June, iqii. 



American Hae Journal 



nicely now. How lone will I have to feed 

 them ? I have never had any previous ex- 

 perience with vframe nuclei. Sugar is dear 

 when you have to feed 6 or 7 colonies a pint 

 of svrup every night. 



3. What do vou know of New Jersey as to 

 location for the production of honey ? Buck- 

 wheat is not very plentiful, but we have an 

 abundance of wild aster, golden-rod. Span- 

 ish-needle, and lots of fruit-trees in this 

 locality. New Jersey. 



Answers.— I. I don't know of any way to 

 keep a Queen through the winter without 

 having quite a lot of bees with her. The 

 farthest I have ever gotten away from keep- 

 ing each queen with a full colony of bees 

 was by keeping i nuclei in one hive, and 

 wintering them in the cellar. The nucleus 

 in the center had only one Langstroth 

 frame, and each of the others had 3 frames. 

 It is possible that smaller frames might be 

 used, and also a larger number of nuclei in 

 a hive. With 3 nuclei in a hive, there was 

 an entrance at each side in front, and for 

 the central nucleus there was a i inch auger- 

 hole at the back. 



::. Yes. although it would have been better 

 for the nuclei if you had taken frames of 

 honey from strongcolonies and then fed the 

 strong colonies. The entrance might be 

 only half as wide, until the bees seemed too 

 much troubled with so small an entrance, 

 being gradually enlarged as needed. It 

 would be full as well, probably, if you did 

 not feed them again at all. provided you 

 could give them enough at one time to last 

 until they could get plenty outside. It is 

 better to let them have a good stock on 

 hand than to feed each day just what they 

 will consume. If you supplyonly their daily 

 needs, you may have to keep it up until 

 white clover yields, which, in your locality, 

 this year may not be very much before the 

 middle of June. Possibly, however, you 

 may not have to feed after fruit-bloom or 

 dandelions abound. 



3. I don't know very much about it. but 

 have always supposed it an average State as 

 to bee-pasturage. 



A Beginner's Questions 



1. Do bees use pollen for anything besides 

 making beebread? 



2. I have heard a great many say. bees live 

 only 30 days. What do you think about it ? 



3. I have a colony that produced no drones 

 last year, and have not yet so far .'^pril 17th/. 

 What is the cause ? 



J In warm weather, when the bees are 

 fanning, do they do that to get the water out 

 of the honey, or to cool the hive ? 



5. After brood hatches out about how many 

 days will it before the bees go to work ? 



5. Last summer, some days when the bees 

 would come out of the hive and start to fly 

 away they would fall on the ground and go 

 round and round and die in a minute. Do 

 you think they got too hot, or what was the 

 trouble ? Kansas. 



Answers.— I. I don't know, but little of it 

 is used in sealing up the brood. 



2. Worker-bees live several months if born 

 late in the season; for they live over winter 

 and until new ones are ready to take their 

 place in the spring. Those that are born 

 after the busy season begins in the summer, 

 live 5 or 6 weeks. 



3. It is possible that they do not desire to 

 swarm, do not feel the need of drones, and 

 have not much drone-comb in the hive. 'Vou 

 may consider yourself fortunate in having 

 such bees. 



4. Both; but perhaps more than either to 

 get fresh air into the hive. Bees seem to 

 have a notion that pure air is a tine thing, 

 summer or winter. 



;. May be one. 



h. It might be poison, paralysis, or there 

 may have been some other disease. 



Hives lor Building Up^Getting Bees Out of 

 Supers, Etc. 



1. My frames are about '/ inches square, 

 inside measure. I have some small hives 

 that hold 4 and s frames each. Will they 

 rear strong queens if given eggs ? These 

 hives are used to build up. 



2. If I put in a shallow extracting super 

 until nearly full, then put a T-super under- 

 neath, slip it forward and put i-inch blocks 

 under the front of the brood-chamber, will 

 it work all right and prevent swarming also? 



3. If I stack up 10 or 12 T-supers from the 

 different hives on one colony with a Porter 

 beecscape underneath, will it work all 

 right i' Will the bees eat through the cap- 



pings? How long will it take them to come 

 out ? If this is not all right tell me how to 

 manage. What time during the day must the 

 bee-escape be put on ? 



4. In question No. 2 I expect to use a guard 

 and wire honey-board with the extracting 

 super. When the T-super is placed under- 

 neath, will it be best to remove the honey- 

 board ? I have never had a queen lay in a 

 T-super. but have never used the extracting 

 super with them on the same hive. 



Kentucky. 



Answers.— I. A hive containing 4 or s 

 frames, each inches square, would not 

 hold a verystrongcolony. and a queen reared 

 in it would not be so good as one reared in a 

 strong colony, at least up to time of sealing 

 the cell. After the queen cell is sealed it is 

 not so important that the cell be in a strong 



colony, and in hot weather it will do very 

 well to be in a nucleus. 



2. It will work all right, and will help to 

 prevent swarming, but it will not be a sure 

 thine. 



8. I hardly think the bees will gnaw the 

 cappings, but they may be several days in 

 getting out; at least that would be my guess. 

 Besides, you would hardly want all the bees 

 in 10 or 12 supers to be given to one colony. 

 Better have an escape for each colony, or 

 else use it in turn on the different hives; 

 although it may do well enough to take a 

 super or two from one colony and give to 

 another. 



4. You may leave the excluder on the hive 

 when you add the T-super. or you may re 

 move it. There is little danger of the queen 

 going up if you remove it. 



Bees and All "On the Jump" 



Bees are keeping us on the jump. I never 

 knew them in better condition at thistime of 

 the year. There is more dandelion and 

 fruit-bloom than they can take care of. 



Marengo. 111.. May 13. Dr. C. C. Miller. 



Early Honey on the Market 



The first 'new orange-blossom honey ar- 

 rived here from Porterville to-day. .which is 

 early. Twenty-five cases of new honey sold 

 readily at q^A cents per pound for white. It 

 is the highest price in years, as the market 

 is clean of bulk. Geo. O. Parisen. 



San B'rancisco. Cal.. May 15. 



Appreciates the American Bee Journal 



The " old reliable " American Bee Journal 

 has been a great source of pleasure and 

 profit to me for the past 16 or 18 years, and 

 many a time a single copy was worth to mei 

 more than the price of a whole year's sub- 

 scription. W.M. H. BOECKEL. 



York. Pa.. May i. 



Bad Spring for Bees 



We had a bad spring for bees. I lost 13 

 colonies after I put them out of the cellar 

 with plenty of honey; but it has been cool 

 and cloudy most of the time. I still have 34 

 colonies left, and they are very strong in 

 bees and honey. The prospect is good, if 

 the blossoms on the trees don't freeze. 



L. M. Slaba. 



Buffalo Center. Iowa. May i. 



A Normal Honey Season 



This is a great May. Winter jumped sud- 

 denly off the lap of spring in the early days 

 of this month, and all vegetation is putting 

 on its best clothes. All fruits bloomed full 

 —now about over— and dandelions are yel- 

 lowing the pastures and roadsides. The 

 only thing to make a bee-keeper blue are too 

 many windy days, when bees with difficulty 

 reach the honied mines. 



Bees went through the winter fairly well, 

 and are building up nicely. Everything in- 

 dicates a normal honey season. 



Eugene Secor. 



Forest City. Iowa. May j8. 



A Queen Experience 



Last Saturday (April 15) I ventured out 

 with the bees between showers, and on pass- 

 ing by a colony that had cast a swarm only 

 2 days before, my attention was called to the 

 piping of the queen, so I just stooped low to 

 be sure that the piping was in this colony. 

 This was about S a.m. She would pipe 

 perhaps 18 or 20 times, and then stop short, 

 and perhaps in 10 minutes she would pipe 

 again, and she kept it up until 11 a.m.. when 

 I left for the house, thinking perhaps it 

 would cease raining in the afternoon, which 

 it did. 



I said to myself. "There is something 

 wrong with this colony." Sol went back. 



thinking that it was the swarming note, so 

 instead of waiting for a fair day to let them 

 swarm naturally with the chances of losing 

 them. I divided them, and they are both 

 satisfied and "working like mad." The col- 

 ony had 16 brood-frames in it. giving each 8 

 frames. 



I found 2 queens, 2 queen-cells capped, 

 and queen-cells uncapped. I used the 

 queen-cells that were sealed, in other colo- 

 nies, and both were accepted. On taking 

 out the frames on the side I found that the 

 bees had built out to the side of the hive to 

 allow cells to be built, and there I found 3 

 worms h of an inch long. So now I think 

 all will agree with me when I say that I do 

 not think it was so much a swarming note as 

 it was a distress signal, for the bees did not 

 give me any trouble. W. R. Cunningham. 



Rayville. La.. April 19. 



Cleaning Creosote from a Bee-Smoker 



A way to clean the creosote from a bee- 

 smoker, which I find is very good, is to 

 fasten a rag on the end of a stick and clean 

 it with hot water. I thought I would give 

 this, as there is probably more than one who 

 is puzzled about cleaning the smoker. It 

 might be of some benefit to anybody who 

 wants his things neat and clean. 



Master Thomas Leach. 



Sunol Glen. Calif. , 



[This will work all right if the bee-smoker 

 has not been used much, but a veteran 

 smoker will need some soaking.— Editor.) 



Texas as a Bee-State 



As to the Texas report on bee-keeping, as 

 given by Wm. E. Curtis, in the Chicago Rec- 

 ord-Herald (see page 136;. I would say that 

 Bee Co., Tex., was named in honor of Gen. 

 H. P. Bee. who served in the war with 

 Mexico. 



I also wish to say that there is no truth in 

 Mr. Curtis' statement that one man at Bee- 

 ville owns 8000 colonies of bees; and there is 

 not a factory in Texas that manufactures 

 bee-supplies, except in a small way, or for 

 the manufacturer's own use; although Texas 

 stands at the head of all the States in honey, 

 and should have can factories and bee-sup- 

 ply factories, too. G. F. Davidson. 



Big Foot. Tex. 



Hive Covers and Bottoms 



In the February American Bee Journal I 

 note the illustrations of Mr. Scholl's hive- 

 covers and bottoms, so I will describe those 

 I use, which I think are a great deal better. 



When I began bee-keeping I could not find 

 a cover that suited me; those sent out by the 

 manufacturers of bee-supplies, which have 

 the top boards fitted into a groove in the end 

 cleat will soon rot out on account of water 

 penetrating the joint; this is also the objec- 

 tion to Mr. .Scholl's cover. So after much 

 thinking over the matter I decided on this: 



I go to the lumber yard and get stuff the 

 right width to work out one inch wider than 

 the hive, using 2 pieces. Take it to the plan- 

 ing-mill and have it tongued-and-grooved the 

 same as flooring. Then one inch from tlie 

 edge I have a little groove cut, about % inch 



