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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 25, 



hatch, put them into cell-protectors, and place them in the 

 supers on the hives of queens which I wish to supersede, will 

 these bees allow this queen to hatch, take possession of the 

 brood-chamber, and will they then kill the old queen ? 



Owing to dry weather we will have a very light crop of 

 honey here this season. R. W. T. 



Harrisonville, III., July 6. 



Answer. — I've never tried that in the fall, and it doesn't 

 succeed in the beginning of the honey harvest, but we have 

 the word of an excellent authority, G. M. Doolittle, that the 

 plan you propose will be a success if practiced at the close of 

 the honey harvest. If I were in your place I think I would 

 commence operations right away, and if the 13rst cell given to 

 a colony does not succeed, I'd have another ready to put in its 

 place as soon as the young queen from the first cell was de- 

 stroyed. 



Won't Work in Sections — Potato Blossoms. 



My bees have failed to work in the sections when there 

 are starters, and some sections partly filled with comb and 

 honey, and are crowding the queen out of the brood-nest. 



1. Do you think it would do any good to uncap the sealed 

 honey in the brood-frames, and put "them back ? I have no 

 extractor. 



2. There is something the matter with one of my colonies 

 — is it foul brood or not ? There is dead brood of all stages 

 from the smaller size to the fully developed bees. The larvie 

 are of a brownish cast, and settle to the bottom of the cell, 

 but it will not adhere to a toothpick, as the books say. 



3. Do bees work on potato bloom ? If they do, do you 

 suppose they could have been poisoned by bug-poison on the 

 potatoes? D. E. D. 



Whittington, Pa., Ind., July 8. 



Answers. — 1. It might and it might not. It will do no 

 harm to try. Generally when they will not work on sections 

 partly-filled with comb, it's because there isn't enough nectar 

 yielding. 



2. I hardly think it's foul brood. 



3. I never saw bees work on potato blossoms, and yet I 

 think I have read of cases in which it was supposed that bees 

 were poisoned through poison on potato-vines. 



Bearing Qeeens — Laying-Workers. 



The past spring I had a strong old colony in an old, out- 

 of-date hive that I wanted to get rid of, so I divided them, by 

 taking the old queen and the most of the old bees and putting 

 them into a new hive full of foundation. Then in 21 days 

 after everything was hatched, I transferred the two swarms 

 from the old hive into a new hive full of foundation, and they 

 went to work like beavers, and have their hive nearly full of 

 honey. They were put into the new hive 15 days ago. I ex- 

 amined them to-day, and they have only just a very little 

 brood started. 



1. What I want to know is, whether a queen reared by 

 the young bees from the brood that was in the old hive would 

 bring forth a good laying queen, or whether she would be of 

 inferior quality ? 



2. I also want to know whether a laying-worker's eggs 

 would bring forth good, strong worker-bees ? Could they rear 

 a good, strong laying queen from brood-eggs laid by a worker- 

 bee ? 



I have 2.5 colonies all in good condition, but bees have 

 gathered very little honey on account of the dry weather. 

 Rawson, Ohio, July 3. L. H. 



Answers. — 1. If there were plenty of bees in the hive 

 they could rear a good queen. 



2. No, you can't get worker-bees either strong or weak 

 from the eggs of laying workers. Neither can you rear a 

 queen from such eggs. They will produce nothing but drones. 



Two Swarms that United in the Side of a Dwelling-House. 



I have three colonies of black bees, two in 10-frame hives, 

 and one colony in a double-walled box-hive, and they are doing 

 well so far this summer. They have plenty of basswood blos- 

 soms in this locality during the summer season, and also such 

 as golden-rod, boneset, catnip, mint, sumac and white clover. 



On May 30 there came a swarm of hybrid bees to my 

 house at about 5:30 p.m. Not being home at that time, they 

 went in at a knot-hole at the top weather-board of the house. 



Also on May 31 there came a swarm along at 9:30 a.m., 

 and happening to be around I tried to make them cluster on 

 a tree by throwing ground and sod into the flying swarm. On 

 a,ccount of them coming so near the house, they mixed with 

 the flying bees that went in on May 30, so there are two 

 swarms together. They have two entrances where they pass 

 in and out, the one entrance about two feet below the other. 

 The lowest entrance I enlarged some by boring the hole 

 larger. They have 3 feet deep, and 3 feet from one stud- 

 ding to the other, the studding being 3x4, so they have 

 that much space between the weather-board and the lining of 

 the inside. The weather-board is about 12 feet long from the 

 corner to where they are joined. Would you advise cutting 

 the boards, or taking off the whole length ? I thought of saw- 

 ing the weather-board along the studding, and to transfer 

 them into an 8-frame chaff hive, on account of there being so 

 many bees. I am afraid there are too many for an 8-frarae 

 hive. Or would you leave them in the house until next sum- 

 mer, and hive the first swarm that they cast, and transfer 

 them ? They are no hindrance in the house, only I am afraid 

 they would freeze during the winter. E. T. R. 



Chain Dam, Pa., July 8. 



Answer. — I should be afraid they might not winter in 

 such narrow quarters, and would prefer to get them out as 

 soon as possible. A carpenter could tell you better than 

 I whether to cut or take off the whole length, especially if he 

 looks at the place. I hardly think you will find much trouble 

 in getting them into an S-frame hive, but if there should be 

 too many bees for that, you can easily give them a second 

 story, and with 16 frames they certainly will not be cramped 

 for room. If two large swarms united, one of the queens 

 would be killed, and the number of bees would be less now 

 •than when they came. 



Getting Bees to Work in Supers. 



I have a few colonies of bees in 8-frame dovetailed hives 

 with supers on, and a little honey coming in. They have about 

 three pounds of honey besides pollen in each frame, on an 

 average. Of course, a little more in the outside frames than 

 in the center ones. They are crowding the queen, so much so 

 that the colony is apparently weakening. They go up into 

 the super (M least a few of them), but do not seem to do any 

 work up there, and seem to be almost at a standstill. The 

 last two years we have had a light honey-flow, which lasts all 

 summer. Now what would you advise doing, to get the bees 

 to put the honey into the supers, out of those frames? 



There is honey-dew on the box-elders here, but the bees 

 do not seem to care for it. I have not seen them work on it 

 yet. R. R. 



Ogden, Utah, July 5. 



Answer. — It's possible the flow isn't enough to make them 

 feel they can afford to store in supers. Scratching the cap- 

 pings in the brood-nest may help. Perhaps the best thing is 

 to put by way of bait in the super some drawn-out comb, or a 

 piece of comb with brood in. If they don't store then, it's be- 

 cause there isn't enough to store. 



An Experience with Bees — Swarming. 



In the spring of 1891 I got the bee-fever, or honey- fever, 

 rather, and decided to buy one colony of bees, just to get some 

 honey to eat, and my wife told me that it would be money 

 thrown away to buy bees and not know how to take care of 

 them. I told her I did not expect to do anything with them, 

 only if they should store some honey I could get Mr. Alexan- 

 der to take it off for me, and we would have some to eat as we 

 wanted it. On June 6 I bought a new swarm of one of my 

 neighbors ; they did not swarm again that year, but the next 

 year they did, and I got a neighbor to come and hive them for 

 me, and that made me two. Then I longed to know how. I 

 subscribed for Gleanings, and ordered " A B C of Bee-Culture," 

 read everything I could get about bees, and talked with every 

 man that would talk about bees, and told him all I had read, 

 and all I had learned. I now take the American Bee Journal, 

 which I find the most instructive of anything I have found, 

 besides my " A B C of Bee-Culture." 



In 1894 I found one colony queenless, and sent to Texas 

 for a golden Italian queen, which I introduced by Mr. Doo- 

 little's plan, with success, and that summer I reared several 

 queens from her, and last fall I ordered leather-colored Ital- 

 ians from Ohio, and put into winter-cases 26 colonies packed 

 with cut corn-stalks. On opening up this spring, I found my 

 Texas queen and bees, and one of her young queens and bees, 



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