374 



November, 1909. 



American Vee Journal 



and went to laying all ritrht in about lo days. 

 The queen that was killed was a golden Ital- 

 ian, and had not be^un to lay. What was 

 the cause of their killing her-" 



2. What would be your advice on feeding^ 

 bees out say loo or 200 yards from a bee-yard, 

 when the weather was warm and no nectar 

 to gather? When feeding became necessary 

 would that not give them work and keep 

 them from getting lazy? Oklahoma. 



Answers.— I. It is nothing so very unusual 

 for bees to ball a queen and abuse her when 

 she returns from her wedding trip, possibly 

 because of some strange odor attached to 

 the queen. Usually the queen is released 

 after a time if left quietly alone, but her 

 wings may be more or less torn. If a queen, 

 virgin or laying, is found balled by her own 

 bees, the best thing is quietly to close the 

 hive at once and not open it again for a few 

 days. Your interference only made matters 

 worse, for a queen in a ball is not often 

 stung. Indeed I have some doubt whether 

 she is ever stung if the bee-keeper does not 

 interfere. As you played the smoke vigor- 

 ously, the probability is that you blew smoke 

 directly on the ball while holding the smoker 

 close to the ball. I think hot smoke blown 

 upon a ball will always ma1\e the bees sting 

 a queen, while if the smoker is held off at a 

 distance and aW smoke blown upon them, it 

 will make the bees release the queen. 



2. The result would probably be all the 

 same whether the feeding were done quite 

 close or 200 yards away. The extra distance 

 would make no difference with the industry 

 of the bees. If bees are forced to He idle 

 for some days, and then nectar appears 

 again, they will be just as industrious as if 

 they had kept at work right along. 



get as big as a colt which is born in the 

 spring of the year. The fall colt, he claims, 

 will be tougher, hardier, stand more work, 

 live longer if not killed by accident, and is 

 less liable to disease. You may think this is 

 all silly talk. It is not. He is a reader of the 

 American Bee Journal like myself, and he 

 keeps over 200 colonies of bees, and if any 

 man can get honey from bees, he knows how 

 to do it. 



2. Would it make any difference in bees to 

 start nuclei in the fall and winter them in a 

 cellar? and would it make any difference 

 about swarming? A Subscriber. 



Answers.— I. I don't know about that colt 

 business, but your friend is quite right that 

 a later reared queen is superior to one 

 reared much before swarming time. We 

 may pretty safely refer to the bees them- 

 selves to find out when thev do the most 

 queen-rearing. Perhaps the largest number 

 of queens is reared at swarming time, and 

 many are reared from tliat time on till the 

 close of harvest, for most of the superseding 

 is done about the close of the harvest. So 

 we may count it good practise to rear queens 

 any time from swarming time up to the close 

 of harvest. A late-reared queen ought to 

 liold out longer than one reared earlier, as 

 she is younger. But it must be remembered 

 also that the sooner a queen is reared the 

 sooner we have the use of her. Whether a 

 queen be reared early or late, she will lay 

 just so many eggs in the course of her life- 

 time. But a queen reared much before 

 swarming time is generally not worth the 

 powder to blow her up. 



2. You will not find it the easiest thing to 

 winter nuclei, and will probably find no 

 great advantage in it. 



Packing Bees for Winter — Putting On Supers 



1. In packing my bees for winter I have no 

 access to oats chaff. Will dried clippings of 

 lawns do if well packed down? Would com- 

 mon newspaper do? Would leaves do? 



2. What time do you pack the bees for 

 winter? 



3. In putting on supers in the spring how 

 do you do it? If each super contains 28 sec- 

 tions, how many supers would you put on? 

 and do you put them on all at once, or put 

 them on as filled? I suppose the time to put 

 them on is in fruit-bloom. Am I right? 



X. I have Root's " A B C of Bee-Culture." 

 issued in 1870. Should I get a bee-book of 

 more recent date? 



5. How do you keep the section-boxes 



white and clean. The sections I took out 



were all covered with propolis, and were a 



sorry looking sight. How can this be helped? 



New Jersey. 



Answers.— I. Either of the materials men- 

 tioned will answer, if they are good and dry. 



2. November or late October. 



3. Except in rare cases nosurplus is stored 

 from fruit-bloom, so it will do only harm to 

 put on supers at that time, as it merely cools 

 oif the hive, thus hindering the rearing of 

 brood. Only one super is put on at first, 

 and a second one put under it when the first 

 is perhaps half filled. 



4. Of couse the latest is the best, but the 

 main principles are the same now as form- 

 erly. 



5. In some supers the sections are pro- 

 tected so that the bees cannot get at much 

 of the wood to soil it. but the best that can 

 be done they will be able to get at some of 

 the wood, and the bees are sure to crowd 

 glue into the cracks that must be made by 

 covering up, for it is their nature to crowd 

 glue into any crack not big enough for them 

 tocrawl through, while a planesurface fully 

 exposed will get very little glue. I prefer T- 

 supers which leave bottom and top of the 

 sections entirely exposed, and then they are 

 scraped with a steel cabinet scraper and 

 sandpapered. 



Late-Reared Queens — Fall Nuclei 



I. I am a beginner in tlie bee-business with 

 3 colonies, and have good Italian stock, and 

 want to increase them next year. Which is 

 the best time to do it. in the spring or in 

 August? I have a neighbor bee-keeper 

 who has made a success at it. He starts his 

 swarms in the month of August, so that he 

 will have laying queens in September. He 

 claims queens reared in August, so that 

 they will lay about Sept. i, will rear hardier 

 bees, and will stand the winter better than 

 those reared in the spring, and are less apt 

 to swarm. He has kept bees for 25 years, 

 and followed this method of Increasing for 

 the last 10 years. He also claims that a colt 

 which comes In the fall of the year will not 



Queen Killed — Sugar for Feeding Bees^Uniting 

 Colonies — Laying Workers— Banat Bees 



1. I have one colony of bees that lost Its 

 queen 15 days ago. I found their queen on 

 the ground dead. I Immediately looked 

 through the colony. No young queen was 

 to be found- There was some sealed brood 

 in the hive, but no queen-cells or sign of any. 

 What killed the queen? Ought I try to give 

 them another queen, or will they live 

 through till spring, or should I wait till 

 spring to give them another queen? 



2. I see that granulated sugar Is recom- 

 mended for feeding bees. Will they not live 

 if fed on common brown sugar? If not. what 

 is the difference? 



3. I told you of the colony that had been 

 queenless so long. I have a very late swarm 

 that is short of stores and has a good queen. 

 Can I unite the two without danger to the 

 queen? If so, how? The one that has the 

 queen is in a log hive. Should I set the log 

 hive on top of the movable-frame hive, or 

 how should I proceed? Please explain or 

 give your plan. 



4. Will bees have laying workers after 

 losing their queen late in the fall? 



.S. How about the Banat bees? I want to 

 know something about their honey-gather- 

 ing quality, gentleness, color, etc. 



Kentucky. 



Ansvvers.—i. Hard to tell what happened 

 to the queen. Sometimes a queen Is acci- 

 dentally killed when a hive Is opened. It is 

 barely possible that she died of old age aud 

 that a young queen was present, even if you 

 failed to find her. It will be better for the 

 colony to have a queen this fall than next 

 spring. 



2. There is probably some caramel in 

 brown sugar, and that is not good for bees. 



3. It will be a good thing to unite the two 

 colonies. Either hive may be set over the 

 other. Perhaps it will be better to put the 

 weaker colony over the stronger. Put a 

 sheet of newspaper between the two. They 

 will gnaw away the paper and unite slowly, 

 thus making them unite peaceably without 

 endangering the queen. 



4. Not likely, as brood-rearing ceases in 

 the fall. 



5. I have had no experience with them, 

 and they are not much known. 



top. or put the empty super under the filled 

 or partly filled super? Would you put on 

 more than two? 



3. In the October American Bee Journal 

 you advise in question No. 2, page 340, uslngr 

 foundation splints. I have looked through 

 the G. B. Lewis Co.'s catalog, but fall to find 

 them. Where can I get them? and how are 

 they used. Iowa. 



Answers.— I. The best way to get sucli 

 sections emptied Is to set them out in the 

 open where all the bees can get at them. If 

 there are a good many— something like a 

 super for each colony that will be engaged 

 upon them— the supers should be left all 

 open so that the bees can get at them freely. 

 If, however, only a small number of sections 

 are thus exposed, the bees will tear the 

 combs to pieces. So, if the number is com- 

 paratively small, the sections must be cov- 

 ered up. and an entrance allowed for only a 

 bee or two at a time. It Is now too late to 

 get them emptied this fall, although there Is 

 a bare possibility that something might be 

 done If there should come an unusual warm 

 spell. If you keep the sections over winter, 

 there Is every danger that the honey in them 

 will be candied, and it Is the general belief 

 that the bees will not clean them out so 

 clean but some of the granules will be left 

 In. and that the granules will Injurlously 

 affect any honey that may be afterward 

 stored In them. However, so good an au- 

 thority as G. M. Doollttle insists that if sec- 

 tions with a little honey in them that has 

 been left over be given to the bees, they will 

 clean them out properly before storing any 

 more in them. If you can keep the sections 

 through the winter In a rather warm place. 

 It may be that the honey In them will not 

 granulate at all. 



2. I don't put on supers " In spring." but 

 wait till I see the first clover bloom. Then 

 only one super Is given, and a second one is 

 put under it when the first is about half 

 filled. When the second is about half filled 

 a third Is put under It. and as fast as the 

 last super given is about half filled another 

 empty one is put under it. As fast as any 

 super has all of its sections completed ex- 

 cept the corner ones, it is taken off. In a 

 good season there will generally be 3 or 4 

 supers on a hive before any are taken off. 

 and In a few cases as high as 7 supers may be 

 on a hive at the same time. This matter Is 

 very fully treated in the book " Forty Years 

 Among the Bees." 



3. I'm not sure that foundation splints are 

 listed In any catalog as yet, although they 

 probably will be in the forthcoming cata- 

 logs, as thousands of them have been sold 

 during the past year. You can. however, 

 probably get them from any dealer. The 

 splints are boiled In wax, and then pressed 

 vertically Into the foundation. At least one 

 supply manufacturing house sends out with 

 the splints directions for using them, and 

 the subject Is very fully treated in " Eorty 

 Years Among the Bees." 



Feeding Honey in Sections — Putting on Supers — 

 Foundation Splints 



1. i have some honey in i-pound sections 

 which Is not capped, and I would like to 

 feed it to the bees this fall if It is not too 

 late, or else wait till spring. How can I feed 

 It? 



2. When you put on supers for comb honey 

 In spring, do you put on two. or wait till one 

 is filled or partly so. and put one more on 



A Beginner's Bunch of Questions 



1. Which do you consider the most profit- 

 able— comb or extracted honey? 



2. How many colonies of bees could I han- 

 dle on a lo-acre fruit farm? I raise some 

 buckwheat and red raspberries, also alslke. 



3. How far will bees go for nectar? 



4. Do you consider alfalfa good for honey? 



5. How many sections of honey will a col- 

 ony store In a good season? 



6. Please explain the Texas method of 

 having comb honey in jars? 



7. What is a good preventive for moths? 



8. Should bees be stored away In cold 

 weather. Give best method to store. 



g. What makes the best smoke for smok- 

 ers? Would you advise tobacco? 



10. What do you consider the best State 

 for honey-production? 



11. Do you think It a good plan to unites 

 weak colonies Into one? 



12. What do you think about shaking bees 

 to make them work better? 



13. What Is the best remedy for bee-stlngs? 

 Why do they affect some people more than 

 others? Mv brother and myself were tak- 

 ing off honey today. He was stung three 

 times, and the places swelled scarcely at 

 all. I was stung twice, and broke out all 

 over in small bumps, and I seem to feel the 

 poison go all through my veins. What would 

 you advise me to use? 



New Beginner. 



Answers.— I. I think comb honey Is most 

 profitable for me; but don't know for cer- 

 tain, as 1 haven't had enough experience of 

 late vears with extracted honey to judge 

 fairly. But what Is most profitable for me 



