1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



475 



all dead, that being the first and only winter loss I have had. 

 I clip my queens, and after they swarm I move the old hive to 

 a new stand, and after a few days cut out all but one queen- 

 cell, and I am not bothered with any second swarms, or 

 haven't been for the past two years, but before that they 

 swarmed all the time. 



I use in the brood-frames heayy foundation, some small 

 and some large, but in the sections full sheets. I have had 

 but two swarms this spring, and they came out on Decoration 

 Day, and the next day I looked both old colonies over to see 

 about their preparing to swarm ; I failed in both to find the 

 least signs of a queen-cell. The reason I was anxious to looli 

 was this : By reading, or talking with people, I would hear 

 them say, " If the weather keeps warm like this a day or so, 

 we will get some swarms." Or, " If honey continues to come 

 in a few days, we can look for swarms." Yet it is said, too, 

 that bees always prepare before hand. Also, we hear it said 

 that sometimes when a swarm comes out it excites others, and 

 they come out, and several would be in the air at the same 

 time. The question is. Had they prepared ? Were they i^ady 

 for the excitement ? The thought came to me, "How much 

 preparing is wasted in changeable weather? I would think 

 they would get discouraged, and hardly know what to do:" 

 and on looking it satisfied me that they some times take a sud- 

 den start. 



1. Now for a question : If Nos. 1, 2 and 3 should swarm 

 out at the same time, and cluster together, with Nos. 1 and 2 

 with clipped queens. No. 3 with a laying queen or virgin, will 

 Nos. 1 and 2 go back to their own hive ? If not, what is the 

 best thing to do ? 



2. I have read a great deal about how to prevent swarm- 

 ing, and have given it considerable thought, but not any prac- 

 tice, and have decided this : About apple-blossom take one, 

 two or more of the hCHt queens (according to the number of 

 colonies), and kill, sell, or give away, and as soon as those 

 colonies have a good supply of queen-cells, all sealed, go to the 

 other colonies and take out those queens and give them a good 

 cell iu a queen-cell protector, and by the time she is hatched 

 the bees will be glad to receive her. What do you think of 

 that plan ? J. W. P. 



S. Onondaga, N. Y., June 29. 



Answers. — 1. The probability is that the bees of Nos. 1 

 and 2 will remain with the swarm that came from No. 3, and 

 do just whatever the swarm from No. 3 would have done if it 

 had been left entirely alone. The easiest thing would be to 

 hive them all together, and perhaps that might be the best 

 thing if the swarms were not too large, but it must be remem- 

 bered that such mammoth swarms will not remain so large, 

 and by fall will be no larger than if only a third of the bees 

 had been with the queen in the first place. If you don't want 

 all of the bees to remain with the swarm, you can return some 

 to the parent colonies, or you can divide the bees into two lots, 

 hive them separately, and furnish a queen to the queenless 

 part. 



2. In the first place, is it a good plan to pick out your 

 best queens and sell, kill, or give them away ? Why not make 

 a nucleus and save your best queen ? But that has nothing 

 to do with the real gist of j'our question. I think your plan 

 would work all right in some cases, and in others the bees 

 would swarm just as soon as the young queen was old enough ; 

 that is, within a day or two after leaving the cell. But it 

 might be worth while to try, and if you do try the plan I wish 

 you would report what success you have. 



Swarming Not Wanted— Eight-Frame Hive. 



1. I have a swarm of Italian bees that I divided, and then 

 sent to New York and got a queen about one month ago. 

 After I introduced the queen, perhaps three or four days, a 

 swarm came out. The queen's wing was clipped, and they 

 came back and went into the same hive. I thought to-day I 

 would put in another frame of foundation. After I opened 

 the hive, I thought I would look and see if there was much 

 brood; I did not find much, but found 12 or 15 queen-cells. 

 I cut them out, for I did not want them to swarm again. On 

 one of them I found two young queens, but did not see the one 

 I put in. I took one out, and left the other in the hive. Now 

 what do you think has become of the old queen ? Why didn't 

 the queens tear down the cells ? Do you think there were 

 three queens with all of the cells ? Did I do right ? If not, 

 please tell me what you would have done. 



I put the old queen with the new colony, and they are 

 doing splendidly. They have just commenced to work in the 

 sections. 



2. I have 8-frame hives, with seven frames in each. 



Would you put in the other now, or wait a little while longer ? 

 Danbury, Conn. W. N. D. 



Answers. — 1. If I understand you correctly, the bees 

 swarmed and returned, and after some days you found two 

 young queens and a number of queen-cells, and the old queen 

 gone. That's just what you might expect to find nearly 

 always. When bees swarm, or try to swarm, and the old 

 queen cannot go with them, the maturing of the young queens 

 in the cells goes right along just as though the old queen had 

 left, and when a young queen emerges the old queen is put 

 out of the way. I don't know anything better you could do 

 than you did, merely to destroy any cells and leave only one 

 queen in the hive. I'm not sure, however, that the result 

 would have been any different if you had left them entirely 

 alone, for if the bees had intended to swarm they would hardly 

 have allowed the second young queen to emerge until the first 

 was safely out of the hive. 



2. There isn't much difference between 7 and 8 frames, 

 and I don't suppose it makes much difference when the eighth 

 frame is put in, but it's safe for the colony to have it put in 

 very soon. 



■ — » — ■ 



Nucleus Tearing Down Queen-Cells. 



Why does a nucleus that I made tear down not only the 

 queen-cells that I inserted on one frame, but very often the 

 queen-cells that I gave with the frame. After that, although 

 queenless, the bees stored some honey, but do not feed the 

 brood in the same frames. I never saw such a thing in Italy. 



Here the bees are beginning to store some surplus honey, 

 now that the alfalfa is in blossom. I made some nuclei, but I 

 had much difficulty to save them, because before the alfalfa 

 there were no flowers in the fields, and the robbers were very 

 bad. Now that there are no more robbers, the bees tear the 

 queen-cells down. What for ? S. A. 



Beowawe, Nev. 



Answer. — Without knowing more particularly about it, it 

 is hard to tell why the bees tear down your queen-cells. It is 

 possible that the cells were given too soon after the bees were 

 separated from their queen. You know that bees that have 

 no desire to swarm will tear down queen-cells as fast as you 

 give them, so long as they have a queen. Now when you form 

 a nucleus, if you give them cells as soon as the nucleus is 

 formed, they have not yet discovered their queenlessness, and 

 will tear down cells just the same as though the queen were 

 yet present. If this be not the trouble, I don't know what it 

 can be, except that bees are very freaky and will sometimes 

 do all sorts of unreasonable things. If I am correct in my 

 surmise, then the right thing is to wait perhaps 24 hours after 

 forming your nucleus before giving queen-cells. 



Didn't Swarm After All. 



1. What is the matter with my bees'? I have practiced 

 dividing this spring with half of my colonies, and I left the 

 remaining colonies to swarm naturally. On examining some 

 of them I found sealed queen-cells, and some not yet sealed, 

 and the old queen laying right along, but they never swarmed, 

 and from the fifth day to the seventh after the first was sealed, 

 I would find young queens lying out on the ground in front of 

 the entrance dead. They had been cut out for some cause or 

 other — I know not what for. One thing I do know, that is, 

 the young queens were gnawed out of the cells and dragged 

 out of the hive. The indication was, as far as I could tell, 

 that they were going to swarm, but they never did. The colo- 

 nies were not queenless, for I examined closely, and found the 

 old queens. This was the case with all of those colonies that 

 I left to swarm naturally. Can you give me any information 

 on this ? 



2. Which do you think did the work, the old queen or the 

 bees ? J. M. J. 



Pike, Tex., June 29. 



Answers. — 1. It is nothing so very unusual for bees to 

 make preparation for swarming and then change their minds 

 and give it up. Especially is this the case if the weather is 

 very unfavorable, or if pasturage is scarce. 



2. I think the workers did the work of destruction. 



Xliat l^e^v Son^ — " Queenie Jeanette" — which is being 

 sung everywhere, we can send you for 40 cents, postpaid, or club 

 it with the American Bee Journal for one year— both for only 

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