American Hee Journal 



each year. Generally they are allowed to re- 

 turn to their hives. 



10. Although it may sound like advertis- 

 ing, I'm going to say that a man who can ask 

 questions so intelligently as you, is losing 

 by not reading "Forty Years among the Bees." 

 even if he has to crowd out some other read- 

 ing. Even if I tell in these columns from 

 time to time the very same things that are 

 in the book, you get them there in connected 

 fashion, and thus get a different impression 

 from that to be got in this chopped-up fashion, 

 and that little difference of impression might 

 sometimes make enough difference in results 

 to pay for several books. I'm not so sure, 

 thougn, that \ou'd have any fewer questions 

 to ask after reading the book. I suspect 

 it would pretty much take the poetry out of 

 bee-keeping if one should ever get so one 

 would have no questions to ask. For one, I'm 

 sure I don't expect to be without fresh ques- 

 tions—don't know that I want to be without 

 them. 



The Giant Bee of India. 



Do you tliink that the giant East Indian 

 honey-bee will ever be imported to this 

 country ? Indiana. 



Answer. — No; and I don't believe it would 

 be of any value if it were brought here. 

 Your other questions as to persons represented 

 in pictures of U. S. Bulletin No. 1, I cannot 

 answer. 



Concrete for Hive Bottoms. 



How about cijiicrete for hive-bottoms? I 

 am setting some of my hives on a block I make 

 for them right on the cool ground. Can they 

 be used for winter? Ii:,i,inois. 



ANSvvER.^They will probably work all 

 right for either summer or winter. Of course 

 it would seem as if concrete would give the 

 bees "cold feet" in winter; but then they 

 don't need to put their feet on the concrete. 



Bees Dying on Frames of Honey — 

 Candied Honey for Winter Stores. 



1. U hy do colonies of bees die wintered 

 outdoors well packed and clustered on frames 

 of honey, or with solid frames next to them? 



2. What causes honey to candy in a hive 

 inhabited by the bees ? 



3. Is such honey as good for winter stores 

 as that which is not candied? 



New York. 

 Answer. — 1. There may be various causes: 

 queenlessness and old age, too little ventila- 

 tion, diarrhea, etc. If you mean that the 

 solid frames of honey cause their death, I 

 doubt the correctness of that belief. 



2. Although special conditions may cause 

 candying, it is often due to the character of 

 the honey. Some honey candies very readily, 

 others scarcelv at all. 



3. No. 



Life of Queen — Swarming — Bee-Sting 

 Remedy. 



1. How long is the life of the average 

 queen ? 



2. When bees swarm, which leave the hive, 

 the young or old. and are they forced out by 

 the remaining swarm? 



3. Do bees find a home before they swarm? 



4. Can comb and honey be gathered from 

 the same flower? 



5. What is the best remedy for healing bee- 

 stings? 



Kansas. 

 ANSWER. — 1. Perhaps about 2 years, vary- 

 ing from a few weeks to 4 or 5 years. 



2. Bees of all ages are in the swarm, and 

 they go without any forcing. 



3. Often, and perhaps generally. 



4. Nectar and pollen are obtained from 

 flowers; the wax of comb is secreted by the 

 bees, just a little after the way in which the 

 cow secretes milk. 



5. Perhaps there is nothing better than com- 

 mon mud. 



Swarming with Virgin Queen — Not 

 Supersedure. 



Did you ever have a prime swarm issue 

 with a virgin queen while the old queen re- 

 mained in the hive? I have kept bees 30 years, 

 and never saw such freaks as this year. All 

 my queens are clipped, but a number have 

 swarmed and settled in trees while I have been 



down on my knees looking for the clipped 

 queen, which I could not find until I exam- 

 ined the hive, and there I found her. Mean- 

 time the swarm stayed in the trees until I 

 went after them. When I hived them there 

 was a virgin. These were all last year's 

 queens, so it was not svipersedure. I think 

 it is on account of the weather, about one clear 

 day in 10 so far. Other colonies that made 

 preparations to swarm waited till cells were 

 hatching. It is no use to depend on clipped 

 queens this year. 



Last year I had 12,000 pounds of honey. 

 This year I will not get a pound unless the 

 weather changes soon. New Jersey. 



Answer. — I'm not sure whether I have had 

 such an experience, but there is nothing im- 

 possible about it. If a queen is clipped the 

 swarm can not go with her, and you may pret- 

 ty safely count that in about S days from the 

 time the swarm issued the first time a virgin 

 will issue with a swarm. The only thing un- 

 usual in your case was that the old queen was 

 still there, for I think she is generally put out 

 of the way before the virgin issues with the 

 swarm. I don't see but what you can depend 

 on clipped queens this year as much as any 

 year, for clipping prevents the old queens go- 

 ing with the swarm this year, and that's all 

 it does any year. I'ut that's worth a big lot. 



Drones and Mating of Queens. 



Are you not a bit "off the track" in the first 

 part of your answer No. 5 to "New York," 

 on page 127, of the April number of the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal? Queens mate only once and 

 drones die on their honey-moon; how then 

 can either of them mate with their offspring? 



Or did you mean that a virgin queen that 

 has flown several times and by reas'on of 

 scarcity of drones in the neighborhood still 

 remains virgin, starts laying drone-eggs, and 

 waits till one of the drones reaches maturity — 

 no, no, it's not good enough, Doctor. 



British West Indies. 



Answer. — A bit off the track! That's let- 

 ting me down more than a bit too easy. Why, 

 it's a mile off the track. A queen's father is 

 dead before she is born, and she mates before 

 li:r first son is born, so there's no possible 

 chance for "the mating of parent and child." 

 My chagrin at making so bad a break is only 

 exceeded by my gratitude to Mr. John Ward 

 for calling attention to it. Perhaps it's a good 

 thing, however, to have my self-conceit taken 

 down a little. I was just beginning to think 

 tliat I was learning to answer questions pret- 

 ty well. Now I'll have to "go away back and 

 sit down." 



Managing Swarming. 



Will the plan that I have in my mind work 

 all right in regard to bees? If when the first, 

 or prime, swarm comes out and I should hive 

 it on the old stand, immediately put old colony 

 on a new stand, and if it should send out an 

 atterswarm, and I should again move the old 

 swarm to a new location and fasten them into 

 the hive until the brood all hatched, and then 

 unite them with the afters warm — would it be 

 all right to do so, or would they fight? Would 

 it be all rieht to fasten them in with wire- 

 screen over the entrance ? If so, how long 

 before the brood would be hatched? 



Maine. 



Answer. — I don't believe you would like the 

 plan at all. If you fasten the bees in the 

 hive for so long a time you will be likely to 

 find a lot of dead bees. 



Fastening Foundation — Getting Bees 

 to Work in Sections. 



1. How do you fasten super foundation in 

 sections? I followed the directions with the 

 fastener, spread honey along on the section, 

 and put about 3-10 of an inch of foundation 

 under the lever and mashed it flat, slid the 

 lever off the foundation, and there was but 

 little honey Sf|ueezed out the sides, but still 

 plenty under the foundation for glue. 



2. Is it that whole sheets were too heavy 

 to be fastened only at the top? It would hang 

 for a few days and then drop. 



3. What caused the foundation in the super 

 to warp? The sheets were 3 1-3 x 11 inches, 

 hung only from the top. Please do not under- 

 stand that the 11 -inch sheets were the only 

 ones to fall, for those in the sections fell, too, 

 but not so badly. 



4. Is there any way to get backward bees to 

 work in the super besides baiting them, and 



then maybe wait until they are forced to ? 

 That was always my luck. 



Missouri. 



Answer. — 1. Honey, if used at all in fasten- 

 ing foundation, is 'not to be used as glue to 

 make the foundation stick, but as a lubricant 

 to keep it from sticking. So there should be 

 no honey between the foundation and the sur- 

 face to which you wish to fasten the founda- 

 tion, but on the face of the wood that presses 

 upon the foundation, so that this face will read- 

 ily slide off the foundation. 



3. The sheets were not too heavy. The won- 

 der is that they would hang for a few days 

 when the honey was there to keep them from 

 holding on. 



3. Not sure I know just what you mean by 

 sheets warping. Perhaps it was that they let 

 go in part and fell over, which would be 

 caused by the honey. 



4. Yes, get them so strong that they'll be 

 glad to rush into the sections without any 

 bait; only they will enter the supers sooner 

 with baits. If you mean a way to make a 

 weak colony start work in a section that will 

 not begin on a bait ; there is no such way. 

 You may force them to go into the super 

 by putting some brood in it, but that will not 

 lorce them to store there if there is plenty 

 of room to store in the brood-chamber. 



Bees Bothered by Ants and Cock- 

 roaches. 



What can we do for cockroaches? They are 

 destroying our bees. Are red ants an enemy? 

 How can you get rid of them? Some of our 

 hives are full of ants. Ohio. 



Answer. — Cockroaches are disagreeable things 

 to have about the bees, but I didn't know that 

 they would destroy bees. I wonder if there 

 is not s line mistake about that. Ants are 

 also troublesome, but do no real harm unless 

 it be down Soutu where they sometimes destroy 

 whole colonies. For either roaches or ants the 

 best thing is to furnish no harbor for them 

 about a hive — no place where they can get that 

 bees can not eet. Years ago, when I used 

 quilts or sheets, ants and roaches found it 

 very convenient to have their nests over these 

 quilts, where they were "comfy" and warm, 

 and no bee could get at them. Since quilts 

 were discarded and flat covers used they do not 

 trouoie, except occasionally a nest in a hollow 

 cover. You can furnish them poison. Put it 

 between two little boards, one of them % inch 

 above the other, which will admit the pests but 

 not the bees. 



Buying Queens for Increase. 



For a bee-keeper having 30 colonies, and in- 

 tending to increase to 40 by fall, what queen 

 or queens would "you" buy from the following 

 table of prices, to get a good breeder, not looks 

 but honey being the object sought? Table of 

 prices: 



Untested, one for $1.00, 3 for $2.50, 12 for 

 $9.00; tested, one for $2.00, 3 for $5.00, 12 for 

 $18.00; tested, last year's rearing, $2.50; select 

 breeding, $5.00; extra-select breeding, $10.00. 



Missouri. 



Answer. — I'm not sure that I know what is 

 best, but if I were this minute choosing for 

 myself I would take the dozen of untested. 

 That's on the supposition that the breeder was 

 well surrounded with pure drones. 



Granulated Combs — Swarming Indica- 

 tions. 



1. What can I do with combs that have honey 

 partly granulated? Some frames are all gran- 

 ulated. It seems to be sour in parts of the 

 frame. These are frames that the bees have 

 died on the past winter, and were all cleaned 

 of bees that were loose on the combs. The 

 hive was cleaned out to hive swarms on, 

 and stored in the attic since April 15, 1909. 

 A number of the frames have bees in the cells 

 that crawled in to get the honey and died 

 here, which do not come out readily, so I 

 think they help to make the combs smell bad. 

 Is it safe to hive swarms on these combs? 

 Will they accept them in this condition ? and 

 will not these granulated combs be a waste, 

 or will the bees make it (the granulated 

 honey) into liquid honey to be used again ? 

 I have 18 hives in this condition. 



2. Do you glue your one-pound sections, or 

 do any other bee-keepers that you know of? 

 Will they stand shipment as well without glu- 

 ing? Are there any gluing machines on the 

 market that one can get, that will pay ? If 

 so, where? 



