170 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mar. 3, 1904. 



front of the hives and took the chaff all off but about % of an inch 

 of the top frame, so the dampness and dead air can come out more, 

 until I hear from you. 



I am going into the bee-business, and I find I will have trouble 

 with them, so that is the reason why I ask you for advice. 



I have looked over my books and few journals that I have, and I 

 could not find anything to lit my case. I have looked over my bees 

 and I think I have found what is wrong, but I may be wrong, as I was 

 before. Pennsylvania. 



Answek. — The present winter is a very different thing from the 

 winter before, and you will have plenty of company in losing bees. It 

 is not so much the severe cold as its long continuance. You should 

 have left a larger entrance than just enough for two bees to pass at a 

 lime. That doesn't give air enough, and then the dead bees and ice 

 closed the entrance so the bees smothered. Keep watch that the en- 

 trance does not become closed again. Instead of taking off part of 

 the chaff you should have raised the cover just the least bit, perhaps 

 an eighth of an inch, laying a nail under it. 



A Beginner's Questions. 



1. I read in the American Bee Journal and in Dr. Miller's " Forty 



Years Among the Bees,'' that queen-excluders and queen-guards are 

 good things. Kindly inform me where I can buy them, and at what 

 price. 



3. How can I recognize the queen? 



3. How can I distinguish queen-cells, worker-cells, and drone- 

 cells? Colorado. 



Answers. — 1. Any dealer in bee-supplies — a number advertise in 

 this journal — can furnish them at a cost of 15 to '2.5 cents each for 

 queen-excluders or honey-boards, according to the kind, and la cents 

 each for entrance-guards. 



'3. Look for a bee longer and larger than the worker-bees, with 

 abdomen longer than its wings. 



y. Take a piece of comb and lay a rule on it. It the cells are .5 to 

 the inch, and most of them are, they are worker-cells. Drone-cells 

 measure 4 to an inch, and queen-cells 3. Queen-cells point down- 

 ward, and not sidewise like worker and drone-cells. A queen-cell not 

 far advanced looks like an acorn-cup; when sealed it looks like a 

 peanut. 



* • » 



Maliing Hives— Spacing Frames. 



I am a beginner, starting last spring with 7 colonies, all second 

 swarms ; they were the best I could get. 1 expect to increase to aO or 

 more colonies the coming season, as I believe the field here will stand 

 that many, and pay. 



1. I can make my hives cheaper than I can l>uy them. I like the 

 plan used for hanging the frames in a patented hive that I have. Can 

 I make those hives for my own use and not lay myself liable for arrest 

 and fine? I don't want to sell them. 



2. Where can I get a book that will give me directions for making 

 hives? 



3. Is there a reward of $1,000 for the man that can make a frame 

 of comb honey, fill and cap it? If so, where? 



4. How far apart should frames lie that are J,,' inches wide? 



The hives I have reference to in question 1, are the Heddon and 

 Danzenbaker. Indiana. 



Answers. — 1. The law does not permit you to use any patented 

 feature of a hive, even for your own use. The patent on the Heddon 

 hive has expired, so you are free to use that. The patent on the Dan- 

 zenbaker has not expired. 



2. I don't know of any except the bee-books which give general 

 instructions on bee-keeping. 



3. Yes, A. I. Root has kept a standing offer for years of $1,000 for 

 a pound of comb honey made without the help of the bees. 



4. No matter how wide, the usual distance from center to center 

 . is 1;?^ inches. Some make it l^.<. 



Queen -Rearing- Nucleus Method of Increase. 



On page 314 (1903), in answer to "Kentucky's'' third question, 

 you say: "The side shaved down is the one on which the cells are 

 started, the other side, not cut, is dipped into melted wax and then 

 glued on the bar." In Mr. Alley's book on queen-rearing, published 

 in the spring of 1903, he gives directions for cutting the comb into 

 strips, destroying the egg in each alternate cell, and then glue the 

 strips on bars, Imt says nothing about shaving down the cells on one 

 side of the comb. a. Is it part of the Alley method? b. Is it neces- 

 sary? c. How much are the cells shaved down? 



2. Suppose one had 5 good, strong colonies in the spring and 

 wished to increase them to the largest possilile number by fall, with- 

 out caring for surplus honey, would it be better to divide each into 4 

 or 5 nuclei at one operation, thus making 20 or 30 nuclei to be built up 

 during the summer into full colonies? Or, would leaving the original 

 5 as full colonies and drawing brood from them from time to time, to 

 form the nuclei, give a large number of colonies in the end? 



3. Would you kindly tell how you increased your '24 colonies, last 

 year, to 184. Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. o. I t/ihtk that Mr. Alley formerly gave instruction 



to cut down the cells, and I always supposed I was following his in- 

 struction in so doing. I had not before noticed that no mention of it 

 is made in his 1903 edition, and it is just possible that he does not now 

 consider it advisable, b. Not necessary ; although I have always sup- 

 posed it better, c. After the comb is cut up into slices, lay each slice 

 on its side, and with a hot knife cut away half or more of the depth of 

 the cells on the side to be used. 



2. It is certainly a safer plan to keep the original colonies fairly 

 strong, and would probably give the larger increase. 



3. Mainly by the nucleus plan. The first thing was to get the 

 original number strong, and it would not be far out of the way to say 

 that the next thing was to keep them strong, for generally when brood 

 with adhering bees was drawn from a colony four frames of brood 

 were left. The increase was made chietly at the Hastings apiary, 

 which was visited every nine or ten days. When the colonies became 

 strong enough, brood was drawn from them and put in a pile, some- 

 times '42 combs of brood being in a pile. Adhering bees were taken 

 with the brood. On the next visit nuclei were formed by taking for 

 each nucleus two frames of brood and bees from the queenless pile, 

 giving each nucleus a mature cell or a queen. No draft was made 

 upon any of these nuclei until they were strong colonies, indeed, some- 

 times brood was given to them to strengthen them. After the queen- 

 less pile was used up, upon any visit, by drawing from it to make 

 nuclei, it was again built up by fresh brood and bees drawn from colo- 

 nies tliat were strong enough to spare. You see, it's nothing but the 

 nucleus plan, along with the idea of keeping all fairly strong. That 

 avoided the danger of being suddenly left at any time witli a large 

 number of weaklings and the flow brought to a sharp close. 



Moving Bees a Short Distance. 



1. My bees are not on the summer stands, but I have a place built 

 on the south side of another building where they get the benefit of 

 the sun from the time it rises until about 4 o'clock p. m. Often when 

 it is warm the bees fly out, and lots of them fall or alight on the snow 

 and perish. Is it well to have them do so, or would it be better to stop 

 them on such days? 



2. Some tell me it is the old bees, and they would die anyway. Is 

 that right? 



3. In the spring, the last of March or the first of April, they com- 

 mence to fly and gather pollen from the willows, before it is warm 

 enough to place them on the summer stands, and last spring, after I 

 moved them, there were lots of them that went back to the place 

 where they were wintered. Do you think those bees were lost, or did 

 they go back to the hive; If you think they were lost, what can I do 

 to prevent it this spring? the stands are 15 or 20 rods from where 

 they are wintered. Maine. 



Answers. — 1. No, it is not well, and it would be still worse to 

 shut them in. Put some kind of a blind — boards, or something of the 

 kind — in front of the hive, so that the sun can not shine into the en- 

 trance. The trouble is that when the sun is allowed to shine directly 

 into the entrance it will entice the bees out when too cold for them to 

 lly. But when a day comes warm enough tor a flight, say 45 or 50 de- 

 grees, with bright sun and no wind, then take away the lilind and let 

 them have a jolly time. 



2. Partly right; but young bees will be enticed out, too. 



3. The probability is that they went back to the hive when they 

 found no hive in the old place. Look and see whether bunches of bees 

 settled near the old place, and you can tell for sure. 



lO-Prame and 8-Frame Hives. 



In your answer to the " poser " given you by " Illinois,'' on page 

 91, you say; " If you say the eight lO's are to have in all just as many 

 bees as the ten 8's, I think I'll take the eight lO's." 



In any event, the average number of bees to each frame would be 

 the same in Ijoth cases. Now, supposing the total number of bees in 

 each case were 400,000, giving 50,000 each to the eight lO's, and 40,000 

 each to the ten S's, making an average in each hive of 5,000 to a frame, 

 in running for comb honey, which hive would you prefer! 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — Now look here, those Chicago chaps are hard enough 

 on me without your coming down from Wisconsin to make the puzzle 

 any harder. As the question was put before, the matter of strength 

 on the part of the operator was hardly to be considered, but you make 

 no restriction, so that other things being equal the smaller hives 

 would have the preference. Leavi.ng out that element, I think I could 

 give you a good argument why the larger hives should yield more 

 honey. The numlier of bees that can go afield is larger in the larger 

 hives, because a less ;)i-o/w)7i()H of bees must stay at home to keep 

 things warm mornings, evenings, and cool days. While the large 

 hives take more strength to lift, there are not so many of them, and 

 it will take less time to take care of eight 10-tramers than to take care 

 of ten 8-framers. Now, it you would let it go at that, I could stop 

 right there till one of those Chicago chaps studies up some new mis- 

 chief. But I know you well enough to know that you will Ije saying, 

 " But we don't care so much for theory as for practice. It is not what 

 bees 'should' do that is wanted, the question is, ' What (/" they 

 do?' " Well, since you insist upon it, I am obliged to confess that so 

 far as I can judge from observation and experience, I think I get more 

 comb honey from ten Sframe hives than from eight 10-frame hives. 

 Now, don't ask me why. I don't know. 



