564 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUR^^Al 



Beplies by Prominent Apiarists. 



[It is useless to ask for answers to 

 Queries in this Department in less time 

 than one month. They have to wait their 

 turn, be put in type, and sent in about a 

 dozen at a time to each of those who answer 

 them ; get them returned, and then find 

 space for them in the Journal. If you are 

 in a "hurry" for replies, do not ask for 

 them to be inserted here.— Bd.1 



Rearing a Large liinkr o[ Workers, 



Query, No. 301.— What is the best plan 

 to secure a large number of workers and 

 I force them into the fields at the beginning 

 of the honey-fiow ?— A. S., Ark. 



Slight speculative feeding early in 

 the season.— Dadant & Son. 



Stimulative feeding and good care 

 all the year.— A. J. Cook. 



I have given my plans in back vol- 

 umes of the Bee Journal. An 

 adequate answer would be too lengthy 

 for this department.— G. M. Doo- 



MTTLE. 



Keep the best of queens, and their 

 bees will go into the fields when the 

 honey comes, without any forcing.— 

 H. D. Cutting. 



If the bees are wintered well, and 

 furnished sufficient stores, a suffi- 

 ciently large number of workers will 

 be the result, and they will force 

 themselves into the fields, as soon as 

 there is honey to gather. I do not, as 

 a general thing, approve of spreading 

 the brood, changing the combs about, 

 etc.— W. Z. Hutchinson. 



For your latitude put your bees into 

 winter quarters with a hive full of 

 bees, and from 20 to 30 pounds of 

 stores, and then in all probability 

 your colonies will be prepared for the 

 early honey-flow. This plan is pref- 

 erable to that of being all the time 

 " tinkering" with them by feeding.— 

 J. P. H. Bbown. 



See that your colonies have good 

 strong queens, good protection at the 

 top of the brood-nest, and more im- 

 portant than all. plenty of stores and 

 to spare, in the early spring, and the 

 bees will force themselves into the 

 fields when there is anything for them 

 to do.— G. W. Demaree. 



Use a reversible or an interchange- 

 able sectional brood-chamber not too 

 large, if working for comb honey. 

 Adjust the supers early. Reverse the 

 hive or interchange the sectional 

 parts every 5 or 6 days in building up. 

 There is no advantage in reversing or 

 interchanging except to rapidly ex- 

 tend the brood. Get the brood early 

 and rapidly by the process of revers- 

 ing, and we will then be sure to get 

 the honey, if any is to be had. There 

 is no use to reverse combs or hives 

 after we have sufficient brood and 

 bees.— G. L. Tinker. 



The best I know is to use a double, 

 interchangeable and invertible brood- 

 chamber, with which, by speedy 

 manipulation, we breed bees the 

 fastest, and when the harvest is well 

 upon us, crowd the multitude into the 

 fields and sections by contraction by 

 simply removing one of the brood- 

 cases.— James Heddon. 



Force the queen to laying up to her 

 full capacity as early as possible by 

 covering the frames well with blank- 

 ets to confine the heat to the hive, 

 and also by stimulating as much as 

 possible, either by feeding diluted 

 honey or sugar syrup, or by uncap- 

 ping the combs within the hive. As 

 it requires about 35 to 40 days for a 

 bee from the egg to become a forager, 

 one can, by knowing when the honey 

 season begins, know just when to 

 start brood-rearing. Look out, how- 

 ever, for early swarms. — J. E. Pond, 

 Jr. 



Preyeiition of Increase. 



Query, No. 302. — What is the best 

 method of preventing an increase of more 

 than one from each colony ?— S. J. 



Placing the swarm on the old stand 

 and giving it the surplus boxes. — Da- 

 dant & Son. 



Extracting is sure ; Heddon's 

 method is good ; and plenty of room 

 above will usually suffice.- A. J. 

 Cook. 



The Heddon method of preventing 

 after-swarming has worked well with 

 me.— W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Divide the colony and give a young 

 laying queen to the queenless part. — 

 J. P. H. Brown. 



Removing the old hive to a new 

 location, and putting swarms on the 

 old stand is generally successful. The 

 Heddon plan may be better.— C. C. 

 Miller. 



After they have swarmed once, cut 

 out all queen-cells and run in a young 

 queen. If yon have no young queens 

 on hand, leave one queen-cell and 

 watch results.— H. D. Cutting. 



I believe the surest method is to let 

 them swarm naturally, and prevent 

 after-swarms by what is called my 

 method. This, may be the best 

 method, all things considered. — James 

 Heddon. 



In a multiplicity of opinions, it is 

 hard to say what is the best. My 

 plan, and the best for me, is to make 

 my increase on the nucleus plan ; by 

 this plan I can keep the increase down 

 to less than one swarm from each 

 colony without difficulty. — J. E. 

 Pond, Jr. 



In a good honey-flow it is best to 

 let virgin queens run into every hive 

 soon after casting a prime swarm. 

 Second-swarms will be prevented in 

 about half the cases so managed. I 

 prefer to let second-swarms issue, and 

 return them after cutting out queen- 

 cells and selecting the queen of my 

 choice.— G. L. Tinker. 



By taking the combs with the few 

 adhering bees, when the swarm is 

 out, to a new location and hiving 

 the swarm in the old hive on the old 

 stand. In 24 hours give a mature 

 queen-cell or a just-hatclied virgin 

 queen to the reduced old colony in its 

 new location. This is a modification 

 of the Heddon plan, which I prefer 

 after testing both for three seasons. 



— G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



After all, the cheapest plan and the 

 most sure plan is to hive the swarm 

 on the old stand, reverse the entrance 

 of the old hive, placing it close to the 

 new hive. Then on the seventh day 

 after the swarm issues, take out all 

 tlie frames in the old hive and shake 

 off nearly all the bees in front of the 

 new hive, and move the old hive to a 

 new location in the apiary. No 

 queen-cells need be cut out. The 

 swarm will give you the surplus, and 

 the old colony will build up all right. 

 — G. W. Demaree. 



Rearing Queens anil Italianizing. 



Query, No. 303.— If you had several 

 colonies of blacks to Italianize, describe the 

 manner in which you would rear and intro- 

 duce queens ?— Sub., Ark. 



Get good Italian queens in the 

 spring and follow the directions of 

 the books.— A. J. Cook. 



Perhaps rear queens in nuclei and 

 unite the nuclei with black colonies 

 after destroying the queen. — C. C. 

 Miller. 



Rf ad some good standard work on 

 bee-keeping.— H. D. Cutting. 



I have done so in my book.— Jambs 

 Heddon. 



Methods of "queen-rearing" and 

 " introducing queens " have been re- 

 peatedly given in the Bee Journal, 

 and can be found in the text-books. 

 There is not room here for a proper 

 answer,— W, Z, Hutchinson. 



Any of the text-books (among 

 which I can refer to " Bees and 

 Honey " as being among the best) 

 give a full description of the methods 

 by which Italianizing should be per- 

 formed. The size of the apiary other 

 than the colonies desired to Italianize 

 would be an important factor in the 

 case ; the text-book, " Bees and 

 Honey," explains the matter fully. — 

 J. E. Pond, Jr. 



If your colonies are all black, your 

 best plan would be to purchase pure 

 Italian queeus either tested or un- 

 tested, and introduce them. If you 

 have a pure Italian queen to start 

 with, rear queen-cells or queens from 

 her. Take the precaution to allow no 

 drones to issue from your black colo- 

 nies, but breed all the drones you can 

 from your Italians. The majority of 

 your queens will purely mate if there 

 are no black drones within a radius 

 of three miles of your apiary. For 

 introducing, I prefer a cage with hii 

 open side to be pressed into the comb. 

 —J. P. H. Brown. 



