Deccmlier, 1909. 



American ^ae Journal 



remain and the swarm has gone off with a 

 young aueen some days later, leaving the old 

 clipped queen. Such cases, however, are so 

 rare. I think, that they are hardly worth 

 considering. 



The other exception is the common one. 

 A colony with a clipped queen will make 

 preparation for swarming and will swarm 

 just the same as if the queen were not 

 clipped. Then when the queen finds she 

 cannot go with the swarm, she generally re- 

 turns to the hive, although she may crawl 

 off and be lost. The swarm, finding there is 

 no queen along, generally returns, although 

 sometimes it may join another swarm that 

 has a queen with whole wings, or it may en- 

 ter another hive where there is the com- 

 motion of swarming. If you should open the 

 hive the next day. you would find the 

 clipped queen there, although the colony 

 had swarmed the preceding day. Or, you 

 may find her there several days later, 

 although generally she will have disap- 

 peared by the time the first young queen 

 emerges— say about 8 days after the issuing 

 of the prime swarm. Of course the queen- 

 cells will help to tell you the condition of 

 aflfars. 



2. Yes. the flow has ceased, the bees are 

 not gathering as much as they use up each 

 day. and use up what is in the super, or else 

 carry it down where there is now room for it. 



3. In Italy there are the leather-colored and 

 also a lighter kind, but I think no 5-banded 

 or golden, which is an .American affair, not 

 at all always from the leather-colored kind. 



4. A late swarm of the kind may occur in 

 much the same way as an earlier one. There 

 may be a better chance in other cases than 

 among your bees, where you take care of 

 them properly. 



5. In this country drugs are generally con- 

 sidered of no account in foul brood. In 

 England it is a common thing to add nap ht ho I 

 beta to the bees' food, with the idea that it 

 helps to prevent foul brood. 



b. I think so. 



7. Not for certain. Generally, however, 

 there will be fewer cells for superseding 

 than for swarming. 



s. If bad weather hinders swarming, the 

 case will be the same, whether the queen 

 can fiy or not. The bees may give up swarm- 

 ing and destroy the cells, or they may swarm 

 later. See reply to question No. i. 



9. Yes. 



Feeding Bees Candy in Winter 



1. I began last spring and have about 15 

 colonies. I find that I must feed about 10 of 

 them 8 to 15 pounds of candy, as they did not 

 store enough honey nor syrup, which I be- 

 gan to feed last month. They did not " take 

 it up." as the books say. I used the division- 

 board and the Miller feeders, and some pans 

 with cheese-cloth on the syrup. I made 

 some 40 pounds of candy last week, but it is 

 iust slightly scorched, and I am afraid to 

 feed it to them. I am thinking of making 

 "Good" candy, one part honey and s or 6 

 sugar, and place this on the frames over the 

 brood-nest, with very slazy cheese-cloth be- 

 tween. Please advise me. 



2. Can I safely save over the scorched 

 candy until next summer and feed it without 

 danger to the bees — let them store it? 



Kentucky. 



Answers.— -I. Your candy on the cheese- 

 cloth may be all right, but it needs watching. 

 There is a possibility that the candy may be 

 so thin that with the heat of the bees it will 

 strain down throng the cheese-cloth. In 

 that case you will have to take the candy 

 out and work a little more sugar into it. 

 There is also a little danger that the bees 

 will not work through the cloth, especially 

 if the candy is pretty dry. Punch a few 

 holes through the cheese-cloth with a sharp- 

 ened lead-pencil. 



2. Save your scorched feed till next spring. 

 not for the bees to store, but for them to use up 

 in rearing brood. 



Methods of Increase and Honey-Production 



I have kept bees for only about 4 months, 

 and I now have 4 colonies. Next season I 

 would like to increase them and get a crop 

 of honey besides. 



1. Is the Swarthmore method. /. e.. shaking 

 the bees on full sheets of foundation and 

 then giving them a laying queen, better than 

 the Alexander method of increase, as on 

 page 279 of "ABC of Bee Culture?" 



2. What is the Doolittle system of comb- 

 honey production? It is described on page 

 343 of the October issue of the Journal, but 

 the description is not clear to me. 



We have quite a few honey-plants around 



here. There is any amount of whitewood. 

 some basswood, quite a little sumac, and 

 some white, red. and sweet clover. 



New York. 



Answers.— I. Likely the Alexander plan 

 may be better for you. as it allows little or 

 no chance for brood to be chilled. But if 

 you expect to double your crop of honey, as 

 Mr. Alexander says you may. by dividing, 

 you are likely to be seriously disappointed 

 unless you have a heavy late flow, as Mr. 

 Alexander had from buckwheat. 



2. A book called "A Year's Work at an 

 Out-Apiary" gives in full the system that 

 Mr. Doolittle follows, which is a combina- 

 tion of good things more or less in general 

 use. given by the author in an interesting 

 way. Of course it would be out of question 

 to give details here, but only one special 

 feature may be mentioned, and that is that 

 early in the season he puts over the hive a 

 second story containing combs with more or 

 less honey, an excluder between the two 

 stories, and then when the time comes that 

 there is danger of swarming, or just before 

 the honey-flow, he takes away the brood of 

 the lower story, giving the colony the combs 

 of the upper story.— [The book referred to, 

 " A Year's Work in an Out-Apiary," by Mr. 

 Doolittle. may be had by sending 50 cents to 

 this office.- Ed.] 



Coal-Oil for Bee-Stings 



A few drops of coal-oil applied to the part 

 of the body stung wilK in most cases, com- 

 pletely cure and remove all bad feelings in a 

 short time, and also the swelling. A bee- 

 sting has no more effect on me than a flea- 

 bite. E. L. Belknap. 



Kennydale. Wash. 



Very Good Season 



The past season was a very good one here. 

 I had 5 colonies and took 300 pounds of comb 

 honey and 100 pounds of extracted, besides 

 increasing to 16 good colonies. The weather 

 is very fine here now. My bees had a good 

 flight yesterday. I put them into the cellar 

 the same evening. John Janack. 



Benson Mines. N. Y., Nov. 2q. 



Bee-Ranges Spoiled 



We Western people are hunting bee- 

 ranges as the farmers are cutting the alfalfa 

 before it blooms, and bees are not doing as 

 well as they used to do. I find the ranges 

 overstocked with bees in most of our West- 

 ern States, and the practise of cutting alfalfa 

 before it blooms is a severe blow to the in- 

 dustry. Geo. E. Dudi.ev. 



Denver. Colo.. Oct. 29. 



Honey-Dew for Cooking, Etc. 



Our bees this year gave us a surplus of 

 about 40 pounds apiece in June. July was 

 nearly all honey-dew. We took it off the 

 last of July and extracted everything in the 

 supers, sections, and all. We had a late 

 light flow from Spanish-needle and hearts- 

 ease, which filled up the hives very well, 

 and we are in hopes they will winter all 

 right. We are usng the honey-dew for mak- 

 ing apple and peach butter, cakes, cookies, 

 etc.. and are using it up pretty fast. We 

 have a nice lot of combs to use next year. 



Center. Mo.. Nov. i. Freeman Davis. 



Experience 'With Bee-Stings for Rheu- 

 matism 



Having had some experience with bee- 

 stings. I will give it for what it is worth. 



Previous to i8q8 I had periodical attacks of 

 rheumatism. Sometimes I was free from it, 

 and sometimes it was very severe. I took 

 treatment for several years with apparently 

 little effect. During the summer of 1800 a 

 swarm of bees settled some 18 feet from the 

 ground, and I got a ladder and dish-pan to 

 bring them down. When I shook them in 

 the pan they fell on the back of my right 



hand, and they stung it all over until it 

 looked as if there was room for no more 

 stings. I got down pretty rapidly (you mav 

 suppose). I could taste the bee-stings and 

 could feel them in the tips of my fingers and 

 to the end of my toes, and I was pretty sick. 

 I poured some ammonia on the back of my 

 hand, and took some internally. Mv arm 

 swelled continually, but since that time I 

 have been free from rheumatism. I had 

 taken no medicine for months for the rheu- 

 matism, and t believe it was the bee-stings 

 that cured me. I had been taking medicine 

 of a doctor some time before, and I told him 

 my experience, and he asked me how many 

 stings I got. I told him I did not trv to count 

 them, but from so to 100. He said he thought 

 I got enough formic acid to cure me. Should 

 I have the rheumatism again I would cer- 

 tainly try the stings again. S. N. Black. 

 ' Clayton. 111., Nov. 20. 



Danger of Honey-Dew for Winter Stores 



The first entire failure in honey in my 30- 

 odd years experience with bees I met this 

 year. If I get a honey crop we have to have 

 a white clover crop to produce it, and it 

 was plain to me last winter that we would 

 not have a white clover crop this season. 

 The drouth in the summer and fall killed all 

 of the old plants, and the seed did not 

 sprout and come up with this spring. But 

 we have got a fine stand this tall. The sea- 

 son has been very favorable for it. 



If it had not been for the honey-dew pro- 

 duced by the plant-lice working on the 

 leaves of the trees, the bees would have 

 been in a starving condition in June and 

 July. I was very liberal with them, when 

 that flow began to come in. and did not put 

 any supers on to dirty the sections with it. 

 for I would not have known what to do with 

 it after I had it. as I doubt very much if it is 

 fit for man's use. and I know it is not fit to 

 winter bees on if we have a cold winter, 

 and they are confined to the hive long at a 

 time. I have "been there" once, several 

 years ago. when I lost quite a number with 

 dysentery. An old saying is. " A burnt child 

 dreads the fire." So I will steer clear of it 

 for they consumed most of it in rearing 

 brood, and I have had to feed granulated 

 sugar syrup for winter stores. Then fioney- 

 dew stimulated them so that they built up 

 very strong, and by keeping the syrup off 

 you can guess what the result would be. It 

 kept me with them picking up clipped 

 queens and clipping queen-cells until about 

 the first of July. J. G. Creighton. 



Harrison. Ohio. Nov. 22. 



Honey in 



Experience 'With " Chunk ' 

 Iowa 



Commencing my second year in the bee- 

 business. I had not yet acquired an extrac- 

 tor, and I was puzzled to know what to do 

 with (to mel a large number of unfinished 

 sections, and honey from a large number of 

 boxes I had in the early soring put into trees. 

 I think there were 25 of them, as well as 

 some from frames from which I had taken 

 the bees to unite them with other swarms. 



At this time I knew nothing about " chunk" 

 honey as a commercial proposition, but. as 

 a boy. youth and man. I had eaten "wild" 

 honey, the fruit of robbing bee-trees, and. 

 remembering. I put all my broken combs 

 and unfinished sections into quart Mason 

 jars, "strained" some honey to fill up with, 

 and had not a little bit of trouble selling the 

 whole of it at 10 cents a poinid — 37 cents for 

 jar and honey, the jar returnable at 7 cents— 

 though I do not know that ever a jar was re- 

 turned. 



I do not. kiimo. but I think I shall neglect 

 comb honey for chunk another season, prin- 

 cipally because I am a hopeless sufferer 

 from asthma, and I need to save steps. I can 

 easier get 10 cents a pound for my honey 

 that way than I can I2>2 cents for comb; 

 there is no loss due to worms or dirt; no 

 extraordinary and expensive care required. 

 I get pay for containers, while in selling ex- 

 tracted we give the containers away; no 

 sections to buy. but little foundation, and 

 the bees will go into the frames where they 

 will hesitate to enter the sections. 



There may be a problem of the honey can- 

 dying; I may not make quite so much, or I 

 might make more, but the item of less work 

 appeals to me, and the coming season I shall 

 give it a good trial. In the meantime I have 

 to learn how to keep the queen out of the 

 supers, for last season I was troubled: how- 

 ever, it was an abnormal season. 



.A last word: Advertising will sell chunk 

 honey, just as it will everything else on 

 earth. I said to prospective customers: 



