114 



April, 191 [. 



American Hee JoarnaJ] 



Cavanagh. Jay Smith, and Geo. W. Wil- 

 liams. 



The Association voted in favor of 

 making an effort to secure the next 

 meeting of the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association at Indianapolis, and a com- 

 mittee was appointed to confer with 



the officers of that body. 



The following officers were elected 

 for the ensuing year: President, Geo. 

 S. Demuth, of Peru; vice-president, J. 

 Smith, of Vincennes ; secretary, Geo.W. 

 Williams, of Redkey; and treasurer, 

 Walter S. Ponder, of Indianapolis. 



Dr. Miller*s 



Answers^ 



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



Dk. C. C. Miller. Marengo, III. 



He does not answer bee-keeping questions by mail. 



Getting Bees Out of and Into Supers — 

 Putting on Supers 



1. What is the best way to get bees out 

 of supers ? 



2. Is a hive supposed to sit level? 



3. I bought 6 colonies the other day. 

 3 lo-trame and 3 8-franie, with bees, and 

 each colony full of honey, for $20 cash. 

 Now which is the better way to proceed, 

 to borrow an extractor and extract all the 

 combs except about 2 in each colony, and 

 then put the empty combs back in the 

 brood-chamberfor brood? Or, by putting 

 on a super could I scrape the capped 

 honey and let the bees carry it up into the 

 super? What would you do so early in 

 the year? 



4. Last year I had one colony in a 

 lo-frame hive, and I could not get the bees 

 to work in the super all summer. I put 

 baits in but that would not start them. 

 They filled the brood-chamber full of 

 honey. They were queenless for a while 

 and also weak. I caught a small swarm 

 in a tree and put with them. I looked 

 for a queen but couldn't find one, so I 

 put in a frame of brood. The next time 

 I looked there were several fine queen- 

 cells. In about 3 days I looked again 

 and the queen-cells were all torn out. 

 so there must have been a queen. Can 

 you tell me why they did not go up in 

 the super? 



5. Which is the better way to put su- 

 pers on, above or below the one that is 

 filled? Colorado. 



Answers. — i. One way is to put a Por- 

 ter bee-escape under the super, and next 

 day the bees may generally be expected 

 to be out of the super. Another way is 

 to smoke some of the bees down, pile the 

 supers up in a pile, and put a Miller 

 tent-escape on top. If this be done in 

 the forenoon, the bees will generally be 

 out in the afternoon. Another way is to 

 smoke most of the bees down, then set 

 the super on end on top of the hive and 

 let the rest of the bees come out of their 

 own accord. This is a quicker way than 

 either of the others, but it will do only 

 when a good flow of honey is on ; other- 

 wise there will be a fine case of robbing. 

 After the super is off. and the super set 

 on end. the remainder of the bees may 

 be smoked out ; but there is some danger 

 of flavoring the honey with so much smoke. 



2. It should slant a little to the front, 

 the front end being an inch or two lower 

 than the back end. It should be level 

 from side to side. 



3. It is better not to extract any honey 

 out of the brood-chamber. The bees need 

 it there for their own use, and in any case 

 you should not think of extracting before 

 there is a good honey-flow, and that will 

 hardly be before June. You will not need 

 to scrape combs in the brood-chamber ; the 

 bees will have enough of it used out by 

 the time they are ready to store in supers. 



4. The likelihood is that there was not 



enough honey to make the bees store in 

 supers. The right thing is for them to 

 fill, first, all space in brood-chamber, and 

 then put the surplus in the super; but if 

 there is no more than the brood-cham- 

 ber will hold you need expect none in the 

 super. 



5. Put the empty super under. In a 

 heavy flow it is a good plan to put an 

 empty one also on top. Toward the end 

 of the season, or at any time when it 

 seems doubtful that the bees can finish 

 more than they already have on, put the 

 empty super on top. 



Swarming with Clipped Queens 



I am a small bee-keeper, and keep bees 

 for my own enjoyment and pastime, al- 

 though I get fairly good returns per col- 

 ony for the trouble and expense every sea- 

 son. How should I proceed with the 

 process of clipping the queen's wings? I 

 mean after the swarm has issued and the 

 swarm has returned to the parent hive? 

 .^s I am not there enough of the time 

 to take care of them at the right time, 

 what should I do with the queen? Should 

 I find her several hours after the swarm 

 has returned ? 



Should I return her to the colony? If 

 so. what method would be the best? or 

 would it be just as well not to give her 

 back to the bees? 



I run for comb honey only in the 4^4 

 sections, and am not working for in- 

 crease as much as to keep colonies 

 strong. I have tried dividing, and doub- 

 ling up the weaker with others, but I find 

 that the ones which I let swarm will pro- 

 duce more honey per colony than any 

 other method I have tried, and this year 

 I want to try the clipping process, if you 

 will give your method after the swarm 

 has issued, till you have disposed of the 

 queen. 



I have your bee-book, and have read 

 several others, but have not as yet found 

 the right kind of an explanation on this 

 subject, of returning the queen. 



Minnesota. 



If I understand you correctly, you want 

 to know what you are to do when a swarm 

 with a clipped queen has issued in your 

 absence. Of course the queen is clipped 

 before there is any danger of swarming. 

 Then when a swarm issues in your ab- 

 sence you seem to expect to find the 

 queen outside the hive. Don't count on 

 anything of the kind. Not one time in 

 50 would you find her, even if you were 

 there within an hour after swarming. 

 Once in a great while you would find her 

 on the grouund with a bunch of bees 

 about her. But you wouldn't know what 

 hive she came from, as she might be 

 closer to some other hive than to her 

 own. Generally she returns to her own 

 hive. But she may wander off and be 

 lost, or she may enter some other hive 

 and be killed. You can, however, have 



a queen-trap at the entrance, and when 

 you find a queen in it you will know there 

 has been a swarm. From what you say, 

 it will perhaps suit you as well to remove 

 or kill the queen and destroy all but one 

 queen-cell. Then there ought to be no 

 further swarming, and the whole force 

 would be left undivided. 



Marketing the Honey Crop 



1. Would it not be a good thing if all 

 the local bee-keepers' associations joined 

 the NationaJ Association? 



2. Then would it not be another good 

 thing if the National Association would 

 take the honey out of the hands of the 

 commission houses in all the big cities, 

 and sell it for the members of the Asso- 

 ciation ? 



3. Would it not be a good thing to talk 

 over these things at a convention, instead 

 of "chewing" the foul-brood question — the 

 same thing hundreds of times over? I 

 think the commissiion men make more 

 mischief for the bee-keepers than does 

 foul brood. 



4. I think the farm bee-keepers, box 

 and cracker-barrel bee-keepers, keep nur- 

 series of foul brood. What do you think 

 about it? We have plenty of this kind 

 here in Iowa. 



5. Last year I sent 12,000 pounds of 

 honey to Chicago to different commission 

 houses. The honey was nice looking, as 

 nice as any honey that comes to the city 

 of Chicago. 1 got different prices from 

 them — 15, 16, 17 and 18 cents. About 

 a month ago (Jan. 20) I was in the city 

 of Chicago, and I went into a grocery 

 store near the commission house and 

 asked the price of a section of honey. 

 He charged me 25 cents. Who is to 

 blame for this, the commission house or 

 the grocer? 



6. Would it not be enough for the 

 grocer if he made, on every pound of 

 honey, about i or 2 cents? That is what 

 they make on a pound of butter. I am 

 wondering if you were satisfied with the 

 price you got for your honey. Dr. Miller? 

 A couple of years ago I sent to those fel- 

 lows 80 cases of honey, all fancy, and 

 they wrote me a letter saying they got 

 the honey all right, and that it was as 

 nice a lot as they ever had in their ware- 

 houses. That is all I heard of the honey 

 till the following May, when I got re- 

 turns of 10. II, and 12 cents per pound. 

 He said he was sorry he could not get 

 more, but he couldn't sell that honey, and 

 he was afraid it would candy if he tried 

 to keep it over the season, so he had to 

 let it go at those prices. Iowa. 



Answers. — i. Yes, and many of such 

 associations are falling into that practise. 



2. Yes. something of that kind was out 

 lined in the President's Address at Al- 

 bany, and there is no telling whereunto 

 it mav grow. 



3. "Yes, such things are proper subjects 

 for consideration, although I can not 

 aeree with >ou that co.mmission men are 

 worse than foul brood, for I've had both. 

 If foul brood attacks you. you are bound 

 to suffer more or less, but no matter how 

 many commission men there are. you 

 are not obliged to have anything to do 

 with them unless you want to. I would 

 rather get all the money for my honey 

 without dividing with the commission 

 men, but sometimes I have been very glad 

 to have them help me out. So I count 

 them an advantage when I need them, 

 and they can do me no harm when I don't 

 need them. Of course, there may be dis- 

 honest commission men. just as there may 

 be dishonest men in all ranks. But we 

 are not obliged to suffer from the dis- 

 honest ones. 



4. Yes, there ought to be a foul-brood 

 law that would help clean out all but 

 hives with movable frames. 



