July, 1909. 



American M^ Journal 



too many queenless colonies in the spring. 



2. Naturally it seems that a queen-excluder 

 ought to hinder the bees greatly in their 

 work. But in actual practice I don't believe 

 you will find that it makes any perceptible 

 difference. 



3. Ves, all of that will work if you don t 

 wait too late to reduce the brood-chamber to a 

 single story. Better do it before the bees 

 stoD all gathering. 



4. Yes, only you must be sure there is noth- 

 ing in the way of eggs or larvae of the bee- 

 moth present before shutting in the combs. 

 If you take a comb directly from the bees and 

 shut it up air-tight, very likely you may find 

 within 2 weeks worms from eggs that had been 

 present. If you fumigate these with carbon 

 bisulphide or sulphur, repeating it perhaps 2 

 weeks later, you may then count your combs 

 safe in close confinement. There would be no 

 mold in the place you mention. 



Strengthening a Weak Colony. 



I have a colony that is very weak, but 

 they have a queen. How can I introduce some 

 Italian bees without killing the queen? Rob- 

 ber-bees are very bad. Indiana. 



Answer. — Something depends upon how 

 weak the bees are. If there are enough to 

 cover one or more frames of brood, the safest 

 way to strengthen them is to exchange their 

 brood for another frame or other frames that 

 are more mature, say with sealed brood nearly 

 ready to emerge. The quickest way is to 

 give bees. Queenless bees are safer than oth- 

 ers, and the younger the better. If you shut 

 up bees in a dark cellar for a day or so, 

 they may be given. If you give few enough 

 bees at a time there will be little trouble, only 

 old bees given directly from another colony 

 will not stay. You can give to the extent of a 

 fourth of the number of bees on hand, and 

 then add more the next day or days. You 

 may shake bees on the ground in front of the 

 hive, and let them run in. Do this late enough 

 in the day so that robbers will not trouble, 

 but early enough so the old bees will fly back 

 to their home. 



seem to have no drones in the hive. Will the 

 other colony have some drones? Which colony 

 do you think the queen is in? Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, indeed. So long as there 

 is a good harvest a colony may keep 10 times 

 as many as thev need. 



2. Some think it best to try to keep them 

 down altogether, except in one or more of the 

 best colonies. I think G. M. Doolittle allows 

 to each colony what drones they can rear in a 

 square inch of drone-comb. 



3. Yes. better than with a queen. 



4. The one that is carrying out its drone- 

 brood. 



Putting Bees on Starters. 



I find dead larva in two of my colonies 

 that have comb-honey supers on the hives. 

 I intend to put the bees on starters. They 

 have not worked any yet in the supers. Will 

 this be all right? Illinois. 



Answer. — It will be a good thing if there 

 is foul brood or black brood present, but it 

 will not be necessary if it is only a case of 

 starved brood. Wm. McEvoy says there are 

 many cases of starved brood that are taken 

 for foul brood, the brood being sometimes 

 starved with honey in the hive, but not un- 

 sealed or close to the brood-nest. 



Keeping Queens till Sold or Used. 



In rearing queens according to the method 

 given on page 198 of the June American 

 Bee Journal, under the heading, "Getting Many 

 Queen-Cells." when these queens hatch out, 

 say 5 or 10 of them, what do you do with 

 them till you get ready to sell or give them to 

 other colonies? Tennessee. 



Answer. — You can not wait till "5 or 10 

 ot them" hatch out, nor till one hatches out. 

 For as soon as the first one hatches out, she 

 will bite into the cradles of her younger sis- 

 ters and murder them. So you must put the 

 cells in a nursery before it is time for the 

 young queens to hatch, or else put each cell 

 in a separate nucleus. In a nursery, which is 

 merely a set of cages to contain the cells or 

 virgin queens, a young queen may oe kept a 

 number of days, at least a week or two, and in 

 a nucleus indefinitely. 



Some Drone Questions. 



1. Will a colony of bL-t-s keep more drones 

 than they need? Some say that the work- 

 ers will kill them off if there are too many. 



2. About how many drones should there 

 be in a healthy colony? 



3. Will drones stay with a colony of bees 

 without a queen? 



4. I had a very strong colony this spring, 

 so I put an empty hive-body under them when 

 they commenced work well. About a week ago 

 I set the top hive on a new stand. Yesterday 

 I was looking at them. The one that I set on 

 a new stand has been carrying out some brood. 

 The most of it seems to be drone-brood. They 



op($aitd 



i 



Clovers Yielding Nectar. 



We have had three days of good honey- 

 now, but now it is raining. Red and alsike 

 clover are in full bloom, and seem to be 

 vielding well. H. G. Quirin. 



Bellevue. Ohio, June 22. 



White Clover Light. 



Bees have done very little so far. White 

 clover is very light, and only beginning to 

 produce nectar. There has been almost no 

 swarming as yet. L. C. Taylor. 



Gibsonburg, Ohio, June 26. 



Clover and Basswood Prospects. 



The clover prospects at this date are as 

 follows: White clover, not much; alsike clover, 

 one-fourth crop. 



Basswood trees are all full of buds. 



N. E. France. 



Platteville, Wis.. June 24. 



Cold and Backward Spring. 



Bees have not done much so far this sea- 

 son on account of the cold, backward spring, 

 and, recently, too much rain; but the weather 

 is settled somewhat now, and the bees are 

 getting very busy. W. L. Powell. 



Arkansas City, Kans., June 9. 



Season Late for Bees. 



The season is late for bees, but they are 

 ready for clover now, which is just begin- 

 ning to show in protected places. We have 

 haid lots of rain, and the honey prosnect is 

 good. There have been no swarms yet. 



T. F. Bingham. 



Farwell, Mich.. June 17. 



seemed to yield a large amount of nectar. Bees 

 are now storing a very dark and altogether un- 

 desirable grade of honey. However, the bass- 

 woods are loaded full of buds and those of us 

 who are fortunate enough to have our colonies 

 in the right condition when the buds open, may 

 secure a light crop of basswood honey. There 

 is no clover to sjieak of in this section this 

 season, although the conditions are all right 

 for the young clover, and perhaps next year 

 will be another good year for bee-Keepers. 



Mr. Pryal's letter in the June issue, was 

 especially interesting. I imagine he got con- 

 siderably interested himself when those swarms 

 came out so fast that hot day. Well, I am 

 glad he came out first best. 



Bees are swarming here now, but so far the 

 swarms have been one at a time. 



Cromwell, Ind., June 17. E. H. Upson. 



Bees on Verge of Starvation. 



The cold still continues here, and though 

 some of the best colonies are getting enough 

 nectar to keep them in fine condition, many 

 of the mediocre colonies are on the verge of 

 starvation, and are not building up well at 

 all. I\ot a few colonies are killing off tneir 

 drones. Fruit-bloom was the most abundant 

 for years, but the bees were unable to get 

 honey from it. All-in Lath.\m. 



Norwichtown, Conn.. May 31. 



Beginning to Swarm. 



Bees are doing well now and beginning to 

 swarm, but I never saw so bad a spring as 

 this. Clover prospects are good so far as I 

 can see — ditto basswood. All we lack is 

 plenty of warm sunshine. C. A. Hatch. 



Richland Center, Wis. 



No Super-Work Done. 



There is very little clover yet and no work 

 done in the supers — not 2 ounces of honey in 

 the brood-chamber in some hives. Bees get 

 along by hand-to-mouth existence so far. Pros- 

 pects are not very good yet. Swarming has 

 begun, but the bees in most of the hives in my 

 yard are running the drones out as if it were 

 September. John Egenes. 



htory City, Iowa, June 10. 



Backward Conditions. 



In looking through the American Bee Jour- 

 nal for June, I notice from reports that about 

 the same conditions existed in other parts of 

 the country that we had here — cold and back- 

 ward, and bees much inclined to rob. We had 

 good weather and a profuse fruit-bloom during 

 apple-bloom, and from that time (about May 

 10) bees have been building up nicely. There 

 has been an unusually large amount of dande- 

 lion, and the tulip trees were full of bloom and 



Bees and Farming. 



The bees are in very poor condition working 

 on the fruit-bloom. I find it profitable to 

 run an apiary in connection with an 120-acre 

 farm. While the bees are often left to look 

 after themselves more than they ought to 

 be. yet they will return more i)rofit for the 

 time and money expended on them than any- 

 thing else I ha.ve. J. W. Sadler. 



Ottosen. Iowa, .May 27. 



White Clover Fine. 



We are having lots of rain, and the white 

 clover is coming on fine. If we have the right 

 conditions at blooming time, we shall have some 

 honey. A. D. Shepard. 



River Falls, Wis.. June 7. 



Slim Prospect for Honey. 



Our prospect for a honey crop is very slim 

 at present writing. White clover is almost all 

 killed. What is alive is not yielding honey. 

 Sweet clover is about 10 days off, and is liable 

 to be mown down as soon as in bloom. TBe 

 weather is too uncertain for queen-rearing. I 

 have been trying it on a small scale, but lost 

 18 out of 21 by getting chilled; but, like all 

 other bee-keepers, will keep on trying, hoping 

 for better luck next time. 



San Jose, 111., June 19. Fred Tyler. 



An Experience with Bees. 



I have had considerable experience with bees 

 when at home with my father several years 

 ago, and some experience just a few years ago 

 in Kansas. 



Last July — the last day — I got some bees of 

 a party for helping him change a colony from 

 a badly worn and moth-eaten hive. I got about 

 one-third of the colony, left him the queen, 

 and brought my bees home in a nice, new, clean 

 hive with 4 frames of comb, honey and con- 

 siderable brood and eggs. In 3 weeks I had a 

 fine queen. This was then late in August. I 

 kept them through the winter in nice shape 

 and now they are getting very strong and doing 

 fine. 



On May 5, I secured 3 colonies from another 

 party. And of all the pranks among bees, 

 some of them have been cutting them sure 

 enough. 



My strongest colony I thought I would sim-" 

 ply divide, so I sent for a queen, expecting 

 her the second day after I divided, but in- 

 stead of that she was a week getting here. I 

 introduced her in the cage for 2 days and 3 

 nights, then released her. The bees would not 

 have her, but did not kill her, and meantime, 

 robbers broke in and were in greater numbers 

 than the bees that belonged in the hive, riav- 

 ing now but little brood in the hive, I took 

 from my old colony that I had wintered a good 

 full frame of brood and honey, made a cage 

 about 5 inches square and caged the queen on 

 the brood and honey, closed the entrance of 

 the hive with a piece of screen and kept the 

 roDbers and all in the hive for 2^ days, throw- 



