170 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



cording to this yon would hav;- ,tle fol 

 number of hives each period: June 12, 10; 

 June 19, 12; lime 26, 14, etc. In other words, 

 an increase of only two each nine daj 

 I have to depend mostly on white clover, and 

 often have no fall flow. White clover is not 

 productive with us, as a rule, after August 1. 

 So 1 am unable to see where I could by that 

 even get half the 56 colonies men- 

 Will you please explain? I will look 

 for tin answer in the American Bee Journal. 

 \\ l 1 VIRGINIA. 



Answer.— You will find the story of this in- 

 crease more fully told in "Fifty Years Among 

 the Bees." There is nothing remarkable about 

 it, seeing the season was excellent, except that 

 it was done with nine very weak colonies. 

 'May 29 there were only 41 combs containing 

 any brood in the nine colonies, counting each 

 comb with brood, even if the patch of brood 

 were no larger than a silver dollar. I doubt if 

 the nine averaged any more than three and a 

 half good frames of brood each." 



You are in error in assumin that there was 

 "an increase of only two each nine days." 

 Here are the figures of the actual increase 

 made on each date: 



June 12, 1; June 21, 2; June 30. 5; July 8, 

 4; July 18, 2; July 27, 7; August 4, 8; 

 August 14, 14; August 23, 4. 



That was making increase later than you 

 think practicable in your locality, but if the 

 nine colonies had been fairly strong the num- 

 ber probably could have been reached by 

 August 1. and the total number made consid- 

 erably larger by August 23. 



Italianizing an Apiary 



I have about 40 colonies of bees; they are 

 all strong and in good shape. Last year I 

 bought two golden Italian queens and am very 

 much pleased with the results obtained from 

 them. Now, I have heard it said, and I have 

 read, that if a man has an Italian queen or 

 two that in a couple of years or so he can 

 Italianize his whole apiary. I would like very 

 much to know how you do it. How would it 

 do to go to the hive you want to Italianize, 

 destroy the queen, then go to the hive con- 

 taining the Italian queen and take a frame of 

 brood containing one or more queen-cells and 

 put it in the hive you want to Italianize? By 

 so doing would they raise a young Italian 

 queen? Or, how would it do, by destroying 

 the queen and queen-cells as before stated, to 

 cut out a queen-cell from the Italian hive and 

 insert it carefully in the center of a frame in 

 the hive to be Italianized? Would the bees 

 take care of it and would it hatch out and be- 

 come a queen for the hive? Will either of 

 these plans work? MICHIGAN. 



Answer. — Either of the ways you mention 

 should be entirely successful. But don't be 

 too hopeful about having all your colonies 

 pure Italian all at once. So long as other 

 colonies with the wrong kind of bees are 

 within a mile or so, you may expect more or 

 less of your young queens to meet drones 

 from them, and it may take years to be en- 

 tirely free from black blood. 



Poisoned with Propolis 



I get poisoned with propolis. My eyes swell 

 shut. I have fever, and in a few days 1 feel 

 like I had been sunburned. My skin peels off 

 a dozen times or more from one poisoning. _ I 

 even get poisoned from dust from scraping 

 honey boxes. I sometimes get so sick it af- 

 fects my heart. Can you tell me of a remedy? 

 MISSOURI. 



Answer. — I think it is more or less a com- 

 mon thing that beekeepers are troubled with 

 the dust of propolis when scraping sections, 

 although a good many of them may not know 

 it. Their eyes smart and their nose 

 them, but they think it is only a bad cold. 

 There are, however, a few to whom it is a 

 real affliction, as it is in your case. I am 

 very sorry to say I know of no remedy, but 

 am glad to put the matter before beekeepers 

 thus publicly, and if any one knows of a 

 remedy, or even a palliative, he will be doing 

 a public benefit if he will tell us about it. 



Bees in Pound Packages 

 Which would you advise, buying bees in 



one-pound or two-pound packages? 



2. At about what date should they arrive in 

 tins locality (northeast Missouri)? 



:'. I have some frames of honey about 5 

 pounds each. If I order two-pound package 

 of bees delivered about May 1. how many 

 frames v. '-■ keep them till white 



clover bit 



4. Would it be unlawful for me : 

 hives for my own use the same style as the 

 Dadant hive! but with the same size body as 

 the Tri-State hive? MISSOURI. ' 



Answers. — 1. In most cases the result will 

 be more satisfactory with the larger package. 



2. You will probably do well if you get 

 them by the middle of May. 



3. Two will likely be plenty. 



4. No. 



Foulbrood— Preventing Burr-Combs 



1. At the Pennsylvania State Convention, 

 the method of shaking on full sheets with a 

 drawn comb in the center, as a foulbrood 

 treatment, was strongly advanced. The pur- 

 pose of the comb is to catch the diseased 

 honey; it is removed after 3 days. Do you 

 consider this treatment effective? 



2. I have never heard of anyone recom- 

 mending the shellacking of brood-frames for 

 the prevention of burr-combs and excessive 

 propolis. All my Hoffman frames have the 

 top and sides of the upper bars, as well as 

 the narrow sides of the end bars, filled with a 

 coat of shellac or wood filler, and a second 

 coat of good varnish, after being sandpapered. 

 Is it considered too much work for the results 

 obtainable? PENNSYLVANIA. 



Answers. — 1. I should expect good results 

 from the plan, hardly so much because the 

 drawn comb would catch the honey as because 

 it would tend to keep the bees from abscond- 

 ing, which they too often do when nothing but 

 foundation is present. 



2. I should not consider the work too much 

 if it would secure permanently the result de- 

 sired. 1 should be a little afraid the treat- 

 ment would lose its effect after two or three 

 years, but possibly not. 



Rim on inner Hive Cover 



\,hy the Js-in. rim on inner hive-covers? 

 It does not keep them from warping; in fact 

 the Root people put out some with channel 

 irons and no rim. The air space formed by 

 this shallow rim is not enough to do much 

 good, as a heat preventer, and some makers 

 are now leaving off the side strips, so as to 

 get a draft through under the cover. If, as 

 I read, this cover is to be turned over _ in 

 packing for winter, so as to form a clustering 

 space above the frames, would not a half-inch, 

 three-fourths-inch or even an inch rim be 

 more desirable? Would it not be a good idea 

 to have at least as much space above the 

 frames, with, of course, an abundance of jack- 

 ing above the brood-chamber IOWA. 



Answer. — I haven't bought any hives for 

 some time, so I'm not sure just what you're 

 talking about, but I suspect the idea is to 

 have a H in. space over the top-bars, not to 

 allow a place to cluster, but merely to allow 

 the bees to pass readily from one comb to 

 another. 



I don't know, but I'm skeptical about an 

 inch space being better. Indeed, I'm a little 

 skeptical about bees clustering above top-bars, 

 and I don't believe they care for any space 

 above their combs. I know they often cluster 

 below their combs, but 1 think more than 

 room enough above top-bars to allow free pas- 

 sage from one side to the other would be 

 merely giving so much empty space for the 

 bees to keep warm. However, if you say 

 you know they like to cluster above, I'm ready 

 to change my opinion. 



Nucleus — Division-Board — Demaree 

 Plan 



1. In starting a colony from a nucleus by 

 putting frames, bees and queen into a new 



hive and moving to a new stand do you al- 

 ways imprison them for a few days to prevent 

 them from returning to their former stand? 



2. After the entrance to a nucleus hive has 

 been stuffed with leaves to prevent the bees 

 from returning to their former stand, why 

 do you stir up the bees by pounding on the 

 hive just before liberating them? 



:i. When adding frames of brood with ad- 

 hering bees to these nuclei, do not many of 

 the bees return to the parent hive? 



4. Will bees ever carry eggs or young lar- 

 va- from one frame to another to put into a 

 queen-cell, or do they always build the queen- 

 cell around the larva right where the egg was 

 deposited by the queen? It seems to me that I 

 have read somewhere of a larva being carried 

 above an excluder. 



5. Last year, for lack of frames, I had a 

 10-frame hive with five frames of bees and 

 foundation on one side of the hive, the other 

 side being entirely empty. Although the foun- 

 dation in these frames was not yet all drawn 

 out, the bees began building comb in the 

 empty space. Now, as I have never owned or 

 used such a thing, I would like to ask if a 

 division-board placed beside the frames would 

 have prevented this? 



0. In this vicinity we depend almost en- 

 tirely upon white and alsike clover for surplus. 

 Soft maple and dandelion are abundant for 

 building up colonies in early spring, but the 

 small amount of buckwheat and late bloom 

 are usually of minor value for surplus. 



Now, I expect to try the Demaree plan next 

 year and I would like to get your advice as 

 to my best way to make increase. I desire to 

 make but slight increase (about 25 per cent), 

 and as there will probably be abundance of 

 bee and little for them to do in the latter 

 part of the season, I wish to inquire if it will 

 be best for me — 



1st. To divide those large Demaree colonies 

 at the end of the clover harvest, depending on 

 the new colonies to gather their own stores, or, 



2nd, Let each large colony work as a unit 

 until about September 15 and then divide, also 

 dividing stores with the new colonies and in 

 either case giving a laying queen to the new 

 colony, or, 



3rd. Will it be better to select colonies in 

 May from which to make increase by the nu- 

 cleus plan, not expectim; these colonies to 

 store any surplus? MICHIGAN. 



Answers.— 1. That depends. If the bees 

 have been queenless for a few days, and a 

 goodly number is taken, more than enough to 

 cover the combs, then it is not necessary to 

 imprison. Indeed, if the bees are not queen- 

 less, but are taken with their own queen, and 

 enough bees taken to allow for the return of 

 part, then imprisonment is not necessary. 



2. I don't, as a rule. If the entrance has 

 leaves crammed into it tightly, it should be 

 two or three days before the first bees will 

 squeeze through, and nothing more will be 

 needed to make them stay; but at any time 

 when it is uncertain whether bees will stay, 

 it will do at least a little toward making them 

 mark their location to pound on the hive be- 

 fore freeing them. 



;;. Likely, unless the bees added are queen- 

 less. It is always possible, however, to have 

 the bees queenless. 



4. Generally an egg or larva will be used 

 without moving, and for a long time 1 could 

 not believe that bees would carry eggs or lar- 

 va; from one cell to another; but I have had 

 cases of queen-cells over an excluder where I 

 could find no explanation but to say the bees 

 had carried up through the excluder the ma- 

 il rial from which 'o rear queens. 



5. You had just what you should have ex- 

 pected. Bees cluster in something like a 

 sphere, and as part of the sphere fell outside 

 the frames of foundation they would build 

 comb there rather than on the foundation out- 

 sphere. Very likely the dummy would 



have confined them to the foundation, and yet 

 if the force of bees was sufficient they might 

 have clustered and built outside the dummy. 



6. I'm inclined to think 1 would prefer your 

 tin id plan, using a few colonies for the in- 



