1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



131 



ter if you give them a comb with at least a 

 little brood in it. 



2. Seasons differ so much that one cannot 

 set a definite date. The first of September 

 might do in some cases, and the first of July 

 might be too late in others. You're not likely 

 to get them any too early. 



Swarming 



I have 15 colonies of bees. I want to know 

 in the spring, when I cut the queen-cells out 

 of them if I could put all the capped brood 

 up in the super. Would that be a good idea, 

 to keep them from swarming. 



CALIFORNIA. 



Answ er. — Yes; when you find queen-cells 

 started for swarming, cut them out, put all 

 but one brood in an upper story above a queen- 

 excluder and leave the queen with the one 

 urood below the excluder. That ought to 

 leave very little chance for swarming. 



Old Sections 



I left a lot of surplus on mv hives last fall, 

 mostly -tilled with comb partly filled with honey. 

 Would you remove them in the spring and re- 

 place with new sections and foundation, or 

 leave them on to be refilled with honey again? 

 MISSOURI. 



Answer. — Any honey in the sections is 

 pretty sure to be candied, and a section with 

 candied honey in it is hardly marketable. Take 

 off the sections and sort out those containing 

 honey, giving back the others. 



Queen Rearing 



1, I have my bees in the cellar; will take out 

 as early as possible and use a wire protector 

 for the entrance, which I will remove when- 

 ever it is above 60 degrees, then replace it at 

 noon, or shortly after noon, so that no more 

 bees can get out to get chilled by evening cool 

 air; of course, will have a bee-escape placed 

 in the entrance protector in such a way that all 

 bees that happen to be out can get back in O. 

 K., but those that are tempted to go out when 

 it is too late, can't do it. This will be my way 

 to p event spring dwindling. 



2. I have a very fine Italian golden queen 

 from which I want to raise a few queens. I 

 expect to commence feeding as soon as taken 

 out of cellar, to encourage early brood-rearing; 

 then, as soon as she has the chamber pretty 

 well filled, I will take out all but one frame 

 and old queen and put it in a third story, 

 putting empty comb in first and second stories, 

 the third story being so far from the queen 

 they will at once start a lot of queen-cells ; 

 then, after aDout 8 days, as soon as they are 

 sealed, will divide the second story with a 

 tight division-board, third story likewise, and 

 put one or two frames with a good cell on 

 same, in each department; then, after a few 

 days, or nearly time for the new queens to 

 hatch, open entrances out for each division, so 

 the drones can get out, and likewise the 

 queens, to mate. Of course I will have queen- 

 excluders between first and second and second 

 and third brood-chamuers. Perhaps the 4 

 will all mate and return to their divisions; 

 may lose one or two, but in case I do, what is 

 the best method of introducing them into the 

 other hives, by cage, or can I take a frame of 



br ! with queen and adhering bees and after 



killing the other old queens insert the frame 

 with young queen? Would they accept her 

 this wav, say a day or two after the old queen 

 was killed, and they discover that they are 

 queenless? Or would it be best to cage the 

 new queen and introduce as per usual instruc- 

 tions? OHIO. 



Answers. — 1. As a special favor to me, I 

 wish you would try your plan on only one 

 colony. Then take the others out of cellar as 

 late as possible, leaving them in cellar as long 

 as they are quiet, say until soft maples are in 

 bloom, and don't do anything to keep them 

 from flying out whenever they feel like it. 



2. In your locality there is likely to be 

 something in the way of stores to be gathered 

 as soon as bees can fly freely, in which case 

 feeding will not hurry up brood-rearing, and it 

 may do a lot of harm to feed when bees can- 

 not fly. Neither will you find it a successful 

 thing to try to rear queens much before the 

 natural time when bees begin to rear them for 

 swarming. In trying to have queens reared 



and mated above a laying queen, be prepared 

 to have more failures than successes, unless 

 you do better than I have done. 



Your plan of introducing a queen on a 

 frame of her own bees is so certain of suc- 

 cess that I wouldn't think it worth while to 

 cage the queen. If you should want to cage 

 the queen, I think you will find there is no 

 danger of injuring her. 



Care of Supers — Returning Bees 



1. When you have taken the honey from the 

 extracting supers in the fall, would you ad- 

 vise the replacing of them on the hives in or- 

 der that the combs might be cleaned out by 

 the bees, before storing them away for the 

 winter? 



2. In your oft-repeated method for the pre- 

 vention of after-swarming would you kindly 

 point out its after effects upon the par:iit ■ ol- 

 ony (a) as to bee increase, (b) as to honey 

 production ? 



3. My winter bee shed is some five rods dis- 

 tant from the summer stands, and when I 

 move out the colonies in the spring many of 

 the bees return to their winter quarters. .1 

 believe thousands are lost in this manner. Any 

 helpful suggestions to overcome this serious 

 difficulty will be much appreciated. 



4. Have you ever known of a person being 

 rendered unconscious for three or four hours 

 after being stung in the neck about three of 

 four times by bees? I should like to know, as 

 a man here had the experience last summer. 



BRITISH COLUMBIA. 

 Answers. — -1. Yes, unless you prefer to set 

 them out in the open. In the latter case the 

 bees are more sure to clean them out promptly 

 and entirely. 



2. As there are plenty of young bees to take 

 care of all the brood, there should be no less 

 increase of bees. The mother colony loses its 

 field forces when moved, and will store less 

 honey than if not moved. But the swarm will 

 store more. 



3. When you have removed the bees, put 

 in the winter shed a hive containing empty 

 combs, in which any returning bees will gather. 

 At evening brush these in front of any hive 

 or hives you like, and return the combs to the 

 shed. You may have to repeat this for sev- 

 eral days. 



4. I have never known such a case person- 

 ally, but have read of something of the kind. 1 

 think such cases are rare. 



Rearing Queens 



1. I wish to raise a few queens, and on 

 reading "Practical Queen Rearing" by F. C. 

 Pellett thought ior my purpose and for the 

 present would use the Miller plan; but it says 

 it (the comb) will contain young brood with 

 an outer margin of eggs. Now, I would sup- 

 pose that outer margin of eggs would be just 

 what the bees need to start feeding for the 

 queens, since the younger the larva the bet- 

 ter, but instruction says, trim away with a 

 sharp knife all the outer margin of combs 

 which contain eggs, except perhaps a very few 

 next to the youngest brood. For what reason 

 are the eggs all cut out, or perhaps only a 

 very few left. 



2. Is it a sure thing to put this comb for 

 queen-cells in upper story with excluder be- 

 tween it and brood-chamber; where would you 

 put it? 



3. In using an excluder for the above pur- 

 there any difference (as some claim) 



betw 



and 



lIu.1.- 



4. Another thing puzzles me. In Doolit- 

 tle's management of outapiaries he uses Dr. 

 Miller's bottom-board, using the shallow depth 

 (three-eighths deep) for summer and 2 in. 

 depth for winter. In other words, he gives 

 more ventilation in winter than in summer; 

 why? 



5. In Alexander's writings on Practical Bee 

 Culture he is asked, what becomes of the 

 drones that are in upper story when excluder 

 is between (them) upper and lower stories? 

 Why could not drones live in upper story as 

 well as young bees, or must bees have egress 

 and ingress every few days ? The queen 

 doesn't fly out every few days. 



6. I will be thankful if you will state your 

 method of having the queen-cells drawn out; 

 your method is not stated in F. C. Pellett's 

 book, but possibly you use one of the methods 

 mentioned. If placing in upper story would 

 do, with excluder, that would be the simplest 

 plan. FLORIDA. 



Answers. — 1. The bees choose for queen- 

 cells larvs, not eggs, and that margin of eggs 

 is only in the way. It is possible that later, 

 after the eggs have hatched out into larva?, the 

 bees might use them for queen-cells, but that 

 is not desirable. Another thing is that bees 

 show a decided preference for rearing cells on 

 the margin of a comb, and trimming away the 

 eggs gives them the youngest larvae on such a 

 margin. But there's no law against your 

 leaving the margin untrimrned, if you prefer. 



2. No, I would never have queen-cells 

 started over an excluder with a laying queen 

 below. It's not a dead sure thing that any 

 will be started, and if any are started the 

 number is likely to be small. To start the 

 cells I remove the queen from a strong 

 colony, and about a day later put the prepared 

 comb in the center of the hive. The comb- is 

 so much to the taste of the bees that they are 

 not likely to start cells on the other combs, 

 and if they do you need not use them. 



3. The bees are more likely to start cells 

 over the zinc excluder, because it shuts off 

 communication more fully. But if you lay any 

 kind of a cloth over the wire excluder, still 

 leaving an inch or more at the sides for pas- 

 sage, you will succeed better than with the 

 zinc in getting cells started, or continued after 

 they are started. 



4. A deep space under bottom-bars is desir- 

 able summer and winter; but in summer the 

 bees will build comb in the deep space, so I 

 invented the Miller reversible bottom-board. 

 But I have not used it for many years, using 

 the 2-inch space summer and winter, and keep- 

 ing the bees from building down in summer 

 by the use of a bottom-rack, as you will find 

 in "Fifty Years Among the Bees.~ 



5. I don't know enough to tell all about it; 

 but I suppose the queen is built .to stand the 

 confinement and drones and workers are net. 



6. I think this question is answered i" 

 vious answers, and you will find the whole 

 plan very fully given in "Ffty Years Among 

 the Bees." 



Building Up in Spring 



I have bees in movable frame (old style) 

 hives. Would you please advise me ot the 

 best way to build up this spring in two hives, 

 that is, have a double brood-nest, and have it 

 with the maximum of bees at the beginning 

 of alsike clover? There are thirty -two acres 

 adjacent to my bees. It begins to bloom 

 about the last of June here. Could I 

 split these large brood-nests at finish of clover, 

 supplying extra hive-body to each half and 

 have them build up strong for the fall flow? 

 LOUISIANA. 



Answer. — If you should be so fortunate as 

 to have all strong colonies in spring, there is 

 nothing better than to let them do their own 

 building up.. If some of them are weak, you 

 can do a good deal toward helping. Briefly, 

 my plan is something like this: From the 

 strong colonies draw frames of brood with ad- 

 hering bees, but never leaving in any hive 

 less than four frames of brood. Give these 

 frames of brood and bees to colonies which 

 have less than four frames of brood, giving 

 first not to the weakest but to the strongest 

 of those needing help, leaving the weakest 

 to be helped later on. 



A very strong colony divided at the finish of 

 clover flow should build up and store in fall 

 flow. Like enough you might get more honey 

 not to divide; but then you would have the 



Spring Feeding 



1. I have eight colonies of bees in 10-frame 

 hives, packed in dry goods boxes for winter. 

 Would I be able to secure a larger crop by 

 feeding sugar in the spring and increasing 

 by the Alexander plan, or holding them at 

 eight colonies? 



2. In your book "Fifty Years Among the 

 Bees" you say you don't know whether you 

 have the wisdom to feed properly or not. 



