1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



313 



desirable, but may be corrected by 

 inserting a frame of honey in the 

 middle of the brood-chamber after 

 brood-rearing has ceased. Another 

 remedy for undesirable stores is to 

 feed about 10 pounds of a syrup made 

 of 2 parts granulated sugar to 1 part 

 of water. In either case, when such 

 food is given after brood-rearing has 

 ceased, it will be placed by the bees 

 in positions most available for im- 

 mediate use, and the poorest food 

 stores saved until spring. When the 



air surrounding the bees is main- 

 tained at about 57 degrees, and no 

 other irritating factor is present, the 

 bees live so slowly that very little 

 food is consumed, the colony being 

 almost in a dormant condition. A 

 normal colony of bees thus protected 

 and fed not only will endure six 

 months or more of confinement, but 

 have sufficient vitality left to be use- 

 ful when spring comes. 

 Washington, D. C. 



Dr. Millers 



Answers- 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, Ilv 



He does not answer bee-keeoing Questions by mail. 



Swarms 



1. Someone advises to treat against swarm- 

 ing as soon as the eggs in cup are noticed. I 

 have tried it and feel that I do not like it. 

 Now, will you state just how the colony must 

 appear inside for you to apply the "put-up" or 

 other procedure for the same purpose? Let 

 there be considered four stages, to-wit: (1). 

 Egg in cups. (2). Young uncapped queen-cells. 

 (3). Same as 2, but just about as big as capped. 

 (4). Capped or ser.led. At which of these 

 stages do you operate? If you notice 1, 2 or 

 3, do you do anything, or just let them de- 

 velop? 



2. When you make nuclei with 3 or 4 

 frames, about what per cent are successful 

 with first attempt? 



3. Would you do anything in particular it 

 you noticed rather commonly on the lower 

 rim of brood-frame, capped drone-comb above 

 worker-comb honey ? 



4. A week or so ago I received one-half 

 dozen queens. I divided that many colonies; 

 queen with very little brood on , old stand; 

 most all the brood and the new queen on a 

 new stand. Today I found the latter with 

 very small queens, and in each of that three a 

 lot of queen-cells. I concluded to leave in 

 each of them the best queen-cell, without in- 

 terfering with the queen. What do you think 

 of that. 



5. The following has happened: I had a 

 swarm; secured it put the swarm on the old 

 stand and the parent hive on a new stand. 

 Some time after, that parent hive swarmed, 

 but on investigation (I secured the swarm), in 

 neither hive could anything like a queen-cell 

 be found. Yesterday that same "parent hive" 

 swarmed again. I secured it and today found 

 just the same state of affairs. That "parent 

 hive" by the swarming is resplit, but in neither 

 part was there any queen-cell or anything like 

 it. Another queer thing to me is, the swarm I 

 put on the old stand (the last one to swarm), 

 and parent hive No. 2, located aside, has many 

 more bees than the hive I put on the old 

 stand. To the last of these I gave queen-cells. 

 Today another hive swarmed, also arisen from 

 brool put on a new stand. I secured it and 

 put the swarm on the old stand and the other 

 part next to it. On finishing the work of the 

 day I looked at these two, and again found 

 that the hive aside has many more bees than 

 the swarm proper placed on the original stand. 

 In the parent hive of this I neither found any- 

 thing of the nature of a queen-cell. I did not 

 look through the swarm, as I did not care to 

 disturb it so soon after hiving. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



Answers. — 1. The first time around, every- 

 thing in the way of a queen-cell is killed, 

 whether it be an egg in a cup or a sealed cell. 

 On the next round, perhaps ten days later, if 

 the case comes under your 1 or 2, the cells are 

 killed, and same thing upon succeeding rounds. 

 In other words, no treatment is undertaken so 

 long as nothing but eggs or quite young larvae 

 are found. At any time after the first round, 

 cases 3 and 4 are put under treatment. 



2 About 100 per cent, if you mean success 

 in forming the nuclei and having the bees stay 



on their new stand. If you mean the number 

 of cases in which the young queen succeeds to 

 the point of laying, I should guess somewhere 

 in the neighborhood of 75 per cent. 



3. The drone-comb should be cut out, even 

 if nothing were done but to leave the vacancy 

 to be filled again by the bees with drone-comb; 

 but it would be better to fill up the vacancy 

 with a patch of worker-comb. 



4. It often happens that a queen will not at 

 first be allowed to lay, and if looked after a 

 few days later the queen may be found miss- 

 ing, or she may be found laying. If she is 

 still alive, I think her chances for continued 

 life will be better if all cells are killed. A 

 good many times cells will be started when a 

 queen is introduced, and then the bees, if left 

 to themselves, destroy the cells. It was en- 

 tirely natural that the queens should be small 

 so long as not in full laying. 



5. When an afterswarm issues, there should 

 at least be found an empty cell from which the 

 queen emerged. If none was really present, 

 it looks as if it might be that the bees swarmed 

 out with the virgin on her wedding trip. I 

 don't understand why more bees should be in 

 the old hive than in the swarm, unless enough 

 time had elapsed for a force to hatch out, al- 

 though there might be such a thing as part of 

 the swarm returning. 



queen-rearing, written more than a quarter of 

 a century ago. But the fact that one en- 

 gaged in beekeeping several years has not 

 seen it in print shows that it does not enjoy 

 the publicity that it deserves, especially consid- 

 ering the advantages enumerated by our cor- 

 respondent. 



In the practice of others, the bees in the 

 upper story are not entirely shut off from com- 

 munication with the bees in the brood-chamber 

 below, all that is necessary being an excluder 

 over the brood-chamber. Indeed, in the first 

 case on record there was not even a queen- 

 excluder; four or five stories of empty brood- 

 combs were piled upon a brood-chamber and a 

 frame of brood put in the upper story. The 

 bees reared a queen from the brood given, the 

 queen laid, and a brood-nest was established. 



Neither is it necessary to bore a hole in the 

 upper story. The cover of the hive may be 

 shoved forward enough to allow passage for 

 the queen, or the body itself may be shoved 

 forward to make the passage. 



It seems to be a matter of some importance 

 that the brood be as far as possible from the 

 lower story containing the queen. If brood is 

 put into a story immediately above the ex- 

 cluder, the chances are that no cells will be 

 started, although if cells already started are 

 put there they are likely to be rejected. 



It should be added that not all are success- 

 ful in getting queens to laying in an upper 

 story at all times, the queens disappearing 

 about the time they should begin to lay. 



Raising Queens 



I have a suggestion as to raising queens 

 which may be helpful to someone, and I have 

 not "een the plan in print. I have several 

 queen-excluders covered with wire screens and 

 several hives with a three-fourths-inch hole 

 bored in one end, with a piece of tin tacked 

 under the hole and bent down for a door- 

 step. When I find a queen-cell I want to save 

 I put my screened excluder over any colony I 

 may select with my hive with a hole facing the 

 front on top and raise two or three frames of 

 brood from below, or from any source desired, 

 and give them the frame with the queen-cell. 

 When the queen is hatched and mated I can 

 use her when I please, and removing my 

 screened excluders leaves the colony intact. I 

 find three advantages with this manipulation. 

 1st it is simple and convenient to assemble 

 with no extra equipment. 2nd, colonie are 

 not broken up to form mating nuclei, and, 3rd, 

 if the new queen is raised over the colony 

 where we wish to requeen, all we have to do 

 when the young queen gets to laying is to re- 

 move the old queen and put the young queen 

 and bees from the upper story in the lower 

 story, with no introducing necessary. There is 

 another advantage, in cool weather the bees 

 from the full colony below help to keep our 

 nuclei warm. NEW YORK. 



The plan of rearing queens above a colony 

 with a laying queen dates back some years, and 

 is mentioned by Doolittle in his book on 



Mismated Queens 



Last summer a swarm issued from one of 

 my hives. They were pure Golden Italian 

 bees. I think the old queen was lost, because 

 they tried to swarm before, but came back. A 

 week later they swarmed again. I hived them 

 in a new hive and a week later I examined 

 this hive and found the queen. I think that 

 she was a virgin that went with the swarm, 

 because she was so small. The old queen was 

 so large. Now there are bees in the hive that 

 are black, some three-banded, and some golden 

 bees. 1 wintered them in a two-story hive. 

 They are now in excellent condition, as they 

 have thirteen frames that have brood and 

 plenty of honey and bees. I think the queen 

 is mismated. The bees are cross and not very 

 quiet on the comb. Do you think that re- 

 queening would be all right? She is a good 

 queen and I hate to kill her, on account of 

 her prolificness. The bees are continually 

 fighting at the entrance. Do you think it is 

 their own bees, or robber bees? What would 

 you advise me to do? MINNESOTA. 



Answer. — You are correct that the queen 

 has mated with a drone of undesirable stock. 

 But as she is doing such fine work, I think I 

 would leave her undisturbed, at least until 

 near the close of the season, provided you can 

 stand the crossness of the bees. I don't know 

 just what to think of the fighting at the en- 

 trance. It is more likely robbers than bees of 

 the colony fighting among themselves — indeed 

 the latter is not ct all likely — but it seems 

 strange that it should be a continuous per- 

 formance, especially since the colony is strong. 



Uniting 



I have been told that to unite weak colonies 

 of bees in the spring makes them no stronger. 

 You say unite in the fall. Please write in the 

 American Bee Journal explaining why it 

 doesn't do in the spring to make one or more 

 out of many weak ones and best plan to do so. 

 If a hive is reasonably strong in the fall and 

 hives to spare, which do you recommend, 

 smother what you don't want, or unite? 



ONTARIO. 



Answer. — If in the spring you unite two 

 colonies that are weak and in good condition, 

 the united colony will be stronger than either 

 of the separate colonies was. But if you have 

 one or more colonies that are what are called 

 "dwindling," and unite them together, the 

 united colony seems to dwindle in a short time 

 to as little as either, of the separate colonies, if 



