April, 1908. 



American ^ec Journalj 



double cover with an air-space, I think it well 

 worth the difference in cost. It is cooler in the 

 hot sun, and warmer when it is cold. 



2. Testimony is so conflicting that I have 

 no fixed opinion. Of those who like such cov- 

 ering, some say black, some say light-colored. 



3. Mr. Townsend uses only lisht combs in 

 supers, and now uses onl>; one frame at each 

 side. If dark combs are in a super you may 

 count on the sections being darkened. In the 

 hands of Mr. Townsend the plan is a success. 

 Whether others would do as well with it is 

 doubtful. 



Bottom-Board Depth — Iron Hive 

 Covers. 



1. WTiat is Uie best depth for a bottom- 

 board for out-door wintering of bees? 



z. Would galvanized iron covers be so hot 

 in summer as to drive the bees out of the 

 super? 



3. Would a super-cover or escape-board placed 

 over frames with a ^^-inch space between keep 

 bees warm and dry in winter, or will dry pack- 

 ing be better? Michigan. 



Answers. — i. My bottom-boards are 2 inches 

 deep, and I wouldn't want them less for cellar 

 or outdoors. 



2. Yes, if nothing but the iron over them 

 and out in the sun. A board, then a space, 

 and then the iron, would be all right. 



3. Likely the packing would be better. 



Lumber for Hives — Foundation Fast- 

 eners — Buying Nuclei. 



1. Is Cottonwood lumber good for bee-hives? 

 Is basswood good ? 



2. How much buckwheat do I have to sow 

 to the acre? Is it better than clover? 



3. Which is the best foundation fastener, the 

 Daisy or the Dewey? 



4. Which is the best way to buy bees and 



?ueens — in 4-frame nuclei with Langstroth 

 rames, or from a queen-breeder? Iowa. 



Answers. — r. Both are bad lumber for hives. 



2. On good land 2 pecks. On poor land 3 

 pecks. Buckwheat honey generally sells for 

 considerably less than clover. 



3. I have no experience with the Dewey. 

 The Daisy is good. 



4. I'm not sure I understand the question. 

 If you can buy from some bee-keeper near at 

 hand it may be better than to send some dis- 

 tance to a queen-breeder, as express rates are 



Transferring Bees from Frame 

 Hives. 



colony of bees from 

 ? Illinois. 



Answer.' — That depends. If the frames are 

 of the same size, all you have to do is to lift 

 the frames from one and put them in the 

 other. If, however, you change from a larger 

 to a smaller frame, cut the comb out of your 

 larger frame, lay the smaller frame over the 

 comb, mark with a knife where it comes, lift 

 off the frame, and cut the comb so it will 

 fit a little snugly in the frame. Take a board 

 as large or larger than the frame, lay on it a 

 number of strings, lay the tomb over, and 

 crowd the frame over it. Now tie your strings, 

 raise the board, comb and all together, so the 

 comb will not tend to fall out of the frame, 

 take away the board, and hang your frame 

 in the hive. If vou change from a shallower 

 to a deeper frame, then you must change the 

 comb from horizontal to vertical, cut off the 

 surplus, and then fill in the vacancy with an- 

 other piece. 



Feeding for Increase — Feeding Gran- 

 ulated Comb Honey. 



1. Having plenty of honey to feed, how can 

 I increase and have all colonies strong in 

 July? 



2. Should granulated comb honey be melted 

 and fed to bees, or would it do to uncap and 

 put the frames in the hive? Nevada. 



Answers. — i. First encourage all colonies rea- 

 sonably strong to become very strong by giving 

 combs of honey wherever room can be found 

 for them, only look out not to crowd the 

 queen. Then from the very strong, brood 

 can be taken to strengthen others. If a 

 colony is very weak, take from it one or two 

 frames containing more or less unsealed brood 

 and give in exchange brood nearly ready to 

 emerge. Keep all the time giving combs of 

 honey wherever there is a chance for it. The 

 best plan to increase depends a good deal 

 upon your experience, conditions, etc. One 

 plan is to put all but one of the poorest brood- 

 combs in a second story a little before the be- 



gmning of your July flow, leaving the queen in 

 the lower story with that one comb ana frames 

 of foundation, an excluder between the two 

 stories, and a week later setting the upper story 

 on a new stand, giving it a ripe queen-cell. 



2. Give the frames with granulated honey to 

 the bees. If nearly all the honey in a comb 

 is granulated, uncap and spray thoroughly with 

 water before giving, repeating the spraying 

 when necessary. 



Controlling Swarming. 



How can I control swarming besides cutting 

 out queen-cells. I have 13 colonies of bees, 

 so you can see that I am new at the business, 

 but 1 e;«pect to have 2 swarms from each col- 

 ony, unless I find some way of controlling it. 

 The season is very short here. It will soon 

 begin. I expect to put on supers about the 

 I5ih of next month. My bees are all hybrids, 



CALIFOkNIA. 



Answer. — Cutting out cells is not a success, 

 but here is a way you may control swarming 

 sufficiently to have only one swarm from each 

 colony; Wlien a prime swarm issues, set it on 

 the old stand, with the old hive beside it. 

 A week later move the old hive to a new 

 stand 6 feet or more distant. That will make 

 the field-bees join the swarm, weakening the 

 old colony so that all extra cells will be de- 

 stroyed. 



Transferring and Feeding Bees. 



1. I bought 2 colonies of bees last fall, and 

 the one has ii frames. The combs are crooked 

 and "rusty." I would like to put this colony 

 into a box-hive. Should I set the hive on top 

 of the box-hive, and when the bees have combs 

 started, would the queen go down? What 

 time in the spring should it be done? 



2. I want to feed them sugar syrup. What 

 time should I start in the spring? Could I 

 mix water and sugar together without boil- 

 ing? Pennsylvania. 



Answers. — i. If you wait until the frames 

 above are all filled with honey, or very nearly 

 so, you will be pretty safe in taking away 

 the upper story to find the queen below. It 

 may take a good while, and if the season 

 is very poor the queen may not get below at 

 all. You can set the hive above any time 

 after bees fly every day. 



2. Unless 'there is danger of starving, don't 

 feed till bees are flying freely nearly every 

 day. No need to boil the syrup, only so the 

 sugar is dissolved. 



Section Honey with Holes. 



A neighbor bee-keeper cent me a lot of 

 honey to sell on commission. He said it was 

 No. I. When I opened the supers I found 

 nearly every section with a big hole in the 

 middle. Many others were only half full. 

 What makes bees build that way, in your opin- 

 ion? I thought he had a lot of degenerated 

 bees. New York. 



Answer. — The first answer that comes up is: 

 "I don't believe a word of it — you're fooling." 

 But I can't believe you would trifle with the 

 feelings of a guileless youth like me, and so I 

 must resort to that overworked reply, "I don't 

 know." Just to show, however, that I want to 

 be obliging, I'll make a guess, although I 

 doubt if it's the right guess. A botttom starter 

 was used, ,and instead of having the top 

 starter come down pretty close to the bottom 

 starter there was a big space between the two. 

 The bees began work on both, the harvest was 

 poor, and the flow stopped before the two were 

 built together. The man thought they were No. 

 I sections because he hadn't taken them out of 

 the super, and they looked all right above and 

 below. 



Spring Feeding — Transferring — Ants, 

 Etc. 



1. Out of mv apiary of 5 colonies, only one 

 will work in the super. What is the matter 

 with them? 



2. When would you advise me to begin feed- 

 ing for spring? 



3. I have one colony in a box hive which I 

 wish to transfer. What is the best way to 

 do it? 



4. What is the best way to rid hives of red 

 ants? 



5. Which would you advise me to plant for 

 bees — white clover or alfalfa? 



6. Will bees gather honey from red clover, 

 catnip. yellow mustard, and black locust 

 blooms"^ 



7. My bees are natives, I suppose, as they 

 were taken from bee-trees back in the 6o's. 

 Would vou advise me to cross them with Ital- 

 ians? They are certainly fighters. 



Missouri. 



Answers. — i. Hard to say without more par- 

 ticulars. Perhaps the harvest was poor, the 

 only colony storing being the strongest. 



2. I wouldn't feed at all if the bees have 

 plenty of honey. If they have not, feed as 

 soon as they arc flying freely; sooner, rather 

 than have them starve. 



3. Wait till they swarm, hive the swarm in a 

 movable-frame hive, and in 21 days you have 

 your choice to add the rest of the bees to the 

 swarm and melt up the combs, or else cut out 

 the combs and fit them in frames, as I advised 

 "Illinois," and put them, together with the 

 bees, in a new hive. 



4. Trace them to their nests and pour m 

 gasoline. 



5. Probably all that you would plant of either 

 wouldn't make much difference, unless you have 

 many acres. Likely white clover would yield 

 more honey in Missouri. 



6. Yes, from all of them except red clover, 

 and sometimes from that. 



7. The introduction of Italian blood would 

 probably increase your crops. 



Getting Increase and Honey. 



I have an apiary of 22 colonies which I 

 wish to double in number, or more, if the 

 season is favorable. I want as much honey as 

 I can get, which will be extracted. 



1. How would it do to take 2 frames of 

 brood from each colony, say every 7 or 8 days, 

 and from full colonies or nearly so, at once? 



2. You say that you dm that one year and it 

 was a success in most cases, in preventing 

 swarming. Wouldn't it be more sure if one 

 were running for extracted honey? 



3. If the colonies thus formed were given 

 laying queens, wouldn't they soon be strong 

 enough to help increase? 



I have tried the nucleus plan of increase, 

 which I would try if I knew what the season 

 wcnild be, but the honey-flow has always shut 

 off for me. 



My bees are in lo-frame Langstroth hives. 

 White clover and smartweed are my only sur- 

 plus crops. Illinois. 



Answers.— I. It ought to work. Better not 

 say, "nearly so," but give the newly formed 

 colony 10 frames of brood at the start. 



3. Yes. but you couldn't count on them 

 for honey if you drew from them for increase, 

 and not much in any case unless from the late 

 crop. 



Prevention of Swarming — Spring 

 Feeding. 



On page 70 is given your plan for the pre- 

 vention of swarming. 



1. Do you remove the queen-cells when you 

 brush off the bees, and again when you put the 

 frames back into the hive with the queen, or 

 will the bees attend to that matter themselves? 



2. Where bees are short of stores when 

 taken from the cellar, and one hasn't combs of 

 honey to give them, which is better, to feed 

 tnem sugar syrup a little at a time until the 

 honey-flow, or to feed them enough at once 

 to last them? , . ,, 



3. "In this locality' it is not advisable to 

 stimulate brood-rearing early in the spring. 

 Would not the latter method be less likely 

 to stimulate brood-rearing? Minnesot.\. 



Answers.— I. Generally there are no cells at 

 the first shift. If there are any that are at all 

 advanced, there will be several, and as the 

 combs are bared if none are noticed, no special 

 search is made for them, but if one is noticed 

 then care is taken to destroy any that are at 

 all well advanced. At the time of putting 

 down the brood almost certainly there will be 

 cells, and they are destroyed. It is a question, 

 however, whether that is necessary; just possi- 

 bly the bees might attena to it themselves, 

 although they would not attend to it at the 

 first shift. _ 



2. I prefer giving the big dose at once. Lo- 

 cality may make a difference. 



3. Yes. 



The Non-Swarming Secret. 



In reply to my question you say on page 57, 

 "1 have a plan that fulfills the conditions of 

 the Davenport plan; do you think it would be 

 wise to give away the secret?" Most assuredly 

 not. I think you said somewhere (though I 

 can't find the page) that you "doubt if the 

 secret were known that it would be much used, 

 or words to that effect; so what's the use' 



You might confer with Mr. Davenport and 

 org.anizc a secret society with yourself as Grand 

 Irrefragable Perambulating Treasurer, and Dav- 

 enport as Almost Illustrious Exalted Supreme 

 Queen B, charging a good round admission 

 fte, communicating the secret during the in- 

 itiation. I would like to join as a charter 



