January, ipir. 



American Hee Journal t 



honey early in the year. So there is no 

 need to pay any attention to the matter 

 of pollen, but keep dose watch that there 

 is plenty of honey. It is possible that 

 you might form a colony rather late in 

 the season, giving them combs of honey 

 without any poJlen, when it would be too 

 late for them to gather any pollen. In 

 that case you must see to it that some of 

 th€ combs contain pollen or your colony 

 13 likely to be a failure the following 

 spring. 



2. If they had .\merican foul brood, I 

 would use the McEvoy plan. If it was 

 Europea.n, I would wait till perhaps the 

 beginning of clover har\'est. and first see 

 that each colony to be treated was made 

 strong by uniting or by gii\'dng frames 

 of brood well advanced. Then I would 

 remove the queen amd give to the colony 

 a ripe queen-cell or a virgin queen of 

 best stock. 



Double-Walled Hives — Feeding Bees 

 in Winter 



1. I have 4 double-walled lo- frame 

 hives, space J4 inch between walls, filled 

 with paper. Each colony had from 8 to 

 12 pounds of stores in the fall. What do 

 you think of double-walled hives? 



2. Some say that syrup fed in winter 

 sours in the comb, and being uncapped 

 gives the bees dysentery. What is your 

 opinion and experience in this? 



3. What shall I feed this winter? Can 

 s>Tup be fed, or should I feed sugar 

 candy? Indiana. 



Answers. — i. Double-walled hives are 

 good, but I think they are hardly as popu- 

 la;r as they were some years ago. They 

 are cumbersome and expensive. 



2. I have had no experience, as I 

 never fed syrup in winter. But it is 

 generally agreed that unsealed stores are 

 not so good as sealed in winter. 



3. I would rather feed syrup in winter 

 than to let bees starve, but it is prob- 

 ably about twice as safe to feed candy 

 as to feed syrup. 



Very Likely Foul Brood 



Sept. 2, in a certain hive which had 

 much brood in 4 Langstroth frames, I 

 found that some larvae had a yellowish 

 color, and that some scaled brood had 

 the cappings bulging out further than 

 usual. In the cappings of some cells 

 there was an opening large enough to see 

 tnc pupae inside. These pupae were in a 

 rather advanced stage of development, 

 had a pink color, and on being pierced 

 with a match were watery and not at all 

 viscid. In a few cells the larvae had dried, 

 become hard and brown, and were easily 

 removed from the cells with a matoh. The 

 colony is sufficiently strong, I think, and 

 is wintering outdoors. What is the trou- 

 ble, and what should be done? 



Indiana. 



Answer. — I'm afra/id your bees have 

 foul brood. No matter what the trouble, 

 there is probably nothing to be done 

 about it just now. Wait till tJie diseased 

 brood appears next spring, and then send 

 a sample to Dr. E. F. Phillips, Dept. of 

 Agriculture, Washington, D. C. He will 

 tell you what the trouble is. and then you 

 can tell what the treatment should be. 

 This will cost you nothing, and if you 

 write in advance Dr. Phillips will send 

 you a tin box with frank, in which you 

 can send the sample. 



color of the pure Carniolan bee is. Is 

 the hybrid of yellow color? Japan. 



Answer. — I think you would not rec- 

 ognize any yellow in Carniolans. They 

 have very distinct rings on the abdomen, 

 but these rings are not yellow, but whit- 

 ish. They look much more like blacks 

 than Italians, but have the credit of 

 being a little larger than blacks. 



When the word "hybrid" is used con- 

 cerning bees, it generally means a cross 

 between blacks and Italians, and suoh 

 hybrids may have i, 2, or even 3 yellow 

 bands similar to the yellow bands of 

 Italian, but if only part of the workers 

 have the 3 bands, then the colony is 

 considered hybrid. I suppose the word 

 '^hybrid" might also apply to a cross be- 

 tween Italians and Carniolans, or be- 

 tween any two different varieties. 



Keeping Down the Increase 



I. I have 13 colonies in Danzenbaker 

 hives, and have kept bees only as an 

 avocation, but want to keep them in the 

 best possible manner. I do not care to 

 increase the number. How would this 

 plan work? 



About the time the colony would swarm 

 naturally, set a new hive containing 

 empty combs or full sheets of foundation 

 on an old stand, then shake all, or nearly 

 all, the bees out of the old hive in front 

 of the new. Put super on newly made 

 colony, then at various times, say every 

 week, shake its old bees off the frames 

 in the old hive; of course, at the third 

 shaking all the bees would be changed to 

 the new hive. The old hive could be 

 carried off, saving what honey it con- 

 tained for feeding, or for using a year 

 hence for the same purpose. Ohio. 



.Answer. — The plan you propose has 

 been used with more or less variation, 

 and succeeds. It is, indeed, only a vari- 

 ation of shake-swarming, wihich is in 

 pretty general use. If you work for ex- 

 tracted honey, you will find the Deniaree 

 plan more satisfactory, and much less 

 trouble. By the Demaree plan, instead 

 of taking away the brood, put it in a 

 second story over an excluder, having the 

 first story filled with foundation and con- 

 taining the queen. 



Color of Carniolan Bees 

 Describe the color of the Carniolan 

 boe. Some say in Japan that this kind 

 of bee has yellow bands, and others say 

 there are none of yellow color, but that 

 they are all gray. I don't know what the 



Moldy Combs in Hive — False Hive- 

 Bottom — Colony Management 



Our main honey-flow is white clover 

 and buckwheat. Red clover is beginning 

 to yield some nectar also. I write this 

 so you will know the conditions here, and 

 what time our honey-flow may be ex- 

 pected. 



1. What can be done with a colony 

 that has moldy combs when the whole 

 entrance is open? I bored 2 holes, one 

 on each side of the back part of the 

 cover about 14 inch in diameter, then 

 tacked some screen-wire over the holes, 

 then I placed a telescope cover (of my 

 own make) over it, and packed around 

 it dry moss. Will it work? The bees 

 are in a good shed. They were dying 

 off before I gave them the top ventila- 

 tion. Now they seem to be doing fine. 



2. \VJien the combs of honey of a 

 colony mold for lack of ventilation, does 

 the honey sour? 



3. I would like to use a false bottom- 

 hoard to help prevent swarming. Would 

 one m.a<le of screen-»'ire and wood be of 

 any profit? 



4. I introduced young queens the past 

 fall. Can I get the required number of 

 bees desired, by waiting until the queen 

 has the brood-chamber full of eggs and 

 brood, then lift it above an empty hive- 

 body of full sheets of foundation, con- 

 fining the queen below by using a queen- 

 excluder? Will the bees build queen- 



cells above? and will they carry the houey 

 and pollen below? West 'Virginia. 



Answers. — i. "The proof of the pud- 

 ding is the eating of it." If your bees 

 are doing well since you made the change, 

 that is pretty good proof that it is all 

 right. Of course there must not be too 

 much ventilation, lest the bees he too 

 cold, but ventilation in some form must 

 be sufficient to prevent dampness and 

 mold. 



2. Maybe, and maybe not ; but too little 

 ventilation tends to dampness, dampness 

 tends to thinning the honey, and thin 

 honev is more likely to sour. 



3. Yes, anything thiat will prevent the 

 bees from building down and at the same 

 time will allow plenty of air below the 

 bottom-bars will answer the purpose. A 

 set of strips with spaces between them, 

 nailed on two long pieces in the form of 

 a ladder works well. 



4. You can not be always sure that the 

 bees will start cells above an excluder. 

 But if the cells are started, they will be 

 pretty sure to continue them. If you 

 remove the queen for about 2 days, cells 

 will be started, and then you can go on 

 with your plan. But if you leave the 

 brood until young queens hatch out there 

 may be swarming. You can; forestall 

 that by removing the upper story 10 days 

 after the cells are started. The bees will 

 not carry the honey and pollen below. 



Feeding Bees in Box-Hives— Foul 

 Brood 



1. I bought a quantity of bees in old 

 log gtmis, or box-hdves. The combs are 

 built to the walls of the hives, on the 

 samie plan as in the old bee-trees, and 

 I think at this date they should be fed, 

 as I see empty combs when the cover is 

 on. It is my plan to carry them through 

 this winter, and then transfer to modern 

 hives. 



2. Is foul brood ever found where there 

 is no manipulation of bees? 



Tennessee. 



Answers. — i. I'm not certain what 

 vour question is. If you mean to ask 

 whether the bees need feeding, I should 

 say that the chances were good for bees 

 in that sort of hives, for there is less 

 danger that anything has been taken from 

 the brood-chamber than viith movable 

 combs. Still, they might be short, and 

 your question may be as to how to feed 

 them. You can put pieces of sealed honey 

 over them, covering up warm. If you 

 haven't the honey, you can use cakes of 

 candy. 



2. Yes, indeed. Manipulation can not 

 produce the disease, and the right kind 

 of manipulation does not necessarily fa- 

 vor its increase ; but the wrong kind 

 does ; as when a comb is taken from a 

 diseased colony and given to a healthy 

 one. I don't mean that giving a frame 

 of brood from one colony to another is 

 wrong manipulation in all cases, but it 

 is wrong whore the brood is taken from 

 a diseased colony. 



Cleaning Extracting Combs— Hiving 



Swarms— Wiring Shallow Frames 



—Double-Walled Hives 



1. In taking a frame of brood from a 

 strong colony to give to a weaker one, 

 is it best to brush the bees off, or give 

 the weaker one bees and brood both? 



2. How do you clean extracting combs 

 when you do not wish to give them to 

 the bees to clean? 



3. What number of bee-keepers would 

 ;vou estimate there are in the United 

 States who keep bees for a living? 



4. Suppose a box with a small entrance 

 hole in one end, was put on the end of 

 a pole and shoved up against a swarm 



