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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 28, 



in the same as the workers. Does he carry nectar the same? 

 If not, wliy should he act as he does, and remain away as iong 

 as if he were at worli ? And when he returns he remains in 

 the hive about the same length of time as the worlcprs do. 



New York. 

 Answers. — 1. Yes, I'd cut them apart and straiRhten the 

 combs in the frames. Don't have any frame that you can't 

 lift out separate from every other frame. 



2. They will do just about the same as if they had not 

 been transferred, altho in some cases the transferring would 

 have some eflect toward preventing swarming. 



3. The great probability is that the queen is in the hive 

 with the bees. In hiving natural swarms, the queen is allowed 

 to run in with the rest, and it is a rare thing that the queen is 

 seen, and also a rare thing that she is lost. 



3. A drone never gathers nectar from the flowers. He 

 goes out and exercises to work up an appetite, then goes into 

 the hive and takes a lunch. I don't know why that drone 

 times his trips like a worker. 



Sliiny Bce§ — Uoncy-Deiv for Winter. 



1. I notice in two of my colonies a good many sleek, shiny- 

 looking bees, usually about eight or ten about the entrance, 

 and on lifting out the frames I find a good many on them. 

 The healthy bees are hard at work all the time endeavoring to 

 force these sleek looking ones out of the hive. They look as 

 if they might have been dipt in oil, and seem to be smaller 

 than other bees. I can detect nothing wrong Inside of the hive. 



2. Our crop so far has been almost altogether honey-dew, 

 making a very dark honey of a disagreeable flavor. My crop 

 will not exceed 800 pounds from 56 colonies, unless a good 

 fall flow helps us out. The brood-chambers are full of this 

 honey-dew. Will the bees winter well on It ? Virginia. 



Answers. — 1. Occasionally one or more such bees as you 

 describe may be found In different colonies, and no special im- 

 portance need be attacht to the fact. They have lost their 

 plumage, and that makes them look black, and also smaller. 

 A chicken looks smaller when all its feathers are pluckt. If 

 the number is large in a colony, and if the diseased bees have 

 a tremulous motion. It Is probably bee-paralysis. In the North 

 this seldom amounts to much, but it becomes a very serious 

 matter in the South. Very many remedies have been offered, 

 each one saying his own remedy succeeds while the others fail, 

 and that's about equivalent to saying that, as yet, no certain 

 remedy has been found. 



2. Some kinds of honey-dew will do well for wintering, 

 but perhaps in most cases it is rather bad, especially if It is 

 very dark. 



Cro^l and Crooked Combs. 



I have several colonies of bees in dovetail hives that have 

 badly crost and crooked combs. Would you advise me to pre- 

 pare new hives, by fllliug self-spacing frames with full sheets 

 of foundation, and transfer all such colonies into new hives, 

 and then put a queen-excluding zinc sheet on top of the new 

 hive, and set the old hive with its unhatcht brood on top of the 

 new, In order that all the young bees may be hatcht and 

 reared, and not be destroyed ? 



Or, would it be best to place the old hive at the bottom, 

 after the queen is secured in the new top hive, as then the 

 bees might still hatch the young brood out. and remove all the 

 honey in these crooked combs Into the top story ? and then, 

 after all the brood Is hatcht in the lower story, and no eggs be 

 deposited In it (the queen being at the top) I could remove the 

 old lower story, and melt the crooked combs. Virginia. 



Answer. — The first question is, whether it may not be 

 possible with a little cutting to get the combs, or at least part 

 of them, separate and straightened in the frames. If the case 

 is so bad that this is not possible, then perhaps you will find 

 very little difference In the two ways you mention. If you put 

 the old combs above, you'll find more hooey In them. If you 

 put them below, you'll find more pollen In them. If you don't 

 object to having the honey in the old combs, perhaps it will 

 suit the bees better to have the old combs above. 



Labels on Sections. — Instead of having the very whitest 

 sections, G. K. Hubbard favors using a cheaper grade and 

 pasting labels on top of each section. Looks just as well on 

 opening a case, gives as good satisfaction, and helps adver- 

 tise. — Gleanings. 



An Important Item in Moving Bees, the editor of the 

 American Bee-Keeper says, is to have always a bit of cotton- 

 batting ready to close promptly any leak that may occur. 

 When bees are confined, he says they will take salt water more 

 readily than fresh. 



Activity of Italians. — H. Kuhn says, in L'Aplculteur, 

 that be is convinced the Italians are more active than the 

 blacks. In the evening he set the bees at work on some frames 

 with a little honey not far from the apiary. His own bees 

 (blacks) stopt work at sunset, but Italians that came from an 

 apiary more than a quarter of a mile away kept at work till It 

 was completely dark. The same thing was repeated the next 

 day with the same result. 



Top Ventilation in Summer. — Dr. Miller, in Gleanings, 

 favors top ventilation in hot weather. It will not do to have 

 an opening close to the sections, as that hinders the sealing of 

 those nearest the openings, but he would at least have an 

 opening to each story whenever a colony occupied with brood 

 more than one story. The editor thinks that top ventilating, 

 like spreading the brood in spring, is one of the fine arts that 

 beginners may do well not to meddle with. 



Skylark's Big Yield. — J. M. Hambaugh gives. In Glean- 

 ings, a sketch of J. P. Israel (Skylark,) who is now 75 and 

 wide awake; and relates that in 1882, Mr. Israel increast 50 

 colonies to 101, and the next year decreast them to 16, a bad 

 boy helping the decrease by robbing the bees and starting the 

 bees to robbing. In 1884 he increast the 16 to 69, and har- 

 vested 10,592 pounds of comb honey In 2-pound sections — ao 

 average of 662 pounds to the colony, spring count! 



Value ofTJnfinisht Sections. — W. Z. Hutchinson esteems 

 them highly at the beginning of the honey harvest. If the 

 harvest comes in a flood the difference is not so noticeable, but 

 when it comes slowly the bees, especially if Italians, are loth 

 to commence In the supers, crowding the brood-nest with 

 honey. He says: "A super of partly-drawn combs at the 

 opening of the harvest has proved nearly as valuable to me as 

 a super of completed sections." — American Bee-Keeper. 



When to Unite Weak Colonies. — G. M. Doolittle says he 

 has found it not a good plan to unite weak colonies In spring. 

 The excitement of uniting results in using up more rapidly the 

 old bees, and the united colony gets through no better than 

 either of the weaklings singly. So he lets them alone till some 

 grow to five frames of brood. A frame of brood is taken from 

 one of these and given, not to the weakest, but to one of those 

 having four frames of brood. A week later he takes a frame 

 from each five-brooder and gives to a three-brooder. When alt 

 are built up to five brood each, he takes four frames of brood 

 with adhering bees from one colony and aUernates it with the 

 frames of another colony, thus making a strong colony with 

 nine frames of brood, that will give a good account of Itself in 

 the supers. 



How to Find Queens — G. M. Doolittle gives, in Glean- 

 ings, the following specific instructions for finding a prolific 

 queen, based on a theory that it may be Interesting for others 

 to confirm or refute : 



"To find a prolific queen, look for her between the hours 

 of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., on one of the two outside combs of the 

 brood-nest; for It Is my belief, after 25 years of practical ob- 

 servation, that most queens have a certain route (there are i. 

 few exceptions,) which they go over every 24 hours, the queen 

 being near the center of the brood-nest at midnight, when the 

 temperature at the outside of the cluster of bees is coolest, 

 and from there travels In her egg-laylug toward the outside of 

 the cluster till noon, when she commences to return, reaching 



