1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



363 



comb honey in the upper story, and although there is not as 

 yet a sign of a queen-cell in the hive — and hardly any room 

 for one — the bees will not go " upstairs." I have put in three 

 sections containing drawn-out comb, but no honey (I have 

 no comb with honey, such not being my lot last year), but 

 they still refuse. What would you advise ? I am in hopes 

 this colony will not swarm for a good while yet. They are 3- 

 bands and 5-bands, but are truly possessed of an e.Ktremely 

 evil spirit. They will hardly let me come within 30 feet of 

 the hive, which stands near a gate, and they ought to be used 

 to the " traffic." Once or twice I have been forced to sprinkle 

 a little tobacco in the fuel in my smoker. My other Italians 

 are very gentle. 



3. Honey is coming in plentifully now. I was out in the 

 country the other day, and learned a " kink " (?) from an old 

 fossil bee-keeper. He says : " My experience shows me that 

 it is a great mistake to let the bees have much honey to go 

 into the winter on. It makes them lazy, and I want my colo- 

 nies with not more than a handful each at the beginning of 

 spring, so that they will not swarm, and will be in better con- 

 dition in summer and fall to 'make" honey." How is that 

 for orthodox doctrine ? I tried to argue that he should have 

 all the bees possible for fruit-bloom, and from then on we 

 have almost a continuous flow from wild flowers, mesquite, 

 catclaw, sumac, cotton, etc. D. R. 



Abilene, Tex., May 24. 



Answers. — It's hardly worth while to send plants to me. 

 I'm not much of a botanist, and at best I am only familiar 

 with the honey-plants that grow in my own neighborhood. 



1. That's been tried over and over again. Sometimes it 

 works, but oftener it doesn't make much difference. Looking 

 closer at your question, I see you talk of cutting out queen- 

 cells every day. I'm not sure whether any one has tried 

 daily cutting out, but the remedy would be worse than the 

 disease. For it isn't the work of a minute to cut out all in- 

 cipient queen-cells, and the best you can do you will sometimes 

 miss them. Still, if you made It a daily .iob, I hardly think a 

 careful operator would let any of them go to maturity. But 

 if you care to try the experiment, I think yon will not And it 

 " work evil and havoc." 



2. I wish I was near enough to look into that hive. There 

 must be something peculiar about the case if they are bring- 

 ing in plenty of honey, are crowded in the brood-nest, and re- 

 fuse to enter sections having drawn combs. Of course they 

 have free access to the super. Cut out a piece of drone-brood 

 and put in a section. If that doesn't "fetch" them, they're 

 bewitched. 



When I have bees as cross as you tell about, there's a 

 death in that family, and a new queen introduced. 



3. I've sometimes gone on the principle your friend does, 

 and had colonies iu the spring with so few bees there was no 

 danger of their being lazy, and they might have done great 

 things if they hadn't " up and died." 



Introducing Clipped Queens. 



Would a young laying queen be accepted as readily by the 

 bees if her wings were clipped before introducing ? It is very 

 difficult for me to find queens in a hive of bees, and I propose 

 to ask the sender of the queen to clip her before caging, if it 

 will do as well. C. J. W. 



Answer. — I've introduced hundreds of queens with their 

 wings clipped — in fact, I'm not sure that I ever introduced a 

 ■queen with whole wings. I don't think the bees pay much 

 attention to the dress their mother wears. 



Manag-ement During S warming-Time. 



1. I have as many bees as I want. If I place a queen- 

 trap on the hive, so arranged that the queen can return to the 

 hive from the trap, and leave the trap on until they stop 

 swarming, what will be the result? Will I get any surplus '? 



2. Twelve colonies out of 14 in 10-frame hives have 

 swarmed this season, and only one out of 26 in 8-frame hives. 

 Is not that rather unusual? I suppose the colonies in the 

 large hives had more surplus left over, and built up more 

 rapidly. F. T. B. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, you'd get some honey, but very likely 

 you'd get your bees in bad condition. For somehow (and I'm 

 whispering this to you, for others may not believe it), when 

 young queens are hatched out, and bees have the swarming- 

 fever, the young queens seem to get through the excluder 



zinc. Then they take French leave with a swarm. At least 

 they did so for me. In some cases it worked all right. I be- 

 lieve it might be well, however, for you to try it on a small 

 scale. But you'll have to keep track of them in some way, 

 and take away the trap soon enough for the young queen to 

 be fecundated, for the old queen will be killed, and all the 

 young queens but one. Perhaps a month after the first at- 

 tempt to swarm will be time to take off the trap. 



2. Your colonies in 10-frame hives swarming more than 

 those in the S-frame is decidedly unusual. 



Transferred Colony Deserting the Hive. 



I transferred 5 colonies of black bees on April 22, the 

 old fashion way, from a box-hive to a Langstroth hive. I gave 

 them all their brood and straight comb, and the day after I 

 transferred the colony they left the hive, brood and all. I 

 did not see them go, and have not seen them since. Can you • 

 tell me why they left ? J. J. B. 



Olympia, Wash. 



Answer. — I don't remember that I ever heard of such a 

 case, and am at a loss to know the cause. If any one has the 

 right explanation I'm ready to yield the floor. Some faint 

 guesses suggest themselves, but I think it's safer to say "I 



don't know." 



^m — ' — ^ 



What to Do With Unfinished Sections. 



As I will have several hundred unfinished sections vary- 

 ing from starters ?iot started to half full of (dry) comb, all 

 nice and white, will it pay me to keep them for another sea- 

 son ? If so, give the best way to keep them. Or would it be 

 better to cut out the comb and sell the wax, and get new sec- 

 tions and foundation next year ? J. B. G. 



Answer. — If they're nice and white, I'd use them this 

 year all I could, and keep the rest for next year. There's 

 no trick in keeping them. Keep them In a dry place. Moths 

 are not likely to trouble them as they do old brood-combs, and 

 if you do not care to keep them in some moth-proof box or 

 closet, just take a look at them now and then, and if you find 

 the worms have made any start in them, brimstone them. 



Feeding a New Swarm. 



A swarm issues and is hived. The next day a cold rain 

 sets in. How long would it be safe to let it remain without 

 feeding ? F. T. B. 



Answer. — I don't know. Some swarms carry more honey 

 with them than others. It might be safe to let them remain 

 three, four or more days, but I'm sure it would be safe to feed 

 them within 24 hours. 



Wants Information About Carniolan Bees. 



Please give a short description of the Carniolan bees. I 

 would like to know whether my bees are pure stock, or hybrid ; 

 and also whether the Carniolan is a distinct race, or if it is a 

 branch of the Italian or black. Are Carniolans as easy to 

 handle as Italians ? Toronto. 



Answer. — I don't know enough to give a description of 

 Carniolans by which you can decide whether your bees are 

 pure or not, for I have heard breeders of Carniolans them- 

 selves say they could not tell them for sure by their looks. 

 Neither will I risk getting a hornets' nest about my ears by 

 trying to decide which Is the original race of bees. 



As to whether Carniolans are easy to handle, that's a hard 

 question, too. In the first place, they had the reputation of 

 being the gentlest of all bees to handle, but later some report 

 them as vicious. It is possible that Impurity may have some- 

 thing to do with the case, for certainly there has been much 

 testimony as to their gentleness. 



Will the editor please ask Rev. E. T. Abbott to give the 

 desired description? 



[As Mr. Abbott said on page 302, " I think it Is just as 

 easy to tell a Carniolan bee from a black as it is to tell a horse 

 from a mule," no doubt he will furnish the "description" 

 asked for, and in a satisfactory way. He has the invitation 

 and opportunity, at least. — Editor.] 



