506 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 21, 1904. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 



] 



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

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



Treatment of Pickled Brood. 



From reading the text-books and the bee-papers I am 

 satisfied that my bees are afifected with pickled brood. I 

 wish you to advise me how to get rid of it. Is it best to 

 melt up the combs, or use them again ? I am satisfied the 

 disease disappears when the honey-flow comes, so it is hard 

 to detect it. And by changing combs in my apiary I have 

 scattered it nearly over the yard. Iowa. 



Answer. — General Manager France thinks the disease 

 is not contagious, so it is quite possible that it was not es- 

 tablished in the difl'erent colonies by means of the frames 

 of brood that you scattered about, but by means of a lack 

 of unsealed honey and fresh pollen. The probability is that 

 no present treatment will be needed, because, as you say, 

 the disease disappears when the honey-flow is on. It is not 

 necessary to destroy the combs. As the disease disappears 

 in a honey-flow, if it appears again you can produce a 

 honey-flow by feeding moderately, which will probably 

 prove a satisfactory treatment. 



Swarming and After-Swarmlng. 



I had a swarm come out twice and cluster, and after 

 putting them into a hive they came out and went back to 

 their old hive. The next day I found a dead queen on the 

 front of the hive. Two days after, they swarmed and I put 

 them into a hive and they stayed. I put them on the old 

 stand, with the hive they came out of beside them, intend- 

 ing to prevent an after-swarm by moving the hive in one 

 week (as per instructions in the bee-books). In two days I 

 had an after-swarm, which I dumped back in front of the 

 old hive, and put on an Alley trap, and the next noon I 

 found 4 dead queens in the top of the trap. 



1. Did the bees kill the queens I found ? 



2. Did the bees drive them out 7 and is there probably 

 one queen left in the hive? 



3. Is it practical to use the Alley trap at swarming- 

 time, or will it bother the bees too much ? 



4. Would it be practical to use it to prevent after-swarm- 

 ing as I did, or would there be danger of a young queen 

 being caught while going out to mate, and the bees killing 

 her ? Massachusetts. 



Answers.— 1. It was a fight to the finish among the 

 queens themselves. 



2. The bees didn't drive them out, but dragged them 

 out after they were killed. The victorious queen remained 

 in the hive. 



3. The trap does not bother the bees so very much, and 

 you can rely on it to catch the queen. 



4. The trap must be intelligently used. The bees would 

 hardly kill a queen caught in the trap, but it would have to 

 be removed to allow her to take her wedding flight. 



Uncapping Honey— Candy for Queen-Cages. 



1. How do you use the uncapping-knife ? Do you have 

 two knives at one time, one in water while using the other 

 (as talked of at the California convention) ? Does the water 

 not spoil the honey ? Somehow, uncapping goes slow with 

 me. There is no bee-keeper near here that I can see. I 

 have " Langstroth Revised" and "Forty Years Among the 

 Bees." 



2. If you put the knives in water, must the water be 

 hot or cold ? 



3. What kind of knife do you use ? I have the Bingham. 



4. In the spring, when the 10 frames in the brood- 

 chamber would be full of brood and honey, I would put on 

 10 empty frames, comb or foundation, then when well filled 

 put on sections. It worked well until this spring they 

 just swarm and swarm, and then swarm again. Before 

 this spring I could control them as I pleased. I need half 



extracted honey and half in sections. Is my way worth 

 anything ? Would you advise me to do differently ? 



5. How do you make candy to put in queen-cages for 

 the bees to clean out so as to free the queen ? 



Kansas. 



Answers. — 1. I do not use an uncapping-knife — at least 

 I have not used one for two or three years — as I work for 

 comb honey ; but when I did use one I used a single knife. 

 There is no doubt an advantage in having two. Scarcely 

 any water will cling to the knife when it is lifted out, espe- 

 cially if a little shake is given to the knife, and a very few 

 drops of clean water will have no appreciable effect on the 

 honey. 



2. "You pays your money, you takes your choice." 

 Quite a tattle has been waged between the advocates of hot 

 and of cold water. I suspect you'll find it a little like this : 

 When combs are warm and soft cold water will be all right ; 

 when tough and a little cold, warm water will work better. 

 It's an easy thing for you to try each. 



3. Mine is the Novice, which I got before there was any 

 Bingham. There is probably nothing better than the 

 Bingham. 



4. Probably nothing different is advisable, and I doubt 

 that there's any better way to get part comb and part ex- 

 tracted. Some years are worse than others about swarm- 

 ing, and likely next year will not be so bad. In any case 

 you ought not to have more than one swarm from each col- 

 ony. See " Prevention of After-Swarms," page 435. 



5. Turn to page 321 of your " Langstroth Revised," and 

 find instructions for the candy desired, which is called 

 Scholz candy. You're not likely to want as much as there 

 given, so try this : Take a small quantity of the best ex- 

 tracted honey (easy to add to it later if you haven't enough). 

 Better heat it (don't burn it), although it will do very well 

 cold, then pour it on some pulverized sugar on a board or 

 table, and stir and knead thoroughly, adding more sugar 

 till you have a very stiff dough. Let it stand a day or two, 

 and add more sugar if it has become too soft, so as to flat- 

 ten down. 



Your postage stamp frightened me, but it revived me 

 greatly that your questions were not only plainly numbered, 

 but each number had a ring around it so I couldn't miss it. 

 I wish all might be as considerate. 



Swarming— Tested Queen Slow Layer— Using Bee- 

 Escapes- Nuclei Swarming. 



1. When one queen is heard piping, answered by queens 

 in cells "quahking," does it in every case positively mean 

 that a prime swarm has already issued, and that a second 

 swarm will issue in about 48 hours ? Or is this ever heard 

 before the first swarm, where the laying queen is about a 

 year old ? 



2. (a) Is it a safe guide to expect a swarm to issue on 

 the first favorable day after queen-cells are sealed? {/>) Are 

 they likely to swarm before cells or cell are sealed ? (r) Are 

 they likely to delay swarming for many days after the cells 

 are sealed ? 



3. I have a tested queen apparently perfectly healthy 

 that has never laid an egg since her introduction exactly 

 one month ago on June 18. Is she likely ever to lay again 7 



4. I have another tested queen that did not lay till 23 

 days after introducing, though she is now laying sparingly. 

 Will she be all right now ? Both these queens are in strong 

 colonies, one of blacks and the other light hybrids ? 



5. In using a bee-escape to take a super off a hive that 

 has only one super on it, doesn't it crowd the bees too much 

 in the brood-nest in a strong colony, and would it not be 

 better to put another super with sections and foundation in 

 it next to the brood-nest, the bee-escape over that, and the 

 super to be removed over that ? I generally put the escape 

 on in the evening, and take it off the following morning be- 

 tween 9 and 10 o'clock. 



6. What should a colony weigh for wintering in an 8- 

 frame-hive, with combined hivestaiid and bottom-board 

 and ventilated gable cover? 



7. Will four and three frame nuclei set out June 9 be 

 likely to swarm this year, under favorable conditions ? 



Virginia. 

 Answers. — 1. In general, yes. Rut if the old queen 

 should be killed, or by any means put out of the way after 

 the queen-cells were made ready for swarming, but before 

 they were sealed, there would still h, piping and quahking 

 upon the emerging of the first youn ; queen, although no 

 swarm had previously issued. Id' i t think you will hear 



