September, igii. 



275 



American Vee Journal 



from abroad, or attractions, so that 

 all would be interested, or more so 

 than at present. Whether this new 

 move would help us, or we help the 

 National. I cannot sa}', hut likely 

 the benefit would be mutual. 



I hope this association will join 

 the National, in a body — this year, 

 especially — as it would be to our ad- 

 vantage should the suggested feature 

 of the National carry. 



Remus. Mich. 



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 maiU 



Different Kinds of Buckwheat 



Is there any difference in buckwheat? 

 I have planted it twice in my garden for 

 a cover crop after early vegetables had 

 grown, so that my bees would have some- 

 thing to work on late. It blossomed fine 

 both times, but has no sweet smell what- 

 ever, and the bees do not work on it. 

 I remember when I was a boy up in Wis- 

 consin, we could smell a buckwheat field 

 a mile, and the bees were crazy after it. 



Illinois. 



Answer. — Yes. there are different kinds 

 of buckwheat. The Japanese was boomed 

 greatly with its large grains, but nowadays 

 it seems to have fallen into disrepute. 

 The Silver-hull is in good repute, and 

 perhaps there is no kind better for the 

 bees than just plain buckwheat. Like 

 enough, however, the trouble in your case 

 is not with the kind. Buckwheat does 

 not always yield nectar, and somehow it 

 seems to be less reliable than in former 

 years, but that may be only a notion. 

 The locality, too, may have something to 

 do in the case. Some soils seem to be 

 just right and others not. 



Growing Sweet Clover 



1. Please give me directions for grow- 

 ing sweet clover. 



2. I have 40 acres of rocky land. I 

 have plenty of water to irrigate the land 

 in the winter season, but would not have 

 much to spare in summer. Does the sweet 

 clover require much water? 



3. How many pounds of seed will it 

 take to the acre ? W'HIl it make as much 

 or more than alfalfa seed? 



New Mexico. 



Answers. — i. It needs about the same 

 cultivation as alfalfa, although here it 

 seems to do well on the hardest kind of 

 ground on the roadside, where the seed 

 is tramped in. In soft and nicely pre- 

 pared ground it kills out badly in winter 

 from heaving. It may be that it would 

 not do so with you. 



2. Like all other plants, it must have 

 moisture, but will grow with perhai'ps less 

 than most other plants. 



.1. Use about the same amount as of 

 alfalfa. Indeed, if you should by mistake 

 sow sweet clover in place of alfalfa, you 

 might hardly know the difference the first 

 year, but the second year there is much 

 difference in appearance. Unlike alfalfa, 

 sweet clover dies root and branch in or 

 before the seconrl winter. 



Double 8-Frame Hives 



I am using the 8-frame hive with su- 

 pers the same size as the hive for ex- 

 tracted honey. When I put on the supers 

 I took one frame out of the brood-nest 

 and put in the super to get them to start 

 in it. This plan worked fine as far as 

 getting them to work. But what did the 

 queen do? She just made the whole busi- 



ness into a brood-nest. How would it be 

 to get queens for those supers, and take 

 them away and make them into brood- 

 chambers? I would like a good stock of 

 bees for another season. Would I need 

 to take them away some distance to pre- 

 vent them from coming back to the same 

 hive? New Me.xico. 



.\nswer. — Yes, you can make a new 

 colony, and without taking the bees far 

 away. If you do nothing but to move 

 the super to a new place 10 feet away, or 

 farther, you may have good success. But 

 it is somewhat a matter of chance as to 

 the kind of queen you will have. By 

 taking a little pains you can be more sure 

 of having a good queen. The best kind 

 of queen is not reared in a weak, discour- 

 aged colony. When you move that super 

 to a new place, all the field-bees will re- 

 turn to the old colony, and if the queen 

 is left in the old hive the bees in the 

 super will not be in the best heart to 

 rear a queen. When you move the super 

 to the new stand, if you crowd grass or 

 green leaves into the entrance so that no 

 bees can return for a day or two, the 

 super will not be so much depleted of 

 bees. You may take a still better course. 

 See that the queen is put on the new 

 stand. That will leave the part on the 

 old stand the queenless one, with abund- 

 ance of bees and honey coming in. and 

 they will be in good heart to rear a 

 queen. If you leave them without any 

 further attention, a swarm may issue in 

 12 days or so. and if you are anxious 

 for increase that will be all right, but 

 there is some danger that the bees will 

 be too weak for winter in one of the 

 hives. If you do not want them to swarm, 

 10 days after the division let the two 

 hives swap places. The bees will do the 

 rest. 



European Foul Brood — Carniolan 

 Bees and Foul Brood 



1. Black or European foul brood is in 

 every apiary in my locality, and as we 

 never had it before, we thought it chilled 

 brood, on account of the cold, backward 

 spring, and more than 50 percent of the 

 bees were lost. We are now making a 

 concentrated effort to eradicate the dis- 

 ease by Dr. Miller's plan. We would 

 like to know about his latest experience 

 with this disease. 



2. I am requeening my entire apiary 

 with Carniolan queens, as I have come 

 to the conclusion that the most prolific 

 bees are the most resistant to foul brood, 

 and in this I believe I am backed up by 

 Mr. Ralph Benton. How about it? 



California. 



Answers. — i. You will find this year's 

 experience given on another page of this 

 number. 



2. There is a very general belief that 

 the introduction of pure Italian blood is 

 an important step toward the eradication 

 of European foul brood and some may 



think the same of Carniolans. It may 

 be that there is something about Italians 

 or some other blood through which it 

 comes to pass that if two colonies side 

 by side are of equal energy, one of them 

 being of pure Italian blood and the other 

 mostly black, the one of pure Italian blood 

 will be the more nearly immune to foul 

 brood. But I doubt it. I think it is true 

 that, as a general rule. Italians will fight 

 foul brood better than blacks, not be- 

 cause they are Italians, but because they 

 are more energetic than the others. So 

 I suspect it will be found that the most 

 energetic bees, no matter wJiat the kind, 

 will be the ones that will do the most 

 toward keeping down foul brood. I do 

 not remember seeing prolificness claimed 

 as a thing to help against foul brood. 

 Yet prolificness helps toward it in one 

 respect, that it helps to keep strong colo- 

 nies, and it is very important with Euro- 

 pean foul brood that colonies be strong. 



Stores for Winter — Extracting- 

 Supers 



1. In preparing bees for winter, would 

 it be best to leave the hive full of honey, 

 or leave some empty combs for brood? 



2. Do deep hive-bodies do as well as 

 supers Texas. 



.Answers. — i. Don't you worry about 

 room for brood. The best you can do at 

 getting the brood-chamber filled with 

 honey, no doubt there will be by spring 

 plenty of room for brood, and the bees 

 need no room for brood late in the fall. 

 Some, however, think it better for them 

 to have some empty cells to cluster on in 

 winter, but they will have these emptied 

 out in good time. 



2. As well as supers for what? Per- 

 haps you mean for extracting purposes. 

 There is very little difference between 

 having shallow frames for extracting, and 

 having them the same as the frames in 

 the brood-chamber. 



Empty Combs for Swarms — Sowing 

 Sweet Clover Seed 



1. Do you consider it all right to give 

 empty comb to a newly-hived swarm ? 



2. Will the queen start laying in empty 

 comb when given the new swarm ? 



3. I have 2 or 3 colonies which have 

 not made any headway, on account of 

 the dry spell. Do you think it is all right 

 to give them combs with honey and some 

 empty combs ? 



4. What time of the year do you think 

 is best to sow sweet clover? Iowa. 



Answers. — i. Yes. 



2. Yes, if the combs are in good condi- 

 tion she will begin laying sooner than 

 if empty frames or only foundation are 

 given. If the combs are in such bad con- 

 dition that it takes the bees a good while 

 to clean up, she may be slower at laying 

 than if empty frames were given. 



3. I'm not sure that I see just what 

 you are driving at in your third ques- 

 tion, but in any case it can hardly be 

 wrong to give such combs to colonies 

 that are doing little. It may be that you 

 want the combs taken care of ; and there 

 is nothing better than to give them to 

 the bees. Or, your scheme may be to 

 put them on the hives ready to be filled 

 with honey if a good fall flow comes, and 

 that would be all right. 



4. Almost any time will do, but perhaps 

 there is no better time than in the spring, 

 at the time when farmers sow other 

 clover-seed. 



Clogged Brood-Chambers, and No 

 Super-Work 

 "Why don't bees go into supers?" 

 Brood-chambers are clogged with brood 



