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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 1, 1904. 



■watching- for the queen, and for her to make a spring into 

 ■the air, flapping best she could with stubs and legs, landing 

 on the hat and remaining there — there's nothing even sur- 

 prising about that. Page 716. 



THE " BABY NDCI,EUS ". 



Not probable, Mr. Pharr, that Hutchinson had any 

 thought of putting down one and setting up unother when 

 he declined the first article about the baby nucleus. I do 

 not exactly wish that all the articles on that subject had 

 been declined ; but if the editors all had chosen to " fight 

 it out on that line " our craft had been better off , I ween. 

 Presumably Hutchinson felt that way, too, but after awhile 

 relented and let the thing appear. Page 718. 



THAT SWISS BEE-HOUSE. 



A bee-house for 360 colonies — bee-room and shop for 

 keeper thrown in — is " going it " a little stronger than any 



one in this country seems to keep pace with. It was a Swiss, 

 I believe, that said, "Make way for liberty ". We will tol- 

 erate it in them if they say, " Make way for house bee- 

 keeping ". But after the way is all nicely made, most of 

 us will let the other fellow walk in it. Page 725. 



BEESWAX AS A PREVENTIVE Ol- DISCOLORING. 



What about the claim on page 72'^, that beeswax in bits 

 is a preservative of white woolens and silks when stored 

 away ? Without it they gradually get yellow ; but with it 

 they keep white. Should almost conjecture that " beeswax " 

 there was a typographical error for something else. Chemi- 

 cal changes, or the ravages of microbes, or both, suggest 

 themselves as the causes of this yellowing. Beeswax does 

 not strike us as a chemical potent enough to diffuse effective 

 influence inches away, or poisonous enough to hinder 

 microscopic marauders. At any rate, if used for such a 

 purpose it must be more thoroughly cleansed from traces of 

 honey than some samples are, else it will daub things. 



Send Questions either to the office o£ the American Bee Journal, or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Late-Reared Queen Pails to Lay. 



I have a colony of bees that was queenless two weeks- 

 I tried to introduce a queen, and they would not accept her. 

 I gave them some brood and they 'reared a queen, and she 

 has been there three weeks and is not laying yet. I have 

 to give them brood from other colonies to keep them up. 

 How will it do to put it on top of another colony, and take 

 it off next spring 7 Or, would you try to introduce another 

 laying queen ? Florida. 



Answer. — It is quite possible that their queen is all 

 right and will do good work next spring. If the colony is 

 strong enough to winter well, it may be worth while to 

 leave them as they are, uniting in the spring if the queen 

 does not turn out all right. It is often the case that a good 

 ■queen does not lay in the fall, especially if no honey is 

 yielding. If the colony is weak, consisting mostly of old 

 bees, it may be best to unite now. It will be hardly advis- 

 able to put it over another colony unless you expect to unite 

 it with that colony. 



* . » 



Wiring Frames— T Supers— Storing in Sections— Queen 

 Interrupted in Laying. 



1. Is vertical wiring as good as horizontal ? If not, 

 •why not ? 



2. Are T supers, used on shallow brood-chambers, as 

 good as those with slats ? 



3. If bees don't like to store their honey above the 1 and 

 2 inches of honey, which is generally in the brood-combs 

 <see Danzenbaker, "Facts About Bees"), how about their 

 crossing a full super of sections to start an empty one above 

 {Hershiser) ? 



4. Passing an old bottom-board at an out-yard I saw 

 about a handful of bees clustering on its side, and by closer 

 examination found a clipped queen amongst them. Now I 

 remembered that I made an artificial swarm near it, about 

 10 weeks before, when I set the old hive on that bottom for 

 a few seconds to move the new one on its place. Needless 

 to say that that swarm was a failure, being queenless for 

 some unaccountable reason. Now, I put that -queen and 

 bees into a queenless colony, and after one week she had 

 about 10 square inches of brood. This was after all others 

 ■quit breeding. Will this queen be as good as before the 

 shaking? Wisconsin. 



Answers.— 1. That depends. If top and bottom bars 

 are sufficiently rigid, vertical wiring is as good or better. 

 With vertical wiring, the wire must be drawn tightly, and 

 unless a bar of some kind is in the center to hold top and 

 bottom apart, the bottom-bar will be curved upward, and if 

 the top-bar be not pretty thick it will sag. CH , j czi 



2. I think they are better ; but all do not agree with me. 



3. Without attempting to answer your question in all its 

 Teachings, I may say that bees are more prompt to store 

 close to the brood than far away from it, other things be- 

 ing equaL I am not sure, however, that they will not be 

 just as prompt to start storing within two or four inches of 

 where they are already storing surplus as within two or 

 four inches of the brood. I do not generally find one to 

 two inches of honey in the upper part of the brood-combs of 

 Langstroth depth. Often the brood touches the top-bar. I 

 think observation will show that bees will begin work more 

 promptly in an additional super when placed under, than 

 when placed over, a super already occupied. The great 

 effort on Mr. Hershiser's part is to get sections filled very 

 full ; this he accomplishes by limiting the number of 

 supers, and by adding the empty super always on top, thus 

 crowding the bees. He accomplishes his purpose ; whether 

 or not at too great expense is another story. 



4. The probability is that she will be just as good a 

 queen as if she had not been through such an unusual ex- 

 perience — possibly a shade better. Her work after other 

 queens were no longer laying is some proof that she is a 

 good queen. The life of a bee — whether worker or queen — 

 depends a good deal upon the amount of work done. Having 

 had a vacation, she ought to have more eggs left for future 

 laying. 



Feeding Burnt Honey-Getting the Honey Out of 

 tappings. 



1. I have a few gallons of very dark honey drained from 

 cappings of white clover, probably burnt a little in render- 

 ing wax in the dripping-pan in the oven of the range. 

 There is no water in it. Can I feed it in the spring ? 



2. I kept it in sealed fruit-cans last year. It smelt sour 

 in the spring when I mixed it one-fifth honey and four- 

 fifths sugar, and fed it last spring. In about 60 days I had 

 a few colonies having paralysis. Do you think the honey 

 helped to cause it ? 



3. Can I get the honey out of cappings in a German 

 wax-press? Missouri. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, when bees are flying daily in the 

 spring you can feed anything the bees will take, unless it 

 actually contains poison. The danger is in feeding stuff 

 that will load the intestines at a time when there is no 

 chance to empty them. 



2. Xo, it is not likely that the feed had anything to do 

 with the disease. 



3. Cappings make the easiest kind 'f material to render 

 wax from, and the steam wax-press s-.'-.n get the wax out of 

 cappings or anything else from which , ax can be got. 



