1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



315 



taken out in pounds of honey. How much 

 honey should the owner of the land expect? 

 KENTUCKY. 



Answer. — There is no rule, and no two 

 cases are exactly a* ike. One man wants the 

 bees on his place for the good they will do 

 in the fertilization of fruit blossoms or other 

 blossoms, and he wants no pay, and indeed 

 would pay something rathe ■ than not have 

 them. A nother is not interested in bees, is 

 afraid of them and wouldn't have them on the 

 place for any price. In one case a fixed price 

 of $5 or $10 a year is paid; in another 5 or 10 

 cents a colony. In one case where land is of 

 very high value, the rent should be ten times 

 as' much as upon land of little value. If 

 honey is given as pay, its honey value 

 should be considered. A certain per cent of 

 the crop might be given; one or more pounds 

 for every hundred. In any case, if the site is 

 desirable, the compensation should be such that 

 the owner of the ground shall be more than 

 satisfied, and shall want a continuance. 



Robbing 



Why does a strong colony of bees with a 

 good queen and plenty of eggs let other bees 

 carry out their honey? How can I prevent it? 

 MICHIGAN. 



Answer. — It is doubtful whether a strong 

 colony in good condition was ever robbed un- 

 less the beekeeper did some fool thing to start 

 the robbing. When honey is coming in plen- 

 tifully there is little danger of robbing; but 

 when the flow stops, look out. Don't open a 

 hive unnecessarily and give the robbers a 

 start. If a weak or queenless colony is at- 

 tacked by robbers, if you take it away, leaving 

 nothing in its place, the robbers may pitch 

 onto a strong colony close by, and overcome 

 it. So leave the hive in its place until they 

 have cleaned it out, or else put in its place an- 

 other hive with empty combs, or perhaps a lit- 

 tle honey, and when they have cleaned that up 

 they will go about their business without 

 troubling the strong colony. Be careful about 

 spilling honey or leaving bits of comb with 

 honey lying around. 



Swarms 



Does a prime 

 year? 



Answer. — When you hive a swarm, you may 

 feel pretty safe against its swarming before the 

 next year. Occasionally, however, a swarm 

 does itself throw out a swarm, which is called 

 a virgin swarm. 



Clipped Queens 



1. Referring to your answer No. 2 to Idaho, 

 in June number of American Bee Journal, I 

 ask" how would the owner know in the evening 

 or later that the colony had swarmed? 



2. If the queen had been clipped instead of 

 being kept in the excluder, how could he 

 know? 



3. If the queen is not clipped and no ex- 

 cluder is over the entrance, can it be learned 

 whether a colony has swarmed or not? 



4: I have sufficient drawn combs for this 

 season, but many are imperfect. I wish better 

 ones for next season. The best of the flow will 

 soon be over, but some nectj.r will be coming 

 in till frost. Is it practical to get these 

 combs drawn from full sheets v. f foundation 

 this season, and if so, what ij the btst way? 



Answers. — 1. If an excluder is used at the 

 entrance it will be in the form of a queen-trap. 

 Her presence there is sure proof that the bees 

 have swarmed. 



2. When the queen is clipped and the swarm 

 issues, it generally returns upon finding the 

 queen is not with it. In that case, it is not 

 easy to tell that a swarm has issued, and only 

 a guess can be made if sealed queen-cells are 

 found in the hive. 



3. Only guessing can be done; but if the 

 colony seems weakened in bees, and dead cells 



are found in the hive, swarming may be 

 guessed. 



4 Comb-building can be induced only by a 

 natural flow or feeding. If there is no nat- 

 ural flow the feeding must be heavy, and it is 

 hardly worth while to try to get comb built 

 when the bees are not getting enough from 

 the fields to get honey to put in the combs 

 they build. For there is no way to get the 

 bees to build comb that is not immediately put 

 to use either for brood or honey. 



jpers, 

 have 



Introducing Queens 



What do you think of the following? 



1. Two queens were bought and were placed 

 with most all the brood of the respective colo- 

 nies on June 24. Queens were accepted and 

 eggs found on first examination. In colony 

 No. 1, on the 7th of July, were many cups with 

 eggs and queen-cells very young; the queen 

 was present. Colony 26 did not have a queen 

 but had a solitary capped queen-cell- To both 

 colonies comb supers were given and good 

 work done therein. 



2. I took a queen from colony No. 2 and 

 soon found a queen-cell. After while I found 

 another just like it. The colony has not 

 swarmed as yet. When I went to destroy the 

 queen-cell I liberated a queen. She came out 

 of the cell as I went at it. I put her in colony 

 No. 34, which I had noticed was queenless but 

 had a capped queen-cell. What do you think 

 will become of colony No. 2 and No. 34? 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



Answers. — 1. Colony No. 1 had queen-cells 

 present a week after the introduction of a new 

 queen, the cells containing eggs or brood of 

 the new queen. That's a thing that happens 

 quite often when a new queen is introduced; 

 and I think such cells are usually destroyed 

 by the bees, but sometimes they are left and 

 the queen superseded. In the case of colony 

 No. 26, supersedure evidently took place. 



2. Judging from the empty queen-cells pres- 

 ent, the probability is that a free virgin was in 

 colony No. 2, which will be laying in less than 

 two weeks. The virgin given to No. 34 was 

 probably killed, having no effect whatever on 

 the condition of the colony. 



Swarm Prevention 



1. I had a colony in an 8-frame hive that 

 wintered well. On May 5 I took an empty 

 hive-body, put full sheets of foundation in it 

 and put it under the brood-chamber, thinking 

 they would not swarm; but they did not work 

 down. On June 13 they sent out a swarm; it 

 was hived and put on the stand of the parent 

 colony, moving the parent colony so there was 

 about 3 feet between them. Was that too far? 



2. I would like to know why the bees didn't 

 work down in the extra hive-body I gave them. 

 Was it too late in the season? 



3. The swarm that came out June 13 was 

 given supers 2 days later, but on June 25, 12 

 days after they were hived, they sent out a 

 swarm, and on July 5 a second swarm. How 

 can you account for that, so soon after they 

 were hived? I gave them one frame of brood 

 when I hived them, the rest full sheets of 

 foundation. This is the first time I have tried 

 to exchange places with the swarm and the 

 parent colony; it kept the parent colony from 

 swarming anv more, all right, but what was 

 gained? MICHIGAN. 



A — nswers. — 1. Yes, it was too far. You 

 should have set the swarm on the old stand 

 and the old hive as close to it as possible 

 without touching; then, 7 or 8 days later, 

 moved the old hive to a new stand 10 feet or 

 more distant. 



2. I don't know why they didn't work down. 

 Looks like pure cussedness, for any decent 

 colony ought to have done so. As you gave 

 them the extra room below May 5, and they 

 swarmed June 13, it looks as if there was no 

 excuse for them. Like enough you will not 

 find it happen so again. 



3. Giving . that frame of brood may have 

 made the trouble. Some think it advisable to 

 give such frame, and then take it away after 

 2 or 3 days. In this particular case perhaps 

 little was gained, but generally there will be a 

 decided gain, for a strong force of bees will 



be on the old stand to do good wo 

 and even as it was it was a gain 

 the old colony split up into weak 



Sweet Clover — Alfalfa 



1. On page 85, American Bee Journal for 

 March, 1918, we are told that "when cut for 

 hay, sweet clover should be mown before it 

 begins to bloom to any extent." But. alas for 

 the poor bees! If this is the practice, what is 

 the use of the plant as bee forage? 



2. I bought some buckwheat seed and tried 

 out a small patch for my bees. The blossom 

 is white, and although the plants have been in 

 full bloom for two weeks, not a bee visits them, 

 nor has the bloss< m the slightest odor. My 

 man, who at one time lived in Kansas, says 



. the buckwheat there is a pinkish purple 

 blossom, and a marked odor. Apparently I 

 have gotten hold of the wrong kind. Can you 

 give me the botanical name of the variety the 

 bees visit? BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



Answers. — 1. Don't worry. In the west, 

 where alfalfa honey is produced by the car- 

 load, the same rule holds, and alfalfa must be 

 cut for hay before the bees have much chance 

 at it, but one way and another it turns out 

 that the bees get carloads. Some of it is 

 left to grow for seed, and of course the bees 

 get the full benefit of that, and some cut for 



hay will by some means be cut a bit late 



well, you see, the honey is gotten, somehow. 

 You'll find it the same way with sweet clover. 



2. Your buckwheat is almost certainly all 

 right. Whether you have Japanese, Silver-hull, 

 or just common buckwheat, it's all Fagopyrum 

 esculentum, and honey-yielding. I think you" 

 would call the blossoms white that grow here, 

 although some of them may have a pinkish 

 shade, and it is possible that in other regions 

 the blossoms may be pink. Like most honey- 

 plants, there are seasons when no nectar is 

 yielded. I think, too, that it is rather early 

 for it to yield well if it blooms in the first 

 half of July, as it is considered not advisable 

 to sow oucVwheat before about the first of 

 July. 



Ownership of a Swarm 



If my bees swarm and go on some one else's 

 property, whom do they belong to? 



Answer. — If you follow them right up you 

 can claim them. 



NEW YORK. 



Put-Up Plan 



The way I do, the Put-up plan might be bet- 

 ter called the Put-aside or Put-away plan. I 

 do not like to set one hive on the other, so at 

 first I set the hive with the queen in it aside 

 of the parent hive; but as I thought that the 

 bees in the "aside" were not staying well (flew 

 over into the old hive), I set the hive with the 

 queen quite a ways off. If I would grow to a 

 thousand years I would not hunt up queens, 

 nor endanger them by handling; so I separate 

 the queen by setting the parent hive off the 

 stand and put ihe empty new hive in its place; 

 then put into the latter a frame with little 

 brood, another with honey, and also one with 

 empty comb, and may add some frames with 

 foundation. On all that I place a queen-ex- 

 cluder, and in front, up against entrance, a 

 large board, and on that I brush the bees out 

 of the parent hive; then place latter upon the 

 excluder. Then I brush the bees on that board 

 at the entrance, and the bees walk into the 

 hive-body below. In the evening, or morning, 

 I set aside the parent hive, and then pick up 

 the new hive with the queen in it and set it 

 away on a prepared stand; then put the parent 

 hive on the old site. At the time I put the 

 frames of brood into the parent hive I do the 

 best I can to destroy all queen-cells but the 

 best one. Three or four days later I look over 

 the frames in the parent hives again tor de- 

 struction of all but the one best cell. 



Thus I rarely have any other than good 

 luck in securing the queen in the hive. The 

 only trouble is, that in the hive on the old 

 stand, the new queens seem not forthcoming, 

 and the bees act queerly ; they swarm, come 

 back, and in one case repeated that, and both 

 times after that action, on examination, there 

 seemed to be neither eggs nor queen-cells. I 

 really expected eggs only 12 days after the op- 

 eration of dividing. My hopes were that thus 

 the parent hives would find themselves with 



