February, 15 



American Vee Journal 



either man or bee to breathe, yet lue breathing 

 of strong fumes of vinegar has been com- 

 mended as a good thing for bad lungs. As a 

 guess in the case, I would venture the opinion 

 that your bees would be better off without the 

 10 or 12 barrels of vinegar, but that they may 

 still winter well with it. If you try it, by all 

 means report the result, so the rest of us may 

 have the benefit of your experience. 



2. No, there is nothing alarming about it any 

 more than there is in seeing a man's breath 

 form in icicles on his beard when he is out in 

 freezing weather. 



t. How would I answer your purpose? Since 

 June, 1878 — that's more than 29 years — I've 

 had nothing to do with anything but bees in 

 the way of a vocation, have had more than 

 I could eat and drink, have not been "out at 

 the knees" much of the time, and have had 

 the jolliest kind of a time; wouldn't you call 

 that making a success of the business? Per- 

 haps you may think that besides working with 

 bees I've been exposing my ignorance by try- 

 ing to answer questions in this department, 

 and also writing other things for the bee-pa- 

 pers. Well, there are Messrs. Gill, Mclntyre, 

 Mercer, Rauchfuss, Doolittle, Mendleson, Alex- 

 ander, Townsend — oh, I can't think of them 

 all — a whole lot of them. 



4. If I understand the problem correctly, it's 

 to say how to increase one colony to just as 

 many colonies as possible, and yet as much 

 honey from the parent colony as if there had 

 been no increase. Don't you worry about my 

 referring you to any book; I don't know of 

 any book that tells how to do it. Neither 

 do I know. I don't think the man is yet born 

 that knows how, and I don't believe he ever 

 will be born. It takes honey and labor on the 

 part of the bees to make increase, and that 

 must inevitably cut in on the honey crop. 



.■;. I don't know. Will some one please tell 

 us? 



6. Perhaps buckwheat. 



7. I'm not sure that I know all the reasons. 

 Perhaps a sufficient reason is that in general 

 apiarian questioners do not want their names 

 and addresses given. Indeed, so strong is this 

 feeling that in spite of the fact that they are 

 never given, it is a very common thing for 

 questioners to say. "Please do not give my 



Starting in Bee-Keeping. 



I have never kept bees, but I want to begin 

 now. Can you advise a beginner? I fancy 

 Italians from what I read, as they seem to 

 be most popular. I thought of starting with 

 one colony, and increase as I learn. 



New Jersey. 



Answer. — You are quite safe in starting out 

 with Italians. Not so certain that it is best to 

 begin with only one colony. While it would 

 be very unwise to begin with too many colo- 

 nies. It is well to have at least 2, for there 

 are things you will be doing in the way of 

 changed brood from one to another, and other 

 things when you come to have more than one, 

 and you may as well be having some experi- 

 ence in that line from the start. I'm wonder- 

 ing just a little if you're going to have a 

 paper about bees and no book. If so, that's 

 putting the cart before the horse; you should 

 have a book, sure. 



Beginning with Bees — Bees Leaving 

 Hive. 



After my first year's experience with bees 

 I 11 let you know how I am progressing. A 

 swarm of bees came to our place July 13, 

 1906. I put it into a box-hive which they 

 filled to the brim with comb and honey that 

 fall. Last spring I put it under an apple- 

 tree where it cast the first swarm July 18, 

 another July 27, and the last one August 17. 

 I weighed them Nov. 3. and No. i weighed 

 76 pounds. No. 2, 67 pounds, and No. 3, 59 

 pounds, including the hives, one of which is a 

 lo-framc an<l the other two 8-frame. Thev 

 are dovetailed hives, with Hoffman frames. 

 Now I think this is not very bad for a 

 start. 



But, the old colony left September 18, with 

 not a bit of brood nor honey left. I tore the 

 combs apart and found 117 queen-cells. Docs 

 that account for their leaving the hive? Also, 

 do you think my other colonies are in danger 

 of running short of stores? 



Minnesota. 



Answer.— A force of queen-cells 117 strong, 

 with no brood, might well be enough to 

 frighten a colony into deserting or doing al- 

 most anything else. You say there was "not 

 a bit of brood," which leaves it a little un- 

 certain whether there was no brood in the 

 queen-cells or no brood in the hive besides 

 the brood m the quccn-cells. In any case the 



likelihood is that they were without a normal 

 queen, and had been for some time, reduced 

 in numbers and discouraged. There is some- 

 thing abnormal about that swarm August 17, 

 which I don't understand. Judging by the 

 weight, your bees ought not to be in danger 

 of starving. 



Feeding Burnt Sugar Syrup — Trans- 

 ferring Bees. 



1. Would sugar syrup that has been burned 

 be safe to feed in spring.' "A li C of Hee- 



says It is 



death to any colony 



spring, why not drum 

 being sure to get the 

 in a new hive with 



Cultu 

 so fed. 



2. In transferring 

 out bees from box-hi' 

 queen, place the bees 



combs or foundation, set the new hive on 

 top of the old one, with tight bottom-board, 

 and place on the old hive what is called a 

 "Dudley" tube? In that way, as soon as the 

 young bees from the old hive are old enough 

 to gather honey they pass up and enter the 

 new hive. In the old way the young bees 

 remain with the old hive 21 days, and in case 

 of a heavy flow much would be lost. 



Michigan. 



Answer. — i. Look again and see if the "A B 

 C of Bee Culture" is not talking about win- 

 ter stores. In winter it is of first importance 

 that the bees should have the very best food, 

 but after they begin to fly daily in spring 

 they may be fed anything they will take, ex- 

 cept poison. 



2. Might work all right, only there might 

 be danger early that the brood would not be 

 properly cared for. 



Good Queen Reared by "Mere Hand- 

 ful" of Bees. 



Last spring caused several of my colonies 

 to supersede their queens, and, as I suppose, 

 the weather being so bad, some were lost, 

 but by giving them another frame containing 

 eggs, etc., all of them except one colony pro- 

 ceeded to rear another lot of queen-cells. 'They 

 destroyed 5 or 6 cells. Finally they had 

 dwindled to a mere handful of bees, and had 

 not an ounce of honey in the hive. This was 

 during the honey-flow from white clover, and 

 as I had had lots of fun with them, I decided 

 to try them again by giving them another 

 frame of brood, part honey, and to my surprise 

 they built 3 fine queen-cells. This was at the 

 close of the white honey-flow. 



When the fall flow came they were weak 

 compared to the other colonies, but filled an 

 8-frame hive-body with plenty to winter on. 



Now why did these bees build good queen- 

 cells and rear a good queen when all authori- 

 ties agree that good cells are made only by 

 strong colonies? Or, was this an exception 

 to the rule ? 



At this date this colony is heavy in stores 

 and has about as many bees as any I have. 

 The "mere handful" I speak of means just 

 what it spells, as there was not a pint of bees 

 in the hive. Missouri. 



Answer. — It was an exception to the rule, 

 and there were exceptional conditions. It is 

 of such great importance to have the best 

 queens possible that the best conditions pos- 

 sible for good cells should be allowed. With a 

 weak colony there are chances of cool spells 

 when the cells will not be the best nursed and 

 nourished. In your case, it may have hap- 

 pened that during 3 or 4 days when the bees 

 fed the royal larvs the weather was hot so 

 that only a few bees were needed to keep up 

 the heat, and the flow of honey spurred these 

 few to their best. Possibly some other things 

 were exceptional for the large force of bees 

 is not merely for heat. In any case, it does 

 not prove that it is wise to take any chances 

 by trying to rear good queens without giv- 

 ing them best conditions. The next 20 times 

 you tried the same thing the result might be 

 very different. 



Italian-Caucasian Bees — Rearing 

 Queens. 



1. I have 2 colonics of bees, one pure Ital- 

 ian and one pure Caucasian. If they winter all 

 right I intend to rear some queens next sum- 

 mer. I have read that a cross between the 

 Italian and Caucasian is a very good bee. Has 

 this been your experience? Would you use the 

 Italians, or Caucasians, for mothers? 



2. If I rear my young queens from the 

 Italian mother, how can I tell by their work- 

 ers whether they have been mated with black 

 or Caucasian drones? 



3. "Quinby's New Bee-Keeping" .advocates 

 rearing queens in a small nucleus, with no 

 other brood in it than the few larv.t from 



which the queens are to be reared. Do you 

 think a beginner could get good queens by 

 this plan? Illinois. 



Answers. — i. I have had no experience 

 with such a cross, and it is a little doubt- 

 ful whether you can learn anything very defi- 

 nite about it from others. As to Caucasians 

 themselves, testimony greatly varies, some say- 

 ing they are very good workers and some 

 saying they are very poor; so it would be 

 hard to be certain about a cross. If your 

 Caucasians prove good, the cross might be 

 good; otherwise not. 



I don't know which it would be better to 

 use for mother; it would be easy to try 

 both. 



2. I don't believe you can tell how they are 

 mated, for I don't believe there is a place 

 in Cook County where your queens will not 

 be likely to meet drones from other yards. 

 And I very much doubt if you could tell 

 by looks of her progeny whether a queen 

 from an Italian mother had mated with a 

 pure Italian drone or a hybrid. It is doubt- 

 ful if you can find a pure black drone within 

 10 miles of you. 



3. I should expect very worthless queens 

 from such a source, and it seems to me you 

 must in some way have misunderstood Quinby. 

 It may do to use a small nucleus after a 

 queen-cell is well advanced, but not to start 

 a queen-cell. 



Standard Hive Dimensions. 



1. Give the dimensions of the latest standard 

 hive, the number of frames, and size of each, 

 and tell how to fix the inside of the hive. 

 Also give the size of the super. 



2. Do the bees fill the super or main body of 

 the hive first? Oregon. 



Answers. — 1. The size of frame most com- 

 monly in use is iTH^g'A, outside measure, 

 the number of frames in a hive being usually 

 8 or 10, although a hive may be made of such 

 a size that it will contain any other number 

 of frames. You will see that the size of the 

 hive depends upon the number of frames to 

 be used. The hive must be large enough to 

 allow a space of ^-inch over the frames, and 

 !4 or a little more at the ends, the bottom- 

 bars coming down with the bottom of the 

 hive. A space of f^ to J4 below bottom-bars is 

 provided by the bottom-board or floor. I'm 

 not sure just what you mean when you ask 

 "how to fix the inside of the hive," but per- 

 haps you mean as to spacing the frames. 'They 

 arc generally spaced 1^ inches from center to 

 center, some bee-keepers spacing a little wider. 

 Some arrangement for self-spacing is in quite 

 common use. Supers are of different sizes and 

 kinds, care being taken to have them of such 

 size as to fit the hive. 



If you are thinking of making your hives, 

 it would be well for you to have at least one 

 hive, accurately made, to serve as a pattern. 

 If you can get any sort of fair wages at other 

 work, it will be cheaper to buy your hives. 



2. The body should be first filled. 



Experimenting With Bees — T-Su- 

 pers — Swarming. 



I. I used to take 2 bee-papers, and was 

 always getting some fool idea in my head, 

 and then experimenting with the bees; almost 

 always they "went wrong." Last year I was 

 away from home all summer, so I stopped the 

 papers, arranged to have the new swarms hived, 

 and "let 'cm went." We had a very poor 

 season, and but little surplus was secured by 

 any one, but I got about as much as the other 

 bee-keepers around here. What shall I do? 

 Stop the papers or the experiments? or both? 

 I am afraid I'll be like the majority of the 

 human race, and not follow your advice unless 

 it suits me, for when I had put the bees 

 up for the winter, I couldn't stand it any 

 longer, and renewed my subscription to the 

 "Old Reliable," sent for back numbers of 

 1007, and have been having a "feast of fat 

 things" catching up. 



1 use T-tins and have a little different plan 

 from any I have seen. My supers are 18 

 inches long, inside measurement. I fasten 

 the 7«-inch block at the end with 6penny 

 nails, driving them in from the outside, letting 

 the heads project Ji-inch or more, so that 

 they can be drawn out with a hammer. The 

 flat tin is nailed to thd block, of course. After 

 the sections are in place I slip 2 thin wedges 

 between the block and super. A piece of 

 broken section can usually be crowded in. 

 Then in taking out the honey turn the super 

 over, drive out the thin wedges, draw the 

 nails, loosen the block, and slip it out, and if 

 you use springs at the side the super can be 

 removed without any trouble. 



2. Will a young queen swarm out after she 



