Feb 14, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



107 



winter use ? and how can you feed thru the winter in case 

 of necessity '■ Some time since one colony starved to death 

 for lack of food, not knowing how to feed syrup, but in- 

 stead I placed super with comb honey on the hive, but it 

 seemed to do no good. They were on the summer stands. 



4. Can you name one or two good feeders, and tell how 

 to use them ? 



5. Can extracting be done th ru the winter as well as in 

 the honey season ? In fixing frames for extracting, would 

 medium (full sheets) brood foundations be right? and 

 should they be wired in ? 



In my short experience I have found that the bees in 

 hives not shaded, begin work earlier, and also they work 

 later than those that are shaded. 



Washington Beginner. 



Answers. — 1. Bee entrance guards would not in the 

 least prevent swarming. It only prevents the queen from 

 going with the swarm, and without a queen they would not 

 leave. It would be just as well for them to swarm and be 

 lost " as long as the remainder did well," but unfortunately 

 the remainder will not do as well. Entrance guards might 

 be safely used if you could visit the place as often as once 

 a week, for the queens would be held in the traps awaiting 

 your treatment. Perhaps you might be best suited to have 

 such large hives with so much room in the extracting-su- 

 pers that the amount of swarming need not be considered. 



2. That question is not easily answered, but at a guess 

 it might do to give him honey enough for use on his own 

 table. The amount of compensation would not be exactly 

 in proportion to the number of colonies. A man would 

 just about as soon have 10 colonies sitting on his ground as 

 one. In some cases a man might be willing to pay for hav- 

 ing bees on his place for the sake of having his fruit ferti- 

 lized. 



3. Just as soon as you are satisfied no more surplus 

 will be stored. In some places — indeed in a good many 

 places — that might be in the last of August. That gives 

 time to have the syrup well ripened and put in proper shape 

 for winter. In any case, try to have all feeding done before 

 September closes. 



In case of necessity in winter, use comb honey or sugar 

 candj', making sure that the food is so close to the bees that 

 they will crawl directly upon it. Don't think of feeding 

 syrup in winter. 



4. Root's A B C of Bee-Culture gives the Miller feeder 

 first place if the feeding is to be done on top. Put the 

 feeder on top the same as a super ; put in syrup and cover 

 over. If the feeding is done early enough, I prefer a plan 

 that is still less trouble. Put dry granulated sugar in the 

 feeder, and then pour hot or cold water on it. The bees 

 will do the rest. If you prefer to feed at the hive-entrance, 

 the Boardman feeder is one of the best. 



5. It is just as easy to extract in winter as in summer, 

 if the combs are just as warm. If kept in a very warm 

 room for 24 hours, you will likely be able to extract. If 

 you can hang them overhead in the kitchen they will stand 

 a good chance for heat. 



" The Hum of the Bees in the Apple-Tree Bloom " is 

 the name of the finest bee-keeper's song — words by Hon. 

 Eugene Secor and music by Dr. C. C. Miller. 'This is 

 thought by some to be the best bee-song yet written by Mr. 

 Secor and Dr. Miller. It is, indeed, a "hummer." We can 

 furnish a single copy of it postpaid, for 10 cents, or 3 copies 

 for 25 cents. Or, we will mail a half-dozen copies of it for 

 sending us one new yearly subscription to the American 

 Bee Journal at $1.00. 



Our Wood Binder (or Holder) is made to take all the 

 copies of the American Bee Journal for a year. It is sent 

 by mail for 20 cents. Full directions accompany. The Bee 

 Journals can be inserted as soon as they are received, and 

 thus preserved for future reference. Upon receipt of $1.00 

 for your Bee Journal subscription a full year t?i advance, 

 we will mail you a Wood Binder free — if you will mention it. 



Please send us Names of Bee-Keepers who do not now 



get the American Bee Journal, and we will send them sam- 

 ple copies. Then you can very likely afterward get their 

 subscriptions, for which work we offer valuable premiums 

 in nearly every number of this journal. You can aid much 

 by sending in the names a. id addresses when writing us on 

 other matters. 



i£,j^ia.j£.j£,ja^i£,ja^ia,ja^is^)i 



* The Afterthought. ^ 



The "Old Reliable" seen thru New and Unreliable Qlasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



WEIGHT OF NATURAI, COMB. 



Average weight of natural comb 10 grains to the square 

 inch. Prof. Gillette, page 23. If we call the Langstroth 

 frame 144 inches (usually less from being nibbled away at 

 the bottom) the weight of the wax in a comb will be 1,440 

 grains, or 14,400 grains in a lOframe hive. Xow, if we as- 

 sume that the 400 grains will cover the extraneous matter 

 workt into the new comb of a hive, we have just an even 

 two pounds of actual wax. Practically, I think they usu- 

 ally work in a good deal more extraneous matter than that; 

 but on the other hand, next to the bars all around there is 

 much more wax than 10 grains to the inch. So a fair esti- 

 mate of the actual wax in a hive, providing it all could be 

 recovered, is two pounds for lO-frame hives, and one pound 

 9'> ounces, nearly, for the more common 8-frame hives. 



MAKING ROOM FOR WAX-SCALES. 



And so D. H. Coggshall thinks that it pays to cut slices 

 from the combs at extracting-time to give the bees place to 

 use their scales of wax without building burrs. I think he 

 has a valuable idea — that is, valuable in long, strong runs 

 of honey. When the combs are scant thickness, or not built 

 down at the bottom, or when the honey-flow is short, then 

 the cutting would be rather a waste. Page 24. 



FANNING AT THE HIVE-ENTRANCE. 



I think Dr. Miller, on page 25, does a pretty good job at 

 theorizing. A bee uncertain about its reception by the 

 guards at a hive-entrance falls to fanning at once — plain 

 way of saying, "Don't you see, I am ready to go to work? 

 and robbers do not work." tiuess it's right. Still, let a 

 fourth swarm come out and leave the parent hive nearly 

 empty and pretty well demoralized as to guards ; let the 

 swarm hang an hour, till said hive gets cold — colder than it 

 needs to be ; then hive the swarm and carry it away, leaving 

 say SO obstinate bees determined not to leave the limb. In 

 the course of the day it will dawn upon them what fools 

 they are, and they will return to the alighting-board. I 

 should expect to see them fanning together there the first 

 thing they do. In this case there can hardly be fear, or un- 

 certainty, and there is no need of the fanning being done — 

 what is it ? Fanning in the entrance draws outside the fa- 

 miliar smell of home. Perhaps that is what they want — 

 before they have submitted to the inevitable quite enough 

 to go in. 



DOUBLE W.4.LLS AND CHAFF ON \ HOT D.W. 



Mr. J. M. Rankin has got on track of a question 

 that is of value — the actual effect of double walls and chaff 

 on a hot day as compared with plain, single-walled hives. 

 Thinks the working-force for a time mostly abandoned the 

 supers of the single-walled hives. This is one of the things ' 

 we want to be sure of before we are too sure of it, so re- 

 peated observations by different observers are desirable. 

 For future comparisons Mr. R. should have given us the 

 temperature in the shade in addition to that in the sun. 

 Page 39. 



COMB BUILT BETWEEN FINISHT COMBS. 



Dr. Miller is right in his answer to " South Carolina," 

 on page 43, that a comb built between two finisht combs in 

 a super is apt to be very thin. Even if so much extra space 

 is given as to obviate that trouble the alternation doesn't 

 seem to be a good plan. Put one first-rate, finisht comb 

 next one side of the super, then several frames with start- 

 ers, then one or more partly built combs if you have them, 

 as I mostly do ; then fill the rest of the super with finisht 

 combs. That seems to be the " how " to do it, providing 

 you don't want the bother of having them built below. 



Queenie Jeanette is the title of a pretty song in shee- 

 music size, written by J. C. Wallenmeyer, a musical beet 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. Better order at once, if you want a copy 

 of this song. 



