BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
A. If you should succeed in getting a queen reared and she should return from her wedding trip, it is uncertain which queen would be killed.
Q. This year we had only one colony out of nine that stored any surplus honey; they were Italians in an 8-frame hive. Next year we would like to make some increase from this colony, as we have plenty of extra combs and hives.
About swarming time, if I remove the queen from this colony, in a few days there will likely be a good many queen-cells started. Now, if there happens to be cells on each frame, could I make eight nuclei from it by taking one frame of bees and then take a frame of hatching-brood and bees from some other hive, and perhaps a frame of honey, and fill up the hive with drawn combs?
Q. Yes, your scheme will work. If the cells should happen to be all on one or two combs, you can cut out a cell and fasten it on another comb by pinning over it a hive-staple. When you take the extra frame of brood and bees from some other colony, shake into your nucleus the bees from one or two more of the frames, since a good many will return to their old home. Or, to prevent returning, you may fasten the bees in the nucleus for two or three days.
Q. How may I rear choice queens on a small scale?
A. I will give one plan that should give you the best of queens. Of course, if you rear choice queens you must have a choice queen from which to rear them. The colony containing this queen should be built up strong, if necessary, by the addition of brood and bees from other colonies, so that it shall be the first to swarm. About eight days after it swarms there should be a fine lot of queen-cells that you can utilize to the best advantage. The more nearly mature they are the better, but if left too late there is danger that some of them may be torn down by the bees. If you are willing to take the trouble, there is a plan by which you may have them fully mature. When the colony swarms, hive the swarm on a new stand, leaving the mother colony comparatively strong. You might even return some of the bees of the swarm to the old hive. Beginning about a week after the issuing of the swarm, go to the hive each evening after the bees have quieted down, put your ear to the side of the hive and listen for the piping of the young queen, which you will hear as soon as she issues from her cell. You will have no difficulty distinguishing her sharp, clear tones, even if you have never heard a queen pipe before. The other virgins in their cells will quahk in reply. Now go to the hive next morning and cut out all cells, but look sharp that none of the virgins escape which have gnawed open the capping of the cell, but are kept prisoners by the workers. In "Fifty Years Among the Bees" I have very fully detailed the way in which I rear queens for my own use, a plan I would use if I had only half a dozen colonies. I think it might pay you well to get the book just for that part alone.
Q. Is there a better way of rearing queens for an amateur without queen-rearing tools, when queens are wanted before the swarming season? If so, please explain. (Iowa.)
A. You don't need any special queen-rearing outfit for ten queens a year, nor for 100. I'll tell you how you can rear just as good queens as can be reared from your stock, with no other outfit than what every beekeeper is supposed to have on hand.
Take a frame out of the hive containing your best queen, and put in its place a frame with a starter an inch or so deep. A week or so later you will find the bees have filled the frame three-quarters full, more or less, with new comb, with larvae well advanced down to eggs around the outside edge. Trim off the outer edge that contains only eggs, leaving the larvae. It isn't easy to be exact about this, and it isn't very particular, only don't cut away any of the larvae; no harm if you leave some of the eggs. Indeed, i* is not absolutely necessary to cut off any of the comb; only that outer margin is in the bees' way. Now put your prepared comb in the middle of a strong colony from which you have removed the queen, and in nine or ten days cut out the cells and give them to nuclei. In about two weeks later you ought to find most of them changed into laying queens. You see, it isn't a very complicated matter, and needs no special outfit.
You note that I give no date as to when you are to do these things. I can't, because it may be three weeks later one year than another. But be sure not to begin too early. In your locality, if you were to begin in March you wouldn't get one good queen out of twenty. Figure so as to give the brood to the queenless colony when the bees are working prosperously in the fields. In your locality that probably means that the bees should not start to build queen-cells until white clover begins to yield, or any time later; and, of course, the empty frame must be given to your best colony a week or so earlier.
Q. Is the nature, quality, color, etc., of queens affected by the bees that rear them from the egg? That is, if I give a cross colony eggs from a queen whose workers are gentle, to rear a queen, will the workers of the queen reared be gentle if she is fertilized by a drone from a gentle colony?
A. It is held by some that the character of a queen is materially affected by the nature of the nurse-bees that rear her. It is certain that a young queen poorly fed will not be so good as one that has a bountiful supply of best food. That is, perhaps, the chief reason why the attempt to rear queens very early in the season is generally a failure. But take two royal larvae, one fed by nurse-bees of the most vicious temper, the other by the gentlest of all bees, each being alike lavishly fed, and it is hard to understand that there should be any great difference in temper of the young queens, if both had the same mother.
**Queens and Swarms.-Q**. When a first swarm issues, how long is it before the young queen emerges in the hive?
A. The first afterswarm issues about 8 days after the prime swarm (perhaps sooner, perhaps later), and the young queen probably emerges the day before that, say about a week after the prime swarm.
Q. Is a queen on the outside or inside of a swarm which is clustered on a limb?
A. She may be anywhere in the cluster, and sometimes the bees will cluster and the queen not with them at all.
**Queens, Shipping.-Q**. Do you think that queens that come through the mails are as good as those not caged?
A. Certainly it would not be safe to suppose that a queen will be improved by a journey through the mails. She may not be injured at all by such a journey, and the injury may be serious. Even in a case where a queen is greatly injured by being mailed, she may be a very profitable investment. Suppose you have a strain of very poor bees, and you order a queen of a strain of bees that will store double as much as your bees. She is so badly injured in the mails that she is slow about beginning to lay, lays very sparingly, and gives up the ghost before you have had her a month. All the honey stored by her progeny, if sold at a high price will not amount to as much as you paid for the queen. Ifyou figure merely on the honey stored by the colony in which she was introduced, the purchase of the queen was a losing operation. But that isn't the only thing to be considered. Even if she lays only a very few eggs, if you are lively about it, and from those f few eggs rear enough queens to requeen all your colonies, that stock may be just as good as if the queen had never been injured in the mails at all, and as a consequence you have just doubled your future crops. In other words, the injury of a queen in the mails does not necessarily injure the stock reared from her.
**Queens Stinging--Q**. Can a queen sting?
A. If you allow two queens to come together, unless one' of them is very old, you will soon learn that they can sting, for one of them will soon be a dead queen. The strange part of it is that the victor is never injured in these duels. But a queen will never sting you. I have handled thousands of queens, and I never knew one of them to make the least show of stinging. Nor will a queen sting a worker. Just once in my lifetime I knew of one exception to this rule, when I saw a queen sting a worker.
**Queen-Trap.--Q**. As I have no time to be around at swarming time, I am going to put on the queen and drone-trap. Will that be right?
A. It will be all right if you give the proper attention afterward. But merely putting on a trap will not answer. The queen will be caught in it, and if you leave her there, there will be a young queen in the hive in a week or so, and when she tries to fly out to be fertilized she will be caught in the trap, and then you will have a queenless colony. You will have to keep watch and when the queen is caught in the trap make an artificial swarm, or dispose of matters some other way.
**Queens, Two in One Hive.--Q**. Wouldn't I get more honey by having two laying queens in a hive; first a hive-body, then a super, then a honey-board; next a hive-body, with the second queen; lastly a cover? Would the two laying queens fight through the honey-board?
A. The queens could not very well fight, but I don't think you would gain by the plan. One of the queens is likely to disappear before long.
Q. Will two or more laying queens in one hive prevent swarming, as told by Alexander?
A. I think the plan did not pan out very well afterward.
**Queens, Virgin.--Q**. How do virgin queens look?A. A virgin queen looks very much like a laying queen, only her abdomen is smaller.
Q. How long after the prime swarm issues before the first virgin will begin laying?
A. About seventcen days.
**Queen-Cells.-Q.** Are queen-cells all at the end or at the bottom of the combs?
A. Bees generally build queen-cells along the lower edges of the combs. But if there is a hole, or some irregularity of surface in a comb, thus making room for a queen-cell, the bees do not despise the opportunity. In rare cases they will even build a cell separate from the comb on one of the bars of a frame. If a colony becomes suddenly queenless, they build cells over young worker-larvae, converting them into young queens, and these cells are often built right in the center of a brood-comb where there is no hole or irregularity of surface.
Q. Which end of a queen-cell is the bottom--the end that a queen hatches out of, or the end where the egg is laid?
**A.** The top is the bottom, always. Sonnds tangled, doesn't it? You see, it's like a teacup; when the cup stands full of tea, the bottom of the cup is toward the ground; and then when the cup is turned upside down the name "bottom" still belongs to the same part we called the "bottom" before, although the bottom now points skyward. The bees build queen-cells upside down, and so the bottom of the cell, like the bottom of the teacup when turned upside down, always points skyward. (To be sure, in rare instances, a queen-cell lies horizontally, but that occurs so seldom that it doesn't count.) Then, when we speak of the other end of the cell, the illustration of the teacup fails. For when a teacup is upside down, the part that is downward is still called the top; but the part of a queen-cell that is downward is not the top, but "the lower end." So the egg is laid in the bottom of the cell, and the young queen emerges from the lower end. Absurd way of talkin, isn't it? But please don't blame ne; I wasn't born when beekeepers agreed to talk that way about a queen-cell.
Q. If the queenless bees should make a queen-cell, and place thereiu au egg, how long before the cell will be capped, and how long before there is a full-fledged queen?
**A.** In eight or nine days from the time the egg is laid the cell should be capped. But instead of an egg, queenless bees will start with a larvae two days or so of age, and it ought to be capped
said, the bees may swarm in spite of all you can do in that way, but it is hardly necessary for you to destroy cells oftener than once every ten days. If that will not prevent swarming, it will hardly prevent it to destroy them more frequently.
Q. Do you shake the bees off the combs when looking for queen-cells? If so, do you shake the bees on the ground or upon the tops of the frames in the hives? My bees seem to try to hide cells by clustering in bunches.
A. Sometimes the combs are looked over without any shaking, for if cells are in the hive at all, one is not likely to miss them all. But if a single cell is found, then it is hardly safe to omit shaking all the combs. Just how the shaking is done depends upon circumstances. If the queen is to be found, she must be found before any shaking is done, and the frame she is on set out of the hive, for if a single frame is first shaken, then it's good-bye to finding the queen. After the queen is out of the hive, the bees may be shaken on the ground, on top of the frames, or into the hive between the frames. If the queen is not to be found, the bees are shaken on the top-bars or into the hive between the frames.
Q. If I remove the queen from one of my black colonies and put in a frame with a queen-cell on it, would the queen-cell need to be protected from the bees for a few days?
A. Yes, if the cell is not protected and is given before the bees have discovered their queenlessness, it will be torn down. But in 24 hours they are likely to discover their queenlessness.
Q. Can a queen-cell, by careful handling, be cut from a comb and put into another comb for a colony, to any certainty, without injuring it in any way by pressure, or exposure, or should it always be introduced on the comb on which it is built?
A. Thousands of queen-cells have been cut from the comb and fastened in or on another comb with just as good results as if left on their own comb. Indeed, in many cases, even when the cell is taken on its own comb, it is better to cut out the cell and fasten it on the comb, for a large portion of cells are on the edges of combs where there is danger of their being chilled, and they should be centrally located, where sure to keep warm.
Q. How many queen-cells may I give one strong colony to complete during a good flow, the colony being extra strong? I mean to get good queens.
A. Some limit the number to ten. But as a colony left to itself rears twice that number very often, it is doubtful whether it is necessary to limit the number so much. Indeed, it is possible that you will do no harm to give quite a large number, say as many as 40; the bees themselves will do the limiting by destroying the excess.
Q. Why is it that queen-cells sometimes fail to hatch, even when carefully protected by prepared cages? In any case, I invariably find that the larvae in the cells shriveled up at the hatching end of the cell; this in spite of a plentiful supply of "royal jelly," favorable climatic conditions, and during the honeyflow. I have sometimes attributed the foregoing to the fact that cells were made from a queen's first round of laying; but I have recently noted the same results with a second-season queen's brood.
A. Swiss beekeepers, who are away up in matters pertaining to queen-rearing, tell us that mere physical heat is not enough to bring young queens safely to maturity; the bees must be allowed to be in close contact with the cells, exercising some mysterious influence by their close contact with the occupants of the cells. According to that it is a mistake to cage cells as soon as they are scaled. In my own practice I leave the cells uncaged in a strong colony, not caging them till there is danger of their hatching. But there is one thing that looks as if another cause was at the bottom of the trouble. You say you find the larva "shriveled up at the hatching end of the cell." That looks as if the combs had been shaken, thus throwing the larva out of its bed o' jelly.
Q. I had one colony queenless and gave it a frame of brood. The third day after, it had four queen-cells started. The next time I looked they were capped. When they had been capped about a week I looked into the hive again, intending to cut them out, but found that the bees had torn them down before it was time for them to hatch out. I also found two artificial swarms with queen-cells had done the same thing. I gave one of them another frame of brood. What is the matter with these colonies?
A. The probability is that a young queen had emerged from her cell. Her first care would be to see that all rivals were out or the way. Possibly you may say that you are sure that could not have been the case, for you looked the combs over very, very carefully, and every queen-cell was torn open at the side, the end o' the cell being entire, showing that no queen could have emerged from it. In that case a virgin from elsewhere may have entered the hive. Oftener than you might suppose, a virgin or laying queen enters some other hive than her own. Sometimes, however, bees take a notion to destroy cells with no apparent reason for it.
**Queenlessness.--Q**. What is the best sign of a queenless colony in the spring?
A. The best sign is to find no brood present when all other colonies have started brood. Even by looking at the outside, your may be suspicious if you find the bees of a colony carrying no pollen, or very little pellets, when other colonies are carrying loads of it.
Q. Will queenless bees store honey?
A. Yes, indeed.
Q. I have two colonies that I know are queenless, and still they are busy carrying in pollen. Some say they will not do this when they have no queen. Is this so. If so, why do these carry pollen?
A. Queenless bees do carry pollen; but after they have been queenless for a time they have a surplus of pollen on hand and then they carry less pollen and smaller loads.
Q. When a colony becomes queenless, what is the best way to requeen; give it a sealed queen-cell or a frame of brood, or what would you do?
A. A cell just ready to hatch will gain about 12 days over giving a frame of brood, and a laying queen will be about 10 days better still, so if I hadn't the laying queen I would prefer the cell to the frame of brood. If it was very early in the season, I would unite with a weak colony having a good queen, rather than give a frame of brood.
Q. I have a fine 10-frame hive with plenty of stores and of bees --but queenless. I dare not order a queen from the South, as a cold snap would kill her. If a frame of brood from another hive is introduced and a queen is reared, there are no drones for her to mate with. Laying workers may develop at any time. But I do hate to lose that colony. What would you do? (March. Missouri.)
A. You are wise in thinking it best not to rear queens too early. Aside from the lack of drones, it is true that queens reared much before the time of swarming, and if drones are present, generally turn out to be so poor that they are often worse than none. All the same, you can give the colony one or two frames of brood from some other colony, with a goodly proportion of eggs and unsealed larvae. Then within ten days kill all queen-cells started on this brood, and at the same time give a frame or two of fresh brood every ten days until conditions are right for rearing a queen, but allowing no young queen to emerge until then. You will do three things: You will keep up the courage of thecolony, you will help keep up its laying strength, and you will keep it from having laying workers. And if the brood you give them be mostly eggs and very young brood, it will not cost such a great deal to the colonies from which it was taken.
After all, that's hardly answering your question, for you said: "What would you do?" In the preceding I've said what you can do. It isn't likely I'd do that. I would harden my heart and break up that queenless colony. At least I'd unite it, so there would be one less colony in the apiary. If there was another colony quite weak, but with a good queen, I'd put a sheet of newspaper over the queenless colony, and set the weak colony over it. Then the bees would gnaw a hole through the paper and unite peaceably. If I hadn't a very weak colony, I'd divide combs with adhering bees among two or more colonies, taking such colonies as most needed help. In this way, although I would have one less colony, I would be likely to have more bees, and by the middle of the summer likely more colonies.
Q. If the hives are broodless and queenless by June 1, and if given a frame of eggs, larvae, and sealed brood to rear a queen, will the queen be fairly good?
A. Young bees are the ones to rear a good queen, and in the case you mention there are probably few or no young bees, so the resulting queen would not be likely to be very good. The best thing to do with such a colony is to break it up and unite with another colony or with other colonies. If you haven't the heart to do that, then a better way than the one you mention is to give your queenless colony the queen of some other colony, and let that other colony rear its own queen.
Q. Will a colony of bees that loses its queen in October or November live through the winter? And can they be kept until May, or until the shipping season begins?
A. They are not likely to live over, but sometimes they do. It will probably be more profitable to unite them with a colony having a laying queen, even if you divide again in the spring.
Q. If you had a colony of bees quite strong with a lot of drones, that was discovered to be queenless as late as November 1, what would you do with it?
A. Before doing anything with it, I should want to be quite sure it was queenless. "A lot of drones" in a strong colony in the fall is not always sure proof of queenlessness, although something depends upon how large the "lot" is. The absence of all
A Yes, the raspberry is a very important honey-plant. In some localities, notably in northern Michigan and Ontario, it yields a handsome surplus.
**Records.-Q.** Will you tell me some simple way in which I can keep a record of queens, etc., to see if there is any improvement in them?
A. I use a cheap blank book, giving to each colony its place, and enter there the important items, especially the amount of honey each colony yields. That matter I keep in a spot on the page by itself, so that at any time I can glance at it and tell just what the colony has done. This credit may be made in the apiary at the time the honey is taken off. For instance, this credit may appear: 24, 24, 24, 15. That means I took away 24 sections each time at three different times, and the equivalent of 15 sections at the last time, making 87 sections in all.
**Redwood.-Q.** I have a chance to get some hives made of California rethought. It is used for making incubators in this town. They say it will not take water, ants or moths will not work in it, and it will stand painting. Would the honey taste from it, or would the bces want to live in hives with that odor? Some say to wash the hive with salt water or peach leaves. I can get hives made from this very cheap, although redwood is high-priced. Have you had any experience in this matter?
A. California redwood has been successfully used for bewhives, and you need not fear its effects on the honey, even without salt or peach leaves, which probably have no effect. But you will hardly find it proof against ants and moths.
**Renting Bees.-Q.** I let my bees on halves last summer. Should the man who took the bees have left enough stores for winter? Four of my colonies starved to death before I could attend to them, and ten more would have starved within a week if I hadn't fed them. This man told me they had plenty of stores for the winter. I let him have 28 colonies on June 5. Wasn't he supposed to return to me 28 colonies in the fall? He returned only 28 colonies with half of the increase, and the increase was eight swarms. Now, wasn't this man supposed to leave my bees in good shape, ready to put into the cellar? Is there any law on renting bees?