70 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 28, 19C4. 



allow the swarm to enter, and watch for the queen on the 

 zinc. 



6. Look for eggs or unsealed brood. If you find none, 

 and it is at a time when the other colonies have plenty, 

 give a frame of young brood and if no queen-cells are started 

 you may guess that a young queen is present but not yet 

 laying. If queens-cells are started the likelihood is that no 

 queen is in the hive. 



7. Put the queen in a provisioned queen-cage, and let 

 the bees free her. 



8. As you are working for extracted honey, you may do 

 a good deal toward it by giving abundance of room. 



9. Extract any time when a comb is sealed or nearly 

 sealed. When the white-honey harvest is over and a flow 

 of dark honey coming on, extract all the white honey before 

 the dark gets mixed in. 



You ought to get a bee-book. That advice ought to be 

 worth five dollars at least to you ; but seeing it's you I'll 

 give it to you free. If half of those IScolonies live through, 

 and you get a bee-book this winter, if you will say next fall 

 that it wasn't worth five dollars to you, I'll apologize with 

 my hat off. 



Feeding Sugar Candy in Winter. 



Is it too late to make candy for colonies that have but 

 little honey left ? They seem to be strong with bees. 

 Some of my bees did not store enough honey to last them 

 until spring. Maryland. 



Answer. — No, it's never too late to give candy to a 

 colony that is short. There's many a colony lost from 

 starvation that might be saved by SO cents worth — yes, in 

 some cases, 10 cents worth of candy. 



Hive-Entrances Covered with Snow. 



We are having lots of snow in this section of the State, 

 and there is a heavy fall of snow every 2 or 3 nights of the 

 week. 



1. Would it do to keep the hive-entrances free from 

 snow ? 



2. Can too much heat be gotten up in a hive by keeping 

 the entrances shut up by snow ? Michigan. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, it will be all right to keep the en- 

 trances clear. 



2. There isn't much danger of it with loose snow at the 

 entrance, but it isn't well when the snow becomes water- 

 soaked and freezes up, so that the air can not enter the 

 entrance. 



Spreading Brood— Open-Air Feeding— Smoky-Looliing 

 Honey. 



1. Do you consider the practice of spreading the brood- 

 combs in the early summer, to secure greater brood area, of 

 sufficient advantage to justify the risk ? 



2. I have quite a lot of ill-flavored honey in excellent 

 white combs. I want to feed it to the bees next spring. 

 The hives being packed, I shall be obliged to feed in the 

 open air. How can I do so without having the combs torn 

 to pieces by the bees ? 



3. What causes the smoky appearance on combs of 

 sealed honey soon after winter sets in ? Does it render the 

 honey unwholesome for food ? Can it be removed ? If not, 

 how can I prevent it ? Pennsylvania. 



Answers. — 1. In the face of the fact that able men advo- 

 cate the practice, I dare not condemn it. Yet, in the hands 

 of many, and in most places, it is a safe thing to let it 

 alone. I may say for myself that if I should practice it, it 

 would generally be at a loss. If I should find a colony of 

 bees covering well five combs, with brood only in four, I see 

 no reason why I might not move one of the outer combs into 

 the center, and thus more quickly get five combs filled with 

 brood. But I do not find them in that way. As a rule they 

 have all the brood they can cover, and if any spreading 

 is done, it is pretty sure to mean chilled brood. So I do not 

 practice speading brood. Possibly with a different local- 

 ity or with different bees, practice might be different. 



2. If you have a very large quantity, you may spread it 

 out so that the ijees can get to it with the greatest freedom, 

 and if there is plenty of it so there need not be any crowd- 

 ing, there will be little or no tearing of combs. But with a 

 small quantity that will not work at all. A way that is 

 safe in any case is to go to the opposite extreme. Pile up 



the honey, and leave an entrance large enough for a sin- 

 gle bee. If you have a pile with about a hundred sections, 

 then you may leave an entrance at the top and bottom, and 

 if the pile is still larger leave an entrance for each SO sec- 

 tions, the entrances each large enough for the passage of a 

 single bee, and at different parts of the pile. It is easy to 

 make an entrance at the middle of a pile by shoving one 

 corner of a super to one side, then partly closing the en- 

 trance thus made with a piece of tin or otherwise. 



3. I don't know. It looks like mould, and may be some- 

 thing after that order. It doesn't seem to do any harm, and 

 I think disappears when warmed up by the presence of bees. 

 Possibly other heat will help it. Keeping honey in a warm, 

 dry place will probably prevent it. If any one can tell us 

 more positively about it I shall be glad. 



Shape of Hive in Which Bees Work Best. 



When giving bees plenty of room, which way will they 

 work the best, in a wide hive, or a narrow one built up 

 higher ? That is, will they work as well in a lO-frame as 

 an 8 frame hive with the same amount of room 7 



Missouri. 



Answkb. — Just so far as the bees themselves are con- 

 cerned, the nearer a hive comes to the globular form the 

 better it will suit them. So a hive measuring the same in 

 height, length, and width would suit them best of all forms 

 of six-sided hives ; but there are other considerations hav- 

 ing reference to the convenience of the beekeeper. The 

 old-fashioned straw-skep is no doubt a better dwelling-place 

 for bees than any modern hive, but it would not suit the 

 bee-keeper. You would probably notice no difference in 

 the working of a colony in a hive with 8 or with 10 

 frames, unless the colony should be too large for the smaller 

 hive. 



Prevention of Swarming. 



I am anxious to know how you managed your 100 colo- 

 (as you report on page 4) to keep them from swarming. I 

 have a yard of 220 colonies and would like to know a sure 

 plan of precedure to keep from increasing. 



In your judgment, what is the best method of keep- 

 ing bees from swarming, in yards of 100 colonies or more, 

 and run for comb honey exclusively ? Wisconsin. 



Answer. — I don't know. With me it has been a matter 

 of cutting and trying for years, and I don't feel settled 

 about it yet. Neither, if one were settled about it, would 

 that settle the question for every one else. What works 

 exactly right in one place may work differently elsewhere. 

 What works right for one man in a given place might not 

 work exactly right in the same place for another man. With 

 my present knowledge — I may think differently six months 

 from now — I can give no better answer to your question 

 than this : 



Look through the hive every ten days and destroy 

 queen-cells with eggs in them. When a colony is found 

 with cells farther advanced than to contain eggs, or at the 

 most very young larva?, remove the queen, destroying 

 queen-cells, and ten days later destroy cells and give a 

 young laying queen. With me that colony will need no 

 farther attention ; I can't say how it would be with you. If 

 a young queen cannot be given at the end of ten days, the 

 old queen, or another old queen may be given ; but in that 

 case watch must be kept for future swarming. 



Do you mean that you're going to keep 220 colonies in 

 one yard ? I didn't know so many bees were kept on one 

 spot in Wisconsin. Won't you tell us as to your success? 

 How many have you kept in one apiary heretofore, and 

 with what success ? 



Sectional Hives— Camlolans or Italians. 



What do you think of my plan and hive ? I am going 

 to the eastern part of this State to engage in the bee-busi- 

 ness, having sold out here. The winters are very cold and 

 long, and no bee-weather from the first of November until 

 about the first of April, often getting as cold as 25 degrees 

 below zero, but the summers are very warm. The honey- 

 flow lasts from June 1 until August IS, and the land is not 

 under cultivation to any extent. It is hilly and wild, a good 

 chance to sow sweet clover and other honey-plants ; IS miles 

 to market, 65 miles to Albany. Now, bees do not winter 



