1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



245 



Could it lie some plant which causes this or 

 does all honey bring this on when eaten in 

 quantities, or is this just a coincidence? 



4 I have black bees and find them none too 

 gentle, and want to renueen. Would an api- 

 ary of about 30 hives, distant about one and 

 a half miles, mix and make hybrids if some- 

 thing should happen and the bees raised a vir- 

 gin? MISSOURI. 



Ansv, brs.— 1. I don't think there was any 

 swarm in the case. It was merely the bees re- 

 turning from their flight to the place they had 

 m. nked as their proper locality. 



2. Yes, if you had returned the hive to its 

 old position the bees would have joined it all 

 right; only there would be some trouble with 

 any of the younger bees that had never flown 

 before the change, and had marked the new 

 location, for they would want to stick to the 

 new location upon returning from the fields. 

 If you had fastened the bees in the hive for 

 a day or so, putting them on the new stand, 

 and then in the middle of the day opening the 

 entrance after pounding on the hive so as 

 to frighten the bees, very likely you would 

 have had no trouble. In such a case, however, 

 if some of the bees should persist in going to 

 the old location, put there a brood-comb for 

 the bees to settle upon, and at night shake 

 these bees in front of the hive on the new 

 location, repeating this each day, you would 

 find that in a few days they would give up 

 their old location. 



3. It is possible there was something in the 

 character of the honey to cause dizj 

 it is hardly likely. 



4. There would be a considerable c 

 one of your virgins might meet a d 

 an apiary a mile and a half away. 



but 



: that 



from 



Melted Combs — Using Old Combs 



1. Last season I removed about 60 pounds 

 of honey from a swarm that I had just pur- 

 chased, and on melting up the combs was sur- 

 prised that the wax did not set regularly, but 

 was in a crumbled form, resembling cornmeal. 

 The honey had a peculiar flavor and seemed a 

 little sour or fermented. From two other 

 hives in the same lot I noticed a peculiar 

 odor, but could not find any indications of 

 foulbrood similar to symptoms of disease as 

 shown in government reports. 



2. Is there any harm in using combs from 

 old hives from which bees died this winter, 

 where a few of the combs on places are moldy 

 and filled with dead bees? NEW YORK. ' 



Answers. — 1. I don't remember that I ever 

 had any experience with wax in this granular 

 form, although I know it sometimes happens, 



Bees of a drafted man. Walter Hagler, of Gibson, Miss., h; 

 just been called and had to dispose of this well-kept apiary 



and I doubt whether the honey or disease had 

 anything to do in the case. If you please I'll 

 step down off the rostrum and give the boss a 

 chance to talk; he knows a whole lot more 

 than I do about wax. 



(Usually the granular form of wax is due 

 to the melting wax being beaten by the steam 

 or boiling water. In many cases granules at 

 the bottom of cakes are caused by this trouble. 

 We have seen wax so beaten that it looked 

 like cornmeal and contained 50 per cent of 

 water. Dry heat i the remedy. — Editor.) 



2. It will be all right to use them if there 

 has been no disease in them 



hives of mixed bees that are very cross, so I 

 want to re-oueen. I want to take a hive with 

 full frames of foundation, put in an Italian 

 queen and set one of the hives of the hybrid 

 bees on top of this hive, putting a oueen-ex- 

 cluder between the two hives. After the Ital- 

 ian queen gets to laying and young are com- 

 ing out, lift up the top hive and put a board 

 with bee-escape, so bees can come down from 

 old hive but cannot go back to the hybrid 

 queen. After all bees are out, then remove 

 old hive and kill hybrid queen. What do you 

 think are my chances of success!' I have al- 

 ready arranged one hive. VIRGINIA. 



Answer.- 



-I think the 

 ■w queen wi 



Please giv 

 lee Journal 



Requeening 



ne advice through 



1. 1 would like 

 tions existing betu 



kind of dii 



at Cosby T< 



Foulbrood 



o know the different condi- 

 en American and European 

 eight or ten colonies that 

 kind of a disease. 

 e McEvoy treatment safe for any 

 ?ased brood? 

 3. Is it necessary to use queen-excluders un- 

 der extracting supers. The supers are two 

 half stories fastened together with full depth 

 frames in them. The hives are eight-frame 

 size. KANSAS. 



Answers. — 1. In American foulbrood if you 

 thrust a toothpick into a diseased cell and 

 draw it out the dead matter will string out in 

 a thread an inch or more long. In European 

 foulbrood the diseased larva nearly large 

 enough to seal over will have a distinctly yel- 

 lowi li color. The thing for you to do is to 

 send a sample of the diseased brood to Dr. 

 E. F. Phillips, U. S. Dent, of Agriculture. 

 Washington, D. C, and he will tell you what 

 the trouble is, and also send you information 

 as to treatment. If you write in advance he 

 will send you a box in which you tan send the 

 sample to him. and also a frank to pay post- 

 age. 



2. It is generally used only for American 

 foulbrood. 



: E , luders are n< arlj always used, as oth- 

 erwise you are likely to have brood in your ex- 

 tracting-combs. 



