April 6, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOUKNAL 



215 



ing other divisions, thus saving a good deal of time. One way to 

 do is as follovps: 



Take from the hire two frames of brood with adhering bees 

 and the queen, put them in an empty hive on a new stand, filling 

 up each hive with empty combs or frames full of foundation. 

 Eight or ten days later let the two hives swap places. Now divide 

 the queenless hive into three or more parts, depending upon its 

 strength, making nuclei out of it, and making sure that eflch 

 nucleus has one or more queen-cells. To divide up the cells prop- 

 erly, it may be necessary to cut out some of them and nail them 

 on the surface of the brood with a heavy pin or perhaps better a 

 wire nail an inch or more long. Of course the nail must not run 

 through the part of the cell that would interfere with the apart- 

 ment of the queen. As soon as a queen is found laying in one of 

 these nuclei, you can make it into a full colony. Go to one of the 

 colonies you want to divide, take away from it half its combs with 

 adhering bees, and give to the nucleus. Then brush off the bees 

 from all but two of the remaining combs, and after these combs 

 are brusht add them to the nucleus. Be sure you don't take away 

 the queen. You have now left in the old hive the queen, two 

 combs of brood, and you will fill up with empty combs or frames 

 of foundation. There is also a fair supply of bees there, and this 

 number of bees will be strengthened within the next two days by 

 field-bees returning from the nucleus. This is a good way to 

 double your number of colonies, but of course you'll not get the 

 yield of honey you would if the bees were left without dividing or 

 swarming. You can get along somewhat faster by buying queens. 

 Whether that will pay depends somewhat upon how anxious you 

 are and how plenty money is. 



4. They must be strong iu bees, and the lower story must have 

 all its frames filled either with brood or honey. 



b. Yes. that was all right if working for extracted honey. For 

 comb honey it isn't usually necessary. You will hardly find any 

 of the perforated zinc sold by reputable dealers with perforations 

 so small as to make trouble. 



U. You may as well have the frames filled with foundation to- 

 gether. 



7. It will work very well if the bees start cells, which they may 

 not always do. 



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Bees Wintering in a Garret. 



I stored my eight colonies in a garret, and the mice have cap- 

 tured one colony already, so I have set about trapping them. The 

 rest seem to be very uneasy, altho the room is as dark as can be, 

 yet the bees keep coming out, and I fear many never return. 

 What causes this uneasiness, and what is the remedy ? They are 

 in common hives. How soon will it be safe to place them out- 

 doors ? All of these mistakes were the result of not beginning in- 

 telligently. New York. 



Answer. — Probably no one has succeeded in keeping bees in a 

 garret. Too cold, and in mild weather they can't fly. Set them 

 on the summer stands the first day it comes so they can fly, say 4.5 

 degrees or warmer, when the sun is shining. 



Keeping Empty Combs for Swarms. 



I examined the bees today, and found one dead colony. I am 

 sure they had no disease, but they were few in numbers and unable 

 to endure the cold. I am feeding the honey left, back to another 

 colony. The combs contain a tew small patches of brood which of 

 course perisht with the older bees. Will it be safe to use those 

 combs again next summer ? I should like to hive one of my early 

 swarms on them, if there is no danger of disease from the pollen 

 and dead larva^. If my method of feeding out the honey and sav- 

 ing the combs for a new swarm next summer is not correct, what 

 is a better way to do ? Massachusetts. 



An><wer. — You're all right. But the sooner those combs are 

 put in charge of bees the better. Set the hive containing them 

 under some colony till needed to use for the swarm. That will 

 keep them free from the worms, and the bees will clean them up 

 so they will be sweet and nice for the swarm. 



Spring Requeening and Other auestions. 



1. How early in the season will it be advisable in this locality 

 to introduce a queen ? That is, requeen a colony ? 



2. How soon after swarming does the young queen usually 

 emerge from the cell ? 



3. For comb honey, is it best to hive a new swarm on full 

 sheets of foundation, or starters ? 



4. Is it advisable to put in one or two frames of honey with the 

 foundation in an S-frame hive ? I have been advised by old bee- 

 keepers to do so. 



5. Having no extractor, what is the best way to dispose of 

 honey left by a dead colony ' When the swarm has died from 

 diarrhea, should the frames of honey and the hive be fumigated 

 before using again ? Maine. 



Answers.— 1. Not before fruit-bloom. 



3. About a week. If. however, the weather happens to be bad 

 at the time the prime swarm is ready to come ofl", it may be de- 

 layed, and in that case the queen may emerge from her cell in less 

 time than a week after the swarm issues. 



3. The majority probably favor full sheets. Some favor hiving 



on a limited number of frames (perhaps four or five) having only 

 starters, and some two weeks later filling out with frames filled 

 with foundation. 



4, That depends. If honey is coming in at a lively rate it may 

 not be desirable; if a bad spell of weather should occur, it might 

 be of very great advantage to have some honey on hand. 



5. They're worth good money to feed to other colonies. There 

 isn't one case in fifty that a colony doesn't use up its honey so as 

 to have some empty combs before fruit-bloom. Take out these 

 empty combs and replace with combs of honey from the colonies 

 that died. No need to fumigate them ; if the frames are very badly 

 daubed, scrape them off, the bees will do the rest of the cleaning. 



Feeding in tlie Spring. 



In early spring, when bees have a prospect for a flight at least 

 five or six times per week, would you advise feeding them liipieflnl 

 sugar if they are n'r>i short on stores ? If so, in what proportions 

 should the mixture be made '. If not, what should be fed ? 



Kansas. 



Answ'er. — If very short of stores, they should certainly be fed, 

 whether they can fly or not, for nothing can be worse than utter 

 starvation. The very best thing is to give them combs of sealed 

 honey. If, however, they can fly five or six times a week, there 

 ought to be no trouble in feeding sugar syrup. When they are 

 flying almost daily it doesn't matter such a great deal as to the 

 proportions of sugar and water, three parts water to five parts 

 sugar making a very good syrup, and those parts may be by weight 

 or by measure. 



^ • » 



Brood-Ctiambers Full of Honey. 



I started last spring with six colonies, two of them on 4-frames 

 each and increast to 10 and got 458 pounds of comb honey, which I 

 think is good for this part of the desert. 



My bees filled the brood-chamber last fall; I weighed some of 

 them to-day, and they weighed from ,50 to 55 pounds each. They are 

 in S-frame hives, the hives weighing about '35 pounds, thus leaving 

 35 to 30 pounds of honey, and this is March 10. By April 30 there 

 will be plenty of honey coming in, so they must have a surplus. 

 What is the best to do with it, cut it out and put in frames of foun- 

 dation, or leave it where it is and let the bees do as they please 

 with it ? Kansas. 



Answer.— They'll use a lot of honey before they gather any. 

 Better let alone, unless you find the queen crowded for room to lay, 

 then take out a frame. 



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Spraying Fruit-Trees Rearing Queens. 



1. Do the poisons sprayed on fruit-trees have any effect on 

 bees, such as Paris green or London purple ? In the spring of 1898 

 my 54 colonies came out in good shape, and were very strong until 

 after fruit-bloom, then they kept getting weaker, and many of 

 them died. I laid it to the poisons sprayed. 



3. Will bees sometimes rear a queen from a worker-egg, or is 

 there no difference in the eggs when first laid ? Union Hill. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, it trees are sprayed at the time of bloom- 

 ing, the bees that work on them will be poisoned. But nowadays 

 no intelligent fruit-grower sprays trees when in bloom. It can 

 have no effect in preventing the fruit from being wormy, but it 

 does have an injurious effect upon the fruit crop. The number of 

 States is increasing in which it is made a criminal act to spray 

 fruit-trees when in bloom. 



3. Yes. bees can rear a queen from an egg laid in a worker- 

 cell, such an egg being the same as one laid in a queen-cell. 



One Neighbor Killing Another's Bees. 



What can I do to save my bees ? My neighbor got some bees 

 last spring and gave them old comb from some dead bees all over 

 his yard. He has his bees under a shed and mine go there and rob 

 his on nice days. He closes his hives in the morning, and kills my 

 bees that go there all day. Can I do anything to stop him, and 

 how ? Minn. 



Answer. — It's just a little doubtful whether you need do any- 

 thing. It is quite possible that he is killing more of his own bees 

 than of yours. If he closes his hives so your bees cannot enter, 

 your bees will soon give it up as a bad job, and he is killing off a 

 good many of his bees by shutting them in the hives on nice days. 

 Perhaps it might not be a bad plan for you to try a counter at- 

 traction for your bees by putting sugar syrup out for them to 

 work on. If you can clearly prove that he is enticing your bees 

 and killing them, you may have recourse in a court of justice. If 

 the trouble becomes very serious you may be sure of assistance by 

 calling on the Bee-Keepers' Union or the Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, providing, you are a member, but if you are not already a 

 member it will do no good, for you can't obtain membership if in 

 trouble in advance. You have done a very wise thing if you have 

 secured membership in advance, for no bee-keeper can tell when 

 he may need help, and the triHiug amount of a dollar a year is as 

 good as insurance, besides helping your own and the interests of 

 other bee-keepers by putting down adulteration. 



