486 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Aug 



1899. 



they will ball their own queen after she has been layinj,'- a 

 year. In such cases it is perhaps to protect the queen, and 

 it is possible they may have had no evil intent with regard 

 to your queen. When you open a hive and find the bees 

 balling- a queen that they have before treated peaceably, 

 the best thing is to close the hive promptly, and generally 

 there will be no more trouble. 



Extracting from the Brood-Chamber. 



We are having a good flow of alfalfa honey — brood- 

 chambers full and all in the supers. I have taken off some. 

 How would it do to extract from brood-frames about the 

 time the fall flow from hearfs-ease begins ? The bees aver- 

 aged 50 pounds last fall of this dark honey. Would you 

 take all the honey out ? Will I run any risk of starving the 

 bees? Your kind of splints on foundation for frames are 

 all'rig ht. No sagging now. Kansas. 



'Sz Answer. — Whether the bees would get enough for win- 

 ter from the fall flow you can only judge bj- past j-ears. If 

 you extract their white honey from the brood-combs, you 

 must be ready to feed in case thej' don't get enough from 

 the dark honey. 



Glad you like the splints. They certainly work better 

 for me than wires. But I find it doesn't do to give them to 

 weak nuclei, which take time to gnaw out the sticks. With 

 ajfull flow, in a strong colony, they are built out beautifullv. 



Colony with Laying Workers. 



I had a queen that patcht her eggs and had drone-brood 

 mixt all about with the worker. I pincht her head. Then 

 I gave them a frame with three sealed queen-cells ; a week 

 after that I found they had destroyed the cells and were 

 rearing a queen. I cut the cell out. The next day I hived 

 an afterswarm, which I supposed had a virgin queen. All 

 seemed to be lovely for another week, when I found no 

 traces of a queen, laying worker, or anything of the kind. 

 Then I gave them a fine frame of comb with brood and 

 eggs. I then took the measles myself, and left them to 

 their fate for 15 days. Now they have drone-brood stuck 

 all about thru the hive. What was the matter with them ? 



Indian Territory. 



Answer. — The queen was lost in some way, most likeh- 

 on her wedding-trip, and then laying workers set up busi- 

 ness. The best way is to break up the colony and give it to 

 others. You can start a new colony more easily than j-ou 

 can get into proper working order a colony in which laj'ing 

 workers have been doing business for some time. 



Early Italianizing Deep Entrances— Preventing the 

 Return of Bees After Moving. 



1. In this part of California the bees are all hybrids, 

 and I expect some Italian queens from Eastern breeders 

 this season. Next spring I wish to get as many Italian 

 mated queens into my apiarj- as possible without too much 

 expense. The climate is verj- mild here. Can I, early next 

 spring, feed to stimulate these Italian colonies so they will 

 be strong, and part of them have drones before the hybrids 

 have got so far along ? Then re-queen the others, aiid get 

 the queens out and mated before the hvbrid drones are out 

 of the comb ? They can mate earlv here, so far as the 

 weather is concerned. It seems to me that if I manage 

 rightly I ought to he able to get as pure Italians as the 

 breeders could produce, without much expense and trouble. 



2. I have known it stated that queenless bees will draw 

 out a queen-cell wherever you bruise the comb with a knife- 

 blade under an egg or larvas. Is this your experience with 

 Italian bees ? I will put one cell in each queenless colony. 



3. It having been settled by experience during the past 

 year that a deep entrance to a hive overcomes many draw- 

 backs, the next move is to obtain it. I have seen many 

 ways mentioned but I never run across this plan : Take 16- 

 inch shingles and cut them into strips "s-inch wide and 

 place one or more (butts out) on each side of the entrance, 

 as per the desired depth. The bees then can run up the 

 sides or go the rear end, then climb up. The expense of 

 fixing a hive is scarcely nothing, and not one bee-keeper in 

 a hundred but has shingles lying about the place. 



4. When I have occasion to move a colon)- of bees I 

 have had success in preventing them from returning to the 



old place, by smoking them quite freelj- when they are 

 coming out after removing the obstruction. Bees seldom 

 leave their home when anything of this kind is too numer- 

 ous, and I think in the meantime they discover the change 

 in the location. California. 



Answers. — 1. Your plan may not succeed as well as 

 you anticipate, but it will probably do a good deal better 

 than to leave matters entirely' to their own course. Draw 

 brood from the hybrid colonies to strengthen the best Ital- 

 ians, then furnish plenty of drone-comb, and with feeding 

 you ought to anticipate considerably the dark drones. 



If you want to take the trouble, later on in the season, 

 you might try a plan given in the Canadian Bee Journal. 

 Furnish the nuclei that have your virgin queens with plenty 

 drones of the desired kind. Put the nucleus in the cellar, 

 and after drones in the apiary have ceast to fly, set out the 

 nucleus. If the queen fails to mate, put the nucleus back in 

 the cellar and try it again the next day. 



2. I've tried it, but with no great success. Unless you 

 know for sure that the one cell j'ou give is a good one, it is 

 better to allow several and trust to the bees to retain the 

 best. If you give a full colony more than one cell, of course 

 the colony may swarm, but it's better to rear the queens in 

 nuclei. 



3. That's an excellent waj- to enlarge the front entrance 

 and leave the other three sides closed, but I'd rather have 

 all four sides open. The bees don't seem to have anj- 

 trouble climbing up. 



4. I think that's an original plan, and I don't see why 

 it may not be good. A common way is to put a board in 

 front as an obstruction, but a wall of smoke may be a good 

 deal better. 



Loose or Tight Bottom-Boards Wedges in Place of 

 Division-Boards. 



1. Ought Langstroth dovetailed hives to be nailed to 

 the bottom-boards or left loose ? 



2. Can I without hurt to the bees take out the division- 

 boards and substitute wedges to facilitate the removal of 

 the frames which are so tightly stuck together that I have 

 trouble removing them ? My frames are the Langstroth- 

 spacing kind. Virginia. 



Answers. — 1. After trying both ways on a large scale, 

 I wouldn't have mine nailed for a good deal of monej-. 

 Often it is desirable to have one storj' above another, and 

 you are blockt from anything of that kind if the bottoms 

 are nailed fast. I don't know that any one nails the bot- 

 toms on dovetailed hives. When I want a bottom fast to a 

 hive, as I do in hauling, I fasten it with staples, which can 

 easily be drawn out. 



2. If you are in a place where propolis is bad and have 

 self-spacing frames of the Hoffman kind, I'm sorry for )'ou. 

 Putting in wedges in place of dummies would only help 

 temporariU'. The bees would lengthen out the cells of the 

 outside frame so there would be no extra room. I have 

 some frames of that kind, and I've -taken out the dummy 

 and allowed the frames all to spread a little further apart. 

 But I don't want any more frames of that kind where prop- 

 olis is plentv. 



#-•-* 



Number of Extracting-Frames Putting Supers 

 on Swarms. 



1. Do you use as many extracting frames for a super as 

 there are brood-frames below ? 



2. Will not placing supers from the old hive on the 

 swarm immediately after being hived cause them to neglect 

 drawing out the foundation in the brood-frames ? I have 

 two in that condition, and I have taken off some full sec- 

 tions from each. Ai..\bam.\. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, I've spaced frames the same in the 

 super as in the brood-chamber, vphen working for extracted 

 honey. I think that is the practice of the majoritj-. Some 

 prefer greater spacing in the super, as with deeper cells the 

 queen is not so likely to lay in the super, but it is probablj- 

 best in any case to use excluders so the queen can't get up. 



2. They may go to work more promptly in the brood- 

 chamber if there is nothing above, but that is not generally 

 considered, for super work is more desired than brood-rear- 

 ing. But if you want to make sure of the work commencing 

 more promptly below, you can follow the plan of those who 

 do not put on the supers until two or three days after hiving. 



