242 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



plete, and wire them before I put in 

 the foundation. I now have no 

 trouble. Two of my students are, 

 this moment, in an adjoining room 

 filling wired frames (a steady jog) at 

 about three or four to the minute, and 

 the perfection of the work, makes it 

 fun for all who witness it. I wish 

 every reader could see this work. 



5. No ; the wire should be woven 

 quite loosly, as the action of the dies 

 will take up the slack when the pres- 

 sure is brought to bear upon it. These 

 answers are applied to wiring with 

 No. 36 wire for machine pressing, and 

 not No. 30 and hand pressing. 



Transferring Bees. 



1. Eegarding your new method of 

 transferring bees, where do you place 

 the old and new hives, after the tirst 

 drive ? 



2. If I unite the second drive with 

 the first, will they cast a swarm before 

 the honey season begins V 



Devizes, Ont. John S. Riddell. 



Answer.— 1. After the first drive 

 we place the new hive directly on the 

 old stand, and the old hive a few rods 

 away to a new stand, unless we mean 

 to put tlie second drive into the same 

 new hive, thus avoiding any increase, 

 when we place the old hive only a 

 few feet away, and then off to one 

 side, and partially behind the new 

 hive. 



2. No ; you will not do this driving 

 till the honey season is just opening. 



2. Some otherwise good fertile queens 

 sometimes liave this fault. 3. A very 

 prolific queen will often do so when 

 cramped to a small comb surface. I 

 presume this is the trouble in your 

 case. 



2. You have a plain case of super- 

 sedure of a " played out queen." The 

 bees reared this young queen from the 

 eggs of the old one, which old one de- 

 parted about the time the bees began 

 the new queen. When the new one 

 hatched, of course there was no brood 

 young enough to be in the egg or 

 larval state. You are about in my 

 latitude, and should have drones fly- 

 ing in a few days. As queens often 

 become fertilized 10 to 1.5 days (and 

 sometimes, we are told, 20 days) after 

 birth, ihere is hope for this queen, and 

 my way would be to let the matter 

 alone ten days or two weeks, and then 

 examine the combs for eggs. 



Freaks of a Queen and Bees, 



I am still desirious of " more light." 

 Thequeen that I spoke of as" coming 

 to," on April 2, is " performing " 

 curiously. 



1. On my first examination, after 

 she was introduced to tlie little colony 

 in the nucleus hive, I found that she 

 had commenced to deposit her eggs 

 " all in order," i.e. only one in a cell. 

 Upon a further examination, to-day, 

 I found that she was distributing 

 them quite freely through the few 

 combs, that are in the hive, but in- 

 stead of one egg, there are from one 

 to five. How -can this be explained V 



2. Here is another wonderment to a 

 beginner like me. In looking over 

 my colonies, to-day, I found one that 

 had been queenless, but they have 

 provided themselves with a young 

 queen, that probably is not more than 

 48 hours old, and in the whole hive 

 there is not a singly egg or larva to be 

 found. What can be done with this 

 young queen V There are no drones 

 in my apiary, how am I going to save 

 this colony and queen ? 



H. B. Hammon. 

 Bristolville, O., April 25,1883. 



Answers. — 1. This can be ac- 

 counted for in the following ways : 1. 

 Drone layers (unfertile queens) are 

 apt to lay a plurality of eggs in a cell. 



A Cold Wave. 



We have had it cold now for nearly 

 a week ; the mercury standing at 18° 

 above zero, two mornings. Yester- 

 day we had 2 inches of snow with a 

 searcliing wind. As elm and soft 

 maples were in bloom a week ago, I 

 set the bees out of the cel'ar, only to 

 get them caught by this cold wave. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y ., April 26, 1883. 



(Jiieeii Rearing — Killing Tree Worms. 



The time is near at hand, with us, 

 when apple trees will be in blossom, 

 and that is about the time when many 

 of us begin to sort our nuclei, for 

 queen rearing, that we may have 

 queens ready, so that our strong colo- 

 nies may be divided and be in readi- 

 ness for the honey harvest. Other 

 hives may have queens that are old, 

 or for some other cause need supersed- 

 ing. I have been in the bee business for 

 27 years, and have spent much time 

 and money in rearing queen bees. All 

 who have but a few colonies of bees, 

 and especially for those who have 

 more and wish to improve them, should 

 procure the new book of Mr. Alley, 

 which gives the results of 22 years ex- 

 perience in queen rearing. This tells 

 hU about how to get good, hardy, pro- 

 lific queens whose progeny will be 

 hardy, healthy and good honey gath- 

 erers. It talks good sound sense, and 

 is what every bee-keeper should have 

 before him. When I sat down to 

 write, I thought I would tell some- 

 thing about what a hard time we used 

 to have, killing the worms on our 

 apple trees, but, as I have run away 

 from that subject, I will only show 

 how we destroy them now, as it is so 

 much nicer than the old way. If we 



do not kill the worms, they will kill 

 the trees. We arm ourselves in the 

 following manner ; first, we want a 

 pole long enough to reach the highest 

 nest ; on the top end tie a rag about 

 as large as a dish-cloth, or smaller ; 

 next we want some lye in an iron 

 kettle, or something convenient to 

 carry it in ; the lye need not be very 

 strong, only strong enough to crack 

 the skins of the worms ; dip the rag 

 end of the pole into the lye, and give 

 them one sop, when they are in the 

 nest. If you have never done this, 

 you will be surprised to see the 

 amount of worms you will kill in a 

 few hours. I prepare the lye in the 

 following way : Fill a kettle one-half 

 full of wood ashes, and fill it up with 

 water ; set it on the stove and bring it 

 to a boil ; this will be strong enough. 

 W. H. Balch. 

 Oran, N. Y., April 23, 1883. 



Bees Strong and Residy for Harvest. 



My bees are all right. I had 114 

 colonies in the cellar ; and have lost 

 six ;some weak colonies I have doubled 

 up, reducing them to 100 good and 

 strong. I am now ready for the 

 honey harvest. J. Stewart. 



Rock City, 111., April 28, 1883. 



Prospect for Honey Never Better. 



The prospects for a good honey 

 harvest in this locality was never bet- 

 ter. There is an abundance of wtiite 

 clover, catnip, etc., which will be in 

 bloom by tlie middle of this month. 

 My bees are all in good condition, and 

 are very busy on the fruit bloom, 

 which is now at its best. I had two 

 fine swarms,— one yesterday and one 

 to-day— the earliest I have ever had. 

 I am now busy forming nuclei and di- 

 viding up, so as to be ready to take in 

 the rich harvest when it comes. 



Elvin S. Armstrong. 



Jerseyville, 111., May 2, 1883. 



Burned Up. 



My house, with all its contents, has 

 been destroyed by fire. My bees got 

 a scorching, and one hive was burned 

 up. They had whitered well. I lost 

 one for want of food, and one was 

 burned up, leaving me 13 colonies 

 now. VVm. Mowbray. 



Saruia, Ont., April 28, 1883. 



Preventing Stings, etc. 



Mr. J. II. Stephens, Riverton, Iowa, 

 wishes to know an antidote besides 

 whisky, to prevent the dreaded "busi- 

 ness end" of his bees, when walking 

 in the yard. He says that the bees 

 have a natural dislike to him, which 

 can be avoided by taking a small dose 

 of whisky, peppermint or anything 

 that will change the smell of his 

 breath, which the bees seem to dis- 

 like, and which exemperates them to 

 stinging. Wash the hands and face 

 with the same ingredient, sweetened 

 with a little sugar ; this will impreg- 

 nate the skin with odoriferous pers- 

 piration, which the bees seems to ad- 

 mire, instead of the objectionable 

 perfume the body has during manipu- 

 lation. In the spring of 1882 I bought 

 one 3-frame nucleus to begin with. I 



