1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



349 



the workers will be an utter change in some- 

 thing like nine weeks, the progeny of the 

 old queen dying off in that time, if it is in 

 the working season, and all the workers in the 

 hive being the progeny of the new queen. 



4. Yes, a comb in the brood-chamber or in 

 an extracting super may he used 20 years or 

 more without cleaning, except that extracting 

 combs should have all the honey cleaned out 

 of them each fall by the bees. 



5. I don't know how you can entirely 

 avoid having any moths except by keeping no 

 bees. You can prevent their doing any great 

 harm by keeping colonies strong and of Ital- 

 ian stock. 



Bee Tree — Hiving Swarms 



1. If I find a bee tree in the woods, do I 

 have to get permission from the owner to cut 

 it down? 



2. A neighbor near us had a swarm of bees 

 come out this year. He hived them five or 

 six times but they came out and lit on a 

 tree ; so he gave them to a man who was 

 working there who hived them and they 

 stayed. What was the reason they wouldn't 

 stay in the first hive? 



3. What is the most profitable, comb or 

 extracted honey ? IOWA. 



Answers. — 1. Yes. 



2. No telling for certain, but the probabil- 

 ity is that it was too hot for the bees. A 

 newly -hived swarm should be shaded by some 

 means and have abundant ventilation, per- 

 haps by raising the cover half an inch or 

 more and raising the hive on blocks. 



3. In some localities one, and in some lo- 

 calities the other. Even in the same locality 

 it is not always alike. Last year extracted 

 was more profitable in many a locality where 

 comb honey had previously paid better. 



Peculiar Behavior of Bees 



I have 10 colonies and two of ttiem seem to 

 have a funny habit. They are this year's 

 swarms and have their hive-body full of honey 

 and brood. The supers have sections with 

 full sheets of foundation in them. There are 

 lots of bees in the supers, but they don't seem 

 to work very fast. I am sure there is plenty 

 of honey in the fields. What I can't under- 

 stand is why quite a few bees sit around on 

 the platform, or alighting board in the day- 

 time, and act as they were trying to cut, c r 

 bite the paint or wood. They will lean as 

 far forward as they can and then back with- 

 out going off their hind feet. All the while 

 they will have their two front feet going back 

 and forth. What do they think they are do- 

 ing? MICHIGAN. 



Answer. — The probability is that your bees 

 are all right. If the brood-chamber is full of 

 brood and honey they certainly have been 

 gathering, and if later they have been doing 

 little in supers it may be there is little in the 

 field for them to do. The fact that flowers 

 are in bloom is not proof that nectar is plen- 

 tiful, for sometimes the bloom will be plenti- 

 ful yet yielding no nectar. Their funny ac- 

 tions in moving Dack and forth at the en- 

 trance is called "raking." I don't know why 

 they do it, and never saw any satisfactory ex- 

 planation for it. But if you are observing 

 you will see it every year at almost any hive. 



Transferring — Location 



1. I have ten hives of bees; five are in old- 

 fashioned home-made hives. Two of the five 

 have movable frames. The other five are in 

 new hives in which full sheets of foundation 

 were used. I would like to get the bees out 

 of these old hives and by next fall increase 

 to 20. Of course I want to get all the honey 

 I can. I have no comb built out but would 

 use foundation. I don't like to transfer by 

 cutting the combs out of the old frames and 

 fitting them in the new. I would make the in- 

 crease artificially and would buy laying queens. 



2. In "Forty Years Among the Bees" you 

 say that if you were starting over again you 

 would hunt some time to find a place where 

 they had two flows — summer and fall flows. 

 If a young man is intending to make beekeep- 



ing his sole occupation, would you advise 

 leaving Wisconsin and hunting for a better 

 place? The last two years have been very 

 poor here in Southern Wisconsin. 



Answers.— 1. As you want to avoid patch- 

 ing combs and as the swarming season is 

 now past, perhaps your best way will be to 

 wait till next pear. Then, when a colony 

 swarms, hive it in a movable-comb hive, set- 

 ting it on the old stand with the old hive close 

 beside it. A week later move the old hive to 

 a new stand. Two weks later still, or three 

 weeks after swarming, there should be in the 

 old hive only a little quite young brood, when 

 you can chop up the old hive, melt up the 

 combs, and urush the bees into the other hive, 

 or else brush them onto frames of foundation 



2. If you are in an average Wisconsin lo- 

 cation it is somewhat doubtful whether it 

 would be advisable to leave the State. At any 

 rate, better not make any move until you have 

 personally visited the new location, whether it 

 be live miles away or a thousand, and are 

 thoroughly satisfied the move will be advan- 

 tageous. Some have left Wisconsin for what 

 they supposed a better location, and then have 

 gone back and settled contended in the old 

 home. 



Profit From Bees 



1. You say that $5 profit is all that can be 

 made out of a hive of bees, and 100 colonies 

 is all one man could keep, so it seems that 

 one could only make $500 a year, with chance 

 for a failure in a bad season, i thought one 

 might be able to keep GOO colonies and have 

 about $10 on a hive. I thought of taking up 

 beekeeping as a business, but if such as you 

 say I want nothing to do with it. 



2. What hours of the day do you work 

 with your bees? 



3. What was the amount of the Dadants' 

 crop for 1918? 



4. What was your highest average crop and 

 your lowest, per colony ? 



5. Do you think beekeeping would pay for 

 a man with a large family, when food prices 

 are now so high? ILLINOIS. 



Answers. — 1. I have no recollection of 

 having made such an unqualified statement, 

 and if you'll give the place where I made it 

 I'll be ready to reply. 



2. If only a little is to be done, the middle 

 of the forenoon is a good time ; but when 

 there is enough to do I work from daylight 

 till dark or after dark. 



3. The Dadant crop was short in 1918. 



4. My highest average was an apiary of 72 

 colonies; 266 sections per colony (244 

 pounds.) My lowest was years ago, when the 

 yield was an utter failure and I had to feed 

 for winter. 



5. Men have succeeded, and probably will 

 again succeed, in making enough from bees to 

 take care of a large family. To be sure, 

 everything is high now, but so is honey. The 



* man, however, who makes a success at bee- 

 keeping is not so likely to be the man who 

 says he will have nothing to do with it un- 

 less assured a certain amount, as the man 

 who cannot be pried away from hi^ bees even 

 if he thinks he will keep them at a loss. The 

 successful beekeeper is the one whose whole 

 soul is in the business. 



(There are several beekeepers who made as 

 much as $20,000 in 1918.— F. C. P.) 



Deserting Bees 



1. The latter part of July I noticed nearly 

 all the bees of one hive were clustered on the 

 outside, and there was honey dripping out, so 

 I raised the top a little to give more air. A 

 few days later I investigated and found the 

 hive deserted. The super was nearly idled 

 with honey and there was ample stores below, 

 but none of it capped. The honey had a 

 slightly sour smell, was thin and foamy. Each 

 cell was overflowing with this foam like a can 

 of fruit that had spoiled. They had an 

 abundance of sealed brood, but no eggs nor 



larva;, and the moths had made considerable 

 progress in the brood-nest. This was my 

 best swarm of bees; it was extra strong. Now 

 I would be glad if you would tell me what 

 was the trouble, and why did a strong swarm 

 of bees let the moths come in? 



2. Are the bees clustered on the outside of 

 the hive working bees or are they young bees? 



3. Do bees sleep? TEXAS. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know what the trou- 

 ble was, but I suspect that one part of the 

 trouble was in the character of the honey. I 

 have read of cases in which the honey worked 

 as yours did, presumably because of the honey 

 from certain plants or decayed fruits; out I 

 don't know what the plants were. Perhaps 

 another trouble was queenlessness, the moths 

 coming in after the colony had dwindled 

 away. 



2. They may be of any age, older bees pre- 

 dominating. 



3. I have read that they do. 



Cellar Wintering 



1. How large a space is used over the 

 frames when wintering in the cellar? 



2. What is used to keep the bees in the 

 hive while they are being put in the cellar? 



3. When is the best time to put them in? 



4. Would a super filled with leaves on a 

 hive in the cellar make them restless? If so, 

 why? WISCONSIN. 



Answers.— 1. Probably not all the same. In 

 my own hives the space between top-bars and 

 cover is the same as on the summer stands — 

 about one-quarter of an inch. 



2. Nothing. The bees are supposed to be so 

 quiet and so quietly handled that they do not 

 come out of the hives to any extent. If, how- 

 ever, it is desired to fasten them in the hive, 

 a large cloth, dripping wet, may close the 

 entrance. 



3. If you can guess nearly enough as to 

 what the weather will be, take them in rhe 

 next day after their last flight. In Wiscon- 

 sin that is likely to be in December, or very 

 late in November. 



4. It would not be likely to make them 

 restless. 



Black Drones 



I have an extra good colony of bees. Work- 

 ers are all bright, evenly-marked Italians, not 

 a black bee in the hive, but — what I want is 

 advice. Some of the drones are as black as 

 coal. Would you advise breeding from this 

 queen? It is about the best colony I have in 

 a yard of forty. I would like to rear some 

 young queens from it if it was not for those 

 black drones. TEXAS. 



Answer. — Don't worry about those drones. 

 Either drones or queens of Italians may be 

 very dark; but if the workers are all right 

 they are counted pure. 



New York Field Meet 



Nearly 750 New York beekeepers 

 gathered at the farm apiary of De- 

 roy Taylor, Newark, August 1, where 

 they listened to nationally known 

 speakers and witnessed demonstra- 

 tions in handling foulbrood. Prices 

 for honey were recommended by a 

 State committee headed by S. D. 

 House. Speakers were: O. L. Her- 

 shiser, Kennith Hawkins, G. C. Por- 

 ter, State Marketing Bureau, E. R. 

 Root and George H. Ray. Mr. Her- 

 shiser was chairman, Mr. Hawkins 

 spoke on fall management, Mr. Root 

 on California disease conditions, and 

 Mr. Ray on his extension work in 

 the State. Co-operative marketing 

 of honey was considered by members 

 after Mr. Porter's talk. A picnic 

 luncheon was a feature of the day. 

 A winter meeting of the Association 

 is to be held later. 



