438 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



July 13, 1899. 



CONDUCTED BY 



• DR. C. C. J11JLJ,EH, A/areng-o, I". 



[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.] 



Probably Superseding the Queen. 



I have a prime swarm of black bees, hived June 9, that 

 insist on storing- qtieen-cells at a livel)' rate, something I 

 have never seen before. What is the matter with them ? 

 I have been cutting them out as fast as they btiild them. Is 

 that right ? Illinois. 



Answers. — The bees probably want to supersede their 

 queen. If you would keep close watch of the matter you 

 would probably find that about one otit of three of your 

 swarms supersedes its queen some time after swarming. In 

 other words, every queen, in the normal course of affairs, 

 is superseded before she dies, and altho occasionally this 

 superseding may be before swarming-time, it is usually 

 after. If queens average a life of three years, that makes 

 about a third of them to be superseded every year. 



Separating Wax from Honey. 



I have bought several hundred pounds of "chunk 

 honey " from the farmers here, and wish to separate the 

 wax from the honey. 



1. How can I render it in the most economical manner, 

 and with the least trouble ? 



2. If in the solar extractor, how shall I make it so that 

 the hot sun will not injure the honey in melting the wax ? 



Georgia. 



Answers. — 1. Probably the solar extractor will fill the 

 bill as well as anything. 



2. Partially shade the extractor, so there will be merely 

 heat enough to melt. Perhaps a thin cloth hung over 

 will effect it. By a little experimenting you will settle on 

 the right thing. It may be well to empty the extractor fre- 

 quently, for the long-continued heat is bad for the honey. 

 Pour out the melted wax and honey, and let it cool and sep- 

 arate outside the extractor. 



Queen Flying After Introducing Drones Flying Before 

 the First Swarm. 



1. I sent for an ttntested queen and put her into a small 

 hive with hatching brood, and in a week or two I let the 

 bees out, and in a day or so more I saw the queen out flying 

 around. She kept on for a week. Why ? 



2. Do drones hatch out and fly before the first swarm 

 issues ? New York. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. Sometimes a nucleus 

 with a laying queen will swarm out for no apparent reason 

 except the weakness of the nucleus, but they don't tisually 

 go back so many times. If the queen was unfertilized the 

 bees might have gone with her on her wedding-flight. 



2. Oh, yes ; drones may fly out, plenty of them, long be- 

 fore any swarm. Indeed, you are not likely to see a swarm 

 without plenty of drones first. 



An Unusual Case of Swarming. 



Did you ever have an experience like this ? June 14 I 

 hived a very large swarm of bees in an 11-frame dovetail 

 hive. A neig-libor indicated the hive she thought the swarm 

 came from, and altho I thought there were a large number 

 of flying bees for a colony that had cast so large a swarm, 

 I removed the old hive to a new stand, and put the new one 

 in its place that evening. At noon the next day the hive 

 was so crowded that I put a super on it, which before night 



was full of bees. On the 18th (Sunday) I hived another very 

 large swarm, and in looking to see if I could find where it 

 came from (I was not out when they swarmed), I discovered 

 that they undoubtedly came from the colony hived on the 

 14th. I thought of course they had swarmed out, but on ex- 

 amination I fotind a good, fair-sized colony left in the hive, 

 four frames of eggs, six or eight of them in queen-cells. 

 They were hived on 11 full combs. Colorado. 



Answer. — No, I never had an experience of the kind, 

 and altho I think I have read of such a thing it is z'ety un- 

 usual for a swarm to send out a swarm four days after being 

 hived. It is quite possible that you made a mistake as to 

 the colony from which the first swarm issued, and as in that 

 case you would put the swarm in place of a strong colony 

 that had not swarmed, your swarm would be very much 

 stronger than if you had put the swarm in the place of the 

 colon v from which the swarm had issued. 



Small Bee with the Hive-Bees. 



I see a small bee working with regular worker-bees, not 

 over half their size, or considerably smaller than the small- 

 est young bees of the hive. An old bee-keeper I askt about 

 them says they deposit their honey in a mullein-stalk, and 

 that they have a sting. They are about the color of a hy- 

 brid, or nearer the color of Italian than the black bee with 

 (not bright) yellow bands. Do they die out every year like 

 wasps? Massachusetts. 



Answer.- — You say you see them " working with regu- 

 lar worker-bees," but that may mean in the hive or out of 

 the hive. If you mean they are in the hive, then they are 

 dwarfs of the regular hive-bee, made dwarfs, probably, be- 

 cause the comb in which they were reared was bent or 

 crowded in some way so that the young- bees in the cells 

 hadn't room enough. Such a thing may happen on rare oc- 

 casions in any hive, and no dwarfs afterward be found in 

 the same colony. 



If you mean you see them working with regular work- 

 ing-bees out on the flowers, then they may be wild bees, of 

 which there are a great many kinds. Most of them have 

 stings, and die off like wasps and bumble-bees, a fresh col- 

 ony being started in the spring with a single female bee. 



Smoking Bees— Large Colonies. 



1. As my bees are very bad fighters, shall I smoke therti 

 at the entrance, or how, as the brood-chamber is above two 

 supers with the frames, and I will have to lift it off to get 

 the two supers away from under it ? 



2. Do you smoke bees from the entrance in removing^ 

 sections from the super, or do you smoke from the top ? 



3. I took off 39 pounds this week, of as nice and clear* 

 white clover honey as you ever saw. My bees are working 

 on the blossoms of the cigar tree, and also on the leaves of 

 the mulberry trees. We have plenty of white clover yet, and 

 sweet clover is just coming into blossom nicely. Last sea- 

 son I had one of my hives to cast the largest swarm I ever 

 saw, and I put them back into the parent hive ; they have 

 filled two supers with eight frames and are working nicely 

 in two supers with sections. Would you advise taking away 

 the two supers with the eight frames now, or later on in 

 the fall ? 



4. I have kept my bees from swarming by entrance- 

 guards in front and by returning the swarm to the parent 

 hive, and giving them plenty of room in the supers. I d& 

 not know how the brood-chamber is on any of them, as my 

 bees are so cross I cannot handle them without they go for 

 everybody around the place, even for the chickens (my 

 hives are on a bench two feet from the ground) so I do not 

 bother them any more than I can help. My father's bees 

 are very gentle (and my bees are the swarms from his colo- 

 nies), and his can be handled any way even by me, so I da 

 not think it my fatilt on account of hard handling, as I am 

 very careful. My father keeps his bees in the city, which 

 may account for their gentleness. 



5. What is the price of a bee-escape by mail ? 



6. My father allowed one of his colonies to swarm to- 

 day, because he thought there were too many bees in the 

 hive. Don't you advise keeping them as large as possible, 

 and get better results in the sections ? I told him I thought 

 so, any way, from what I had read. M.ahyland. 



Answers. — 1. From what you say about your bees, the 

 probability is that you may need to give them smoke wher- 



