February, 1908. 



American Vae Journal 



together, and it may also be that there was a 

 difference in the two lots. 



You do not say when the feeding was done, 

 but the likelihood is that it was fed for winter 

 Stores. If this fed lot had all the stores needed 

 for wintering and a fair amount over, they 

 would be likely to push ahead at brood-rear- 

 ing in the spring, wtiile the unfed lot, having 

 very little more than enough to bring them 

 through, would restrict brood-rearing, and so je 

 not in good condition to improve the harvest; 

 and in that way it would be easy to make the 

 feeding account for the difference in results. 



Foul-Broody Combs for Extracting 

 Combs. 



I have always been a comb-honey producer, 

 but as we are now overstocked with bees right 

 here, I want to run an out-yard for extracted 

 honey. I can get extracting brood-combs that 

 have never been bred in, that have been used 

 on bees, some of which were affected with 

 foul brood, and the combs have been set out 

 and cleaned up by the bees. Now will these 

 combs spread the disease, or are they safe to 

 use again? Michigan. 



Answer. — They might be all right, but I 

 wouldn't want to bring into my yard anything 

 that had been used in a foul-brood yard. 



Feeding Bees in Winter. 



When I put my bees into the cellar this 

 winter some colonies didn't have very much 

 honey. Now they are noisy. Some of them 

 fly around. Is there any reason that they 

 should be short of supplies? If so, would it 

 be all right to put candy through the entrance 

 into the hive? Or is there a better way? 



Minnesota. 



Answer.— There is probably some reason 

 why they are short of stores, but having no 

 particulars I do not know what the reason is. 

 At any rate, if there is danger of their starv- 

 ing they should certainly be fed. Putting 

 honey or candy in through the entrance is an 

 excellent way, only you must make sure that 

 the bees come down to get it. If they do not 

 do so readily, warming up the cellar would 

 help toward it. if they can not be induced 

 to take it below, you may be obliged to give it 

 above. 



Bees Dying in Winter. 



This is my third year with bees. I have 

 one colony in which the bees are dying by the 

 handful, almost daily, and about a hatful of 

 dead bees are now outside the hive. They 

 have nothing but honey — about 50 pounds — 

 in their hive; no other feed. They have an 

 Italian queen 2 years old. Why are they dy- 

 ing? Iowa. 



Answer. — Impossible to say. It is just pos- 

 sible that they are starving. That doesn't look 

 at all likely, with 50 pounds of honey actually 

 present, provided that the honey is at one side 

 in a hive large enough, and the cluster is on 

 empty combs on the other side. Against such 

 a guess is the fact that the winter has been 

 unusually mild. Possibly the trouble is due 

 to the character of the honey. In some places 

 the bees store honey-dew that is about the 

 same as poison. 



Short-Lived Bees — Queens Lost at 

 Mating-Time. 



1. When there are several colonies of bees 

 in the fall in good condition, having plenty 

 of bees and honey, and in the spring you find 

 some of them very weak, does not this show 

 that the queen is producing short-lived bees, 

 and ought she not to be superseded? 



2. I lost several queens last season when 

 they returned from their wedding flight. The 

 bees balled them. I have found them balled 

 when they were not over a week old. When 

 I took some bees and a virgin queen and made 

 a nucleus, the first queen would be mated all 

 right. It was the second queen that gets killed. 

 Can you tell me why the bees killed the 

 queens? North Carolina. 



Answers. — i. Not necessarily. It might be 

 so in some cases; but in other cases other 

 factors have so much bearing that it would 

 not be safe to conclude that the bees were 

 necessarily short-lived. 



2. It is said that the bees attack the queens 

 because they have acquired a strange scent. 

 But there may be some question whether in re- 

 turning from her wedding-flight she is likely to 

 be killed by her own bees if the bee-keeper 

 himself does not meddle. Bees sometimes ball 

 their old laying queen, and when I have found 

 them doing so 1 have always made it a rule 

 to close the hive as quickly and quietly as 



possible, leaving the bees entirely to their own 

 devices, and on looking in the hive a few 

 days later everything would be found all 

 right. If you try to rescue the queen from 

 the balling bees, you stand a pretty good 

 chance of having her killed. Why may it not 

 be the same way when bees ball a queen that 

 has just mated? 



Tin Number Tags for Hives. 



I see in the American Bee Journal your 

 system of numbering your bee-hives with tin 

 numbering tags. I have been trying to find 

 some of those numbering tags. Where can I 

 get them? Kansas. 



Answer. — I have made some effort to get 

 supply dealers to furnish numbering tags, such 

 as I use, but without success. The most I 

 could ever obtain from them were tags of 

 heavy manilla, paraffined. I'll tell you how 

 to make the tin tags. Cut tin 4x^5^ inches 

 (exact size not important), and make a small 

 nail-hole about J^ inch from one edge of one 

 of the longer sides. That hole serves to fasten 

 the tag on the hive. For this purpose use a 

 light wire-nail, i-inch or a little longer, driv- 

 ing it in only a little way, so it can easily 

 be changed from one hive to another. 



You can paint each tag separately, but it is 

 better to make a sort of wholesale business 

 of it. Lay the tags on a board, and fasten 

 them there by driving through the hole of 

 each a very small nail — K or 54 inch — driving 

 the nail entirely in, so it will not be in the 

 way of the paint-brush. Now give 2 or 3 coats 

 of white paint, and on this paint black figures 

 about ij4 inches high, and as wide as will 

 conveniently go on the tag. 



Managing a Daisy Foundation 

 Fastener. 



I recently purchased a Daisy Foundation 

 Fastener with directions to come with it. They 

 say in part: '"With a slight pressure on the 

 section cause the iron plate to protrude under 

 the starter; allow the latter to come in con- 

 tact with it for an instant: then release and 

 allow the starter to drop with its melted edge 

 upon the section." 



That's well enough as far as it goes, but 

 what next? If I leave it there it burns up; if 

 I take it off it falls out. Taking it alto- 

 gether, I make very little progress. Probably 

 you can help me. California. 



Answer. — I suspect your failure begins when 

 you let go the starter after putting it in place. 

 That is, you take your fingers entirely away 

 from the starter. Instead of that, let one or 

 two fingers of each hand press lightly down 

 upon the edge of the starter, enough to steady 

 it in place — in other words, to keep it from 

 falling out till the section is turned over. 

 By that time, if you are expert enough to 

 work quickly, it will have cooled enough so it 

 will hang in place without falling out. At first 

 you will be awkward and slow about it, leaving 

 the section in the machine so long that the 

 wood will have time to get hot; so when 

 you take the section out of the machine, and 

 before you turn it over you must hold it still 

 long enough for both wood and wax to cool. 

 Gradually you will gain in rapidity until the 

 wood will have no time to get hot at all. Ex- 

 perience will teach you how high to keep the 

 lamp turned up so as to have the plate neither 

 too hot nor too cold. Some time must be al- 

 lowed for the plate to heat before you begin 



Splinting Foundation. 



1. Do you fasten splints by immersing them 

 in melted wax and pressing them into place? 



2. Do you wire frames? 



3. Do you put splints on the same or oppo- 

 site sides of the wire? Tell me anything else 

 that will help one who has never used splints. 



Colorado. 

 Answers. — i. The splints are first allowed to 

 remain in hot wax till the wax soaks in. At 

 first they will froth up, because the moisture 

 in the splints fries out, and when they stop 

 frothing you may count they are filled with 

 wax. Then with a pair of nippers you pick 

 up a splint and lay it in place on the founda- 

 tion, where an assistant presses it in place 

 with the wet edge of a little board. It is not 

 so well to try to do it alone, for the splint 

 should be pressed down immediately, while quite 

 warm, so it will force its way into the founda- 

 tion, and so the wax of the splint will unite 

 thoroughly with the wax of the foundation. 

 But it will not do to have the wax too hot, 

 or else there will not be a sufficient coating 

 of wax. If too cold, the splint will not be 

 sufficiently embedded in the foundation. A lit- 



tle experience will help you to get it just right. 



2. No. the splints are all-sufficient. 



3. The splints are put on only one side. 



The principal object I had in view in de- 

 vising the splints was to have the comb built 

 down solid to the bottom-bars. To make sure 

 of this my bottom-bars are in two parts, the 

 foundation extending down between them. So 

 you can also do with plain bottom-bars by 

 having the foundation come down to touch 

 the bottom-bar, and then running hot wax 

 along the crack. 



Bees show a strong inclination to have a 

 passage between the bottom-bar and the bot- 

 tom of the comb, and if a frame is given them 

 when little is doing they are likely to gnaw 

 open such passage. To avoid this, give them the 

 comb to build only at a time when they are 

 gathering and building. 



Position of Frames. 



I see in your answer to my question on 

 page 24, "Position of Frames," that you did 

 not understand my question, probably because 

 I did not make it plain enough. What I 

 wished to know was this: How am I to place 

 the 16 frames in the spring to get the best 

 results, when I am going through them early 

 in spring and making an examination ? How 

 shall I place the frames of honey, and how 

 shall I place the empty combs and bees that 

 they may build up the fastest? Should the 

 honey be left at the sides or on top of the 

 bees? If over the bees they would have warm 

 honey, but the brood would be crowded down 

 too close to the entrance. Should I put one 

 empty super or brood-chamber without sections 

 or frames, under all? Then it would raise 

 the cluster up away from the draft, but would 

 make a chamber under the 16 frames 6 inches 

 deep. Just tell me how they should be left on 

 my first inspection, say the first warm day in 

 March. 



Frames 3, 4, s, and 6 are in the center of 

 the upper or second story, and the brood, 

 II, 12, 13 and 14 are directly below, and are 

 empty combs, and the queen is not liable to go 

 down so quickly as up, in the fall. Frames 

 3, 4, 5 and 6 are always solid with honey, 

 and the bees are on 11, 12, 13, and 14 in the 

 center of the lower story, and on the bot- 

 tom-board which has a one-inch space between 

 frames and board. Nos. i and 2, and 7 and 

 8 are at the sides above; Nos. 9 and 10, and 

 15 and 16 are at the side below. 



Nebraska. 



Answer. — Thanks for explanation. It is more 

 my fault than yours that I did not understand. 

 I think you are counting it desirable to have 

 the honey where it will be warm, and also_ to 

 have the cluster of bees as much as possible 

 away from the air. Neither of these things are 

 important after time for first overhauling. It 

 honey is in any part of the hive the bees will 

 get it, and although it might be better warm 

 than cold, it will be better for them to have 

 to go to a colder part of the hive to get it 

 than to have heat escape from the cluster to 

 warm honey overhead. Bees like fresh air, and 

 you will generally find in a one-story hive that 

 the brood is toward the entrance and the honey 

 farther back. But with empty frames below, 

 there is no trouble about the air getting to 

 them. Most assuredly I would not make the 

 stories exchange places, for the cluster will 

 keep warmer right where it is in the upper 

 story. Indeed, I don't believe you can do any 

 better for building up in spring than to leave 

 the bees, combs and all, just as they are. 

 The heat will be better preserved, and the 

 cluster will work down into the lower story 

 just as fast as room is needed. 



Drones — Bees Deteriorating — Breed- 

 ing Bees. 



1. Is there any noticeable difference between 

 drones hatched from a virgin queen and one 

 that is mated, both being hatched from the 

 same lot of queen-cells? 



2. Do drones vary in appearance when 

 hatched from a hybrid queen ? 



3. What is the most practical method to de- 

 termine how far drones fly so that they do not 

 mix in 2 separate breeding yards? 



4. What is the reason that the best strains 

 of pure Italians deteriorate to all manner of 

 bees when left to supersede themselves, even 

 if left by themselves in an isolated place? 



5. Why can not our noted queen-breeders 

 produce certain tvpes of bees (such as the 

 5-bandcd golden Italians) so that they arc an 

 exact copy of each other in the worker-bees? 



6. Why can not our breeders produce better 

 stock each succeeding year, the same as our 

 poultry and cattle fanciers do? 



7. Where can one get the best book of in- 

 formation on breeding pure bees? 



Amateur Queen-Breeder. 



