3IO 



American IBae Journal 



October, ipLl. 



what is troubling you is that with the 

 numbers I give, the hive is not filled. 

 I should have explained that it is not 

 necessary to have the hive filled. Sup- 

 pose w^e have taken away all but 2 frames 

 from the old hive. Then suppose we put 

 into the hive 3 frames with starters. That 

 will make only 5 frames in the hive, leav- 

 ing the rest of the hive empty. But the 

 bees will not be likely to build in that 

 empty part before the 3 frames with 

 starters are advanced enough to be taken 

 away. Possibly they might, and it might 

 be better to have more than the total of 

 5 frames in the hive, but there is nothing 

 iron-clad about the whole business. 



3. It is probably better to have the 

 starters ' a little distance away from the 

 end-bars. With the comb built close up 

 against the end-bars there is less contour 

 for the bees to use for cells, and we want 

 the largest possible free edge for this pur- 

 pose. That is the object of two starters 

 instead of one : for with the two there 

 will be a wavy outer edge, and so a larger 

 amount of edge. 



4. Of course there must be something 

 more than a queen-excluder, for there 

 must be no communication. The cover is 

 put on the lower hive, and on this is 

 placed the other hive with its bottom- 

 board. "What would be the use of one 

 hive on the other?" So that there may be 

 no reduction of the strength of the col- 

 ony, or, in other words, that the colony 

 may be kept together. If, instead of put- 

 ting the hive on top of the other hive, 

 it be set on a separate stand, then when 

 the brood and bees are brought back 

 again a week or so later the field-bees 

 will go back to the stand from which 

 they were taken. If the one hive is 

 placed on the other, then when the con- 

 tents of the upper hive are put in the 

 lower hive the field-bees from above will 

 all go to the hive below. 



5. I don't know what w-ould be the dif- 

 ference in general. Some would very 

 likely value the new book at $2 or $3 

 more than the old ; while others would 

 not make a difference of 10 cents. It 

 depends upon how much they would care 

 for improvements made during the years 

 between the two editions. 



Too Much Rain — A Courageous Bee- 

 Man 



I have kept bees for 20 years, as many 

 as 200 colonies at one time, and made 

 them pay until the last 3 years. In 190S 

 my two yards averaged 100 pounds to 

 the colony. Since then I have not been 

 able to get a sheet of foundation drawn 

 out. The reason is this; In 1909 there 

 was one clear day during fruit-bloom, and 

 4 partly clear days during clover-bloom ; 

 in 1910, one clear day in fruit-bloom and 

 3 clear days in clover-bloom. This year 

 has been worse, for the bees could not 

 get out of the hives until April 25th. 

 More than half the colonies dwindled 

 down to nothing. The weather was fine 

 then until May 31st, when clover came 

 into bloom. It started to rain and kept 

 it up until clover was through bloom- 

 ing. Then the weather was fine until 

 August 20th, when fall flowers began 

 to come out. Then it started to rain, 

 and has rained ever since. In one week 

 10 inches of water fell. I often read 

 of the honey crop being cut short by the 

 lack of rain, but give me lack of rain, 

 every time. I never saw a season so dry 

 that I did not get some honey, but I 

 cannot get any honey when I have to 

 wear a rain-coat and rubber-boots all the 

 time. 



If the bee-papers and bee-books would 

 tell beginners that more depended upon 

 the weather, than anything else, there 

 would not be so many failures. In 1908 

 for the finest clover extracted honey, I 

 was offered 6 cents a pound by the honey- 

 sharks — that is what they are. This year 

 I must pay 7 cents a pound for sugar by 

 the barrel to feed the bees. But there 

 is a lot of pleasure in bee-keeping, even 

 if there is no honey. So I am not going 

 to give up. New Jersey. 



Answer. — I think it was Quinby who 

 said that the best time for a honey-yield 

 was when farmers w-ere just beginning to 

 complain of drouth, and he was probably 

 about right. The high price of sugar 

 (and it's a good bit higher than 7 cents 

 now) is rather discouraging for one who 

 has to feed ; but there's a silver lining 

 to the cloud, and the lining is a good 



Increase by Natural Swarming 



In your answer to "Missouri," page 

 24s, of the August number, you say: "Set 

 the swarm in place of the mother colony 

 and put the mother colony on the stand 

 of another colony. I have tried this 

 scheme several times, each time only to 

 see that young bees of the mother colony 

 are slaughtered by the returning field-bees 

 of the removed strong colony, and I have 

 been unable to find a just cause for such 

 behavior of these field-workers. My bees 

 are Italians and Caucasians. May be the 

 race of bees or locality may make some 

 difference, or else they have not read your 

 answers in the bee-papers! Kindly ex- 

 plain what makes the difference between 

 your bees and my bees. California. 



Answer. — Your surmise that your bees 

 have not been in the habit of reading my 

 answers seems to be the only one to -fit 

 the case ! Seriously, however, I must say 

 that I never heard of anything of the 

 kind before. I have known of a queen 

 being killed by returning field-bees when 

 a weak colony with a queen was put in 

 place of a strong one, but I never heard 

 of the young workers being killed in that 

 way. I don't know of a thing to offer as 

 to cause or cure. Has any one else had 

 a similar experience? and can any one 

 tell the cause, or the means of preven- 

 tion? 



bit bigger than the cloud. When sugar 

 was 5 cents a pound or less, it made the 

 price of honey look rather extravagant 

 to consumers. At 8 cents or more per 

 pound for sugar there will be less ob- 

 jection to a higher price on honey, and 

 even if you do have to pay big for sugar 

 to feed you ought more than to make it 

 up on your next crop, for like enough 

 you'll have a bumper crop next year. 

 But don't think that wet weather is the 

 only dread. I haven't a pound of sur- 

 plus this year and may have to feed 

 sugar, and it's all owing to the drouth. 



Moth-Worms in Comb Honey 



Did you ever have any trouble with moth- 

 worms gettinir into comb honey ? I had some 

 that got so full of worms after beintr removed 

 from the hives for a while that I decided to 

 put it back and let the bees clean it up, 

 whicti they did in 24 hours; but they also 

 "cleaned up" all the uncapped honey. It 

 was during a dearth. Virginia. 



Answer.— Yes. indeed, years a^o I had 

 lots of trouble with worms in sections. I 

 had to brimstone them soon after beintj 

 taken from the hives, and then again 2 weeks 

 later, because there were eggs at the first 

 fumigation that were not affected, but 

 hatched out later. That was when I had 

 bees that had a large amount of black blood 

 in them. Of late years 1 have no trouble of 

 the kind, probably because of the amount of 

 Italian blood present. If I had trouble with 

 worms now in comb honey, I think I should 

 use carbon disulfide. 



Bee-Stings in the Flesh 



Will that part of the bee's sting that goes 

 into the flesh, in the course of time, do any 

 harm ? The middle part of the sting is hard 

 to get out of the flesh, and if you watch it 

 you can see it working into the flesh. You 

 can not scrape it out or pull it out— at least 

 I am unable to get it out. What becomes of 

 it where one gets so many stings every year? 

 This has been a question with me: What 

 becomes of these stings in one's flesh ? Does 

 one suffer from them in later years, or do 

 they work out again ? New York. 



Answer.— The part of the sting that you 

 can not pull out, you will probably find is 

 one of the barbed parts, and aside from the 

 poison is no more injurious than a sliver of 

 wood of the same fineness. It is soon thrown 

 out. as any sliver is when left alone, and pro- 

 duces no effect whatever on the system. 



Thyme as a Honey-Plant — 15-Frame 

 Hive 



Dr. C. C. Miller:— At home, alone, and a 

 rain day is the excuse for pestering you with 

 a letter. I am enclosing a form of thyme- 

 French or scarlet. I think— to show its man- 

 ner of bloom. Perhaps you know more 

 about it than I do; if so, all right, but tor 

 fear you don't. lam going to tell what I know. 



A year ago, in Wilkesbarre. my attention 

 was called to it. that of the whole grand col- 

 lection on the river front a park). The bees 

 selected this as their favorite. I brought 

 a long a small tuft trer haps 1J4 inches square), 

 planted and cared for it, and by fall I had a 

 circular bed about a foot in diameter. This 

 lay so close to the ground and remained an 

 evergreen, that I conclued to push it for- 

 ward, and set plants around the house walls 

 where it is difficult to cut with the lawn- 

 mower, as this would not need cutting when 

 not in bloom. I set out possibly i2or 15. and 

 the circular patch is now about if^ inches in 

 diameter, and thickly covered with bloom. 

 From early to late I always see bees on it. 

 generally 3 or 4. and the work is continuous 

 on this little patch: they are often there in 

 a light rain. I think it will bloom until fall. 

 I think so much of it that I shall take every 

 opportunity to spread it. unless I find myself 

 much mistaken in the outcome. I do not 

 know if it seeds, or it the seed would grow- 



without special care. I will report at a 

 later date my experience with it as a honey- 

 plant. 



We had a severe drouth, almost wiping 

 out clover: now we have a fine stand of 

 clover, but. alas! entirely too wet. and the 

 month nearly gone. Though we do some- 

 times get clover in July, it is not often longer 

 than a week. 



What little work is being done on clover is 

 the stunted red clover, and here the red- 

 clover Italians shows they are a humbug, tor 

 the greatest proportion of bees working it 

 are blacks. They worked it more than 50 

 years ago, as I remember, under like condi- 

 tions, and especially the second crop. 



Honey has been a feeble crop here for the 

 past two years in succession, and it now 

 looks much like another failure, as there is. 

 so tar, no super work except a trifle from 

 fruit-bloom, where bait-combs were filled. 

 I always give supers to the very strongest 

 colonies in fruit-bloom. 



I am now drittingto a 15-frame hive— Dan- 

 zenbaker-trame size. The Danzenbaker 

 frame is about the meanest frame to handle 

 ever invented, and. it ever a perplexing thing 

 was put on the market that's the sinner: 

 especially when it calls tor much inspection, 

 as in black brood 



Now about this 15-trame hive; bottom- 

 boards 2 inches deep (your plan\ and en- 



