518 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Aug-. 17, 1899. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Marenffo, III. 



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



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



Doctor to send answers by mail.— Editor.] 



Hardly Foul Brood. 



— I opened the hive of one of my best colonies yesterday, 

 andjfound about a dozen dead larv^ about ready to cap over, 

 some were white, some of natural color, others were all .set- 

 tled back in the cell. Part were a little ropy, without any 

 smell to any of them. I opened other hives, and found now 

 and then a dead larva, probably four or five on some frame.s. 

 On the frame that had the most dead, a worm that lookt like 

 a wire-worm crawled out of the comb. It wasn't a moth- 

 ■worm, for it was very slim. I thoug-ht it might have some- 

 thing to do with the case. Minnesot.\. 



'~r Answer. — Your bees hardlj' have foul brood, but it will 

 do 'no harm to watch the matter closelj'. I don't know what 

 that worm'may be, and don't know whether it has anything 

 to do with- the trouble. 



Queen-Rearing Questions. 



1. Do j'ou think that it will pay me to rear queens 

 next year ? 



2. Please give the best method you know for queen-rear- 

 ing-, and explain it. 



3. How manj' queens do you suppose I would sell in one 

 season ? 



4. How many nuclei should I have ? 



5. What mailing-cag-e is the best ? South Carolin.\. 



Answers. — 1. Doubtful that it will pay you to rear 

 more than enough for your own use, unless you have had a 

 great deal of experience. 



2. Get Doolittle's book on queen-rearing and studv it 

 up in full. 



3. Probablj' very few the first season. A great many 

 are selling queens, many of them well known for yeans, and 

 you would stand rather a poor chance as a stranger. 



4. That would depend altogether on the amount of your 

 business. If you expect to sell 10 a month, you would per- 

 haps need that number of nuclei. 



5. Perhaps the Benton cage. 



A Number of Queens and Queen-Cells in a Colony. 



I had an experience the other day that far surpasses 

 anything- I ever saw, or anj'thing I ever read, tho I will 

 confess that my experience with bees has been very limited. 

 Cl^ In June I discovered a colony of bees in a tree, out in 

 the woods. Not long ago I cut the tree, and brought home 

 that part of the trunk that contained the bees. July 21 this 

 colony swarmed ; after hiving them, I made an attempt to 

 find out what caused them to swarm. Upon investigation 

 I discovered a piece of comb in the trunk of the tree (after 

 splitting it open), about one foot square, that contained 23 

 queen-cells ; and upon further investigation I discovered 10 

 queens, all alive, that were left in the tree, and I do not 

 know how many queens are with the colony now. This in- 

 cident seems to me to be a very remarkable one. It seems 

 to abolish, and up.set, the theory of but one queen to a 

 colony. 



As I have said, my experience has been very limited, 

 and this incident may be a usual occurrence. This colony 

 had just located in the tree last spring. Illinois. 



Answer. — The rule that only one queen is suffered in a 

 hive is subject to exceptions. It is not so very unusual to 

 find two queens laying in the hive at the same time, a 

 mother and a daughter, the mother being about played out. 

 There are also rare cases in which two queens not related 

 will be laying in a hive at the same time. But to find a 



number of virgin queens in a hive at certain times is the 



rule rather than the exception. A number of queen-cells 



are started when bees contemplate swarming, and about 



the time the first one is capt over the prime swarm issues. 



Something like eight days later the first young queen 



emerges from her cell, and if the bees have it in their plans 



to swarm ftirther. no other queen is allowed to issue from 



her cell till the issue of a second swarm. It often happens 



that when all idea of swarming is given up. all the queens 



that are mature enough are allowed to emerge from their 



cells, as in the case you saw. But there will not long be 



more than one of them in the hive, for they will fight till 



onlv one is left. 



^ ■ » 



A Colony Continually Swarming. 



We bought a colony of bees June 4, and about three 

 weeks ago they swarmed. We caught the queen in the trap, 

 and that night I gave them two full frames of brood and 

 two frames already drawn, and filled the rest of the hive 

 with frames and foundation, and ever since they have been 

 swarming once and twice a day. We were very particular 

 in scraping the hive and scalding it out with salt water, so 

 we put them in another hive and gave them a new bottom- 

 board, and still they are the same. They are carrying a 

 little pollen in, but we cannot see they are doing much 

 more. The swarm we got June 4 swarmed again July 23, 

 and they are working very hard. OnT.\rio. 



Answer. — It is quite possible that the two frames of 

 brood are more than they desire, making it seem too much 

 as if they were still in their old hive. If you leave them 

 with no brood or honey they may change their minds. 



Feeding for Winter Stores. 



This year is a very poor one for bee-keepers in this sec- 

 tion of Iowa. Spring opened three weeks later than the 

 average of the past 10 years, but then the continuous warm 

 weather soon made up for the time lost, the trees blooming 

 as early, if not earlier than usual, and colonies that had 

 suffered from the long-continued cold winter did not have 

 time to build up to take full advantage of it. After fruit- 

 bloom the bees were in very good condition, and bj' the 

 time the -ss'ild cherries bloomed many were so populous that 

 extra extracting-supers had to be put on to prevent crowd- 

 ing the brood-nest by the honey coming in. This caused 

 the bees to swarm as early as May 23. and possibly sooner 

 in other places. The honey-flow, however, was cut short 

 by heavy rains and storms. Raspberry yielded some ; bass- 

 wood failed ; white clover was winter-killed, yet an abun- 

 dance of it has grown up, which is promising for nest year. 

 Basswood and white clover are what we mostly depend upon 

 for surplus, and golden-rod frequentlv vields a fair crop in. 

 the fall. 



Until now, the bees could use up all they could gather, 

 and, unless the fall flowers yield suflicient, we shall not 

 have any surplus this year, and may be compelled to feed 

 our bees for winter. I would like to ask for advice, in that 

 case. 



Would you advise feeding sugar syrup, or the cakes rec- 

 ommended by Mr. Abbott ? How would you make these 

 cakes, and of what size ? Iowa County. 



Answer. — The candy cakes are for winter use, and the 

 syrup is the thing for you to feed while the bees are flying. 

 It is true, Mr. Abbott thinks highly of a cake of candy over 

 the frames as a matter of security, but I think he would not 

 want the whole of the winter stores in that shape. Neither 

 would I feed syrup, strictly speaking, but sugar and water, 

 without any cooking. Feed equal parts of sugar and 

 water, either by measure or by weight. The water may be 

 hot or cold. Feed in any way that allows the water to drain 

 down thru the sugar. The Miller feeder is good for this 

 sort of feeding, and so is the crock-and-plate plan. But the 

 feeding must be done early enough so that the bees can 

 properly ripen it. Better get thru witli it as early in Sep- 

 tember as you can. or even in August. 



Please send us Names of Bee-Keepers who do not now 



get the American Bee Journal, and we will send them sam- 

 ple copies. Then you can very likely afterward get their 

 subscriptions, for which work we offer valuable premiums 

 in nearly every number of this journal. You can aid much 

 by sending in the names and addresses when writing us on 

 other matters. 



