July. 191 1. 



211 



American Hee Jonrnall 



Dr. Millers 



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. 



Extracting Supers and Combs from Infected Colo- 

 nies, Etc. 



1. Ate extracting supers that have been 

 used on hives infected with American foul 

 brood, after being extracted, safe to use on 

 healtliy colonies ? 



2. Are combs that have contained Ameri- 

 can foul brood, and later tilled with honey 

 by a diseased colony, then extracted, safe 

 to use again on healthy colonies over Queen- 

 excluders? 



3. Is there any gain with a new swarm of 

 bees by feeding them for a week or 10 days ? 



4. Is the State bee inspector paid by the 

 State, or by those whose bees he inspects ? 



Illinois. 



Answers.— I. Some say yes. some say no. 

 I suspect that the truth is that sometimes 

 the disease is thereby conveyed, and some- 

 times not. It will be the safe thing to avoid 

 using them. 



2. No. 



3. That depends upon the weather and 

 honey-flow. If a heavy flow is on. it is not 

 w.orth while to feed. If. however, the 

 weather should suddenly turn bad so that 

 nothing could be gathered from the fields, it 

 would pay big to feed; otherwise everything 

 would be at a standstill, if. indeed, starva- 

 tion did not result. 



4. The State pays. 



Transferring Bees from a Cable-Box 



How can I tranfer bees from a telephone 

 cable-box on a pole to a standard hive ? It 

 must be a plan to move them in about 3 

 hours' notice. I keep bees at home with 

 success, but have never been able to make a 

 successful transfer from a cable-box. 



New York. 



Answer. — If the combs are clear of the 

 wires, all you have to do is to smoke the 

 bees and cut out the combs; but if the wires 

 are all through the combs I'm afraid it's a 

 rather hopeless case to try to save the 

 combs. You might, however, get out the 

 bees by heavy smoking or using chloroform. 



Transferring Bees to New Frames and Hives 



I have 6 colonies just now Italianized, in 

 all sizes and kinds of hives. I don't like to 

 interfere now until the honey-flow is over, 

 but would like to transfer all my bees into 

 lo-frame dovetailed hives, as in the old hives 

 all the frames are not wired, and are so diffi- 

 cult to handle. Just yesterday, when it was 

 01 degrees in the shade. I was examining 

 for queen-cells, and when I held the frame 

 up against the light, off fell the whole comb 

 and the queen on the ground, and I was just 

 lucky to find the queen to-day. Such'things 

 would not happen if the frames were wired. 

 Now-, would it be loo late to remove trans- 

 fer the bees by Aug. ist. from the old hives 

 and combs to the new hives with frames 

 with full sheets of foundation ? 



I read in Alexander's book that the best 

 way to do this is to place an empty body 

 with frames having full sheets of foundation 

 over the old hive. Then take a brood-frame 

 with the queen from below and put in the 

 upper hives, and put a queen-excluder be- 

 tween the 2 hives, and in 3 weeks the hive 

 below can be taken away, and you have on 

 top a new-made hive, as the bees will carry 

 all the honey from below into the upper 

 hive, and the hive below will contain only 

 old, empty combs, good for wax. and the 

 upper hives can be put on the place of the 

 olQ hives. Now. I read again the reverse 

 from the breeders. They advise putting the 

 old hives on top. so I would like to know 

 which is the proper, quickest and surest 

 way to transfer, as I stated, after Aug. ist, 

 so 1 can have my bees removed on new 

 frames and into new hives, with full storage 

 for the winter. Wisconsin. 



Answer,— Whether you can get new 

 combs built out after Aug. ist depends upon 

 the honey-flow. If there is a heavy fall flow 



it will be all right; if there is a dearth.it 

 may be a bad failure So unless you feel 

 pretty sure of a good flow after you give the 

 foundation you would better not undertake 

 it. 



Bees will build comb either above or be- 

 low an excluder. Below seems the more 

 natural way. as bees left to themselves al- 

 ways have their brood below and honey 

 above. 



You do not say whether you work for comb 

 honey or extracted. If you work for ex- 

 tracted, you can have your combs built out 

 nicely in the early flow, and without inter- 

 fering at all with the honey crop. Just be- 

 fore swarming begins, or as soon as bees be- 

 gin to work well on clover, put the queen 

 with one frame of brood below the excluder, 

 filling out the lower story with frames of 

 foundation, and put a frame of foundation 

 in the upper story. As soon as the queen 

 has made a start at laying on one or more of 

 the frames of foundation — that will likely 

 be in 2 to 4 days— let the old frame of brood 

 in the lower story exchange places with the 

 frame of foundation in the upper story. 

 Eight days after making this last exchange 

 it will be well to kill queen-cells, if any. in 

 the upper story. As fast as the brood 

 hatches out above, the cells will be filled 

 with honey, and the upper story will be- 

 come an extracting-chamber. In no other 

 way will you probably succeed so well in 

 getting your new combs built. This is just a 

 little variation from the Demaree plan of 

 preventing swarming, and will allow a big 

 crop of honey if the season is favorable. 



Brood -Ctiamber Honey-Bound— Moving Bees to 

 Bucltwiieat Flow 



1. Clover is in full flow here, and while the 

 bees are not as strong as desirable, owing to 

 the late spring, they are working well, but 

 they seem to have too much honey in the 

 brood-chamber. This is mostly old honey, 

 and as my hives are only 8-frame, they need 

 all the space possible for brood. I have no 

 extractor. Is there any wiy to get this honey 

 from the combs into the sections, or can 1 

 make the bees dispose of it in any way ? 



2. I have 25 colonies of bees which 1 want to 

 move about 3^ miles for a buckwheat flow 

 which begins in early August. The nights 

 are quite cool then. Do you think there 

 would be danger of the combs melting? 

 They are mostly old, and the new ones are 

 wired. New York. 



Answers.— I. It is something unusual to 

 have too much honey in the brood-chamber. 

 and you will likely find that there will be no 

 trouble about it. When the bees get to 

 storing in supers, if there is not as much 

 room as they want for the brood, they will 

 most likely empty the honey out of some of 

 the cells and carry it upstairs. If you think 

 they are not doingthis as much as you would 

 like, you might uncap some of the sealed 

 honey. You can also take out a comb that is 

 filled with honey, replacing it with an empty 

 comb or a frame filled with foundation. 

 These frames of sealed honey can be kept 

 over until needed, for it would be nothing 

 strange if you might need them this fall, and 

 almost certain that you may need some an- 

 other spring, for it is the usual thing that 

 frames of scaled honey are needed in the 

 spring. Or. if there is no danger that neigh- 

 bors' pees would get the honey, you might 

 set out the frames of honey for the bees to 

 rob out. and they would use it the same as 

 iioney from the field. 



2. If you give the ventilation that is needed 

 for tlie welfare of the bees, there is little 

 danger of the combs melting down. A spray- 

 ing of cold water on the way will help mat- 

 ters. 



Colony at a Standstill— Putting On Supers 



I. I have one colony of bees that seems to 

 be at a standstill, and has been for about 10 

 to 14 days. They carry some pollen and 

 honey, but are not nearly as active as they 



should be. I looked into the hive when I 

 first noticed it and found they had brood, 

 and about a week later I looked again and 

 found they did not have as much. They 

 have plenty o( honey, so that can not be the 

 trouble. I looked for the queen but could 

 not find her. but I think I did not take 

 enough time to find her. Can you tell what 

 is wrong, and what I can do for her ? 



2. An old man in this vicinity, who has 

 been keeping bees for about 30 years, told 

 me to put on the super at about clover 

 bloom, and when one-half full put on an- 

 other one under the one-half full one, and 

 about a week later change again by putting 

 the top one at the bottom, etc. What is 

 your opinion ? 



1. .Another tells me to try the above change 

 about once a week, and to take out the one- 

 pound sections as soon as one is full, and re- 

 place by empty ones, and in this way the 

 bees are not so apt to swarm as to put on 

 supers. Iowa, 



Answers.— I. I'm afraid the colony is 

 queenless, and that when you examined 

 there was nothing but sealed brood present. 

 If that is the trouble, the remedy is to fur- 

 nish the colony with a queen or a queen-cell, 

 or else to unite it with another colony, per- 

 haps a weak colony having a good queen. 



2. The advice is all right till it comes to 

 that last change, having the two supers ex- 

 change places, and instead of that you may 

 find it better to put a third super under as 

 soon as the second is half filled, provided a 

 good flow is still on. 



3. It's a good deal of work to take out one 

 section at a time, and you will probably hin- 

 der swarming just as much by putting fresh 

 supers under as fast as there is any need for 

 them. 



Making Candy for Queen-Cages 



How can I make ciueen-candy for introduc- 



ing-cages ? 



Colorado. 



Answer.— Heat a little extracted honey 

 don't burn it), and stir into it some powdered 

 sugar. Keep adding all the sugar you can 

 until you have a stiff dough. Even after you 

 seem to have it quitestiff youcanstill knead 

 in more sugar. Then let it stand a day or 

 so, and very likely you can knead in a little 

 more sugar. No danger of getting it too 

 thin. You will notice that no definite quan- 

 tities are given, but you will use several 

 times as much sugar as honey. At a rough 

 guess I should say that if you begin with one 

 spoonful of honey you will have 5 spoontuls 

 of candy. Of course, if at any time you 

 should get in too much sugar you can add 

 honey. It is not really necessary to heat 

 the honey, only it hurries up the work a 

 little. 



Moving Bees On the Railroad 



I am expecting to move in about 3 months, 

 and the distance is about 40 miles, whicti 

 will be by railroad, the bees loaded in a car. 

 How shall I arrange them, as I have about 27 

 colonies in dovetail standard hives. How 

 early can they be moved this fall ? 



New Jersey. 



Answer. -By giving enough ventilation 

 you can ship at any time but perhaps the 

 best time will be just before cold weather- 

 sets in, say late in October. Then you will 

 have the advantage of cool weather, with 

 less danger of suffocation, and with less 

 danger of combs breaking down from the 

 heat; whereas, if you wait ti 1 very cold 

 weather there is danger of combs breaking, 

 being brittle with the cold. 



Hut your hives in the car with the frames 

 running from front to rear, that is, parallel 

 with the track. If you do not pile one on 

 top of the other it will be very easy to fasten 

 them in the car. Just nail strips of inch 

 boards on the floor about each hive, so it 

 can not move in any direction. If you pile 

 one on another, then timbers running across 

 the car and fastened with cleats at the sides 

 of the car must keep the hives from moving. 



Feeding Foul-Broody Honey— Hive-Covers 



L Yesterday I received a letter froni 

 Washington. D. C telling me the sample of 

 brood was European foul brood. I am at 

 work, and now there is a good honey-How. 1 

 have no extractor, nor is there one near me. 

 Moth had gotten in lots of the weak colonies, 

 so I had to cut them out to save them. I 

 have no time to get an extractor. I will ren- 

 der the wax tomorrow. There wi I be 100 or 

 more pounds of chunk honey. A little of it 

 Isold honey and the balance new. If 1 boil 



