406 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 30, 



special object they have in view. It is to protect the sides of 

 the cells so that the bees cannot bite into thera, at the same 

 time leaving the end of the cell free so that the queen may 

 make her way out whenever she desires. For it is a curious 

 fact that bees do not tear open a queen-cell at the end when 

 they wish to destroy the occupant, but at the side. When a 

 queen is taken away from a colony, or when a nucleus is 

 formed by taking bees and brood from a colony with a laying 

 queen, if a cell is given at once it will invariably be torn 

 down. Put it in a cell-protector, point foremost, so that the 

 tip of the cell will project a trifle through the opening, twist 

 up the four ends of the wire cloth so the bees cannot enter the 

 protector, then put it in the colony or nucleus where you want 

 it to hatch. You can put it between two brood-combs which 

 will press together just enough to hold it, or you may tie a 

 fine wire to the twisted part, tie the end of the wire to a small 

 wire nail % to IM inches long, and lay the nail across two 

 top-bars, letting the nail support the protector. 



2. It is not a very unusual occurence to find a mother 

 and daughter laying side by side, but usually the mother is 

 about exhausted and will soon be missing. 



3. Yes, it is safer to transfer at any time when honey is 

 coming in. The chief reason for taking the time of fruit- 

 bloom is because at that time there is so little honey in the 

 hive. If your bees have swarmed, you will find the best time 

 to transfer is three weeks after swarming, as at that time 

 there will be no brood present except perhaps a little drone- 

 brood that you don't care to save. If you drum out when the 

 queen is present you must leave enough bees to take care of 

 the brood, altho it will take no more bees to do so now than in 

 fruit-bloom. 



The <liieen-Trap in Swarming:. 



Will you please let me know to what extent the Alley trap 

 has been used, to your knowledge, and with what success in 

 controlling swarming? What per cent, of queens will enter 

 the trap, and how many of them will crawl back through the 

 cone ? I have had no experience with them, but have tried, or 

 studied, about all other methods to prevent and control 

 swarms ; and to produce comb honey contraction proved a fail- 

 ure — success lies in the opposite extreme. The bees have been 

 repeating this lesson day after day, in season and out, and at 

 last I comprehend. I think I can control swarming and pre- 

 vent increase in the out-yard as well as at home. 



Illinois. 



Answer. — I cannot give you a satisfactory answer from 

 much experience, for I've had very little experience in that 

 line. I have an impression that a good many of the Alley 

 queen-traps are in use, perhaps not so largely by those who 

 have large numbers of colonies, and that you may quite safely 

 rely on the queen going up through the cone and staying up. 

 Possibly some of those who have had experience will tell us 

 what per cent, of the queens, if any, fail to go up into the 

 trap, and what per cent, go back through the cone. 



Hcatcd-Platc Plan of Fastening Foundation in 

 Sections. 



What is the " heated-plate plan " for fastening foundation 

 recommended by 6. M. Doolittle, on page 245 ? 



New Jersey. 



Answer. — The Daisy fastener, of which Mr. Doolittle 

 speaks none too highly, has a metal plate that has a lamp 

 placed under. The section is put in place, the starter is 

 allowed to slide down with its edge resting against the hot 

 plate, and the hot plate is immediately slipt out from under 

 the starter, letting it come in its proper place on the section, 

 where it quickly cools, making a secure attachment. 



m m 



A Whole Lot of Questions. 



I was so late in getting my supplies that it has ruined my 

 honey crop. I put my largest colonies into hives with 13 

 frames, and they filled them ; then I put on another story the 

 same size. My frames are 12x12, and they would not go up. 

 Then I took two frames of brood out of the bottom story and 

 put them into the upper. Some of them reared the brood, and 

 others came down, and one of them sent out a swarm. Another 

 went to work in the upper story. 



1. What will stop them ? 



2. If I put the bottom story on top, will that make the 

 honey too dark to sell ? 



3. I have eight colonies in 11-frame hives, frames 12x12 ; 



they filled them before I got the sections. I have smoked some 

 of them up, and with all I can do they will not go up. 



4. To-day (June 10) I put the super of sections under the 

 brood until they started in them. How do you think that 

 will work ? 



5. Last night I put queen-traps in front of some that I am 

 sure would have swarmed if I had not done so, but they are 

 packt close in the trap. Will the trap prevent them from 

 working ? 



6. If I can save the queens when they swarm with about 

 a quart of bees, and build up with brood after the honey season 

 is over, will that be a cheap way to get a stock for next year ? 



7. In one colony the bees seem to be so large that they can 

 hardly get through the Root zinc. Have you ever heard of 

 such a thing ? Some stay out all night on account of being so 

 hard to get through. What is the best to do ? 



8. Is it necessary to put a mat on top of the frames or 

 sections in summer, if the bees do not go above it? If so, 

 ought not the mat go on flat, or have a bee-space under it ? 



9. Ought the bees be disturbed in the honey season, to cut 

 out queen-cells ? 



10. I cut drone-comb out of only one hive this year, and 

 there are not as many drones this year in 15 hives as there 

 were last year in one. Do they ever swarm without rear- 

 ing drones? 



11. My bees put comb and honey between sections and 

 brood. Do all do that ? 



12. Can you tell the day before a colony sends out a 

 swarm ? If so, how ? 



13. Ought the bees to have ventilation on top in summer? 

 1-4. What will keep bee-stings from swelling? I don't 



mind the hurt, but I have to stay from church on account of a 

 swelled face. 



15. I had a swarm Monday, and hived them, and late in 

 the evening they came out and settled on a limb, then left the 

 limb so slowly that I could not tell where they went. Did they 

 go away, or Into some other hive ? Virginia. 



Answers. — 1. You would have pretty certainly stopt them 

 from swarming if you had done a little more mixing of the 

 brood with the empty frames. Take two or three frames of 

 brood from the full story and put in the empty story, and put 

 the empty story under the full story, alternating the full 

 frames with empty ones. If they have not already started 

 queen-cells, they will not be likely to do so, and if they have, 

 cutting out the cells may stop them, after you have them scat- 

 tered through the two stories. It will help the matter no little 

 if you have an entrance to each story, or in some way ventila- 

 tion between the two stories, and even ventilation at the top. 



2. If you mean to cut the honey out of the frames, it would 

 not do very well. More likely you mean to extract, and in 

 that case it will be all right. Honey in new combs is a little 

 whiter after being extracted, but there isn't a big difference, 

 and generally it would not be noticed. 



3. Don't try to smoke bees into sections. Even if you 

 forced them up with smoke they wouldn't stay there. Don't 

 try to drive them ; coax them. Put in the super a section that 

 has been already partly filled. If you have none of that kind, 

 cut out a piece of comb from a brood-frame and fasten in the 

 section. A piece of drone-comb will do, and if it has drone- 

 brood in it they'll be more sure to go at once. 



4. Better do the other way. 



5. Of course it will hinder a little, but with plenty of room 

 inside they may stand it all right. 



6. I'm a little afraid you're fixing to get into trouble, with 

 the idea that after you've taken away the old queen with a 

 quart of bees the colony will not try to swarm again. They 

 surely will, and with a young queen. Better not try your plan 

 on more than one colony, for you'll not be likely to like it. 



7. Yes, Dr. J. P. Murdock has a strain of bees that are 

 larger than common, and I think it is in Cuba they complain 

 that bees get too large for ordinary perforated zinc. If I had 

 that colony, I think I'd manage to let them get along without 

 perforated zinc, giving them abundance of room. 



8. It depends on what your arrangements are. If you 

 have board covers like many others, that leave only a quarter 

 of an inch or so between the section and the cover, there's no 

 need of any mat. If there's an inch or so of space between 

 the sections and the cover, the mat will probably be necessary, 

 but in some cases they might do all right without it. 



9. It is well not to disturb bees unnecessarily, but some 

 of our best bee-keepers think it pays well to disturb enough to 

 cut out queen-cells. 



10. They may. 



11. Probably they do, if there's room enough. There 

 ought to be only J^-inch between top-bar and sections, and 

 even then they may build some. 



12. There's no sure way. If they hang out and are Idle 



