THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



331 



Entouiological.— I send by mail a 

 small box containing some wasps and 

 small bees ; also, some cocoons of 

 laivse. The wasps I liave noticed for 

 the past 3 or 4 years. I liave destroyed 

 many of tliem— over 200— since yes- 

 terday morning. Do you think it 

 necessary V Tliey are easily destroyed 

 while about the liives. The small 

 bees first made their appearance this 

 spring. They seem intent on taking 

 the pollen from the legs of the bees, 

 alighting on their backs. 1 have seen 

 them carried into the hives in this 

 way. I <lug the cocoons of larvas 

 from the ground wliere 1 saw ground 

 bees last summer. 



Solomon Vrooman. 



Seward, N. Y. 



[The wasps are very common every- 

 where in the Northern United States. 

 They are indeed the most common of 

 our paper-making species. What 

 house-keeper has not been annoyed by 

 them in the autumn and spring, and 

 what child has not been stung by 

 them during the pop-gun period of its 

 existence V They are insect-eating 

 wasps, and so are really our friends. 

 I have never heard of their eating 

 bees, nor do I think tliey do. 1 should 

 never kill them. I have seen tliem 

 destroy the common and very destruc- 

 tive currant slugs in the summer 

 in extenso. 



The little wild bees are sometimes 

 annoying in tlie spring, and doubtless 

 take some considerable honey. They 

 do not try to enter tlie liives after the 

 honey season commences, so far as I 

 have observed. Those who liave tlie 

 Syrian bees will not be troubled much 

 by these wild bees, or any other rob- 

 bers. The Syrians seem to say prac- 

 tically, to all intruders, " We run this 

 hive."' There are two or three species 

 of the bees, sent by Mr. V., all of 

 which are common. They visit the 

 bees and the hives for the lioney and 

 the pollen.— A. J. Cook.] 



White Clover Prospect Good. —I win- 

 tered my 20 colonies on their summer 

 stands as usual, in which manner I 

 have never lost a colony. 1 com- 

 menced the bee business in 1S77, have 

 always used the movable frame hive, 

 and have never lost a swarm yet. My 

 bees are now in splendid condition, 

 and only one has a faulty q"een. The 

 Syrian queen I wrote of in the 15ee 

 Journal, page 374, 1881, and thought 

 was lost, 1 found in February last 

 wlien I examined my bees. She was 

 in hive No. 13, about 60 feet distant. 

 The former queen in No. 13 was a 

 weak Italian, and worthless. I thought 

 she might live till spring. I was glad 

 to tind her superseded. Bees have 

 bred up very rapidly, the hives being 

 full of brood, and drones Hying when 

 it is warm enough. To day the 

 weather is4(i-, and a drizzling rain. If 

 it keeps on this kind of weatlier many 



more days I fear the bees will run 

 short of lioney. The prospects for 

 white clover is good. 



R. M. OsiiORN. 

 Kane, 111., May 12, 1882. 



A " Played-Ont " Queen.— I send you 

 by this mail a queen that I liave liad 

 nearly two years. She has always 

 been a good, fertile queen until about 

 3 weeks ago, when she commenced 

 laying drone eggs. She would deposit 

 but one egg in a place, in worker cells, 

 but they all hatcli out drones. I put 

 on a feeder and fed them ; also gave 

 them brood from other colonies, but 

 to no avail. I send her to you to dis- 

 sect. How do you account for it? 

 She has always been a good layer. My 

 bees were never in better condition at 

 this time of the year than at present, 

 although we have had a very cold, 

 backward siiring. L. E. Welch. 



Linden, Mich. 



[The queen is undoubtedly old and 

 superannuated, and has become a 

 drone layer. Probably had you given 

 another frame of brood, during a 

 honey flow from fruit, the bees would 

 have reared a young queen, and super- 

 seded this one. We have not the 

 necessary time and facilities for scien- 

 tifically dissecting queens or bees. 

 —Ed.] . 



Intruders. — Yesterday tlie bees flew 

 out of one colony much excited, and 

 settled back on the front of the hive. 

 On examining them I found about 3 

 pints of dead bees, about half inside 

 of the hive and tlie rest around in 

 front of it. I could not see what 

 caused it. There were a few moths 

 enclosed in their cocoons, not much 

 honey, and iileiity of room and bees. 

 When I opened the hive I saw a black 

 bug in the super carrying a dead bee. 

 but would have thought nothing of 

 that under other circumstances, and 

 do not think it caused the trouble. 

 The bug was about as large as a 

 queen bee ; head lialf as large, abdo- 

 men a little larger and flat. Tell me 

 what caused my bees to light and kill 

 each otlierV .lonN Watson, Jr. 



Danville, 111., May 15, 1882. 



[We think a natural or abnormal 

 swarm attempted to invade the hive, 

 and was repelled by the bees belong- 

 ing there. It may be, however, rob- 

 bers caused the disturbance, but they 

 would hardly have settled on the 

 front.— Ed.] 



Extracted Honey.- We have had 

 many excellent articles on running 

 an apiary for comb honey, by Messrs. 

 Doolittle, Ileddon and others, in 

 wliicli all tlie details of tlie business 

 have been very carefully and elabor- 

 ately described. These chapters have 

 been very useful and entertaining; 

 but very little, comparatively, is writ- 

 ten on the management of an apiary 

 run exclusively for extracted honey. 

 It would doubtless prove an interest- 

 ing variety to the readers of the Bee 



Journal to have a few chapters on 

 running an apiary exclusively for ex- 

 tracting, with all the minutia' that 

 has been used in describing the best 

 practices for securing comb honey. 

 The best frame and hive to use where 

 extracting is the leading feature of 

 the apiary — in a word, all the modus 

 operandi. A few jiapers on this 

 branch of a|)iculture would prove a 

 pleasant variety with the comb honey 

 practices, and hair splitting theories, 

 which the readers of bee literature 

 have been so indulged with. 

 Highlands, N. C. E. E. Ewing. 



Various Matters.— I would like to 

 ask a few questions: 1. How can I 

 keep the queen out of the section V 

 Mine are coming up in the sections — a 

 few, at least, on nearly all the hives. 

 I give them y inch between the sec- 

 tions and brood frames. Found a few 

 sections half full of drone brood. 2. 

 How long can bees, after swarming, 

 live without food ? One week ago 

 was nice, and I had several swarms 

 come out ; they were hived on founda- 

 tion, and since then it has been cold, 

 cloudy, and raining so they could not 

 go in search of food. I got uneasy 

 yesterday and went to feeding. 3. 

 When two swarms are hived to- 

 gether, will they usually stay ; 4. and 

 would it be best to put on sections on 

 such hives at once V I have two such 

 that All the lower story of the Langs- 

 troth hive altogether too full of bees. 

 We have had a week of remarkable 

 weather for May ; people were wear- 

 ing overcoats all the week. 



D. W. Bellemey. 



Vienna, III., May 14, 1882. 



[1. Extract all the honey from the 

 brood chamber, and use only worker 

 foundation in the boxes. 



2. They should be fed within 24 

 hours after swarming, if weather is 

 unfavorable for gathering honey. 



3. Yes, if one queen is removed. 



4. No, not until the foundation is 

 well drawn out below. — Ed.] 



Convention at (irand Rapids. Midi. 



— What became of the Bee Conven- 

 tion to be held at Grand Rapids 

 April 26, 27 V I was there but could 

 not find any meeting of bee-keepers ; 

 neitlier have I seen any report of it 

 published. B."Dickinson. 



[We do not know ; perhaps the Sec- 

 retary, Mr. W. M. S. Dodge, Coopers- 

 ville, Mich., can give some satisfac- 

 tory explanation. It was to have 

 been held in Supervisors' Hall.— Ed.] 



I5ad on the Pets.— We lost near all 

 the apple and peach bloom by the 

 blizzard ; now we lose nearly all the 

 locust and poplar or tulip by the con- 

 tinual rains of the past 10 or 12 days, 

 bees hardly gathering enough for 

 brood -rearing. To-night is almost 

 cold enough for frost. If it was not 

 for the cheering news brought by the 

 I5ee Journal, I would feel very 

 despondent ; indeed, I have divided 



