130 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



3. Mv queens are clipped. I move the old 

 hive to a new stand, replace it with another 

 of full sheets of foundation, yet I have had 

 several cases in each of the past three seasons 

 where the bees have reared more cells and in 

 due time swarmed again. 1 use the 10-frame 

 double-walled hive. (My spring count of colo- 

 nies for these seasons has not been above fif- 

 teen.) Can you suggest a cause for such ac- 

 tions? 



4. The above condition applies to natural 

 swarming when 1 caught them in the act. The 

 same experience has been true with us when 

 brushing, though several times I have had 

 several colonies all go together, leaving a 

 queen and only a few bees on the old stand. 

 this happening once or twice after the swarm 

 had drawn quite a little comb, and the queens 

 layi g. 



ft. If. in transferring from a box-hive the 

 hees are drummed into a box and emptied into 

 a modern hive with some drawn combs, the 

 box-hive turned upside down and a queen ex- 

 cluder put on it, and then the modern hive 

 above that, making sure, of course, the queen 

 is in the top hive, will the bees rob out the 

 lower hive? All entrances to the lower hive 

 would be stopped of course. If done early 

 in the season, perhaps even before fruit-bloom, 

 if some honey was provided in the drawn- 

 combs, would this not be a reasonably good 

 way of transferring and getting rid of a 

 sticky mess? VERMONT. 



Answers. — 1. Honey will be promptly filled 

 into the cells, perhaps in the center of the 

 brood-chamher, but if it gets in the queen's 

 way it will be emptied out again, and unless 

 she is very old the Queen will not be re- 

 stricted in her laying. 



2. If you mean another swarm from the old 

 hive, that will not be affected in the least by 

 the combs or the foundation given to the prime 

 swarm. If you mean a swarm from the swarm 

 (what is called a virgin swarm), likely drawn 

 combs would have some tendency to hasten the 

 swarming; but virgin swarms are so rare as to 

 need little consideration. 



3. Let me see whether I get you straight. 

 When the swarm issues, you set the swarm on 

 the old stand and at the same time set the 

 old hive on a new stand some distance away. 

 Afterswarms are likely to follow. Try it this 

 way: Set the swarm on the old stand and the 

 old hive close beside it; then, 7 or S days 

 later, move the old hive to a new stand ome 

 distance away. See if that doesn't turn the 

 trick. You see, in the last case you move the 

 old hive about the time it is ready to send out 

 the first afterswarm; the hive loses its field 

 force, which joins the swarm, and this o 

 weakens and discourages the mother colony 

 that all thought of further swarming i9 given 

 up. 



4. I'm not sure I understand just what does 

 occur. If you'll try again, giving very full 

 particulars, maybe I can help you out, and 

 maybe I can't. 



5. I'm not sure just how the thing would 

 turn out. I should expect that in some cases 

 work would be promtly commenced in the 

 upper hives, and in there would 

 be sulking, but work begun sooner 



In either rase the brood in the old hive would 

 be cared for until it hatched, ami then the 

 honey might be carried up promptly, but 

 oftcner rather 



will greatly value the excellent report annu- 

 ally issued to the members, giving full account 

 of proceedings at the meeting, and also a re- 

 port of the Chicago-Northwestern meeting. It 

 would take too much room to tell of the dif- 

 ferent things that have been accomplished 

 through associations of beekeepers. No telling 

 what new things m Q y be accomplished through 

 organization which are not likely to be ac- 

 complished without it. 



2. One dollar. 



3. Jas. A. Stone, Farmingdale, 111., is sec- 

 retary. 



Illinois Association 



1 Wh.ii real benefit would I have in joining 



\ ociation? 



2 What are the annua 



3. To whom must I writ, for membership? 



II LINOIS 

 Answers. — 1. If yon I one of 



the meetings of the Association you would not 

 begrudge several times the cost. The wide- 

 awake discussions bring out points of value 

 that might not otherwise be brought out, and 

 ill value equally the opportunity m'- 

 i i meet old acquaintances and 

 to make new ones, coming in close contact 

 with those who are leaders in our pursuit. 

 Whether you attend the meetings or not, you 



Swarm Control 



Please publish in your journal how Dr. 

 Miller checks bees from swarming; for run- 

 ning to comb honey. NEW YORK. 



Answers. — Particulars of all I have done in 

 the way of trying to prevent swarming would 

 more than fill this journal. The gist of it is 

 that when you find queen-cells started you 

 must kill them and make the colony queen- 

 less for 10 days. If you cage the queen in 

 the hive for 10 days, the colony may need to 

 be treated again, but if you remove the queen 

 and at the end of 10 days introduce a young 

 laying queen there will be no more swarming 

 that year. 



Dadant-Langstroth Hives 



1. Will not the queen lay more in the Da- 

 dant or Jumbo than in the Langstroth, and 

 more in the Langstroth than in the divisible 

 brood-chamber hive? 



2. I see that the Dadants obtained^ 12ft. 000 

 pounds of extracted honey from 500 hives and 

 that Atwater, of Idaho, realized 100,000 pounds 

 from 1,000 hives of the Langstroth pattern. If 

 the pasturage in both localities is the same, as 

 no doubt it is, is not this a solid argu- 

 ment in favor of the deep frame for the ex- 

 tracted honey production? 



3. Will net the use of frames in a hive 

 help to keep the bees from swarming and also 

 tend to increase the size of the bees? 



4. I see that A. C. Miller places the 10- 

 frame hive on the Jumbo for supers. Could 

 this also be done with the Dadant? I am un- 

 der the imnression that the latter is wider, 

 deeper and longer than the Jumbo. 



MICHIGAN. 

 Answers. — 1. The larger the hive, the more 

 a queen will lay, so long as the capacity of 

 the hive is less than the capacity of the queen. 

 But when the capacity of the queen is reached, 

 then increasing the size of the hive will not 

 increase the laying of the queen. A queen may 

 lay more in a divisible-chamber hive than in a 

 Dadant if there are enough stories in the 

 former, and if the queen can lay more than 

 the Dadant will hold. A queen will likely lay 

 a little more in a Dadant than in a divisible 

 of exactly the same capacity, but the difference, 

 especially in hot weather, is perhaps less than 

 generally supposed. 



2. I am quite inclined to the opinion that 

 the Dadant may be better than the Langstroth, 

 but it is far from being proven by what you 

 say. How do you know the pasturage was the 

 same? How do you know that other condi- 

 tions ami management were the same? Tn 

 make the argument "solid" you should have a 

 number of each kind of hives, say 60', side by 



the same apiary under the same man- 



3. Quite likely swarming will be lei 



nine frames are used in a 10-frame hive and 



the spacing of the frames from center to cen- 



increased. But it will not increase the 



size of the bees. 



4. A little ingenuity will enable you to ad- 

 just together two hives of different size by 

 tacking on strips. 



2. Do you think a screen would be neces- 

 sary over the top? UTAH. 



Answers. — 1. If your frames are not self- 

 spacing fasten them in some way so they can- 

 not shake, if necessary driving a nail into each 

 iml of the end-bars, not driving it so deep but 

 what you can easily draw it out. Put the 

 hives on the wagon with the frames running 

 crosswise. 



2. If the entrance is large there may be no 

 need of a screen over the top. But if il be 

 only three-eighths of an inch deep, it will be 

 much better to have the top screened. Of 

 course, much depends on whether the weather 

 is warm or cool. If a day unusually warm 

 should come, and the bees show uneasiness, 

 give them a good sprinkling of cold water. 



cording 

 governm 



Shipping Bees 



near Wilmington, N. C. Ac- 

 "Honey Markets." issued by the 

 honey sells for more by the bar- 

 York than I can get elsewhere. 

 We have New York steamers on regular runs. 

 I want to sell my honey this way for this sea- 

 son, provided this is the best way. After a 

 year of bitter experience I want to sell on a 

 "sure pay" or "cash with order" basis. 



Do you think a New York firm would in- 

 spect and pay for honey in Wilmington, _ N. 

 C. ? Can you or anyone else post me a little 

 as to best steps to take? I don't claim to be 

 much up on business details, as I have spent 

 about all of my time "among the bees." 



2. Ha! you migratory beekeepers; how 

 about the bee package business?^ Instead of 

 one man buying and another selling, why not 

 one man or firm start at a southern point and 

 ship his bees to central honey-flows, and then 

 ship again for the flow further north, and 

 then at the end ship far south again? Make 

 nuclei and add shipped bees to them. 



NORTH CAROLINA 



Answers. — v. In the market quotations in 

 the bee journals are the names of firms that 

 do business in New York and other large mar- 

 kets. Write directly to any of these, and if 

 you have what they want there ought to be no 

 great difficulty in opening negotiations with 

 them. 



2. Shipping bees back and forth, as you sug- 

 gest, has been tried at different times with 

 more or less success, but the success in gen- 

 eral has not been sufficient to warrant a continu- 

 ance for any length of time. The package 

 business is as yet on trial, but at present it 

 looks as if the difficulties are not insurmount- 

 able, and that it has a fair prospect of becom- 

 ing an established Dusiness. So there seems 

 little probability of the revival of migratory 

 beekeeping to the detriment of the package 

 business. 



Nucleus Without Queen 



1. What do you think about using nine 

 frames in standard 10-frame hives to give bees 

 clustering space? Which do you recommend, 

 ten frames or nine? 



2 What do you think about taking three 

 frames ot brood and bees without a queen to 

 start a new colony? How and when would 

 you do this? INDIANA. 



Answers. — 1. Likely you will do better to 

 use the ten frames. Unless you use a dummy 

 with nine, there will lie too much space -il 'In- 

 side. Hut it mighl be .i gain tn use the nine 

 ase the spacing. 



•J. I wouldn't think of starting with :: t>i 



without giving a queen "r a queen-cell, li you 

 give one of these you can start the nucleus 

 about 



Moving Bees 



1. I have 20 colonies of bees that I wish to 



ome time in April or 



:iugh a mountainous country, in a 



Roads are fairly good. Please give me 



some suggestions how to proceed. 



Bees in Packages 



1. I am thinking of getting a few hives "I bees 

 to get used to handling; them. 1 know bul 

 very little about bees. I am figuring on get- 

 ting a few 2-pound packages with queens. 

 Would it be safe to put them in a new hive 

 with only full sheets ..f foundation in frames? 



2. How late in the season would it be safe 

 for a 2-pound package in a new hive for them 

 to get strong enough for winter? ^^ 



Answers. — 1. Yes; although there is -ome 

 chance of their swarming out. It will be bet- 



