BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
A. The workers of bees imported from Italy have three yellow bands. Those that are called golden are obtained by breeding continuously from the yellow races, constantly selecting those showing most color. They are an American product.
There is probably no difference as to length of tongue between the two classes. When bees work on red clover it may be because of longer tongues, and it may be because of shorter corollas in the blossoms. I have seen black bees working on red clover.
Q. Which stock is best to order, the 3-band or 5-band?
A. Some prefer those with more than three bands, but most
her before I send for the new one? I have heard there is less danger of having the queen killed when she is introduced if the colony has been without a queen for some time. Should the queen be clipped before she is introduced?
A. You will probably do as well to wait until some time in June. Better not kill the old queen till the new one arrives. There may be considerable delay, and it is not well for the colony to be too long queenless. You can have the same, or greater, advantage by keeping the new queen caged in the hive two or three days before allowing the bees of the colony access to the candy to liberate her. Most beekeepers nowadays prefer to have queens clipped, and most of those who sell queens will clip them before sending, without extra charge, if you so request.
**Jouncer,--Q**. What is a jouncer?
A. A frame-work upon which a super rests, allowing the bees to be shaken out of the super by jonuncing the ends of the jouncer up and down alternately. It has not proven a success with everyone.
**Krainer Bees,--Q**. Have the Krainer bees from Krain, Austria, ever been imported to this country? Are they more hardy than Italians?
A. You have probably heard and read quite a little about Carnolian bees. Well, Krain is merely the German word for Carnola. I'm not sure whether the claim for greater hardness has been well established, but some think well of a cross with Italians.
**Labels,--Q**. How do you stick labels on tin cans? I don't seem able to make them stick.
A. The favorite way is to have the label pass clear around the can and overlap, in which case any common flour paste will answer. Flour paste with water sticks to tin. Wiping the can off with a dry cloth to remove the greasy substance left in tinning will help make labels stick.
**Larvae,--Q**. Is there any way of determining accurately the age of the larva, or, in other words, how long it has been in process of devclopment, without waiting for it to be sealed over?
A. Nothing very definite. In general terms it may be said that the larva makes most of its growth in the last two days of its five days of larval existence; and I think it doesn't cover the bottom of the cell till after it is three days old.
Q. At what time and in what way are the young bees fed?
A. They are fed by the nurse-bees for five days or more from the time the larva hatches out of the egg until it is sealed over.
**Laws on Beekeeping.--Q.** What are the laws governing the keeping of bees, disease control, etc.?
A. Laws concerning bees and diseases are made by each state individually. Write to your state bee inspector or state entomologist for information. If you do not know who he is, the publishers of the bee journals should be able to inform you.
**Laying Workers.--Q.** In overhauling a friend's bees today, I had a new experience. I found a colony that was queenless (at least no queen was noticed), and no brood was found in any of the combs, excepting a small quantity of drone-brood sealed up. Ninety-six drone-cells, actual count, and one sealed queen-cell; no worker-brood at all. The queen-cell was right among the sealed drone-cells.
A. It is not only possible, but probable, that not only a laying worker, but a number of them were present, and that the bees attempted to rear a queen just as you have snuggested.
Q. In appearance are laying workers different from workers?
A. Not a bit. I suppose I have seen hundreds of them--for in every colony with laying workers it isn't a single worker, but a whole nest of them at the miserable business--but I never could tell which the laying workers were, except one single laying worker that I caught in the act of laying.
Q. Do old bees become drone-layers, or do only the younger ones "go astray?"
A. I have a strong impression it's only the younger ones. Some have advanced the theory that laying workers, in their larval existence, have been located near queen-cells, and so have been fed some of the royal jelly as a sort of overflow. If that were the true theory, of course there would be no drone-layers except those which started in at the business early in life. But I wouldn't take much stock in that theory. Nurse-bees are not so careless as to slop around the soup dishes in that sort of style. Besides, if that theory were correct, laying workers would be just as likely to appear at all times after young queens are reared, whereas we know that with most races of bees no laying workers are seen unless a colony has been hopelessly queenless for some time. I don't remember that I ever saw any other explanation given, but if you can't find anything better I'll offer one of my own for what it is worth. It is that when a lot of nurses are loaded up with pap, and only a few larvae are left unsealed, those few are fed so heavily that they are developed sufficiently to do something in the egg-laying line. If any reliance can be put upon this.
theory it is still true that no bee could start in as a laying worker after it becomes old.
Q. Different writers claim that drone-laying workers are the only ones guilty of laying eggs on the sides of a cell. Last fall I found a colony with a drone-laying queen of previous year's rearing, and I found lots of worker-cells with two or three eggs in a cell, some at the bottom and others stuck to the sides half way down. In such a case, is the colony liable to have laying workers acting in conjunction with the drone-laying queen?
A. I think I never heard of laying workers being present with a laying queen, at least for any considerable time. Queens sometimes lay eggs on the sides of cells.
Q. How am I to get rid of a laying worker?
A. Generally the best thing to do with a colony that has laying workers is to break it up, giving the bees to other colonies. It is difficult to get the bees to accept a queen. But if the colony is strong enough, and you are anxious to have it continue, you can give it a virgin just hatched, and this will pretty surely be accepted. Or, you may exchange some or all of its combs with adhering bees for frames of brood and bees from another colony or colonies, and the younger bees thus introduced will accept a laying queen.
Q. Did you ever have any experience with laying workers in a hive where a young queen has hatched? This is my experience: On May 9 I transferred a swarm of bees from a hive which I expected to discard on account of its odd size. On May 30 all the brood was hatched, and on examination I found a queen-cell already hatched, and by searching I found the young queen. Today I went through the hive to see if the queen was laying, and all of the eggs and larvae which I found were in drone-cells and the eggs scattered about in worker-cells. I examined closely the comb on which I found the most drone-cells, and then and there I saw a worker doing her work. What do you think of that, with a young queen in the hive, and she a beauty? I closed the hive, thinking things might right themselves if left alone, but in the afternoon I found the queen on the alighting-board dead, with a ball of bees about her. I broke up the colony at once. Would you kindly tell me what you think of this case? When I say they had a laying worker, I mean to say that I saw her lay one of her eggs in a drone-cell.
A. Your experience is quite exceptional. It is not often that a laying worker is caught in the act. In all my experience I never saw it, I think, more than once. If your bees are Italians, it is remarkable that laying workers should appear when they did, although with some of the other races laying workers are in clined to put in an appearance whenever laying is not normal. You speak a little as if there were only one laying worker present. The probability is that there was quite a large number.
Q. You say a colony of laying workers should be broken up and the combs distributed among other colonies, and that the bees are old and of little value. In what way would it be doing any good to give a good colony one of those combs of worthless bees and drone-brood?
A. While these old bees are of little value, they still have some value, and that value may as well be utilized. We are told that a worker in the busy season lives to be about six weeks old. Now suppose we have some bees that are four or five weeks old. They have yet a week or two to live, and they are good as field bees for that length of time; so if given to other colonies they will finish up their lives in a useful way, doing more good than if you try to tinker up the colony with a young queen. To be sure, you might give a queen, together with brood, and enough young bees to make a fair colony, but these old bees are exceedingly both to accept a queen, and you'll be likely to lose her. Better break up the colony, and then start a new one elsewhere.
**Lazy Colonies.-Q.** Last season I had lazy colonies that did not do anything but rear bees. They were running over with bees but did not swarm nor store any surplus honey. Would it be best to give them another queen?
A. It is possible that there may have been some excuse for the bees doing nothing, but if other colonies were doing well at the same time the likelihood is that the bees were at fault, in which case it would be well to give a queen of better stock. They may have been late in breeding, owing to spring weakness, and in such case the hatched bees, coming too late for the crop, would only help consume the honey harvested.
Q. Do bees "lay off" for a week before swarming and do nothing but eat honey?
A. They take no such vacation as you suggest. There may be a let-up for some hours, and you may see bees laden with pollen, among the swarming bees.
Q. Is there any way to get backward bees to work in the super besides baiting them, and then maybe wait until they are forced to? That was always my luck.
A. Yes, get them so strong early that they'll be glad to rush into the sections without any bait; only they will enter the supers sooner with baits. If you mean a way to make a weak colony start work in a section that will not begin on a bait, there is no such way. You may force them to go into the super by putting some brood in it, but that will not force them to store there if there is plenty of room to store in the brood-chamber.
**Les of Bees.-Q**. I think I have something new this season. My bees have great long thongs dangling about their feet, and when they alight these thongs lie on the alighting-board to one side of the bees' feet. They are about one-cighth of an inch long, and just as red as can be. What are those false thongs on my bees' feet? Are they natural or not?
A. I think what you call "false thongs" must be the pollen masses from milkweed. In some cases it gets so bad that the bees can hardly climb upon the combs, and I have seen the other bees drive them out of the hive. Sometimes the bees are fastened upon the blossoms, not being able to tear away, and if you examine the milkweed blossoms in your vicinity you may find some dead bees upon them. But these plants are good honey-plants, and perhaps in this way pay for the injury done to the bees.
**Leaves for Cushions.-Q**. Are dry forest leaves as good as anything for the absorbent cushion?
A. Nothing could be much better, unless it be cork chips.
**Lemon Juice.-Q**. One man says to put lemon juice in sugar syrup and it is as good as honey for the bees. What do you think of it?
A. It would be better without the lemon juice, unless it be just enough to keep the syrup from granulating.
**Lettering in Comb Honey.-Q**. How is the lettering or spelling in raised letters on comb honey done? Please explain.
A. I know little about it practically. Usually this is done by inserting in the section or comb the letters in wood, then place these over a vry strong colony to draw out and seal.
**Lice.-Q**. There is a spider-like insect that clings to the backs of my bees, in some cases covering the fore part of queens all over; of a reddish color, about the size of a pinhead. Is this the Italian bee-louse? It makes no difference whether the colony is strong or weak. Is there any way of getting rid of these? The temperature gets very high here in summer. Would the heat breed these things? (British Columbia.)
A. Yes, it may be braula coeca, or the blind louse, although I don't remember to have heard of such a case this side of the ocean. It is said smoking with tobacco will make the louse loose its hold. Fortunately, it is not so very dangerous. Please send a sample to Dr. E. F. Phillips, Washington, D. C.
Q. Will hen lice bother bees if one has them in a house apiary in the second story of a chicken establishment?
A I have never heard of bees being bothered by such lice.
**Location.-Q**. I would like your advice on choosing a location, as I am just beginning with bees and want to get the right location so that I may make the most honey. Some beekeepers report large crops. Should I locate in their section?
A. A young man just making a start, and intending to make beekeeping the chief business of his life, will do well to look about and choose a location specially suited to that business. For that matter, so might one already engaged in the business. But he would be unwise, especially if already well established, to go some distance to a new place, knowing nothing about it, but that some one had secured a very large yield of honey. Possibly that one year of great flow may be offset by two of failure. Possibly the distance or inconvenience of access to a market may be so great as to counterbalance the greatness of the yield.
Then there are considerations outside of beekeeping not lightly to be ignored. Climate, home and surrounding, are all of importance. Some of the northern beekeepers in attendance at the National meeting in Los Angeles some years ago, who had cast longing looks towards that golden land, went home entirely satisfied to remain where they were, after seeing some of the California apiaries. Of course, all locations in California are not the same, but some of them are dravery enough. To get the advantage of pasturage, an apiary is located in some canyon, away from the hannts of man, the nearest neighbor a mile or more away, outside of the sound of bell of church or school. With many it is a life of exile during the honey season, the rest of the year being passed elsewhere. But all would not like that sort of life.
On the whole, taking into account the ties of friendship, and old associations, as well as the trouble and expense of making a change, the probability is that not one beekeeper in ten will find himself better off anywhere in the world than right where he is now.
Q. If you were to start again from the beginning, intending to make beekeeping your life calling, and had no ties to bind you to any particular locality, where would you be likely to settle?
A. I would do a lot of investigating before settling. What might suit me might not suit you. I'm growing more and more to think that there's a good deal of equality in locations, advantagesand disadvantages. I used to envy Californians. I'm not sure I would care to be there now, since knowing more fully about it. In general, the place where one happens to be is "not so worse" as it might be.
Q. How far from the public highway does the law require an apiary to be to insure one from all damages?
A. That depends altogether upon the local or state laws. Generally, I think, there is no law about it, but if you are wise you will not risk having your bees close enough to the highway to endanger anyone passing by. If your bees are very gentle it may be safe to have them close to the roadside. Some bees are not safe ten rods away.
Q. As I want to move my bees this spring, would two feet apart be too close for each hive?
A. That depends. If there are plenty of trees or other objects to help mark their locations it will be all right. If the ground is perfectly level, and nothing to help locate the hives, there will be mistakes in entering hives. If you want to save room, instcad of putting them regularly two feet apart, put the first two close together, leave a space of three feet, then two more hives, and so on, putting the hives in pairs, with three feet between each two pairs. With that arrangement you'll get more bees on the same ground, and at the same time there will be less mixing.
Q. I have seven colonies of bees located in a valley, and a neighbor beekeeper has his bees on a high hill, perhaps 175 feet higher than mine. He says my bees have the advantage of his, as my bees go up hill empty and down hill loaded, while with his it is just the other way.
That is all right and true, as long as my bees go west or north, but when they go east they would have to go up first and then down on the other side, and I notice that they don't go very far that way. Now if I would place my bees on top of this hill I think they would go farther south and east than they do now. Most of the basswood is on the hillside, but the best clover is in the lowlands. Do you think it would pay to move my bees higher up for this reason?
A. It surely must be easier for a bee or anybody else to carry a load down hill than up. In actual practice I have some doubt whether the difference is enough so that a colony in the lower location would show a distinctly larger yield than one higher up. But the matter of distance may be a much more important factor. Within a distance of perhaps a mile and a half it is doubtful that distance counts for much. Beyond that--possibly I should say two miles--distance counts for a good deal, and if your source of supply is beyond that there will no doubt be a gain to move the bees accordingly.
**Lumber for Hives.--Q**. Is there any special lumber which should not be used in hives?
A. Basswood is bad, owing to its tendency to twist and warp. White pine is generally used, and also redwood, cypress and cedar.
**Maples.--Q**. What do you think of a locality from 1,000 to 2,000 feet above sea level, where there is a large quantity of maple sugar produced every year? Would you consider it a good locality for beckeeping?
A. The maple is a valuable honey-tree. It comes early, however, and the honey secured from it is mostly used in brood-rearing. The field-force is not yet strong enough to gather much more than will supply the daily needs of the colony. So while it is of value in securing a strong force of bees, the question whether the locality is a good one depends upon what comes later. If there are plenty of later sources the maple will be a great help; if nothing comes after, there is little prospect of surplus.
Q. Do bees get much pollen from the "sugar" or hard maple? What color is it?
A. They do in this locality It might be called light yellowish, with a tinge of green in it; possibly more green than yellow.
Q. How would it do to draw sap from maple trees in buckets and feed to the bees in early spring to start brood-rearing? Would this not be better than sugar syrup?
A. I don't know that maple-sugar syrup is any_better than cane-sugar syrup. Likely, however, it is just as good. Care should be taken about feeding it when it is not warm enough for bees to fly.
Q. I have some maple sugar that has been damp so it is unfit for market. Would this make good food for.bees?
A. It may be profitably fed next spring after bees are flying, to be used up in rearing brood; but don't give it to the bees for winter food.
**Martins (See Bee Martins.)**
**May Disease.--Q**. I have one colony of Italian bees in my yard that is dying from some cause. The adult bees are dying by the hundreds. They come dragging out of the hive, and sometimes crawl part way up the front; others fall off the runboard. Theyare trembling or jerking and moving their wings. Sometimes they just turn around in a very small circle, and sometimes they lie on the ground for two days, kicking or moving their legs until they finally die. Some have greatly enlarged abdomens, almost as large as a young queen, while others look shiny like they had just crawled out of grease or syrup. They have considerable honey and brood, but do not gain any.
(a) Do you think this is what they call May disease?
(b) What is the cause?
(c) Is it contagious?
(d) Do you think it would do any good to requeen?
(e) What can I do to get rid of this disease?
A. (a) Your excellent description marks the disease quite clearly as the disease called in Europe Mal de Mai, or Maikranheit (May disease), and generally called in this country bee paralysis.
(b) It is believed to be due to a microbe called bacillus gastoni, and also bacillus depilis.
(c) It is not considered contagious; yet sometimes affects a whole apiary.
(d) I don't know. Some have claimed that as a cure; others say it does no good.
(e) I don't know. Many cures have been reported successful, only to fail when tried further, and as the disease has a way of disappearing of its own accord, the supposed cures may have no effect.
O. O. Poppleton sprinkles sulphur on the bees and combs. This destroys the sick bees, but it also destroys the unscaled larvae, unless the brood be removed.
**Mesquite.-Q**. Where is the mesquite found, and what is its value?
A. The mesquite, a low, brushy tree, is found in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. It yields honey best during very dry weather. In Texas they have a crop of mesquite honey nearly every year. The honey is amber in color.
**Mice.-Q**. I bought my partner's share of the bees, and on opening the hive I found a mouse-nest in it. I thought that very strange, having never heard of it before. Have you any mice in your beehives? The colony is a strong one, and I thought the bees would keep the mice out. It never destroyed any comb while in there.
A. Yes, indeed; I've had mice in hives, and they have not always been as considerate as yours, for they have sometimes gnawed the combs. You can keep them out by having the en trance closed with wire-cloth having three meshes to the inch. That will bar mice, but allow bees to pass.
**Milkweed.-Q.** (a) I enclose what we call milkweed. The bees work on it hard. A magnifying glass shows a sticky substance on it. Is it a good honey-plant?
(b) Why do bees stick to it?
A. (a) Yes, except for the trouble you mention in the next question.
(b) The pollen masses get fastened to their feet and stick so tight that the bees pull them from the plant and carry them away.
**(See Legs of Bees.)**
**Miller Cage.-Q.** Would not a block 1% inches square with a %-inch hole bored in the center answer as well as if I used two pieces %x%s, a piece of tin and a piece of section each %-inch square? This is for a Miller cage.
A. It would answer just as well, except that it would take up too much room to be put between two combs.
**Moisture in Hive.-Q.** I find a dampness against the top of the hive, in winter. Should the bees have top ventilation, or will the dampness not do any harm?
A. If there is enough dampness so it will fall in drops on the bees it will do harm. Give upward ventilation by placing a cushion over the top to keep it warm. Then the dampness will not settle on them.
Q. I am wintering my bees out of doors in the following manner; take off.cover, place a piece of burlap over the frames, place empty comb honey super on top of this, fill with chaff, put cover on top, raised one-sixteenth of an inch. I do this to prevent moisture from collecting inside. This does prevent it to a great extent, but even with this protection, when we had a spell of weather with the thermometer down to zero every morning for a week, some frost will collect on the walls and outside frames of the hives, and there will be some ice inside around the entrance; but the clusters are apparently dry and comfortable. Do you think this much moisture will keep the bees from wintering perfectly? I have tried packing outside on top of the cover. It didn't do much good.