650 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. 10, 1901. 



first frost. I think buckwheat is never cut up and fed to 

 stock, but the grain is harvested. 



The difference between white clover and sweet clover is 

 about seven feet. White clover grows close to the ground 

 and has its blossoms as globular heads like red and crim- 

 son clover: white sweet clover grows tall and has its blos- 

 soms singly all over the bush. Very likelj' sweet clover 

 and crimson clover will be as good as anything you can 

 sow. Crimson blossoms early, and probably closes about 

 the time sweet clover comes in bloom, and the latter will 

 bloom till after several frosts. If harvested for hay before 



t comes in bloom, the full blooming will be later than if 



eft to its own course. 



Queer Idea About Rye Flour and Bees. 



How do you fix rye-flour for bees to make comb for 

 their hives? lean not find any one that knows anything 

 about rye flour. I have read that they make comb out of 

 rye, but I don't know what to do. I have a quantity of rye 

 flour. Georgia. 



Answer. — I think you must have been misinformed. 

 Rye flour is used sometimes as a substitute for pollen, but 

 not as a material from which comb can be directly pro- 

 duced. Bees make comb only as it is needed, and it is 

 honey more than pollen that is used in its production. It 

 will be wise to feed rye flour to bees only in the event of a 

 scarcity of pollen, and you can most likely make a better 

 use of your rye flour than to feed it to bees. 



Swarming of a Divided Swarm. 



After making a divided swarm, as described by Mr. 

 Uoolittle on page 478, is there danger of them swarming 

 any more that season, provided they are supplied with 

 enough supers and sections to keep them from getting 

 overcrowded ? Louisiana. 



Answer. — I should say there was no more danger of 

 swarming than the danger in the case of a natural swarm. 



Honey-Dew for Winter— Insuring Bees. 



1. I have 48 colonies with plenty of bees and honey, 

 but I am afraid they will not winter well, as they have 

 gathered considerable honey-dew. or bug-juice, if I may 

 call it such. My bees have been working on honey-dew all 

 through the month of September, and I think it will last as 

 long as the weather stays warm enough for the bees to 

 work. Will they winter all right if I use a Hill's device and 

 a chaff cushion over them, and packed on the outside with 

 forest leaves on both sides and back about four inches 

 thick? 



2. Is there such a thing as insuring bees against loss in 

 wintering in this locality? If so, where and what do they 

 usually charge per colony ? Say from Nov. 1 to May 1. 



Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. There is a great deal of difference in 

 honey-dew. Some of it will do well for winter stores, and 

 some of it is little better than poison. It would be impos- 

 sible to say which kind your bees are getting, but if bees 

 have generally wintered well in your locality you may be 

 on the hopeful side, for it is quite likely that they have had 

 the same thi,ng in other years. 



2. I don't know of any such insurance, but will yield 

 the floor to any one who does. 



Queen-Introduction— Pure Italian. 



1. I was rather unfortunate in my queen-rearing dur- 

 ing the late summer. Out of 14 queens emerging during 

 June and the early part of July, all but two were missing 

 before they began to lay ; after that they did better. I had 

 to give some colonies three cells before I got a queen to lay, 

 and in one case I had to introduce a bought one. The 

 weather during the early part of summer was very cool ; in 

 only five or six days up to nearly the middle of July did the 

 highest temperature reach 7iF Fahr., and it was seldom 

 *nuch over 60". Do you think that would account for the 

 loss of queens ? If not, what would ? 



2. I have bought three queens and introduced them 

 safely, but I noticed, in one case, on two occasions, where I 



looked into the hive, a number of cells with two, three, and, 

 in a few, four eggs ; on the last look I saw worker-brood 

 capped over, looking all right. Would you consider that 

 queen a faulty one ? 



3. I think I saw recently in one of your answers that if 

 a drone was dark it was not pure Italian. I got a tested 

 queen last year from a well-known firm, and while all the 

 workers have the three bands, the drones are quite dark, 

 some showing a dash of dark gold and some none. Would 

 you consider that queen pure Italian ? 



British Columbia. 



Answers. — 1. Weather seldom warmer than 60° and 

 never more than 70° would be enough to account for your 

 loss. 



2. It is not very unusual that a queen on first introduc- 

 tion after a journey in the mails does something out of the 

 common line, and afterward does her work in good shape. 

 It is just possible, too, that the workers rather than the 

 queen were at fault. If bees were few in number, and if 

 the queen was a good layer, she might need more room to 

 lay than the space covered by bees, in which case you 

 might find a plurality of eggs in a cell. At all events, if 

 you later found sealed brood in regular order you need have 

 no anxiety. 



3. If I used language to give you the impression that I 

 thought a dark drone was proof of impure blood, I advise 

 you not to put too much reliance on the statement. The 

 looks of either queen or drone can hardly be taken as a test 

 of purity. Some excellent Italian queens have been very 

 dark, and the same may be said of drones. The workers 

 are the ones by which purity is judged. 



Don't Peed Sugar to Complete Sections. 



1. I have 20 supers about half full. Can I mix honey, 

 sugar and water and let the bees finish them ? If so, what 

 proportion of each would be best ? 



2. There are plenty of drones flying now. What does 

 that indicate ? Indiana. 



Answers. — 1. Don't think for a minute of using even 

 the smallest proportion of sugar to finish sections. Just 

 now about the greatest foe bee-keepers have to fight is adul- 

 teration, and for them to band together in a national asso- 

 ciation to fight it, and then feed sugar themselves to get 

 sections finished would be about as consistent as is the 

 Christian man who prays 364 days in the year for the down- 

 fall of the saloon, and then on the 365th day votes to sup- 

 port it. If you want to feed to have sections finished, use 

 diluted honey. Very few, however, have been able to make 

 it pay. Better sell at reduced price sections that are not 

 finished, and let the bees empty out any that are less than 

 half full. Pile up outdoors supers of sections you want 

 bees to empty, and allow entrance for only one or two bees 

 at a time. If you allow a larger entrance, the bees will 

 tear the comb to pieces. 



2. It does not have any special significance ; at least it 

 may not. Sometimes colonies that have a good queen will 

 suffer drones to continue. At the same time it may be that 

 some colony or colonies have laying workers or drone-lay- 

 ing queens. 



Killing off Drones. 



What is the cause of drones in some of my colonies ? 

 One of the strongest has lots of them. They are killing off 

 the drones this early, Sept. 24. Indiana. 



Answer. — There is nothing strange about it. The 

 strongest colonies would not feel in so much of a hurry to 

 kill off their drones as the weakest ones, especially if the 

 strongest ones had queens and were superseding them. 



German or Italian Queen. 



Is the queen enclosed herewith a genuine German, or is 

 she crossed with Italian blood ? California. 



Answer. — I don't know. You caia't decide by the looks 

 of a queen as to her blood. You must have her worker prog- 

 eny to judge by. I have seen imported Italian queens as 

 dark as the sample sent, while their worker progeny were 

 beautifully marked with the three yellow bands. 



