140 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Wihni mill Botu, 



ANSWERS BY 



James Eeddon, Dowagiac, Mich. 



Qneenlessness. 



My bees had a flight on Feb. 11, and 

 I saw tliat one colony threw out a 

 dead queen. How can I save them 

 at this time of the season, or get a 

 queen V Please answer through the 

 Bee Journal. Williaji CuLr. 



Snydertown, Pa.. Jan. 13, 1SS4. 



Is it not more likely that the dead 

 queen was a stranger from some other 

 hive, either your own or your neigh- 

 bor's y and that the queen in the hive 

 you refer to. is alive and all right V 



Spring Management. 



How do you prevent" spring dwind- 

 ling ?" Please give in the Bee JorR- 

 NAL vour system of management for 

 Marcb and April. W. L. Gage. 



Kane City. Pa., Feb. 14, 18»4. 



The reply to Mr. Oswalt, will give 

 you an idea of what I think of spring 

 dwindling. We try to prevent it by 

 doing all we can to prevent the bees 

 having dysentery during the winter. 



Mortality, Brood-Keariag, etc. 



The writer has lost only one weak 

 colony, so far this winter, out of 30. 

 One neighbor 2 out of 20 : another 1 

 out of 40 ; another o out of 60. xVlmost 

 all have commenced brood-rearing, so 

 far as examined or heard from. My 

 bees, for several days, have been car- 

 rving in rye meal very industriously. 

 \Vill they take up more than they can 

 use to advantage y 



2. Does Alsike clover bloom as 

 early as white clover ? 



3. If it blooms at the same time, 

 will it increase the vield of extracted 

 honey ? Geo. W. Mouitis. 



Salvisa. Ky. 



1. Under certain conditions, bees 

 will store up more rye meal than they 

 can use. As soon as natural pollen 

 can be gathered, they ignore the rye 

 flour, and dig out and throw away the 

 bread they made by its use. In this 

 location, they often store large quan- 

 tities of natural pollen that they dig 

 out and throw away in the spring of 

 the following year, provided they live 

 to do so. 



2. Here, alsike clover blossoms with 

 white clover, and is of no special use 

 to the bee-keeper where the latter is 

 abundant. 



3. Certainly, it will increase the yield 

 of honey if your field is overstocked ; 

 but is it not better and cheaper to 

 prevent that condition of things, by 

 not keeping too many colonies in one 



field. I think I hear you ask how 

 many colonies are '■ too many V" I 

 reply, I do not know, and ask, who 

 does V The very important questions 

 of the profitalile length of the flight of 

 gathering bees, and that of overstock- 

 ing, have been much neglected, and 

 at the same time, are of most vital 

 importance to those who are, or ever 

 expect to be specialists in bee-keep- 

 ing. 



Fears Spring Dwindling. 



I commenced the winter with S col- 

 onies of bees, but during the month of 

 .January two of the weak colonies 

 died : the rest are all doing well. 

 AVhat I now fear is robbing and spring 

 dwindling. Will you please instruct 

 me on this point. "I will furnish items 

 for the Bee .JouRisrAL occasionally 

 from this localitv. Jacob Oswalt. 



Maximo. O.. Feb. 12. 1S84. 



If dysentery is among your bees, and 

 the spring is cold and backward, you 

 may be troubled with spring dwind- 

 ling. To prevent this, you must begin 

 the season before, and prevent dysen- 

 tery during the winter. 



To prevent robbing, keep the en- 

 trances closely contracted, and see 

 that your bees are not allowed to get 

 a taste of honey or other sweets, left 

 about carelessly. 



Bees in a Vault. 



I commenced the season of 18.S3 

 with 29 colonies of bees in fair condi- 

 tion ; increased by natural swarming 

 to 61, and obtained 2,000 lbs. of comb 

 honey in one and two-pound sections, 

 and about -500 lbs. of extracted. 

 Through queenlessness and other dis- 

 asters they were reduced to -57 good 

 colonies by fall, of which I put .>i in 

 a cellar, especially prepared for that 

 purpose, and left 3 out doors, 2 in 

 chaff hives of my own pattern, in 

 which bees have wintered well for the 

 last three years, and one in a gum. 

 which I boiight last spring, and either 

 had no time to take it out. or was too 

 lazv to do so : I hardly know which 

 is the truth in this case. The last 

 named colony gave two large swarms, 

 and good workers they are. although 

 quite black. The young queen left in 

 the stump, most assuredly mated 

 with an Italian drone, for she pro- 

 duces yellow striped hybrids occa- 

 sionally. The entrance to this gum 

 is big enough to stick both fists in at 

 once, and higher up than the highest 

 space of the lioUow inside. The other 

 day. the temperature being 2^ above 

 freezing. I blew in, and the bees dis- 

 1 turbed b^y my warm breath, began to 

 hum. ^'ow," is it not wonderful that 

 these bees, with so big an opening and 

 that almost at the top, to let out 

 freely the warmth produced by the 

 bees" are (at least apparently) "well. 

 My cellar is a vault 14x36 feet, venti- 

 lated by subterranean SO feet 6 inch 

 tile. Up to the middle of January 



last, its temperatiu-e was not lower 

 than 38° Fahr., but thenceforth it 

 kept falling fast, and water flowed 

 out of the entrance of most of the 

 hives. AVhen it reached 33-, I put a 

 stove in it and warmed it to 5-5^. I 

 now fire up every Saturday. They are 

 dry now, but 4 of them show signs of 

 dysentery by somewhat soiling their 

 hives onthe'outside. If this warming 

 up process, as above stated, is not the 

 right or safe way for my bees, be kind 

 enough to inform me of a better pro- 

 cedure. I have 20 colonies in hives 

 11x14. which I shall transfer to the 

 regular Langstroth. They have all 

 nice straight combs, which I will nse 

 in extracting. Will it not do to bore 

 holes in the bottom-board and set it 

 on a Langstroth brood-chamber V WiU 

 not the bees with the cineen soon go 

 down in that and leave this upper 

 story free of brood ? 



JoiLX Trimberger. 

 Cross Plains, Wis.. Feb. lo, 1884. 



You will remember I am one of 

 those who believe that dysentery is 

 the main cause of mortality among 

 bees ; further, that dysentery is not 

 caused by cold, confinement or hu- 

 midity. These things acting only as 

 assistants or aggravations of the 

 cause. Looked at in this light, it is 

 not at all strange that your old gum, 

 with all its upward ventilation, is in 

 good order. It is impossible for me 

 to tell, without being on the ground 

 and closely observing, whether heat- 

 ing up the cellar makes matters better 

 or worse. I have no idea that it will 

 cure or stop the disease among the 

 bees. We have seen dysentery in its 

 worst form, in an exceedingly dry at- 

 mosphere. 



Tour plan for transferring the 

 square hives is not practical. In most 

 cases the queen will not retire to the 

 lower chamber. Many times when 

 we put an empty super over a com- 

 mon hive, the queen persists in stay- 

 ing above. Would it not be better to 

 drive the queen with two-thirds of 

 the bees from the box hive, and run 

 them into the Langstroth. placing the 

 box or square hive down by its side, 

 wraping it with old carpet or some- 

 thing (covering it all up for a few 

 days until the bees mark well their 

 new location), and in about 21 days 

 drive the rest of the bees" out of the 

 square hive clean, when the brood 

 will all be out, and you can do what 

 you please with the square combs and 

 their honey ? (See article on Modem 

 Transferring, page 367 of this Jour- 

 nal for 1883.) 



1^" The Lorain County Bee-Keep- 

 ers" Association, will meet at Elyria, 

 O.. Wednesdav, April 9, 1884. 



O J. Terrell, Sec. 



North Ridgeville. O. 



