February, i 



American IBee Jonrnal 



Docfor Millers 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, or to 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Marengo. 111. 



Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Transferring from Box-Hives — Put- 

 ting on Supers — Sowing Sweet 

 Clover Seed. 



1. I have 5 box-hives with bees that I want 

 to transfer into new frame hives. By taking 

 the bees from each hive and putting half into 

 one new hive and half into another with the 

 old queen, and introducing a new queen to the 

 half without a queen, can I make a success? 



2. When should I put the first super on? 



3. If I should sow sweet clover seed on an 

 old hillside, would it blossom the first year? 



New York. 

 Answers. — 1. You would be likely to suc- 

 ceed; but it is hardly the best wav. Wait till 

 the colony swarms; put the swarm on the old 

 stand, and the old hive on a new stand. Twen- 

 ty-one days later transfer the colony in the 

 old hive into a new hive. At that time there 

 will be no worker brood in the combs in dan- 

 ger of being injured. 



2. Since you are in a white-clover region, 

 give supers when you see the first clover-blos- 

 soms out. Bees will not store quite so soon 

 as that, but it's better to be a little in advance. 

 But keep close watch or you'll miss seeing first 

 blossoms. 



3. No; sweet clover is a biennial, comes from 

 the seed and grows this year, blossoms next, 

 and then dies, root and branch. 



Early Requeening — Eating Comb 

 Honey. 



1. I have a colony of bees which did not 

 do anything last year, and I want to requeen 

 that colony next spring. How early can I get 

 a queen? and where? would it be all right 

 to send down South for her? Can I get her 

 early enough so that the colony will be in good 

 shape for the white clover honey-flow? I pre- 

 fer an Italian queen. 



2. Is the comb in comb honey injurious to a 

 person's health? Most people when eating comb 

 honey swallow the comb. Iowa. 



Answers. — i. It is hardly best to think of in- 

 troducing a queen before bees begin to do some 

 gathering; during fruit-bloom at the earliest. 

 Before it is time to order a queen you will 

 see advertisements by reliable men in the col- 

 umns of this journal. It will be all right to 

 order from south or north. A successful 

 introduction ought to leave you all right for the 

 clover crop. 



2. Beeswa.x is utterly indigestible. It is 

 sometimes used to make corks for bottles con- 

 taining acids so powerful that they burn up 

 ordinary cork, and of course the weak acids 

 of the stomach can have no effect upon it. 



1 have seen something about its being melted 

 in the stomach; but the heat in the stomach is 

 many degrees too low to melt beeswax. Even 

 if melted, it would sttn be as indigestible as 

 ever. But lots of indigestible things are taken 

 into the stomach that do no harm, and may 

 do good. When comb honey is chewed with 

 other food and taken into the stomach some 

 claim that the finely divided portions of wax 

 arc a benefit. Certainly they are not likely 10 

 do any harm. 



Crooked Combs — Miller Frames — 



Chestnut Lumber for Hives — 



Nail-Spacers. 



1. Some of my combs are crooked, and I 

 would like to renew them by taking out about 



2 of the worst ones, and putting in 2 frames 

 filled with full sheets of comb foundation. 

 Where is the best place to put those 2 frames — 

 on the outside next to the dummy, or some- 

 where else? 



2. Why do you have bottora-bars so wide 

 (i^i inches) ? 



3. How late in the fall could I open a sealed 

 cover and be sure that the bees would seal it 

 down again ? 



4. Could I use Miller frames for extracted 

 honey ? 



5. Will bees build comb in a space of say 

 K of an inch between the bottom of bottom- 

 bars and bottom-board, or between 2 brood- 

 chambers, if the comb is not built down to the 

 bottom-bar? 



6. With Miller frames for extracted honey 

 could I use tlie common straight-blade uncap- 

 ping-knife, or would I have to have a special 

 bent knife to go down between the top and bot- 

 tom bars? I mean with if^-inch spacing. Would 

 the comb be thick enough with wider spacing, 

 say 7 frames in an 8-frame hive, so I could 

 shave off the cappings with a straight-blade 

 knife down the sides of the top and bottom 

 bars? 



7. Why do you have the ends of top-bars 

 just 5-16-inch thick? Why not have them }i 

 or i^^-inch thick? 



8. I have been making some Miller frames, 

 but I find I can't get hold of the ends of the 

 frames with my fingers to get them out of the 

 hive, unless I move them apart, or have some 

 tool. Why do you have the frame-ends so 

 wide, (ij's inches), when you can't get hold 

 of them? I am going to make some Miller 

 frames, but I am going to narrow the ends 

 of the top-bars down to K-inch wide, and ^■ 

 inch thick. 



9. How would chestnut lumber do for bee- 

 hives ? 



10. I bought a colony of bees last fall, but 

 they were on 1 2 empty loose-hanging frames 

 put close together in a lo-frame hive, and of 

 course the combs are crooked. To get the 

 combs straight I am going to give them a 

 hive of frames with full sheets of foundation. 

 Where would you put the new hive — on top of 

 the old hive, or on the hive-stand with the old 

 hive on top? And when would you give it to 

 them? I mean to let the colony have both un- 

 til they have a brood-nest established in the 

 new hive, and then take the old hive away. 



11. Your nail-spacers catch on the end-bars, 

 when down in the hive. How would it do to 

 use nails with heads, with a diameter of 3-16- 

 inch on the point, increasing to ^ where it 

 touches the frame? How would brass-headed 

 tacks with heads j4-inch deep do? 



12. Will bees build combs down to the bot- 

 tom-bar in frames that are not built down, 

 if a starter is put on top of the bottom-bar? 



New York. 

 Answers. — i. You will do as well to put 

 them in the middle. Better give them at a 

 time when bees are busy, say at the begin- 

 ning of the Harvest or a little before. 



2. Why have them narrower? Why have any 

 bottom-bar at all? I suppose the chief reason 

 for a_bottom-bar is to prevent the bees building 

 any further down, and a wide bar prevents 

 it more perfectly than a narrow one. With a 

 narrow bar bees sometimes build down. Do 

 you know any good reason why there should 

 be any wider space between bottom-bars than 

 between top-bars? 



3. That depends upon season and weather, 

 ft must be early enough so that propolis will 

 still be warm enough to work. 



4. Sure. 



5. If there is a space of }i inch between bot- 

 tom-bars and floor, there will be no building 

 if bottom-bars are 1% wide. With narrower 

 bars there may be some danger, and the nar- 

 rower the bars the greater the danger. If there 

 is a space of }i inch between two stories, I'll 

 guarantee comb built between them, good and 

 plenty, whether the comb is built down to the 

 bottom-bars or not. 



6. With iH spacing you could use a straight 

 knife, but it would not work so nicely as with 



narrower bars. 1 ihink 7 frames in an 8-frame 

 liive would work all rJHht. 



7. My frames are made to fit dovetailed hives 

 with metal rabbets as they are regularly put 

 on the market. If the end of top-bar is 5-16 

 (hick there is a space of Ki inch between top- 

 hars and whatever is placed over. If H thick 

 tlic space over top-bars would be filled with 

 t:lue; if J4 thick, with comb. 



8. I don't find any trouble with full width, 

 .'IS I want to push the frames apart anyhow, 

 .md they are a little nicer to handle without 

 any shoulder. There's no law against your 

 having ends of top-bars any thickness you 

 choose, only if you make them H thick, my 

 advice as a friend is to make sure that there 

 will still be left % inch between the top-bars 

 of the lower story and the bottom-bars of the 

 second story, unless you want to learn to swear 

 when the upper bottom-bars pull off because 

 glued down. 



9. From my recollection of it in boyhood, 

 I should call it bad. 



10. Put the new hive under the old one. 

 That will give you the brood in good shape 

 in the new hive; whereas, if you put the new 

 hive over, it would be mostly filled with 

 honey. 



11. Your first-named spacer would be all 

 right, only I think I'd just as soon have it 

 only 3-16 at the base as the point for comb 

 honey. Brass-headed tacks would be all right 

 if they were 3-16 across tne point of the head. 

 You're on exactly the right track, and I've 

 urged for vears that something after your idea 

 should be manufactured. 



12. Yes, I've had them do so. But you 

 must give such frames at a time when bees are 

 building, or they'll tear down your bottom- 

 starter. 



Propolis on Tops of Sections. 



I made some T-supers out of 43/^-inch lum- 

 ber, and the bees use too much propolis on top 

 of the sections under the cover. With your 

 T-supers, which I believe are made of 4^- 

 inch lumber, do you have any trouble with the 

 bees filling the spaces with comb ? If they 

 work all right for you, I think I shall make 

 my next lot 4^. Pennsvlv.\nia. 



Answer. — Most of my supers are now proba- 

 bly nearer a14 than 4^, the lumber having 

 shrunk through age. There is seldom any 

 trouble from comb being built in the space 

 above the sections — perhaps never unless the 

 bees are crowded too much. Neither was there 

 such trouble when the supers were first made. 



Preventing Gnawing of Separators. 



How do you manage to keep the bees from 

 gnawing the edges of plain sawed separators 

 used in T-supers? Could I paint the edges 

 with anything that would prevent it? 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — I am not troubled with such gnaw- 

 ing, unless it be once in a while a separator 

 that is extra thin, % inch being the regular 

 thickness. But generally after a separator has 

 been in use a year or two I throw it away 

 rather than to clean it, which may be a little 

 extravagant. Possibly the application of a hard 

 varnish or of vaseline might prevent all gnaw- 

 ing. 



Moving Bees About a Mile. 



I have an apiary of 1 06 colonies that has 

 to be moved about one mile by May i. How 

 can I do this without a loss of bees? The 

 bees are in the cellar now, and in fine condi- 

 tion. Iowa. 



Answer. — If bees are moved as far as a mile, 

 especially in the spring when they do not 

 fly far for forage, there will be no trouble 

 about their being lost by returning to the old 

 location. You can move them any time after 

 they have taken a cleansing flight, which they 

 will do on the first day they are taken from 

 cellar, if the weather is what it should be. Of 

 course, the bees must be fastened in the hive, 

 with enough wire-cloth to allow ventilation, al- 

 though if the weather is cool, verv little ven- 

 tilation will answer, merely closing the en- 

 trance with wire-cloth. 



Tar-Paper for Hive-Protection. 



I run 2 apiaries. One I protected with tar- 

 paper. I fed each colony about 30 pounds of 

 sugar syrup, half and half. Both apiaries had 

 the same chance to gather honey. The apiary 

 not protected with tar-paper produced about 

 one-half as much honey as the one protected. 

 What made the difference in the yield of hon- 

 ey — the feed or the protection? Iowa. 



Answer. — I don't know. It may have been 

 one or the other, or it may have been both 



