May 18, 1899. 



AMExRICAiN BEE JOURNAL 



311 



• Nl'lXTEr* BV 



DR. C. C. JUILLEXt. a/arengro, 111. 



[The Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail. — Editor.] 



Using Combs of Granulated Honey. 



Do you mean, when you say put the brood-fratne yrith 

 granulated honey that one finds in the winter-killed colo- 

 nies under strong colonies, that you take the hive of the 

 strong colony off its bottom-board, put the hive with the 

 granulated honey on it, and then set the one with the bees 

 rig'ht on the frames without cover or bottom-board between 

 them ? I had ISO colonies die last summer with lots of 

 honey in their hives ; I think it must have been honey-dew. 

 This is the first year I ever lost more than two or three col- 

 onies. C.\RY. 



Answer. — Yes, you have it exactly straight. The idea 

 is to have the combs where the bees will readily get at them 

 to take care of them. You may have no entrance directly 

 to the upper story, forcing- the bees to go thru the lower 

 story to get to the upper one. or you may allow an entrance 

 between the two stories. In some cases I have given a col- 

 ony two, and even three, hives full of combs to take care of. 

 If no honey is comitig in yoti inust be on the lookout for 

 robbers when combs are first given, if there is honey in 

 them. 



Perhaps Two Queens in One Hive. 



The first really warm day we had this spring, about the 

 first of April, and the first day that the bees were out plen- 

 tifully, a neighbor came to me and said a swarm of bees 

 was on his fence about 200 yards away. As I started to go 

 to see them I met them coming to my yard. They clustered 

 at the root of a gooseberry bush. I examined them and 

 found a queen, but for some reason she evidently could not 

 fly. As the swarm was so small, and no bloom yet out, I 

 put the queen on top the frames of the hive from which I 

 thought she came, but soon I found her on the grass in a 

 butich of bees. I decapitated her. All my colonies at this 

 time had la3-ing queens in them and some brood. The queen 

 must have been in the hive all winter with a fertile queen. 

 Please explain this. Ilwnois. 



Answer. — If I understand you correctly, each colony 

 had a laying queen without cottnting the queen found in the 

 grass. It is barely possible that the swarm came from 

 some other place, and that the queen could fly before you 

 found her. It is more likeh' that a mother and daug-liter 

 had wintered in the same colonj'. I had a case once in 

 which two queens not related wintered in the same colony. 

 It would be nothing so very strange for two queens to win- 

 ter together, but it seems unusual for one of them to swarm 

 out. 



Wire-End Frame—Saving Queens When Uniting 

 Building Up Weak Colonies. 



1. How is the B. Taylor wire-end frame constructed ? 



2. Is there any way to save the queens of weak colonies 

 ■when united in the spring- ? 



3. In building up weak colonies in the spring, do you 

 wait until the best colonies are real strong- before drawing 

 on them, or do yoti equalize all colonies and try to keep 

 them so till the flow comes ? 



4. Are j'our frames I's inches all around ? Mich. 



Answers. — 1. It would be somewhat difficult to de- 

 scribe so that you would understand without seeing, and 

 my remembrance of it is hardly clear enough to describe it 

 even if you would ttnderstand it. 



One waj- is to put them in cages and place them on top 

 of brood-frames of a colony. There is some danger, hpw- 

 ever, that the queen of the colony may be killed ; at any 

 rate I once put several of them over a colony and the free 

 queen was killed. At other times the queen has not been 

 hurt. 



3. I would never draw from the strongest colonies to 



help the weakest ones. If I do anything in the way of 

 equalizing, it will be to help those that need only a little 

 help. For example, if I have a number of colonies that 

 contain broo<f in seven or eight frames, and from that down 

 to one or two frames, I'll take frames of brood with adher- 

 ing bees from the strong-est, enoug^h to reduce them to five 

 frames of brood, and I'll not give these to the weakest, but 

 give a frame to each colony that has four frames of brood. 

 If there are frames enough to afl'ord it. I may give two 

 frames of brood and bees to a colony that already has three 

 frames. When these are all supplied, the two-framers may 

 get three frames of brood each. The idea is to reduce the 

 strong- ones no lower than five frames of brood each, and to 

 bring up to five brood any colony that is helpt. If two or 

 three frames of brood and bees are given to a weak one. it 

 is better to have them from different colonies — safer for the 

 queen. Of course, one must look out not to take the queen 

 when taking brood and bees. 



4. Yes. I'm not entirely sure that's best, but it's the best 

 I know with my present light. 



Quinby Frame for Queen-Rearing— Hybrids vs. Italians. 



1. Do you think it advisable to use the Ouinby frame in 

 queen-rearing ? If not, why ? 



2. 'ft'hich frame would j()« advise a beginner to adopt — 

 the (Juinby or the Langstroth ? 



3. Are hybrid bees as good as Italians ? Mass. 



Ans-vvers. — 1. Yes, use the same frames you are using 

 in general, whatever they may be. 



2. That's a hard question to answer, and what might be 

 best for one might not be best for another. In late num- 

 bers of this Journal Mr. Dadant and others have shown up 

 the advantages and disadvantages of the different kinds. 

 The kind that has been in most general use and has been 

 most successful in your own neig-hborhood, other things 

 being equal, is the one to adopt. The smaller frames 

 have the advantage of being in more general use, and are 

 easier to move. If your hives are to stand in the same spot 

 from one yeartoatiother, and you are working- for extracted 

 honey, j-ou might consider the Quinby. 



3. The hybrids are as good for work as the Italians, 

 providing they are g-ood hj'brids, for they will work just as 

 industriously, and a cross, making a change of blood, tends 

 to vigor. In some respects the hybrids are inferior. They 

 are crosser, and their progeny will be likely to work back- 

 ward. While the first cross may do as much work as the 

 ptire Italians, the progetiy of the Italians will stand many 

 chances of being crosses, and I'd choose the pure stock 



every time. 



*-•-*.■ 



A Queenless Colony. 



I have a colony that is queenless, and being unable to- 

 get a queen so early in the season, on April 14 I put in two 

 frames of sealed brood and eggs, the lower part of one of 

 which containing drone-comb but no eggs. I cut away, to 

 keep up the streng-th till I could get a queen. On the 16th 

 I lookt in and found two queen-cells begun where I cutaway 

 the drone-comb, but could see nothing in thetn. To-day 

 (23rd) I lookt again and found both cells sealed over — one 

 had a qtieen in the imago form, the eyes just turning pink. 

 But what I wish to ask you is this : There were about a 

 dozen sealed cells amongst the worker-comb which projected 

 far beyond the others, like drone-cells, the pupa; of which 

 were as larg-e as that of a drone. I unfortunately destroyed 

 them, thinking they were queen-cells, since which I have 

 begun to wonder if they could be drones changed by the 

 workers from worker-eggs, which I see from my book some 

 authorities say is possible. If not, what were they ? I am 

 in hopes I have overlookt one or more ; if so I will see w'nat 

 they turn out. B. C. 



Answer. — Very likely they were queen-cells, which are 

 often found projecting very little above the general surface. 

 It is also nothing- very unusual to find an occasional case of 

 drone-brood in worker-cells, for some cause the egg-s not 

 beings fertilized. There is no necessity to resort to the sup- 

 position that the workers changed an egg that would pro- 

 duce a worker into one that would produce a drone ; and if 

 you care for my opinion in the matter I am free to say that 

 I don't believe such a thing- ever happened. I wish you had 

 said in what book you found such a thing mentioned ; I've 

 seen it in papers, but I think never in a book. 



