664 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. 17, 1901. 



they do where the cellar is wholly under ground in a bank 

 or side hill. There are other things which might be said 

 on this wintering- subject ; but with your consent we will 

 leave them till December, when I am not so busy, when, if 

 you will come over, we will talk them over more at length." 

 — Gleanings in Bee-Culture. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



I Questions and Answers, l 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. O. O. AIILLER, Afareng-o, ni, 



[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 



Burr-Comb With Honey Between Super and 

 Brood-Frames. 



by driving small nails into each end of each top-bar, not 

 driving the nails entirely in, but leaving them out enough 

 so they may easily be drawn after the journey is over. 



It will be well to study up what is said in your text- 

 book on the subject. 



I am a beginner in bee-keeping, having 16 strong colo- 

 nies in hives having 8 Hoffman frames with Js-inch top- 

 bars, with Ideal supers for section honey, and I am bothered 

 very much with burr-comb full of honey being built by the 

 bees between frames and supers ; built so solid that it was 

 impossible to take off supers without lifting the frames, 

 although the bees had plenty of room in the supers for stor- 

 ing honey. What will prevent bees from building burr- 

 comb and storing honey between frames and supers ? 



Subscriber. 



Answer — Is the space between each two top-bars and 

 the space over top-bars V inch or a shade less ? If so, 

 there should not be very much trouble with burr-combs. I 

 hardly know what can be the trouble. Perhaps there was 

 an accumulation of burr-combs over the top-bars from 

 former years. If there are burr-combs over top-bars when 

 you put on supers, you may be sure the case will not be get- 

 ting better, but worse all the while. In any case, the burr- 

 combs are there now, and if let alone will be there in worse 

 condition next year. Before putting on supers next year, 

 scrape the tops of the top-bars clean with a sharp garden- 

 hoe. Put your foot on the top of the hive at one end, and 

 hoe toward you. Let an assistant play the smoker to keep 

 the bees down out of the way. 



Foul-Broody Frames Moving Bees a Long Distance. 



1. Can frames from foul-broody colonies, after the wax 

 and honey have been melted out in a solar extractor (the 

 heat of which is so intense as to cook eggs hard), be safely 

 used in the apiary again ? 



2. What is the best and safest way to prepare bees (in 

 8-frame hives) for moving by rail a distance of 500 miles, in 

 April ? Utah. 



Answers. — 1. I think it would be safe to use such 

 frames again, although very unsafe to use the honey again, 

 and consequently unsafe to use the frames if any honey 

 were left on the frames. That excellent authority on foul 

 brood, Wm. McEvoy, tried to make it very clear to us at 

 Buffalo that it was safe to use, without disinfecting, hives 

 that had contained foul brood. Other authorities have in- 

 sisted that it was unwise to use such hives, but the fact that 

 under Mr. McEvoy's instructions at least 5,000 such hives 

 have been used with no evil results, makes it seem practi- 

 cally safe to use them. So I conclude that frames with no 

 honey on them might be used without harm. While I think 

 it might be safe to use such frames, I do not think it ad- 

 visable. Mr. McEvoy advises using the hives and burning 

 the frames, of course saving the wax. 



2. The two items in the preparation are to provide 

 abundant ventilation, and to provide against moving of the 

 frames. One way is to provide ventilation by means of 

 wire-cloth to cover the entire top of the hive, having a 

 frame two inches deep on which the wire-cloth is fastened. 

 If fixed-distance frames are used, all that is necessary to 

 fasten the frames in place is to put wedges between the 

 dummy and the frames or side of hive. If loose-hanging 

 frames are used, you may wedge, between the frames, sticks 

 long enough to reach to the bottom of the hive and project 

 above the top-bar. Or, you may fasten the frames in place 



Drones— Honey-Boards— Sweet Clover, Etc. 



I have an apiary of 60 colonies that I am running for 

 pleasure and a desire to study the nature, habits, etc., of 

 the honey-bee. I have nearly all the standard books on 

 apiculture, but can't solve many little things that develop, 

 and therefore I have to apply to our best authority, and 

 wish to ask : 



1. Why is it that several of my colonies lately have 

 turned out a full force of drones, after killing them off in 

 July, as is their customary habit here and elsewhere ? 



2. I don't think I have seen a drone since some time in 

 the latter part of July (it is now Sept. 23), and a few days 

 ago I was strolling through my apiary, and all at once the 

 peculiar note of a drone on the wing attracted my atten- 

 tion, and, on examining, I found the place alive with them, 

 but they seemed to be confined most to certain box-hives, 

 but are again being driven off by the bees. How do you 

 account for this ? 



3. Some of my colonies are storing honey in their 

 supers, while the majority of them haven't stored any after 

 the principal flow closed, which is generally about the last 

 of June here. I have tried baiting them, still they seem to 

 be busily engaged, and carrying in pollen. 



4. How would a piece of a crocus-sack do for a cover- 

 ing for supers to act as a honey-board ? Is there any 

 objection to it ? 



5. How do you prevent the honey-board being- stuck to 

 the top of the frames? 



6. Suppose you use a piece of crocus-sack for a cover- 

 ing in place of a honey-board, would it be a good way to 

 give the bees air to raise up the top by placing two cross- 

 sticks under the top, raising it an inch or so ? Would that 

 interfere with comb-building? 



7. Will yellow and white sweet clover yield nectar in 

 this climate ? If so, how long after sowing ? When is the 

 best time to sow it ? Mississippi. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. I may give a guess at it. 

 It is possible that in your locality, as in many others, you 

 suffered from the terrible July drouth, causing the bees to 

 kill off their drones. Then when rains came and started 

 up a moderate honey-flow, eggs were again laid in drone- 

 cells. It must be remembered that each year about one 

 queen out of three is superseded, and this superseding is 

 usually done somewhat late in the season, so if a colony 

 with a superseding turn of mind had been left by the July 

 drouth without any drones, there would be nothing left for 

 them to do but to rear some. 



2. A difference in conditions accounts for the difference 

 in behavior of different colonies. A colony with a young 

 queen might be likely to rear no drones after July, while a 

 colony with an old queen that it was trying to supersede 

 would be sure to rear them. At the time you saw them the 

 bees were probably killing off the drones for good, and at 

 such times the drones being driven out of the hives make 

 an unusual show of numbers. 



3. I suppose you'd like to know why such difference. 

 Well, there may be a difference in the industry of colonies. 

 That of itself is answer enough. The condition of the 

 brood-nest may also make a difference. One colony had an 

 old queen which did not lay well, and instead of keeping its 

 combs filled with brood in June filled them chiefly with 

 honey. Then it superseded its queen, rearing a young and 

 vigorous one which not only filled all the vacant cell.-> with 

 eggs, giving no chance for storing below, but obliged the 

 bees to carry up some of the honey previously stored in the 

 brood-chamber. Another colony had a queen that laid pro- 

 fusely during the first part of the season, allowing verj' 

 little honey to be stored in the brood-nest. As the season 

 advanced the queen let up in laying, and the vacant cells 

 left by the hatching bees were largely filled with honey, 

 leaving no honey to be stored above. 



4. I don't know what a crocus-sack is, but it is likely 

 some kind of cloth, so coarse that bees could pass through 

 the meshes. Very likely the bees would spend a good deal 

 of time trying to tear it down, and use a good deal of prop- 

 olis upon it. A few years ago I discarded honey-boards 

 altogether, having nothing whatever between the top-bars 

 and the super above. You will probably be ^pleased if you 



