410 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 9, 1904. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 



) 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Colony Killing Drones— Buckling in Foundation 

 Bees Lying Around. 



Dead 



I have a colony that is killing off its drones, while the bees in 

 other colonies let them remain, and are working hard. This colony 

 has swarmed twice this season. It appeared to be halt drones. Why 

 do they kill them so soon ? 



2. What makes the bees fly from the hive as if they were angry, 

 return, and then go out again? This colony does this every day or 

 so; it is a strong colony. 



3. Why do bees run about on the alighting-board with great haste, 

 at about dusk* They do not fly, neither do they run after each other. 

 Are they queenless? 



4. Will "buckling" in super foundation make any trouble if run- 

 ning for extracted honey * 



5. I find dead bees on the alighting-board every morning, and a 

 lot of dead ones on the ground in front of the hive. I also notice bees 

 in the weeds and grass all over the apiary. What can I do to remedy 

 this? Texas. 



Answers.— 1. When a colony has swarmed, and especially after 

 its young queen has been fertilized, it has no further need of drones, 

 and it is nothing strange they should be driven out. Your colony be- 

 ing weakened by swarming twice, would be sure to get rid of its 

 drones. 



2. Theyoung bees are probably having a playing spell, flying with 

 their heads toward the hives to mark the location. 



3. It looks like queenlessness, but bees run about over the front of 

 the hive a good deal when all right. 



4. No great trouble, liut of course the straighter the better. 



5. Hard to tell a remedy without knowing the cause. Looks a 

 little like a case of poisoning, In which case the only thing is to stop 

 the poisoning — if you can. 



Putting On Supers-Reversing Combs— Sticks Instead 

 of Wires. 



1. Turn to page 233, where " Missouri " asks if you would put on 

 supers before the brood-chamber is filled ; you there answer his ques- 

 tion by telling him, " No, not until the brood-chamber is filled and 

 the honey harvest is nearly over." Do you mean that the brood- 

 chamber is filled with brood, or with honey! 



2. Now, turn to page 313, where " Wisconsin " tells you that he 

 has cut out all the crooked and drone comb, and sees that all his 

 combs are lacking one inch from the bottom-bar, and wishes to reverse 

 the combs, and wants to know if it will hurt to have the honey down 

 and the brood up, for three or four days. And you tell him that it will 

 not. But, if he was to reverse the frames would the bees not build 

 comb in the opposite way i If not, how would you reverse a hive con- 

 taining Hoffman frames? 



3. (In page .330, Virginia asks: When you use sticks instead of 

 wire, why do you make the sticks shorter than the depth of the frame' 

 And you answer his question; but what I want to know is: How do 

 you fasten the sticks in place, and what are their dimensions? 



Louisiana. 

 Answers. — 1. I am older now than when I wrote that answer, and 

 I think I can give a shade better answer now. So long as there is 

 plenty of room in the brood-chamber you need not expect the bees to 

 do any storing in supers. When the brood-chamber is filled— and it 

 makes no difference whether it is filled with brood or honey — then if 

 they have anything to store they must store it in the super. But.it is 

 better to have supers on a little before they seem to be actually 

 needed. If a super is not given until the bees" are actually crowded 

 for room in the lirood-chamber, it may set them to thinking of swarm- 

 ing; and at any rate they must have a little time to gel acquainted 

 with the super before actually beginning work in it. They will begin 

 work in the first super generally more prompt it a bait-section be in 

 the super — a section containing comb at least partly drawn out. 



2. Examine a brood-comb, and you will find that at the upper 

 part, where the cells are quite deep tor storing honey, they are built 

 with a. very decided dip, while the cells that are used for brood-rear- 

 ing, and only 7-16 deep, have so little dip that if a piece of the comb 

 were cut out you could hardly tell which was up or doH n. In actual 

 experience I have found, as have many others, that the bees rear 

 brood in these brood-cells all right when they are upside-down. 



3. A full and satisfactory answer to this question can most easily 

 be given by the following extract from the book, " Forty Years Among 

 the Bees;" 



GETTING COMBS BUItT DOWN TO BOTTOM-BARS. 



While upon the subject of frames, I may as well tell how I manage 

 to have them entirely filled with straight combs which are built out to 

 the end-bars and clear down to the bottom-bars, a thing I experi- 

 mented upon tor a long time before reaching success. The foundation 

 is cut so as to make a close fit in length, and the width is about halt 

 an inch more than the inside depth of the frame. The frame is all 



complete except that one of the two pieces of the bottom-bar is not 

 yet nailed on. The frame is laid on a board of the usual kind, which 

 fits inside the frame and stops on the edges so that when foundation is 

 laid on the board it will lie centrally in the frame. The half ot the 

 bottom-bar that is nailed on lies on the under side. The foundation 

 is put in place, and one edge is crowded into the saw -kerf in the top- 

 bar. Then the lacking halt of the bottoiu-bar is put in place, and a 

 light nail at the middle is driven down through both parts. Then the 

 frame is raised and the ends of the two halves ot the bottom-bar are 

 squeezed together so as to pinch the foundation, and nailed there. 

 Then the usual wedge is wedged into the fine saw-kerf in the top-bar. 



FODNDATION SPLINTS. 



Now we are ready for the important part. Little sticks or splints 

 about 1-16 of an inch square, and about I4 inch shorter than the in- 

 side depth of the frame, are thrown into a square shallow tin pan that 

 contains hot beeswax. They will froth up because ot the moisture 

 frying out of them. When the frothing ceases, and the splints are 

 saturated with wax, then they are ready tor use. The frame of foun- 

 dation is laid on the board as before; with a pair of plyers a splint is 

 lifted out ot the was (kept just hot enough over a gasoline stove), 

 and placed upon the foundation so that the splint shall be perpen- 

 dicular when the frame is hung in the hive. As fast as the splint is 

 laid in place, an assistant immediately presses it down into the founda- 

 tion with the wetted edge of a board. About l}.^ inches from each 

 end-bar is placed a splint, and between these two splints three others 

 at equal distances (Fig. 31). When these are built out they make 

 beautiful combs, and the splints do not seem to be at all in the wav. 

 (Fig. 32). 



A little experience will enable one to judge, when putting in the 

 splints, how hot to keep the wax. If too hot there will be too light a 

 coating ot wax. 



It ,must not be understood that the mere use of these splint will 

 under any and all circumstances result in faultless combs built securely 

 down to the bottom-bar. It seems to be the natural thing for bees> to 

 leave a free pa.ssage under the comb, no matter whether the thing that 

 comes next below the comb be the floor-board of the hive or the bot- 

 tom-bar of the frame. So if a frame be given when little storing is 

 going on, the bees will deliberately dig away the foundation at the 

 bottom ; and even if it has been built down but the cells not very fully 

 drawn out. they will do more or less at gnawing a passage. To make 

 a success, the frames should be given at a time when work shall go on 

 uninterruptedly until full-depth cells reach the bottom-bar. 



Short Method of Transferring Bees. 



In " A B C to Bee Culture," under " Ileddon Short Method of 

 Transferring," it says: "If the old queen in the new hive is a valu- 

 able one she should be caged when making the second drive." What 

 does this mean ? Should she be kept away from the bees for some 

 time, or just while the bess are entering the hive and then run in at 

 the entrance? Or should she be liberated in the top ot the hivel 



Iowa. 



Answer. — There is a possibility that the strange bees introduced 

 may ball and injure the queen ; so she should be caged, and left caged, 

 in the hive perhaps a eouple ot days. There is still a possible danger 

 that the bees finding their queen caged will take to the new queen in- 

 troduced with the second drive ; to make sure against that, kill or re- 

 move the new queen. 



Drones and Mating of Queen. 



I have a colony of bees in which the queen has died. I gave them 

 a frame ot eggs from another colony and they have a queen all ready 

 to hatch. I caught four drones in one of my neighbor's hives and put 

 them in with the queenless colony. They were young drones; there 

 are no drones or brood in any of the hives. 



1. Will these young drones be of any service to the young queen 

 when she makes her trip? 



2. When the queen is hatched, how long is it before she makes 

 her trip* Nebraska. 



Answers. — 1. They may; but they would have been just as likely 

 to meet the young queen it you had left them where they were. 

 2. Five days or more. 



Telling Age of Queens— (lueen-Excluding Honey-Boards 

 -Re Queening- Uniting Weak Colonies, Etc. 



1. How can I tell when a queen isone, two or three years old? I 

 would like to requeen when they are two years old. 



2. It I use queen-excluding honey-boards, when producing ex- 

 tracted honey, should the honey-boards be left on the year round, or 

 taken off after the honey-How? It taken off, at what time should they 

 be put on again? My supers are left on the entire year. 



3. If I buy Italian ciueens to replace old lilacks or hybrids, how long 

 must I wait alter removing the old queen before putting in the new 

 one by the cage they come in or by " drowniDg!" 



4. When 1 examined my bees this sprini;, I found a great many of 

 them with their brood and honey in the supers, while the combs in the 

 lower story were empty. W^hy was this? and how can they be kept in 

 the lower story unless I use excluders? 1 ii^!:ed one bee-keeper about 

 it and he said they had not been rightly prepared last tall. 



5. A great many ot uiy colonies do not .seem to be as strong as 



