Sept. 26, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



617 



I Questions and Answers. 



CONDUCTED BY 



r>R. O. O. MILLER, Mareago, Ul. 



(The QnestloQS may be mailed to the Bee Joarnal 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 



Combs Melting Down— Swarming Mix-Lp 

 Transferring, Etc. 



Replying to J. A. Geralds (page 567), I think he has 

 made the right guess in concluding that the combs melted 

 down in his hives because the dense growth surrounding 

 them prevented the free passage of air. I never yet had 

 combs melt down when hives stood in the full blaze of the 

 sun, but one year I had a few cases where the hives were in 

 dense shade all day long. A dense growth of tall corn was 

 on one side of them, and close bushes on the other. 



In reply to S. B. Smith (page 573), he has no doubt made 

 a close guess at what transpired. Of course it can only be 

 a guess, but I should put my full guess in this way : The 

 young queen in No. 11 went out on her wedding-trip, ac- 

 companied by enough bees to make the small swarm that 

 was hived ; the remaining bees of No. 11 then walked over 

 to No. IS. thus making No. 15 of extraordinary strength. 

 An item that tends to confirm this opinion is the fact that 

 bees were seen going on the alighting-board from No. 11 to 

 No. 15, and it is likely that close observation would show 

 the bees doing that same thing two weeks later. The bees 

 on coming from the field would not go direct to No. 15, but 

 would enter No. 11, and then crawl across until that gener- 

 ation died off ; at least a certain number of the bees would 

 go through that performance. 



T. F. Weaver (page 574), would like to know whether 

 his plan of transferring would work all right in a poor 

 honey-year. It would likely be all right except the danger 

 of robbing, for if he should do exactly as appears from his 

 description at any time when honey was not freely coming 

 in, he might have a lively time of it. 



Dr. Peiro (page 574), lays a very heavy burden on that 

 poor little crack under the cover. You say. Doctor, that 

 after seeing that crack your " conclusions were clear and 

 rapid." Rapid, very likely, but it is somewhat doubtful 

 about the clearness. A reasonably strong colony will not 

 only guard a full-sized entrance in the ordinary place, but 

 also an entrance equally large right under the cover. For 

 a number of years, following the example of Adam Grimm, 

 I allowed, besides the regular entrance, an opening over 

 the frames at the back end of the hive 15 inches by '4 to -s, 

 and there was no trouble about the bees protecting them- 

 selves. If at a time when robbers were bad an opening 

 should suddenly be made under the cover, there might be a 

 little danger of trouble, but if the opening were made in a 

 time of plenty, there should be no trouble ; and there should 

 be no danger either in scarcity or plenty if the crack were 

 made by the gradual warping of a cover. C. C. Millek. 



Perhaps Larvae of the Bee-Moth— Chilling Brood. 



1. On Aug. 3 I made the first " drive " in transferring 

 a colony to a new hive, supplying them with full sheets of 

 foundation, and after they started storing well I gave them 

 an Italian queen. I have fed them lightly by putting a 

 small dish of granulated sug^ar syrup under the frames at 

 night, and removing the empty dish in the morning. At 

 present they have six "Danz. frames nearly filled, and two 

 more started, principally from sweet clover, but they are 

 destroying brood. In the morning there will be young bees 

 sometimes to the number of 30 or 40 scattered around the 

 entrance, ranging in color from clear white through all the 

 shades and markings of brown, up to those which will be 

 struggling to free themselves from the dewy entrance- 

 board. What is the cause and cure 7 



2. Is there dangef of chilling the brood by removing it 

 from the hive in the morning or evening of cool days at 

 this time of year ? 



I can find nothing on these subjects in my books. 



Illinois. 

 Answers. — 1. L,ooks like worms, or (begging Prof. 

 Cook's pardon) the larva- of the bee-moth. They work 



their galleries through the cappings, and the larva; of one 

 kind work at the bottom of the cell. When very bad, the 

 young bees will be dragged out as you describe. The rem- 

 edy is to get Italian blood. Possibly, however, a fuller 

 knowledge of the case might suggest some other trouble. 



2. No danger when it is warm enough for bees to fly, 

 unless the brood is kept out an unreasonable length of time. 

 Ordinarily there is no need to have a frame of brood in the 

 hands more than a minute at a time. 



The Afterthought. 



Tbe "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Qlasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, SU. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



NO BROOD BUT EGGS TRESENT DURING DKoUTII. 



Dr. Miller's experience in the great July drouth — no brood 

 either sealed or unsealed, but eg'j^s always present — adds a 

 crumb to a pertinent and interesting bee-fact which we have 

 to figure with. Page 519. 



PURITY IN MARKINGS OF PABENT8. 



It sounds to me as if "Texas," on page 520, was after 

 strictly three-banded queens and drones. Won't get em. 

 Doubtful if they could be called any purer than the present 

 ones if he did. He should remember that nature often differ- 

 entiates the sexes remarkably. Sometimes it even occurs 

 that the male is a winged creature and the female a crawling 

 worm. Wild birds are pure, yet often the male is brilliant in 

 colors while the female is plain looking. 



"BURNING ONK'S OWN SMOKE." 



Prof. Cook, on page 521, passes to us some important 

 teachhig clad in very pungent words — let us burn all our own 

 smoke. Won't make quite so much smoke if we have the .job 

 of burning it in view. And what rent have we paid for our 

 neighbor's eyes and lungs that we should warehouse our 

 smoke in them ? Ahem ! not forgetting that what we try to 

 call entertaining conversation is sometimes the worst smoke 

 we make. 



MAKING ROO.MS .MOUSE-PROOF. 



Mr. Foote is on the right track about mouse-proof rooms. 

 Mice first get into the spaces between walls. From that van- 

 tage ground they see the Promisi^d Land through cracks, and 

 lay plans to get there — would not so often dodge through 

 doors had they not their minds made up previously that it was 

 a good place to go. And usually, as we know, some little 

 defect in plaster or base-board proves capable of enlargement, 

 /and in they come. Flooring plump to the outside of the build- 

 ing, and studs set on a narrow plank, would keep them out of 

 the wall-spaces to start with, and so mainly prevent after con- 

 sequences. Page 523. 



WORKING HIS "STANDS." 



How does he work his stands, Dear Boss? Why, he 

 makes them li/L And if he makes them lift about lUO 

 pounds more In August than they do in May, is it not all 

 right? Virgil is praised because he called a bee-hive twelve 

 different names : and ever since I read Virgil (if not before) I 

 have had a leaning in that direction — toward an elastic appli- 

 cation of terms. True, lack of precision is a bad thing; but 

 it is also a bad thing to have our vocabulary too limited — too 

 lean and bald. May we not all be poets to the small extent of 

 having a Utile versatility to our speech? Let us not groan 

 nor scold even if one comrade does catch a nice siring while 

 another catches a nice lot of fish — and another catclies a din- 

 ner, and another catches a cure for sore eyes. Page 530. 



TUE LEGISLATION OF THE AUSTRALIANS. 



Those Australians are continually solving things the rest 

 of the world failed to solve— or failed to try to solve. We 

 cannot very well legislate the apiarian pig to his own end of 

 the territory trough ; but we can give him a " bar-sinister " 

 by refusing him membership— and see whether his hide is so 

 tough that he cares nothing for a blow of that kind. Alas, 

 American societies seem rather too nebulous to hit anybody, 

 even to the small extent of refusing membership. Member- 

 ship is anybody that happens to come to a meeting— and so 

 few that the proposition to bar people out would seem gro- 



