273 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



dation. The next day I went out to transfer 

 them into a new hive, and they were not there. 

 I can hardly account for that. The hive the 

 neighbor gave me was a new 10-frarne, complete 

 .vith new frames and full sheets of foundation. 

 Do you think that was a swarm of a wild na- 

 ture? IOWA. 

 ..Answers. — 1. Dont' worry about so many 

 bees. You will have only the progeny of one 

 queen in each hive, and the hive will easily 

 hold them all. 



2. Yes, and also 8 or 10 days later. 



3. They might. 



4.1 believe in doing anything and everything 

 to prevent swarming that will not lessen the 

 crop of honey. 



5. Those bees were probably no wilder than 

 others, but having a virgin queen they were 

 inclined to desert if everything wasn't entirely 

 to their liking. Like enough they were too 

 warm. It is always well to give extra ven- 

 tilation to a newly hived swarm, especially if 

 it has a virgin queen. 



Catalpa 



Is the catalpa bloom considered a honey- 

 producer? KANSAS. 



Answer. — I have never heard catalpa spoken 

 of as an important honey-plant, and have never 

 seen bees upon it, although I have had very 

 little chance for observation. 



Queen-Cells Not Destroyed 



1. I have a hive of bees that I caught this 

 year. They have most of their comb drawn. 

 They had a queen, but she disappeared after 

 laying a good many eggs. They now have sev- 

 eral queen-cells started and several are hatched, 

 but none have been destroyed. I always 

 thought that the first queen to hatch destroyed 

 all the rest. 



2. The bees have most of the frames filled 

 with honey or pollen, with some sealed brood 

 There are very few vacant cells where the 

 queen can lay. Would this be likely to cause 

 them to swarm? If so, what can I do to pre- 

 vent it? 



3. How much comb honey can I expect to 

 get here in an average year? OHIO. 



Answers. — 1. As a rule the first virgin that 

 leaves her cell kills the others, unless prevented 

 by the workers. If they decide it is best to 

 send out a swarm they protect the cells from 

 her. 



2. It is not entirely clear just what the con- 

 ditions were, but being crowded for room is 

 an important factor in making bees swarm. You 

 should allow abundant room in the supers be- 

 fore they have any crowded feeling. 



3. That's a matter that varies greatly, de 

 pending on the season and the management. A 

 beginner might feel well satisfied with 50 

 pounds to the colony. 



Miscellaneous Questions 



1 How much profit can lie made out of one 

 hive <>r colony oi 



■ many colonies can one man tend? 

 ; Which, in your estimation, is the best 

 i beekeeping? 



4. What are assistants paid on apiaries, to 

 learn? 



5. U there any future to the bee business. 



ri rowded 



6. Will the price of honey drop down to 10 

 cents a pound, or how much will it drop? 



?. W hat arc the best hooks on the subject 

 of beekeeping? IOWA. 



Answers. — 1. That's a pretty broad question. 

 it might run it up into the hundreds 

 by having a colony of such good stock that he 

 ! rear queens from it and sell them at a 

 good price. But if you mean how much can be 

 get for the honey received from one colony, it 

 might in rare cases reach $iiO or more. But 

 taking one year with another, the average bee- 

 keeper will be doing very well if he averages 

 $5 per colony, and a beginner sufficiently ex- 

 pert at making blunders might make that 

 amount about $5 less in any but a very good 

 year. 



2. In most cases probably not more than a 

 hundred. 



3. I don't know. The difference is likely so 

 little that in most cases it would not pay a man 

 to change from one State to another. 



4. That's as it happens. In some cases the 

 assistant gets his tuition for his labor, and 

 from that it varies until he gets a fair wage 

 for his time without reckoning his tuition. 



5. So long as honey remains the best sweet 

 known there is a future for the bee-business, 

 and so long as tons of nectar are going to 

 waste it can hardly be overcrowded. 



6- It is hard to foretell the future. I 

 wouldn't attempt to be a prophet, but my guess 

 would be that while honey, like everything 

 else, will come down in price, it will never 

 again fall to the low level of past years. 



7. Those published by the publishers of this 

 journal are good. Among the others may be 

 named Roofs ABC and XYZ, Dr. E. F. Phil- 

 lips' Beekeeping, Frank C. Pellett's Productive 

 Beekeeping, and after you have these commit- 

 ted to memory you may be interested in read- 

 ing Dr. Miller's Fifty Years Among the Bees. 



Caging Queens 



Do you believe a queen is injured by being 

 caged ten days during the clover flow? Please 

 fully explain your reasons for your opinion. 

 OHIO. 



Answer. — No, I don't really believe it does a 

 queen any harm to be caged ten days in a hive 

 during the clover flow, unless the cage be so 

 small that she is allowed no room for exercise. 

 If you press me for my reasons for thinking 

 so I might answer with Falstaff, "Give you a 

 reason for compulsion ! If reasons were as 

 plentiful as blackberries, I would give -no man 

 a reason on compulsion, I." Or, I might say 

 I have no particular reason for it, and turn 

 upon you with the question, "What reason have 

 you for thinking it does hurt her?" It might 

 be thought that there is a sort of violence in a 

 sudden cessation of heavy laying. But she can 

 keep on laying if she wants to, even if she 

 doesn't deposit the eggs in cells. And ought 

 there not to be some gain to the queen from a 

 ten days' rest? I have had queens thus caged 

 by the hundred, and never knew any harm to 

 come from it. That's negative testimony, to be 

 sure, and I'm ready to change my mind as 

 soon as given a good reason to do so. 



Bees Disappearing 



I bought two colonies of bees one year, and 

 the next spring I had four colonies; this was 

 last year. Last fall I had four new colonies 

 and seven supers of honey. I wintered the 

 eight colonies in the attic of a dwelling-house 

 and they appeared to be in good shape until 

 lately, when three colonies disappeared. 

 Nothing but the empty comb left in the hive, 

 and another hive has just a few bees left. 

 There seems to be fewer bees each day. One 

 hive had the cover filled with honey and be- 

 fore I got around to put on a super the honey 

 next to the brood-racks had young bees in it, 

 but the rest was nice and clear. The only 

 change I made from last summer is. I put con- 

 crete blocks under the hives. Each colony 

 swarmed once last year, and I then kept the 

 queen-cells cut out. 



What is the reason my bees are disappear- 

 ing? MINNESOTA. 



Answer. — You say you let each colony 

 swarm once last year, and then kept the quecn- 

 Cells cut out. When a swarm issued from any 

 colony there were left in the hive a number of 

 queen-cells from one of which a future queen 

 was to emerge. These cells you cut out. Then 

 the bees started other cells from young brood 

 in the hive. But these cells you kept cut out, 

 and there being no more young brood in the 

 hive the bees were left hopelessly queenless. 

 So the disappearance of the bees was from 

 death through old age, there being no young 

 bees in the hive to take the place of those 

 dying off. Next time, instead of keeping all 

 queen-cells cut out, leave one from which a 

 queen may be reared. 



Transferring 



I have 10 colonies of bees in standard 10- 

 frame hives, which I desire to transfer to 

 Jumbo hives. How can this be done? When 

 is the best season to do this? ALABAMA. 



Answer. — The transferring should be a com- 

 paratively easy thing, seeing that your old 

 frames are the same length as the Jumbo 

 frames. Follow the plan laid down in your 

 book for transferring, cutting out the comb 

 from the old frame and putting it in the 

 lower part of the new frame. That will leave 

 a vacancy of two inches or so at the upper 

 part, and three or four of these vacancies can 

 be filled by cutting up one of the combs into 

 strips of the proper size. The best time to 

 do this is when honey is coming in freely in 

 the season, say in fruit-bloom. 



Exhibit by British Columbia Department of Agriculture at Flower Show held al Nelson, 

 B. ('., during the Western I ition Association's Convention, in 1918. 



Produced and staged by W. J. Sheppard, Inspector of Apiaries for the Kootenays 



