328 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 23, 1901. 



work so long- that they feel no one else can do it properly. 

 It would put them all in fidg-ets to see some one else clean- 

 ing- their sections, or uncapping combs for the extractor. 

 Other men have learned that it is much more profitable for 

 them to oversee and plan the work, leaving the carrying 

 out of the details to competent help. You know yourself, 

 or ought to, so choose the course to which you are adapted, 

 but don't keep on conducting your business in such a man- 

 ner that you are compelled to neglect it. Be thorough, 

 up-to-date, progressive, and energetic, but don't lose half 

 your profits as the result of little neglects. 



\ Questions and Answers. | 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. O. M^ILLER, Afareng-o, 111. 



(The Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail. — Editor.1 



Queen Laying Several Eggs in a Cell. 



What is the cause of a queen laying from one to four 

 eggs in a cell ? It is a weak colony, with a hive full of 

 honey, and some chilled brood. It is not a laying worker 

 that is doing the laying, but a fine, large queen. 



Utah. 



Answer. — The colony though small is lively and 

 ambitious, and the queen is probably fed as much as she 

 would be in a much larger colonj'. The eggs must be laid 

 somewhere, and as the space that is warm enough for egg- 

 laving is too limited there is nothing for her to do but to 

 use the same cells over again. As the colony becomes 

 stronger you will find that she lays only one egg in a cell. 



The Nail-Spaced Frame Preferred. 



I have had more of the Hoffman frames than I want, 

 and as I have sold all my bees and fixtures, and wish to 

 start this summer, I wish to know first if the Danzenbaker 

 is just as bad to manage for the reason of propolis, and are 

 the general features as good as the nail-spaced Langstroth 

 standard ? lUiNOis. 



Answer. — The Danzenbaker frames are closed-end 

 frames in full, and the Hoffmans partly closed, so there is 

 more surface in contact to invite propolis in the former 

 than in the later. After giving a pretty thorough trial to 

 both, and also to some other kinds, I find nothing so satis- 

 factory as the Miller frame already described in these col- 

 umns. I commenced using them on a somewhat small 

 scale, feeling a little afraid that continued use would 

 develop some objection not suspected in advance, but the 

 more I use them the better I like them, and have perhaps 

 2,000 of them now in use. 



Keeping Down Increase. 



1. I have five colonies and do not wish to increase. 

 The swarming-fever struck them about a week ago and has 

 not stopped yet, A neighbor told me how he does but I do 

 not like the plan, viz : Take a soda-cracker box which is 

 about 8x10 inches, and about 8 inches deep, and put the 

 cluster into it, and place a bottom-board over it. Take it to a 

 new stand, invert it. and as an entrance has been previ- 

 ously made we have a new but small hive which my neigh- 

 bor says will be filled solid. 



Yesterday one of these swarms came out of the box 

 three times, clustering on the same post each time. The 

 third time I gave them a new box with two pieces of foun- 

 dation stuck to the top -'4 inches wide, and they seem to stay 

 all right. The neighbor says early in the spring he gives 

 these cracker-box bees back to the original colony, and has 

 a fine colony to begin the harvest, and then repeats with 

 the same boxes next year. This is my first experience 

 with bees, so I don't like to fall too heavily on ray instructor, 

 but it does seem to me that the number of bees which I 

 have put into those small boxes will be terribly crowded. 



What was the reason of those bees coming out three times ? 

 As I am a half-invalid, through eight years of throat affec- 

 tion, it nearly exhausted me, going to and fro. 



2. Now, to-day, another swarm came out of the hive 

 that swarmed day before yesterday, at which time we 

 requeened the colony, killing the old queen, of course. The 

 cell containing the new queen just hatched yesterday. 

 How can you account for to-day's swarming with such a 

 new queen ? or do you think the new queen never material- 

 ized? Would they swarm under those conditions ? We cut 

 out all the rest of the queen-cells in that hive. 



Cai,ifornia. 



Answers. — 1. I'm a little inclined to think I'd pay off 

 that instructor and hire a new one. To put a strong swarm 

 into a box containing no more than 640 cubic inches — less 

 than 10 quarts — in these days of expansion is prettj' severe 

 contraction. The combs built are not in movable frames, 

 hence not the most desirable. The probability is that the 

 bees were too crowded and warm, and swarmed out on that 

 account. Shading well and raising up the box an inch 

 from the bottom-board would help. If your object is to 

 keep down increase, perhaps this plan might suit )'0U bet- 

 ter : When the colony swarms, kill the old queen and 

 return the swarm. If your queen is clipped all you have to 

 do will be to pick her up from the ground and kill her, and 

 the swarm will return of its own accord. A week later cut 

 out all queen-cells but one. and the work is done. There 

 will be no more swarming for that colony till another year. 



2. If I understand you, when the colony swarmed you 

 killed the old queen and returned the swarm, killing all the 

 queen-cells and giving them another cell, then two days later 

 the colony swarmed ag-ain. It is not easy to say just why 

 they swarmed the last time, but there are several possibili- 

 ties in the case. One is that a queen may have entered 

 from another hive. Another is that the cell you gave may 

 have been well advanced, the queen having been held in 

 some time by the bees so that two days after you gave the 

 cell she was old enough to make her wedding-flight, and 

 the bees swarmed out with her when she made this flight, 

 which is not a very unusual occurrence. 



A Question on Bee-Management. 



White honey is produced in this locality early in the 

 spring, and the nights here on the coast are cool so the bees 

 fail to breed up to good working force in time to get the 

 first flow. How will it do to form a nucleus say in June, 

 and in the fall place it on the old colony with an excluder 

 between ; then when both are well filled with brood take 

 out the excluder and kill one of the queens in the spring ? 



F1.0RIDA. 



Answer. — I don't know. I doubt if it would work to 

 your satisfaction. The object would be to throw, in the 

 spring, the force of the two queens together. I suspect 

 you might do that better by having the two colonies side by 

 side in the same hive with a thin division-board between 

 them but no communication between the two sides. Then 

 in the spring they could be thrown together. But it would 

 be worth while to try very hard to have colonies so strong 

 in the fall that there would be little need for uniting in the 

 spring. Then the weakest could be united with the medium 

 ones. 



Managing Bees in a " Beer-Keg Hive." 



I have a very strong colony in a " beer-keg " nearly 

 filled with honey. I propose to add one or two S-frame 

 hives underneath until the white clover flow begins, then 

 change them to the top of the keg with a queen-excluder 

 between, with the queen below. Will the bees carry the 

 hone)' upstairs and make room for her to lay ? I will let 

 the brood alone until hatched, then put on sections. My 

 idea is to get the honey now in the beer-keg in sections, and 

 let the bees winter in the keg. Indi.\na. 



Answer. — I'm afraid that thing is so mixed up that the 

 bees will hardly know what is expected of them, especially 

 if there's any of the beer left in the keg to muddle their 

 little brains '. Evidently, your idea is that the keg will be 

 so filled with honey by the time of clover that the bees will 

 have worked down so as to fill one if not two stories of 

 combs in frame hives. 



That may be so, and it may be that they won't come up 

 to your expectations and will have very little done in the 

 hive under the keg. Suppose, however, it works to your 



