American ^ee Journal 



October, 1909. 



loose, they are sulky and sting every one 

 who comes near. How can this be remedied? 



4. What do you think of this? The col on v 

 which stored 8 pounds of honey thus far 

 han^s out a great deal. Several days agro 

 they hangout all day while it rained, and a 

 great number were drowned. What is the 

 cause of this? 



5. When can I tell the ti.me to take off 

 honey? It looks capped over at the top. and 

 yet it is uncapped at the bottom. This made 

 me make the mistake I did with the colony 

 that did not swarm. 



6. What do you think of my work so far? 

 [ think it is poor, but I do not intend to give 

 up. New Jersey. 



Answers.— I. There was nothing unusual. 

 During that 2 weeks no honey was coming in. 

 and the bees carried down into the brood- 

 chamber the honey that was in the super. 



2. It is not likely that you killed any bees, 

 and certainly there are none dead in the 

 hive, for the bees would promptly carry 

 them out. Possibly there is not the differ- 

 ence you suppose in the number of bees. 

 Possibly the queen has not been laying much 

 lately, and the old bees dying off has left the 

 number less. Possibly the colony has 

 swarmed without your knowledge and the 

 swarm has gone off. 



3. Do just about the opposite of what you 

 did. Give a little smoke at the entrance 

 before you do anything else. Then when you 

 pry up the cover, blow a little smoke into 

 the crack as you raise the cover, and the 

 same when you raise a super, blowing smoke 

 under the super and then over the tops of 

 the frames. At any time when the bees be- 

 come belligerent, give a little more smoke, 

 but don't deluge them with smoke. Your 

 hammering on the hive when they were not 

 yet subdued infuriated them. 



X. Nothing wrong. Little or nothing to be 

 done in the field, the bees stay at home and 

 the colony being strong it is more comfort- 

 able outside than in. You are probably mis- 

 taken about the bees being drowned by the 

 rain. Next time watch closely and you will 

 find that the wet bees dry off all right. 



5. You must examine the bottom as well as 

 the top. 



6. I think you did very well for one who 

 probably had nothing but his own experience 

 to go by. W^hat you need is to learn from the 

 experience of others. You can get the ex- 



gerience of thousands packed together in a 

 ee-book, and it will be worth to you ten 

 times its cost. Don't think of getting along 

 without a bee-book. 



A Beginner's Questions 



1. Mine bein;;; ihf only Italian bees in the 

 country, how may 1 have my queens purely 

 mated? 



2. Are drone-eggs always laid by a virgin, 

 or can a queen lay drone or worker eggs at 



wiir- 



3. Will bees store syrup for winter? Is 

 syrup good for them? 



4. Are the so-called Red Clover Italians 

 better than other strains? 



5. How about a separate entrance to su- 

 pers? Missouri. 



Answers.— I. By allowing no drones in your 

 black colonies. Cut out drone-comb and re- 

 place with worker; shave heads of sealed 

 drone-brood and trap all mature drones with 

 drone-traps at entrance of black colonies. 



2. Very few drone-eggs are laid by any 

 other than normal, fertilized queens, which 

 lay drone-eggs in drone-cells, either at their 

 own will or at the will of the workers. 



3. Yes. It i^ good for them to winter on, 

 and for brood-rearing in spring. 



4. They are better if they work on red 

 clover better than others. 



J. Some advise it. but generally it is not 

 vised. An opening above for ventilation, 

 however, may be a fine thing. 



Preventing Swarming 



What shall I do with bees that don't do 

 anything but swarm all summer? I have no 

 trouble with afterswarms, but after the first 

 swarm is hived about 10 days I find the hive 

 and supers all full of eggs and larvae, when 

 they will start to swarm and keep it up all 

 summer. 



JuneistI put on supers— 2 on each hive, 

 one with sections and one with extracting- 

 frames. But they wouldn't work in them to 

 amount to anything. So I don't think there 

 was lack of room, I have some of the very 

 best Italian queens that I could get last 

 spring, but they are just as bad as my com- 

 mon bees. Could anything be done to pre- 

 vent the swarming fever? 



I am planning on having some hives made 



that hold 12 Hoffman frames. Would that be 

 as good as a iJs-story hive? 



I had 6 colonies in the spring, but would 

 have at least 25 now if I would have saved all 

 the swarms. I got 12 gallons of extracted 

 honey and 100 sections— all clover honev. 

 Last year I got that amount of honey from 2 

 colonies. Minnesota. 



Answer.— Your case is rather unusual. It 

 would seem as if the strain of bees might 

 have something to do with it, only you say 

 that the colonies with newly acquired 

 queens are as bad as the old ones. The sea- 

 son may have something to do with it. 

 Larger hives will no doubt help. Then if 

 you run for extracted honey and have plenty 

 of ventilation, no swarm ought to swarm 

 that same season. Besides having a large 

 entrance for ventilation, move backward or 

 forward each upper story, so there will be 

 a space of % inch for air between each 2 

 stories. 



Cyprian Bees— Queen-Rearing 



1. What was your experience with the 

 Cyprians, from a comb-honey producer's 

 standpoint? 



2. I see you use the Alley method of queen- 

 rearing. Could you in this way rear queens 

 enough to requeen an apiary of 100 colonies 

 before the swarming season, using only one 

 queen as a breeder, and how would you do it? 



3. I have been using a queen-rearing outfit 

 the last ^ years, but cannot get more than 15 

 or 20 percent of the cells accepted. I would 

 like to know how to get more accepted. 



N. P. A. 

 Answers.— 1. I hadn't experience enough 

 to judge, but I think they are much like Ital- 

 ians. 



2. I haven't used the Alley method for 

 years. I wouldn't think of requeening an 

 apiary so early by any method. Such early 

 queens are too poor. 



3. I have no trouble whatever about getting 

 queen-cells accepted, and you needn't have. 

 I go back to the simple plan of letting the 

 bees start their own cells, and with these 

 they are always satisfied. You will no doubt 

 be interested to read about 20 pages on the 

 subject in "Forty Years Among the Bees." 

 beginning at page 228. giving very full par- 

 ticulars. I've tried perhaps all the different 

 plans, and 1 think by this very simple plan I 

 get as good queens as can be reared. 



Preventing Swarming— Putting On Supers 



1. As I do not like the idea of cutting out 

 queen-cells during swarming time, and I also 

 want to keep my force of bees together, not 

 desiring any increase, how would it work by 

 giving strict attention, to have a queen-trap 

 for about every 5 colonies and a bee-en- 

 trance-guard for every colony, thus prevent- 

 ing the queen from escaping? I tried a 

 queen-trap on 2 hives this year for prevent- 

 ing afterswarms. and it worked to perfec- 

 tion. 



2. With a strong colony, how many supers 

 of 24 sections each would they need on at 

 once In a heavy honey-flow? and how do you 

 tier them up. by adding the new super un- 

 derneath, or on top of the one being worked 

 in? 



3. Is there any such a device used among 

 the bee-keepers as a super-lifter to liold the 

 supers up while adding a new one. etc.? 



Iowa. 

 Answers.— I. Although it may have suc- 

 ceeded in 2 cases, it will not generally suc- 

 ceed without close watching and some 

 trouble. If you put the trap on before the 

 prime swarm, the bees will keep swarming 

 and returning. Finally a young queen will 

 emerge, and the swarming will be still fiercer. 

 If you remove the trap too soon, a swarm 

 may go off; if too late, you will have a drone- 

 layer. 



2. A strong colony in the height of a heavy 

 honey-flow will have not less than 3. and may 

 have 7- The new supers are added under, 

 till near the close of the flow, when they are 

 put on top. You will be interested in read- 

 ing particulars in " Forty Years Among the 

 Bees." 



3. Yes. several have been devised, but not 

 many use them. 



Kept Them in the Archives 



Mcjigger— Of course Noah must have taken 

 bees with him. 



Thingumbob— Oh! of course. 



Mcjigger— Just think how they must have 

 stung the animals as they flew about. 



Thingumbob— Oh I I guess Noah had sense 

 enough to keep them in the archives. 



A Hot Time in Texas 



We have had no rain for q weeks. The 

 thermometer is at 114 degrees in the shade, 

 and everything is burned up. The honey 

 crop is short, but of excellent quality. Bees 

 will be in good condition for winter if they 

 don't have to use up their present stores be- 

 fore. There is a good supply of alfalfa honey 

 in the brood-chambers, which I will leave 

 there, as I don't think honey is ever too good 

 for bees in winter. O. Saunders. 



Trenton. Tex.. Aug. 18. 



Swamp Milkweed 



What is the name of the enclosed flower, 

 and what kind of honey do the bees get from 

 it? My bees are working on it in full force. 

 Chas. D. Blaker. 



Minneapolis, Minn.. Aug. 4. 



[The plant is the swamp milkweed— As- 

 clepias incarnata— and as it depends wholly 

 upon insect visits for fertilization, it amply 

 repays them by offering a generous lot of 

 sweet in return.— C. L. Walton.] 



Short Honey Crop 



The honey season here started fine, with 

 a good flow from first crop of alfalfa and 

 sweet clover, but August was dry. and from 

 some cause the second and third crop of 

 alfalfa yielded almost nothing. I bought 20 

 colonies in early June, and as most of these 

 were weak I got them all built up strong just 

 when the flow let up. 1 had only 5 swarms 

 from 35 colonies. All are in good shape for 

 wintering. My cron. all told, is about 800 

 pounds, and probably 100 unfinished sec- 

 tions that I will feed back. 



Louis Macey. 



North Platte. Nebr.. Sept. 20. 



Honey Crop Almost a Failure 



The honey crop this year in this section is 

 almost a total failure. Last year (1008) I pro- 

 duced 3070 sections, grading No. i and fancy, 

 from 23 colonies, spring count, and increased 

 by natural swarming to \b colonies. This 

 year (iqoq) I started with the 46 colonies, in- 

 creased to 52 by natural swarming, and got 

 less than 500 sections of a poor grade honey. I 

 removed all supers the first of September, 

 and my bees have filled their hives and are 

 in fine shape for the winter. In 5 years I 

 have not lost a colony \n wintering in the 

 cellar. S. L. Mottinger. 



Plainfield. 111.. Sept. 27. 



Hiving Swarms — Poor Season 



On page 267. Mr. Doolittle goes to a good 

 deal of unnecessary work to get a pole, etc.. 

 to hive his bees. My plan is to have the hive 

 ready, and when a swarm issues cage the 

 queen, move the old hive from the stand, 

 and place the new one in its place, and in a 

 very short time the swarm will be returning 

 (often not clustering at all). As soon as they 

 commence to return release the queen at the 

 entrance of the hive and she will march in. 

 and as soon as all are in move the swarm to 

 where you want it and return the old hive to 

 its former place, and all is done. They will 

 not begone very long, as they soon miss the 

 queen. 



It was a very poor season here for honey, 

 as it has been pretty wet. cool and windy, 

 and hardly any white clover, as the clover 

 was nearly all killed by the dry season of 

 1008. and the honey of this season is of poor 

 quality and pretty dark. 



JOSIAH SWINEHART. 



West Salem. Ohio, Sept. 6. 



Good Season for Honey — Hogwort 



This has been a very good season with me 

 for honey. Thegoldenrod is in bloom, and 

 we have iiad a good rain to break the long 

 dry spell. It has been very dry here. I have 

 5 colonies from which to take the honey, 

 although I have taken it off once before. 



