426 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 16, 1904. 



mensurate with pasture owned is to be complained of. And 

 we know the law doesn't cover the case — world abounds 

 with legal opportunities to do wickedness. But all this is 

 not much better than dust to hide the real issue. Here's the 

 point : 



Some are actually and assuredly doing (and some others 

 are arguing that direction because they lust to do) a plain 

 and villainous wrong to brethren who are specialists like 

 themselves — overlapping their occupied territory. Usually 

 the harm they do to themselves is greater than the harm 

 which they inflict — but that doesn't help their moral stand- 

 ing any, nor lessen the wrong. Usually they could have 

 gotten into a clear field with a little effort — but whether 

 they could or couldn't does not signify. The relevant thing 

 is that they spy an honest man with something valuable in 

 his possession which the written law does not cover. There- 

 upon they proceed to seize apart of it. Years of occupation 

 and painstaking care they propose to ignore. 



Now it isn't by calling things by their right names that 

 Mr. Hasty will disgrace his department and himself. He 

 would disgrace these if he called a scamp a so-so and tol- 

 erably fair sort of a fellow — if he called the Ishmaelite a 

 worthy comrade — if he called the hog "our admirably 

 thrifty and diligent sod-turning brother." Page 327. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 





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

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



Putting On Sapers-Old ttueen with First Swarm. 



One year ago this spring my father bought 3 colonies of bees in 

 box-hives. 1 took care of them the liest I knew how, increased to 5 

 colonies by natural swarming, and I bought 5 more colonies early in 

 the winter. I wintered the 10 colonies in a low shed that faced the 

 east. One colony died, leaving 35 pounds of honey. This colony was 

 in a big box-hive. 1 sold 1 colony, in a box-hive, early this spring, 

 leaving me S colonies. 



One of mj colonies sent out a swarm the other day which I hived, 

 and it is doing finely. In looking in the hive, from which the swarm 

 issued, I found capped honey, and so I put on a super, but the bees do 

 not seem to be working in it. 



1. Did 1 put the super on too early ; 



2. When should I put on supers ? Sweet clover is in bloom here 

 about the first of July. 



3. In natural swarming does the old or young queen, or queens, 

 go with the swarm ? Kansas. 



Answers.— 1. As the swarm had just left the hive, the mother 

 colony was so reduced in strength thatyou ought not to expect itto do 

 anything in a super. Even if a colony is already storing rapidly in a 

 super, when it sends out a swarm you will find work in the super 

 brought to a stand-still until the colony has time to recuperate. 



2. The old rule was to put on supers when you find bits of white 

 wax on top-bar or the upper part of comb. A little earlier than that 

 might be better — say as soon as you find in full bloom the plants from 

 which the bees are to store a surplus. Perhaps white clover is that 

 plant in your locality. 



3. The old queen goes with the first swarm ; young, or virgin 

 queens, with after-swarms. 



Drone-Laying ttueen-V-Shaped Hive-Bees Killed on 

 Telephone Wires. 



1 About April 10 I'found one of my colonies, which last summer 

 was unusually prosperous, quite weak. It had, April 10, a splendid- 

 looking queen (I saw her), but there was nothing but drone-brood in 

 the hive— plenty of that. Why was it* 



2. May 2, desiring to replace an old queen with a new one, but 

 not wishing to kill the old one, I put her into an empty hive with a 

 comb of brood and about a quart of bees. I shut them in securely, 

 but with an opening the full width of an s-frame hive. I kept the bees 

 there, shut in, for exactly 100 hours— releasing them after dark. Two 

 days after releasing I opened the hive and found all of the bees gone 

 excepting about 50 dead ones. I could not find the queen, although she 

 had laid a large number of eggs in three combs, two of the combs new 

 ones. Did the bees return to the parent colony (10 feet away) J Is it 

 probable that the queen went with them back to the parent hive? 

 This queen had never had a flight in my yard, as she came from the 

 South. 



3. There used to live at Mattoon, 111., 26 or 28 years ago, a man by 

 the name of Barber, who invented, sold and used a hive with a V- 

 sbaped frame. Is he still living? and is the hive in use anywhere? 

 Was it a success? 



4. My home is in a town of about 30,000 inhabitants, pretty closely 



built. A good many telephone wires run along the street, and hun- 

 dreds of bees kill themselves by striking the wires. I lose a good 

 many queens in that way, also, 1 think. Does any one else have the 

 same experience? Pennsylvania. 



Answers. — 1. Yoii had a drone-laying queen. If, by any means, 

 a queen does not liecome fertilized before laving, all the eggs she ever 

 lays will produce only drones. Many queen-s, when they become old, 

 put occasional drone-eggs into worker-cells, and occasionally an old 

 queen, having exhausted the contents of the spermatheca, lays only 

 drone-eggs. In either case, the queen is the same In appearance as 

 if she laid worker-eggs only. 



2. It is only too common a thing for weaklings to desert their 

 hives in spring, especially when there is so much bad weather as dur- 

 ing the present year. The bees may have returned to the old hive, or 

 they may have entered some other hive. The acquaintance, or laclf of 

 acquaintance, with surroundings on the part of the queen would cut 

 no figure in the case. She follows rather than leads. 



3. Years ago a hive with triangular frame was somewhat exttn- 

 sively advertised, but I think some other name than Barber was con- 

 nected with it. The fact that nothing has been said about it in the 

 bee-papers for many years would seem to indicate that it never went 

 into extensive use. 



4. I don't remember to have seen a loss of that kind mentioned, 

 and am wondering whether your loss is as great as you suppose. 

 Who else has any experience in that line? 



Bee-Feeders-Patents Among Bee-Keepers. 



A farmer here who has long been interested in bee-culture and has 

 also been a mechanic while in town, has invented a bee-feeder which 

 is claimed by him and one or two others who have tested it, to be far 

 superior to any other known bee-feeder. He claims for it the follow- 

 ing good qualities: 



The bees can be fed at any time, as often as required, without the 

 loss of any heat, with liquid or candy ; the candy fed in cold weather 

 can be reached by the bees directly from the cluster. The bees are not 

 disturbed in the least by work on the feeder. 



The feeder is proof against robbing. For wintering bees, if it is 

 left on the hive with chaff around, and a bee-way in the center left 

 open to feed, the feeder will absorb all moisture and leave the bees 

 entirely dry. The feeder can be examined at any lime as to the quan- 

 tity therein without loss of heat or disturbing tha bees. Bees can pass 

 over the combs everywhere. 



He desires to have the feeder patented, and takes the liberty to 

 ask advice on the following points: 



1. Is there a sufficient demand tor factory-made feeders to war- 

 rant the expense of placing them on the market '. 



2. How much will bee-keepers pay for a good feeder * 



3. Are bee-keepers prejudiced against patented articles? 



He thinks bee-keepers as a class are of the opinion that all discov- 

 eries made in their fields should be given to the public, and that they 

 will therefore not patronize sellers of patented articles. He is probably 

 mistaken in this. Iowa. 



Answers. 1. Not unless they are superior to anything already on 

 the market ; which may not lie in the present case, for the advantages 

 claimed are also claimed for feeders already in use. 



2. Some feeders are sold as high as 25 cents each. 



3. While very few things of merit used by bee-keepers are pat- 

 ented, the fact that an article is patented hardly bars it out if it is 



really worthy. 



•-.-• 



Number of Colonies for Family of Two— Demand for 

 Honey and Beeswax. 



1. Considering that $1.00 per day is the lowest a family of two 

 could live on, how many colonies, it properly handled, would, in the 

 average season, produce the said amount per year? 



2. Is there always a demand for honey and beeswax ? 



New York. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. What would lie true in one place 

 would not be true in another. At a rough guess, if your location is 

 about an average one, you might make it with 125 colonies. But don't 

 think of depending upon bees fora living until youhaveenough ahead 

 to tide you over two or three years of failure if they should happen to 

 come in succession. 



2. There is always a brisk demand for beeswax, and usually good 

 sale for honey, bnt sometimes the honey market is very dull. 



Forced Swarmlng-Paraffin-Comb-Glucose Story- 

 T-Supers. 



1. I have two colonies of bees in the upper story of the barn which 

 will probably swarm before long, as they are very strong. I want to 

 try some forced swarming, but I don't know exactly how to go about it. 

 1 do not want to have more than three colonies when I get through. If 

 I shake say a third of the bees from each hive into the same new hive 

 with either starters or full sheets of foundation, can I make them stay 

 there without fighting? 



2. What .shall I do with the queens? and will I have to arrange 

 the hives in a different order? The brood will not need to be moved 

 will it? 



3. Will it make any difference at what time pf day the bees are 

 disturbed .' 



4. I see in the Ladies' Home Journal for-Iune, on page 36, that at 



