lUlU 



GLKANlXaS IN BEE CULTL KE 



701 



Heads of Grain 



from Different Fields 



Investing in a Good-sized Apiary at the Start. 



I should like to ask Mr. A. I. Hoot a question. I 

 have been keeping bees In a small way foi- twenty 

 years. I like them, and have read Gleanings and 

 other bee-publications for a long time. Now, Mr. 

 Root, would it be a safe investment for me to put 

 SoOO In bees? Could a man with just himself and 

 wife make a living with 100 to 150 colonies If the lo- 

 cation is good? I understand the man and loca- 

 tion are every thing. 



Sandwich, Ont., Sept. 20. Eli E. Wright. 



[Many thanks, my good friend, for the confidence 

 which you seem to have in A. I. Root. In answer 

 to your question I would say, by no manner of 

 means put $500 into bees to start on — that is, unless 

 you have had a good deal of experience in manag- 

 ing a large apiary. Years ago my neighbor, E. B. 

 Rood, down in Florida, wrote and asked just about 

 the question you propose. 1 told him to begin on a 

 small scale and build up as he got experience, and 

 not think of investing heavilv at the outset. Well, 

 that was years ago. A few days ago he told me he 

 had felt indebted to me all his life for that advice, 

 given when it cut off the prospect of selling him a 

 lot of goods at that time. He now has half a dozen 

 out-apiaries and several hundred colonie.s. and is 

 doing a good business with bees; but if he had in- 

 vested as he thought of doing when I gave him that 

 advice, he said it would, without question, have 

 ended In disaster.— A. I. R,] 



A Virgin of a Supersedure Colony Going into the 

 Wrong Hive. 



I have a colony which has superseded its queen. 

 Last evening I found a virgin dead In front of an- 

 other hive, and this morning the bees of the super- 

 seding colony were running about in front of the 

 hive, acting as if queenless. Now, my bees have 

 stopped rearing brood, so how can I tell for certain 

 whether they are queenless? I can find no cells nor 

 young brood in any hive. 



Westfield, N. Y., Sept. 30. F. L. Wheeler. 



[It seems reasonably clear that the virgin queen, 

 when she left the hive of the superseding colony to 

 take her wedding-flight, on recurning went into the 

 wrong hive and was killed. This, of cour.se, left her 

 colony queenless. In all probability — in fact, we 

 may say you could be rea.sonably certain that the 

 superseding colony is now hopelessly queenless. 

 unless, indeed, you could find that the old queen is 

 there, which is hardly probable, considering the 

 behavior of the bees. 



We would advi.se introducing a laying queen, 

 which you can get tlirough the mails. Introduce 

 in the regular way except this — that, when she is 

 relea.sed, watch the behavior of the bees toward 

 her. If they ball her upon releasing, after she has 

 been caged for three or four day.s, the i>resuniption 

 is that the old queen is in the hive. But before you 

 send away for a queen look the hive over several 

 times, taking an hour for it in the forenoon and 

 perhaps an hour in the afternoon. If you do not 

 find any thing that looks like a queen you may rest 

 assured that the colony is queenless. — Ed.] 



The Efficiency of Different Races Depends on 

 Locality. 



Our season was one of disappointments. The ear- 

 ly spring gave the bees the best start ever known, 

 and we had visions of supers piled high. However, 

 during fruit-bloom and white-clover season the 

 colonies were on the point of starvation, and for 

 six weeks death stared the bees in the face. Since 

 that time there has been a wonderful change, and 

 we have had to hustle. Some of my Banat colonies 

 are in their fourth super of 32 sections each, the su- 

 mac and buckwheat being In full blast, with gold- 

 enrod and asters to follow. 



Our locality here is wooded, a strip from ten to 

 fifteen miles wide extending from the Massachu- 

 setts line, and running on the eastern border of 



Connecticut and the western border of Rhode Isl- 

 and to Ix)ng Island Sound. It is what might prac- 

 tically be called a wilderness, l^ee-keepers here 

 have tried the Italians, but have largely discarded 

 them. Moreover, it is the common expre.ssion of 

 bee-hunters that they never find an Italian colony 

 with any honey worth mentioning. My blacks and 

 their near cousins are, as usual, leaving the Ital- 

 ians far behind. On the other hand, it is highly 

 probable that for the West, and open countries, and 

 where the nectar sources are more abundant, the 

 Italians certainly do excel. If it were not so they 

 would be discarded as a matter of course. If the 

 Italians jiaid as well I would keep no others, for I 

 love to see those beautiful yellow bees. 

 Oneco, Ct. T. B. MowKY. 



Wintering Outdoors in Wisconsin. 



Last spring I bought thirty colonies of bees, and 1 

 want to know how to winter them outdoors. I am 

 accustomed to bees, but I never could make a suc- 

 cess of wintering. The bees are in double-walled 

 hives with four-inch space all around. Each hive 

 has a four-inch super, packed with sawdust, also 

 the flat summer cover. Which would be prefera- 

 ble? I can make a Hill device of barrel-hoops, to 

 15ut under ihe sawdust cushion, if needed, and then 

 put a cloth or paper over that. 



Would it be desirable to contract the brood- 

 chamber at the risk of leaving too small an amount 

 of honey in the hives? Each hive contains abovit 

 40 lbs. of honey now. 



Evansville, Wis. R. W. Standish. 



[We do not believe that you will have much diffi- 

 culty in wintering those colonies if they are in the 

 condition you say they are. It would be well, how- 

 ever, to select a place that is sheltered as much as 

 possible from the prevailing cold winds. If you 

 have had difficulty before In wintering outdoors it 

 might be that the stores were not of good quality. 

 If the honey is dark and of inferior flavor, it might 

 be best to extract it and substitute sugar syrup. 



Here in Medina we use sealed covers — that is. 

 thin super-covers under the chaflf-tray. I'sually a 

 more porous packing than sawdust such as chaff, 

 planer-shavings, or ground cork is to be preferred. 



It depends upon the size of the colonies whether 

 any contraction is necessary. It does not pay to 

 winter a weak colony on more combs than the 

 bees can cover well. It is best to err on the safe 

 side, and have too much honey in the combs rather 

 than not enough. — Ed.] 



Screening Hives in a Cellar. 



My bee-keeping experience has just started. I 

 have twelve colonies in No. 1 condition for another 

 year. I want to put them in my cellar this winter. 

 I have a furnace ; and the vegetable-room, where I 

 should like to put the bees, is dry. having a temper- 

 ature of about ■15'^. \\'ould it be advi.sable for me to 

 put a wire screen over the front of the hives so as to 

 keep the bees in? I do not want to let them out in 

 the cellar. 



LeonardsvIUe. N. Y. C. L. Crandall. 



[We believe that this room will be a suitable 

 place for your bees, but we would not recommend 

 the use of wire cloth over the entrances. We have 

 tried this plan quite thoroughly, and we have 

 found that the results are far from satisfactory. If 

 you can control the temperature of the cellar, and 

 see that the air is fresh, we do not think the bees 

 will bother you to any great extent about leaving 

 the hives; but it will be necessary for you to have 

 the room darkened. — Eu.] 



Combs of Honey versus Sugar Syrup for Winter 

 Stores 



I find that my brood-chambers are almost empty 

 of honey, the bees placing practically all of it above 

 the excluders in the supers. For winter would yoti 

 advise me to feed sugar or to use sealed combs, of 

 which I have a plenty? 



When would be the best time to put the sealed 

 combs into the brood-chambers? 



How would it do to winter in two ten-frame bod- 

 ies, leaving the empty combs in the lower one, and 

 having the sealed honey in the upper one? 



Poltimore. Quebec. 11. R. Rabb. 



[It would be all right for you to insert the combs 

 of sealed honey, as honey Is necessary in your hives 

 for winter: but unless you have no extractor, and 



