had been with the swarm 

 two days? 



G. Js there any plan whcrchy the bees can 



be induced to transfer the honey out of a 

 box-hive into sections? California. 



Answers. — 1. Yes; although not quite so 

 easily as workers. 



2. Yes, although there is not much chance 

 for it. Dead bees are not likely to be in 

 supers, neither is brood often present. 



3. Not easy to say. By being very careful 

 one might manipulate 100 colonies without 

 killing a bee. But it hardly pays to go so 

 slow as that. Perhaps 100 bees would be 

 killed in the whole lot. But that's only 

 guessing. 



4. I don't know. 



5. It is not so very uncommon to find bees 

 hostile to a queen and yet not actually kill 

 her for 2 days, or even a week. 



6. I think some have claimed to succeed 

 by setting the hive over the sections until 

 well occupied with bees, and then setting the 

 box-hive away some distance with the entrance 

 large enough for only one bee at a time. I 

 never made a great success at it. 



Sweet Clover Not White Clover. 



In reading American papers. I observe fre- 

 quent references to sweet clover as a plant 

 for bee-pasturage. Is it the same as white 

 clover (trifolium repens perenne) which is 

 the staple bee-pasturage here during the sum- 

 mer months. New Zealand. 



.'\nswer. — Oh, no, it's an entirely different 

 thing, growing sometimes to the height of 8 

 or b feet, although 3 or 4 feet is a more 

 common growth. The most common sweet 

 clover is melilotus alba. It is a biennial, 

 coming from the seed one year, blossoming 

 the next, and then dying root and branch. 

 I don't know how much more nectar an acre 

 of sweet clover would yield than an acre of 

 white clover, but should guess at least 5 times 

 as much. Even if bees have all they can do 

 on wliite clover, sweet clover is valuable, he- 

 cause while it begins bloom later than white 

 clover it conjlinues much later, even till 

 frost. 



There is a yellow sweet clover which blooms 

 3 weeks earlier than the white. Sweet clover 

 will grow where scarcely anything else will, 

 as in a clay bank. It seems to flourish best, 

 (T at least to start from the seed best, oi» 

 hard ground trodden by farm stock. 



Queen- Cell Cups and Swarming — 

 Washing the Extractor — Smok- 

 ing Bees. 



J. In manipulating my colunies this spring, 

 swarming has received more than usual at- 

 tention, and this question has presented it- 

 self quite often: Does the presence of queen- 

 cell cups without eggs or brood always in- 

 dicate a desire to swarm? 



2. How long may an extractor remain with- 

 out washing? That is, how long may the ex- 

 tract in gs be apart without injuring anything. 

 • 3. In Cleanings, jiagc 250, E. D. Town- 

 s^nd says that when tlie bees get stirred up 

 and a good many of tlicm in the air, "we 

 alternate between smriking the bees in the 

 sir and those in the hive until most of the 

 flying ones have settled down." Now. how 

 does he smoke the bees in the air? It seems 

 to me one might smoke (juitc a little while 

 without getting much results. Do you smoke 

 those in the air? California. 



Answer. — 1. No. 



2. I don't know. I think in some cases 

 harm might be done by leaving an extractor 

 daubed for 24 hours. I know that in some 

 cases a week or more will do no harm. Per- 

 haps the kind of honey or the condition of 

 the atmosphere makes a difference. 



3. Yes, I've- smoked bees in the air. When 

 a cloud of cross bets surrounds you, charge 

 upon them with a heavy smoke, and you 

 will find it heljis. 



Swarm Management — Best Bee- 

 Book — Georgia for Bees, Etc. 



J. This is my \>]:m. Am I right or wrong? 

 I have 12 hox-hivts. 1 am going to let them 

 swarm naturally and put the new swarms in 

 dovetailed hives (Sframe), and run for comb 

 honey. I am going to keep the box-hives to 

 supply mc with swarms, and do all I can to 

 prevent the colonies in the frame-hives from 

 swarming. 



2. One of my box-hive colonics died and 

 I cut out some of the nice combs and stuck 

 them in the frames of one of the new hives, 

 thinking I would give the first swarm a good 

 start and soon have a super of fine honey. 



The first swarm came out April 15. and it was 

 a large one. I think there must have been 

 a peck of bees in that swarm. I was over- 

 joyed. So I set about and quickly had them, 

 hived; hut alas, my precious bees spent just 

 3 hums with me, when thsy came bulging 

 out. I threw sand, beat pans, but nothing 

 on earth could stop the onward rush of those 

 absconding bees. So I said. "So long," and 

 le: them go their way. I had plenty of 

 foundation, but I thought the combs would 

 be better. I examined the hive after they 

 left and found that they had torn down every 

 piece of comb. Please show me my mistake. 



3. \\'ill 2-inch strips of nice combs in the 

 super answer as well as foundation? What 

 is the best method of sticking them in? 



4. Are supers ever left on the hives in 

 the winter? 



'). I notice in some of my hives that u or 

 G bees get in the hive-entrance and seem to 

 stand on their heads and make a buzzing 

 noise, and they won't move for anything. 

 The bees can run right over them but they are 

 stuck right there, and keep on buzzing. What 

 makes them do that? and what does it mean? 



6. What bee-book would be best for me 

 (a beginner) to get? 



7. Do you consider middle Georgia a good 

 place to keep bees for profit ? We have no 

 clover, but we have about everything else. 

 The season opens here the first of April, 

 and lasts until the first of September. 



5. By using a one-inch strip of foundation in 

 the brood-chamber and supers, should I ex- 

 pect to get one filled super from each new 

 swarm? Georgia. 



Answ'ERS. — ]. Your plan is all right. If 

 you desire to have only one swarm from each 

 colony, getting honey rather than increase, 

 set the swarm on the stand of the mother 

 colony with the latter close beside the swarm; 

 and then a week later move the old hive to 

 a new place. 



2. Vou were right in thinking the swarms- 

 would like good combs better than founda- 

 tion. If you had given them clean combs 

 well fastened in the frames the result might 

 have been very different. The likelihood is 

 that the combs were not fastened in the 

 frames very well, and that ^'ou didn't give 

 the bees as much air as they ought to have 

 had. The swarms being strong, there was 

 much heat in the hive, the combs tumbled 

 down, and the bees decided they would leave 

 such ati uncertain habitation. 



3. ^'es. Have a dish of melted wax; dip- 

 one edge of the comb in the wax, and then 

 stick it where you want it to stay. 



4. Yes, but you should never leave a super 

 of sections on after the harvest has closed. 

 They will be darkened by the bees. 



5. Those bees are ventilating, and you can't 

 do anything for them. 



G. '"Root's A B C and X Y Z of Bee- 

 Culture," Dadant's "Langstroth on the Honey- 

 Bee," and Cook's "Bee-Keeper's Guide," all 

 arc good. 



7. Some bce-kecpcrs do very well in 

 Georgia. 



S. In a good season you might do better 

 than that if you do as directed in Answer 1. 



Brood Killed by Heat. 



In answering my question in the Ameridan 

 Bee Journal you askea me if I had ever known 

 bees to allow the inside of a hive to become 

 hot enough to kill the brood. I have. It was 

 the middle of last July. The hives (3 in all) 

 were double- walled ones, 2 stories high, and 

 painted a walnut color. I was trying to in- 

 troduce a queen to one of the colonies, and 

 the hive got hot enough inside not only to kill 

 a good bit of the brood, but it also killed the 

 queen and her escort bees. It also drove nearly 

 all the other bees outside the hive./ I opened 

 the hive at noon on this particular day to see 

 how the queen was. I found nealy all her 

 escort bees dead, and herself nearly so. She 

 died before night. I took some of the combs 

 out to sec how things were inside the hive. 

 As I lifted one comb out I saw young larv?e 

 leave the bottom of the cells, and travel as fast 

 as they could for the entrance to the cells. 

 Some came clear out, while others came only 

 part way out. Some of those that remained 

 in the bottom of the cells died, as well as 

 those that came part way out. And more or 

 less of that which was sealed over was also 

 killed. The bees did not remove a good ^liarc 

 of the dead brood before it rotted. It was 

 rotten or nearly so, by the next afternoon, 

 and the bees refused to touch the nasty stuff. 

 They dried up to nothing but dark spot: . 

 some on the bottom, the sides, and some in the 

 bottom of the cells. I had never had a case of 

 foul brood, and knew nothing about it excepl 



