American ^ae Journal 



Dr. Miller*s 



Answers^ 



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



Dr. C. C. Miller. Marengo, III. 



He does not answer bee-keeping questions by mail. 



Feeding Bees in Winter 



Last year was my first with bees. I bought 

 2 colonies and increased to 6. and took off 140 

 pounds of comb honey. I had a late swarm, 

 and. having no regular hive. I look a store- 

 box and nailed .?'8-inch slats, so as to have 

 the appearance of a frame hive. Now this 

 box has only a few handfuls of bees, a small 

 amount of comb, and is very light. I have 

 had no experience with feeding bees, so 

 would you advise me to try and feed them 

 through, and transfer them to a new hive in 

 the spring? If so. how would you handle 

 them during the winter? Illinois. 



Answer.— The chances for bringing that 

 colony through the winter are not the best. 

 Likely you will do best to take it into the 

 cellar. It is not very likely that the bees 

 would come down to the bottom of the hive 

 to gel any feed. If the hive is so made that 

 you can lake off the cover, leaving the slats 

 exposed, you can lay pieces of comb honey 

 fiat on ihe slals. Even then the cluster of 

 bees may not be close to the top. and the 

 bees not reach the honey. If you find they 

 do not. you can turn the hive upside down 

 and lay the honey directly on or between the 

 combs, and ihen there will be little doubt 

 about their reaching the honey. It will do 

 no harm to leave the hive upside down. 

 Years ago. before I had any frame hives. I 

 wintered my bees in box-hives entirely in 

 the cellar, upside down. 



Paper Paclting for Winter-Cases 



I wish to make some winter-cases, to con- 

 sist of a box of thin lumber lined with a 

 great many layers of building paper. What 

 '•ickness of solid paper would you consider 



juivalent to 5 inches of chaff ? The whole 

 case is to lit snugly over the hive so as to be 

 easily taken off or put on. and there will be 

 cushions for the lop. Would you consider 

 such a case likely to be successful ? 



Ontario. 



Answer.— I can do no more than to make a 

 guess in the case, and should say that 10 

 inches of solid paper might be equivalent to 

 S inches of chaff, as the solid paper is a bet- 

 ter conductor of heat. But I suppose you 

 would not really use solid paper, but many 

 sheets packed logeiher. That would be dif- 

 ferent, and 5 inches, or even less, might be 

 as good as the 5 of chaff, depending upon the 

 thickness of ihe paper. It ought to be suc- 

 cessful, but perhaps no better than chaff or 

 planer shavings. 



Spacing Frames 



1. Is it material that the top-bar of the Mil- 

 ler frame should be iH inches wide. and. if 

 so, what would be the disadvantages in a 

 top-bar ?4 inch wide in that frame ? 



2. How wide were the top-bars of the un- 

 spaced frame formerly in use by you ? 



3. Did you find disadvantages in the un- 

 spaced frame other than those mentioned 

 in your book ? 



4. What is your opinion of the use of the 

 Miller or "metal spaced" frame, with lop- 

 bar ^8-inch square for any location, either 

 comb or extracted honey, the idea being that 

 the combs could be trimmed to the proper 

 thickness with the narrow bar. while the 

 knife would not work against the metal or 

 nails, and at the same time the frame might 

 be used for producing comb honey? 



Virginia. 



Answers.— I. I'm not sure that there would 

 be any harm in having the top-bar h inch in- 

 stead of I'A inches, except that it would 

 make more trouble with bur-combs built 

 between lop-bars. 



2. Vs inch. 



3. Yes. there was at least one other. As 

 the frames hung entirely free, in time there 

 was a little warping of some of the top-bars. 

 A very slight twist of the top-bar would 

 allow quite a bit of swing out of true at the 

 bottom of the frame, so that it sometimes 

 happened that at the bottom the end-bars or 



bottom-bars were glued together, causing a 

 very unpleasant annoyance. 



4. It might work satisfactorily; but only 

 after trial could one be sure about it. How 

 much the metal spacers would be in the way 

 of an uncapping-Knife would depend upon 

 their construction. If there is metal at each 

 end on each side, there would be trouble. 

 As you know I use common nails as spacers. 

 These are only on one end on each side of 

 the frame, and by starting the knife at the 

 end where the spacers are, there ought to be 

 little danger of striking the knife on the 

 metal. I have seen in foreign bee-papers 

 mention of metal spacers that were remov- 

 able, being taken off for extracting, and then 

 put on again upon returning to the hive. 



Dampness in Hives 



I have trouble with dampness in my hives; 

 that IS. water hanging on the underside of 

 the cover, and I was wondering if a cover 

 like the one in "P'orty Years Among the 

 Bees." made with dead air space, would ab- 

 sorb the moisture from the bees. I don't 

 like to use burlap. I have the hive-entrance 

 contracted, leaving it very small, as robber- 

 bees are always ready for business. Prob- 

 ably the small entrance is the cause of the 

 dampness. California. 



Answer— The cover with deadair space 

 will not act as an obsorbent. but it will have 

 some effect — and probably a good deal of 

 effect— in preventing moisture from accumu- 

 lating overhead and falling in 3rops on the 

 bees. For that air-space keeps the cover 

 warmer than the sides of the hive, and so if 

 there is any condensation it will be on the 

 side-walls, and not overhead. It is a matter 

 of some importance 10 have the top of the 

 hive warmer than the sides, or. to put it 

 another way. to have the sides colder than 

 the top. Even with solid covers, you will 

 help matters by putting something over them 

 to make them warmer. 



Seif-Requeening in Same Hive — Leather-Colored 

 vs. Plain Italian 



1. I am thinkingof requeening by allowing 

 a queen to be reared above the excluder and 

 then allow her to comeback and enter the 

 hive below after she is fertilized. Will she 

 kill the old queen, or be killed ? If you think 

 this is not a good plan, what would you ad- 

 vise ? 



2. Please distinguish between leather-col- 

 ored Italians and Italians. Which do you 

 prefer? Colorado. 



Answers.— I. I have not been successful 

 in getting queens reared above an excluder. 

 If a cell is given above an excluder, the 

 queen somehow disappears before she gets 

 to laying. If you should succeed in getting a 

 queen reared, and she should return from 

 her wedding trip, it is uncertain which 

 queen would be killed: probably neither if 

 the laying queen were old enough. A surer 

 way is to have the young queen fertilized in 

 a nucleus and then introduced. 



2. Leather-colored Italians are, as the 

 name indicates, rather dark in color, the 

 colored part being of the color of sole-leather 

 as compared with other Italians of lighter 

 color. 



Super Entrances — Drone-Comb 



1. I have bought some bees, and they are in 

 what is called. I believe, the German hive. 

 It is 3 feet long, and has 2 entrances, each 

 about 4 inches long. Each super has these 

 2 entrances. Is it necessary on all the su- 

 pers ? The man I bought them of said he 

 used them in summer to get air into the 

 hives. But I think it is a lot of trouble to 

 close them up for the winter, and keep them 

 closed. I would be pleased to hear from 

 some one in Arizona. 



2. There are a great many drone-combs in 

 these hives. How many drone-combs ought 



there to be in a hive ? Would it pay to mel ' 

 up some of the poorest drone-combs and put 

 in foundation. It is hard to find enough ex- 

 tra worker-combs to make a new colony. 



I am a beginner in the bee-business, and 

 am depending a whole lot upon what I get 

 from the pages of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. Arizona. 



Answers.— L It is not necessary to have 

 entrances in supers. Some think it an ad- 

 vantage to let the bees that come from the 

 field enter the super directly, without hiv- 

 ing to climb up through the brood-chamber, 

 but goodauthorties tell us that the field-bees 

 do not carry their loads into the super, but 

 unload in the brood-chamber, allowing the 

 younger bees to do the "toting" upstairs. 

 There may. however, be one advantage in 

 having openings in the supers, and that is 

 that it helps to cool off the hive in hot 

 weather, as your friend says. 



2. It pays big to melt up drone-comb. It 

 costs more to rear a combful of drones than 

 a combful of worker-brood, and then it costs 

 no little to feed the lazy things, after they 

 are reared. If there is not very much drone- 

 comb in a frame, cut out the whole thing 

 and use the worker part for patching 



Detecting Foul Brood 



How can I tell when a colony is first 

 affected with foul brood ? I have had a few 

 bees for the past 7 years. I have only 18 col- 

 onies, but have never had a diseased one. so 

 I don't know how to look for it. I moved 

 here last fall, and they tell me bees around 

 here have foul brood. Michigan. 



Answer.— Keep watch of the brood. So 

 long as you see no dead brood, all the larvae 

 being pearly white, you may feel easy. The 

 first thing you will see of European foul 

 brood is that some of the larva, instead of 

 being white, will have a yellowish color. In 

 American foul brood, as the disease ad- 

 vances, you will see the cappings of some of 

 the sealed brood sunken, with a hole in the 

 center. When you find any dead brood, 

 send a sample to Dr. E. F. Phillips. Agricul- 

 tural Department. Washington. D. C., and 

 he will tell you without charge what the 

 trouble is. 



Grapevines for Shading Hives 



1. How far from the entrances of hives 

 would you advise one to make a trellis of 

 grapevines ? Do you think it would be 

 good to make a trellis up against the front 

 of the hive ? 



2. Do you think it is best to have one for 

 each hive, or have one running the whole 

 width of the yard ? California. 



.Answers.— I. Plant a vine close up to each 

 hive at the south side without paying any 

 attention to the entrance. 



2. Less in the way to have a vine for each 

 hive with a stake for it and cross-arms run 

 ning east and west. 



Prevention of Swarming 



1. What are the disadvantages, or advan- 

 tages, in taking away the queen from a col- 

 ony strong enough to swarm, and cutting out 

 all but one cell on the 8th day thereafter ? 



2. Would the fact that my colonies usually 

 swarm two weeks before the white clover 

 flow affect the matter ? If so. in what way? 



■Virginia. 



Answers.— I. There would be the advan- 

 tage that it the occupant of the cell left 

 should succeed to laying, the colony would 

 not swarm that season. There might be no 

 disadvantage. There might be the disad- 

 vantage that the cell left might contain only 

 a dead larva. That would not often happen. 

 A colony might be "strongenough toswarm" 

 without being in proper condition for it. and 

 so not in proper condition to rear a good 

 queen. If you should remove the queen a 

 few days after the cells were started, a 

 swarm would be practically certain to issue 

 before the end of the 8 days, when you would 

 cut out cells. 



2. I'm not sure that would make any differ- 

 ence. 



Plan to Retard Swarming 



I. Do vou think the following plan would 

 work ? About March ist (for that is just 

 about swarming time), take the best Italian 

 queen out of her hive and put her in an- 

 other which has a black or hybrid queen, 

 killing the black one first. Then when the 

 queenless colonies have the queen-cells all 



