274 



August, 1909. 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or to 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Marengro. III. 



Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Late Swarms. 



1. I have a colony of bees that have a bug 

 similar to a roach. They run so fast that it 

 is impossible to kill them. I have them in an 

 old box-hive that is partly rotted. Is this the 

 cause.'' \Vhat is the insect? 



2. Should my late swarms not have enough 

 stores for the winter, would it be a good idea 

 to take a couple of frames from the others and 

 put in them? ana shoulu i take them from the 

 ctrnter or outside of the hive? Indiana. 



Answers. — i. I don't know, but I don't be- 

 lieve it's anything you need feel uneasy about. 



2. Ves; take them wherever you can find 

 those that contain the most honey, and that 

 will generally be toward the side. But don't 

 rob Peter to pay Paul. Better let the weak 

 ones starve than the strong ones. 



Extracting Granulated Honey. 



I am a beginner in liee-keeping. We have 

 had a lot of honey-dew here. I have a lot of 

 extracting supers on, and fuh. It is partly 

 capped, and half of the honey in the cells is 

 candied so that we can not extract it out. How 

 can we get it out and save the combs? 



Illinois. 



Answer. — Set the combs out where the bees 

 can rob out the honey. When there is nothing 

 left but the candied part, spray the combs with 

 water, preferabiv hot. and spray again as often 

 as the bees clean the combs out dry. That 

 looks easy, but the trouble is that you must not 

 do this at a time when the honey would be 

 stored as surplus, and also when it would not 

 be stored as winter stores, for honey-dew is 

 not generally good for wintering. That leaves 

 the best time in the early season when the bees 

 can use up the honey in rearing brood. 



Transferring in Winter — Price of Bees 

 in Box-Hives. 



1. Could I transfer bees from box-hives to 

 the dovetailed hives in the winter if I did the 

 work in a warm room and transferred comb and 

 stores? I can not do it now as I am too busy. 



2. What is a fair price for bees in box-hives, 

 on an average? Some will be strong, some 

 weak. ,, 



I have your "Forty Years Among the Bees, 

 and think it great. West Virginia. 



Answers. — 1. Don't think of such a thing. 

 Beiore you were half through the job you'd 

 wish you never had seen a bee, and besides the 

 work ought to be done at a time when bees 

 are busy at work so as to patch up matters all 

 right. A colony transferred in winter would 

 be that much surer of being a dead colony be- 

 fore spring. 



2. There is no rule about it. There may be 

 places where the "rice would be $5.00, and 

 others where they could be had for a dollar 

 apiece. A colony in a box-hive ought to be 

 as much less than one in a movable-frame hive 

 as the cost of the latter hive and also enough 

 to pay for transferring. 



Swarm Troubles — Honey-Dew. 



1. I could only get one swarm last year. 

 The swarm issued Tune 26. and went up into 

 a fork of a big limb. I brushed them off the 

 best I could and brought them down. They 

 went into the hive fine — all but a few. They 

 kent Roine up the tree, and I broueht them 

 down 4 times; finally thev all went back and 

 bft in 2 minutes. T would like to know how- 

 to -••event them from going up into the tree, 

 t hear of a good many bee-keepers having the 

 same trouble, and a creat many bees going off 

 without alightinc at all. How can I make them 

 settle? 



:?. The bees are all storing dark honey, and 

 it has a strong tiavor. No one seems to know 

 what causes it, as we have lots of white clover, 

 and also lots of rain. Missouri. 



Answers. — 1. I don't think you need any- 

 thing to make them settle. They always settle, 

 even if it is up on a high tree. The thing 

 is to make them stay settled after you have 

 settled them in a hive. A swarm is always in 

 an excited condition and produces a great deal 

 of heat. Put it in a hive closely covered and 

 with a small entrance and set the hive out in 

 the broiling sun with nothing to shade it, and 

 in their excited condition the bees find it quite 

 too hot a place for them, and wisely conclude 

 to leave, even if you put them back several 

 times. So, if you want them to stay, the thing 

 for you to do is just the reverse of what has 

 been mentioned — do everything you can to 

 keep them cool. Leave the cover partly. off — 

 an open space of at least half an inch, and an 

 inch may be better — a big entrance below or 

 the hive raised on biocKS, and the hive shaded 

 in some way, if only by an armful of long 

 arass held down by 2 or 3 sticks of stove-wood, 

 ui course, after the bees have got well es- 

 tablished, say a weeK or less, there is no longer 

 need of having things so open. Another thing 

 that will make the bees stay, which is perhaps 

 better than all other things combined, is to 

 cive the sw^arm a frame of brood. The bees 

 feel then that they have too much of a start in 

 housekeeping to desert. 



2. The trouble may be honey-dew, and there 

 is no remedy, unless it be to take off all surplus 

 arrangements at the beginning anu end of the 

 honey-dew flow. Indeed it is the same if the 

 dark honey comes from any other source. 



Laying Workers — Rearing Queens. 



As I am practising queen-rearing this season, 

 I have a few questions that I would like to 

 ask you. 



1. What would be the proper step to make 

 in a queen-rearing colony that has a laying 

 worker, as they show a tendency not to take 

 care of the queen-cells? 



2. How does it come about that a black queen 

 with yellow legs can be reared from a pure 

 Italian colony? 



3. When you rear queens, do you get as 

 good queens from the cells as from a colony 

 that has reared its own queen by swarming? 



Iowa. 

 Answers. — 1. Generally the best thing to 

 do with a colony that has laying workers is to 

 break it up. But you can swap its frames with 

 adhering bees for frames in a queennght col- 

 ony or colonies. 



2. Can she? I'm afraid there's some mistake 

 about it. 



3. Yes, if the cells are reared in strong col- 

 onies during a good flow. 



Transferred Colony — Drone-Trap. 



1. I am a beginner. lust today I took a 

 colony of bees out of a grocery box and put 

 them into a frame hive. I put in nearly all of 

 the brood, which was a whole lot. I fastened 

 it in with copper wire. It almost filled the 

 hive. Will they swarm in 8 days ? 



2. I also have a drone-trap or swarm guard. 

 I don't have any success with it. How should 

 I use it, and why should 1 catch the drones? 



Nebr.\ska. 



Answers. — 1. The fact of the bees having 

 been transferred has nothing to do with their 

 swarming, unless it be that the demoralization 

 caused thereby may act somewhat as a hind- 

 rance to swarming. The bees will swarm exactly 

 when they would have swarmed if they had 

 not been transferred, or they may be hindered 

 until a few days later, or hindered altogether. 



2. A drone-trap attached to the entrance 



c:tches the drones as they attempt to leave 

 tiie hive, w^hen you can maltreat them in any 

 v/ay you wish. The intention generally is thus 

 lo suppress the drones of the poorer colonies 

 leaving til:; chances in favor of having your 

 virgin queens fertilized by drones from your 

 btst colonies. In the same way you may catch 

 tlie aueen of an issuing swarm, should one 

 issue wh;n vou are not present, thus preventing 

 tne swarm from going oft" with the queen, and. 

 allowing you to remove the brood and leave the 

 -^wa^m with the queen. But this does not settle 

 matters, for the bees may go on swarming so 

 joiiy as the queen is with them, and w^hen a 

 young queen emerges from her cell the bees 

 will swarm again, and if the young queen is 

 prevented from eoin^^ out with a swarm she 

 will also be ore vented from going out to be 

 fertilized, and then if she lays at ail slie will 

 be a drone-layer. 



Getting Started with Bees. 



I liave 3 colonies of yellow bees and one 

 black colony, and they are all young swarms, 

 lliey haven't much honey. 1 have frame-hives. 

 Can I increase ? and would I have to "et an 

 Italian queen to do so? what kind of a hive 

 would I have to have? Texas. 



Answer. — Depends upon circumstances. As 

 they are swarms, and not old colonies, it is a 

 little doubtful if vou ought to think of increase 

 this year, btui it is possible if the season is 

 very good, and 11 ttie swarms are strong. Vou 

 would get along a little faster to get a queen, 

 but still the bees could rear their own queen. 

 If the frame-hives you have are of a good kind, 

 you better use the same kind for your increase. 



It wii. be dollars in your pocket if you get 

 a good bee-book. 



An Escaped Queen. 



I received a queen by mail, and used the 

 cage for introducing her that she came in. At 

 the end of 46 hours, having time and being 

 very anxious, I looked into the hive to see 

 about it. The bees had not yet liberatea her. 

 1 thought from their actions that they were 

 going to accent ner readily, so I began to ooen 

 the cage. I hardly began until out she came 

 and flew away. vVhat is likely to oecome of 

 her? should 1 have gone into the house to 

 open the cage and secured the queen in my 

 fingers before introducing her? Missouri. 



Answer. — She would be somewhat likely to 

 fly back to the hive where she had been, but 

 still there are a good many unpleasant chances 

 in a hundred that she may have been lost. 

 Even if she flew back to the hive, there re- 

 mains the ciiance that the bees might not re- 

 ceive her kindly. Vou should not have taken 

 her out of the cage at all, neither in the house 

 nor outdoors. Give the bees time to eat out 

 the candy, and if you think best to hurry 

 matters at all, dig out a little of the canu'- • 

 but 46 liours is not a long time, and the queen 

 will be more kindly received if she walks out 

 of the cage while it is in the hive, and the hive 

 nnt disturbed bv you. 



Queen Questions — Comb Honey Pro- 

 duction — Swarming. 



1. I have 2 colonies of bees, both very 

 strong. On May 19, I divided colony No. 1, 

 as described on page 27 of "A B C of Bee- 

 Culture." On May 24, I examined them, and 

 found 4 unsealed and 3 sealed queen-cells. I 

 immediately separated them, but the old col- 

 ony on the new stand seemed totally inactive, 

 and the new one on the old stand, deficient 

 in bees. Would you leave them apart and 

 allow the queen-cells in the old hive hatch 

 out? My other colony has also several sealed 

 cells which I would like to preserve, as they 

 are unusually large. How would it do to 

 give colony No. 1 one of these celts? 



2. I do not quite understand what is meant 

 by a "ripe queen-cell." How do you distin- 

 guish a cell that has j ust been sealed up 

 from one that is about to hatch? Do they not 

 look precisely alike ? 



3. My queens' wings are clipped. Would it 

 be better to allow one cell to hatch and the 

 colony to swarm, then destroy the old queen 

 and put the swarm back, letting them have the 

 young queen ? Or would you advise cutting 

 out all the queen-cells^ How would either 

 plan affect the amount of surplus? 



4. I have often been told that the average 

 colony will store almost three times as much 

 honey if one runs for extracted honey than 

 in s-'Ctions. Are vou of the same opinion ? 



5. It seems to be difficult to get the bees 

 started in the sections. From about 10 a. m. 

 to 3 p. m., there are quite a few (probably a 

 scant quart) in the supers, but they have not 



