258 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



(or as above) of mine, so that the first 

 thing I generally do, after receiving 

 a queen, is to raise some queens 

 from her brood, so that if she dies I 

 shall have some of the stock. I find 

 queens so reared prove as good as 

 those reared from the same queen 

 before shipment. 



ANSWER BY G. W. DEMAREE. 



The question by Mr. H. E. Har- 

 tington is one that I would like to 

 know more about myself. Happily it 

 is not of frequent occurrence, but it 

 is very annoying when it does occur. 



Doubdess queens meet with acci- 

 dents, are subject to sickness, etc., 

 like other animals ; while any form 

 of abnormality, such as an over pro- 

 portion of indifferent old bees, lay- 

 ing workers, etc., may endanger the 

 life of the queen. Robbing is al- 

 ways dangerous to the safety of a 

 queen. Beekeepers can never hope 

 to be free from the usual casualties 

 which beset all alike. 



ANSWER BY JAMES HEDDON. 



While a mild form of robbing 

 might have a tendency to irritate the 

 bees to the destruction of the new 

 queen, still I am of the opinion that 

 the most common cause of these 

 losses is opening the hive " to see 

 how she is coming on " as mentioned 

 above. 



ANSWER BY H. ALLEY. 



There are several reasons why 

 queens die soon after being intro- 

 duced. A person who has intro- 

 duced a fine queen is pretty apt to 

 open the hive often to see how nicely 

 his queen looks and to satisfy him- 

 self that he has been successful in 

 introducing. In opening a hive 

 often there is danger of killing a 

 queen in removing and replacing the 

 combs, then again bees will some- 

 times kill their own queen should a 

 few robber bees gain an entrance to 

 the hive. The best and safest time 



to open a hive after the honey har- 

 vest is over is just before sunset. If 

 the bees are disposed to rob they are 

 soon checked by darkness. 



Queens that are shipped by mail 

 are sometimes injured, so that they 

 die soon after being introduced. It 

 is strange that all queens sent by 

 mail are not killed long before they 

 reach their destination, and no one 

 would wonder at it could they once 

 see those fellows pitch the mail bags 

 from the cars while the train is going 

 at the rate of sixty miles an hour. 



WHEN TO PLACE BEES IN THE 

 CELLAR OR BEE HOUSE. 



QUESTIONS BY THE EDITOR. 



What thtie do you put bees in the 

 cellar or bee house for winter? Would 

 you disturb theui to do so, if the tem- 

 perature is below freezing point? 



ANSWER BY DR. TINKER. 



If the temperature of the cellar 

 or bee house is right, bees may be 

 carried in any time after the twen- 

 tieth of November in this locahty. 

 I have taken them in as late as the 

 seventh of December with good re- 

 sults after they had experienced 

 some very cold nights. There was, 

 however, no frost in the hives. 



It is perfectly safe to carry bees in 

 at a freezing temperature. I have 

 carried mine in at all times, accord- 

 ing to the state of the weather. If 

 cold winds set in have taken them 

 in at once, and if severe cold was 

 threatened have taken them in after 

 night. I shall again this year leave 

 them out until the approach of 

 threatening weather, being more con- 

 cerned about cold winds than a few 

 nights of severe cold when the air 

 is still. 



Nearly all colonies are aware of 

 being handled, no matter how care- 

 fully they are moved ; but no harm 

 results from awakening them if no 



