January, 1916. 



American ^ee Journal 



veils, for the bees did not wake up till 

 some time after they were in the cellar. 

 The precaution had been taken, how- 

 ever, to crack the hives loose from the 

 stands the evening before, by raising 

 them up. If this had not been done, 

 the jar given when a hive frozen to its 

 stand was lifted wouUl have wakened 

 the bees before the cellar was reached, 

 and then there would have been trou- 

 ble. But the hives were lifted and car- 

 ried so quietly that the bees didn't rea- 

 lize what was going on. Each man 

 took hold of a cleat in each hand, 

 raised the hive, set it on his knee, then 

 put an arm under each cleat, letting his 

 fingers reach around the farther side 

 of the hive, and with the hive thus 

 tightly hugged against his breast went 

 on his way. That's one advantage of 

 the 8-frame hive, an advantage not to 

 be despised, that it is so light that it 

 can be picked up and carried thus 

 quietly by one man without any cere- 

 mony. But that advantage is more 

 than an offset by the uncomfortable 

 feeling that a larger hive would be so 

 much safer against running short of 

 stores. 



Honey Recipes 



CAKE WITHOUT SUGAR. 



Sugar, too, seems an almost indis- 

 pensable ingredient of cake ; yet with 



thick honey on hand, a delicious cake 

 may be evolved. Cream until very light 

 half a cupful of butter, and add, a little 

 at a time, I - 1 of a cupful of thick honey. 

 Have two eggs beaten lightly, add 

 these to the butter and honey with one 

 teaspoonful of caraway seeds (these, of 

 course, may be omitted) and two tea- 

 spoonfuls of baking powder sifted with 

 two cupfuls of Hour. Beat the batter 

 well, turn into a ring mold that has 

 been well greased and dredged with 

 flour and bake about 35 minutes. Ice 

 when cold with a lemon frosting. 



VIRGINIA HO.MEY MUFFINS. 



Beat one egg well and mix in half 

 cupful of milk, l}i tablespoonfuls of 

 melted butter, )i cupful of honey, lyi 

 cupfuls of flour sifted together with 2 

 level teaspoonfuls of baking powder. 

 Bake in buttered muffin tins for 20 

 minutes. 



HONEY FLUFF. 



Three cupfuls of granulated sugar.' 

 >2 cupful of strained honey, % cupfu 

 of water, one teaspoonful of lemon ex- 

 tract, and whites of 2 eggs. 



Boil together until the mixture hard- 

 ens in cold water, then pour it slowly 

 over the well-beaten whites of two 

 eggs. Flavor and beat together until 

 stiff enough to drop on buttered pa- 

 per. One cupful of chopped nut-meats 

 may be added. — Good ITousekeefing. 



Dr.Miller*s <^ Answers^ 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



Dr. C. C. Miller. Marengo, II',. 



He does not answer bee-keeping questions by mail. 



To Correspondents 



I have a letter containing some questions 

 about bees, wi;h this (or a postscript: "I 

 wrote to you last month, but you did not an- 

 swer. I have been taking the American Bee 

 Journal for about three years " I make it 

 my business to answer every letter that 

 comes in time so the answers can appear in 

 the next issue. But some do not realize 

 that it takes considerable time to write an- 

 swers, mail them, have them put in type, 

 print, bind, and mail the journal. So if a 

 letter comes from a considerable distance, 

 and is not started until the middle of the 

 month, it may happen to be too late to ap- 

 pear in the first following issue. In some 

 cases, too, it makes a difference whether 

 the letter is directed to the American Bee 

 Journal at Hamilton, or directly to me at 

 Marengo, III. So it is the better plan always 

 to send questions directly to me. In the 

 present case I remember answering the 

 same questions, so of course it would not 

 be wise to repeat the answers. 



Some prefer that their names shall not 

 appear with their questions, and so do not 

 sign their letters with their names, but 

 only with the name of their post-office or 

 State. In no case is the writer's name 

 printed unless a particular request to that 

 effect be made. But on more than one 

 account it is desirable to have the proper 

 signature; so please sign your name always, 

 and you may be sure it will not be printed. 

 And whatever you do, don't ask answers by 

 mail. C, C, MUler. 



Spoiled Zinc 



I have about 200 perforated zincs being 

 eaten up by some white substance that 

 forms on them. 



1. Could you tell me what is the cause 

 of it? 



2. What should a person do to prevent it ? 



Illinois. 



[Dr. Miller being unable to answer the 

 above questions, the matter was submitted 

 to an expert in metals, who replies;! 



Answers.— I. The white formation on the 

 zinc in question is caused either by contact 

 with something of a corrosive nature, such 

 as an acidulous liquid or substance, or it 

 may be the result simply of exposure to air, 

 and particularly to damp air. 



2. To prevent it. paint the zinc with boiled 

 linseed oil. which, while it will dry slowly, 

 will make a permanent, durable coating 

 which will protect the zinc from the effects 

 of exposure, etc. 



The corrosion may be removed by using a 

 stiff wire hand-brush, such as may be bought 

 of jewelers' supply houses. 



Treating Bees for American Foulbrood 



I see that you gave combs of honey to two 

 colonies this fall. 1 tried the same thing 

 two years ago. but it did not prove a suc- 

 cess with me. Both colonies built up very 

 rapidly in the spring, but American foul- 

 brood appeared in a few cells in the middle 

 of summer and I tried the regular plan with 

 success. I am anxious to know how you 

 succeed. 



Another colony showed a few cells. I fed 

 it. as well as others that might be affected, 

 syrup with salicylic acid and carbolic 

 acid. The disease disappeared in this one. 



but later it swarmed twice, which left it 

 very weak. Later I found three cells of dis- 

 eased brood. They built up rapidly, and 

 when the youny queen filled the hive with 

 brood. I could hnd no trace of disease. 



Iowa. 



Answer.— You gave frames of sealed 

 honey in the fall, and a few cells of Ameri- 

 can foulbrood appeared in the middle of the 

 next summer. That is hardly conclusive 

 proof against that plan of treatment, for the 

 disease might iiave come from outside. At 

 any rate failure in a few cases should not 

 entirely overcome the testimony of success 

 in so many other cases. 



You remove<l the only frame in which you 

 found the disease, and it did not reappear. 

 That would likely work in some cases, and 

 fail in others. 



Across the water no small dependence is 

 placed upon feeding medicated syrup, but 

 in this country it is generally agreed that it 

 is useless. Whatever may be the case with 

 European foulbrood. for American foulbrood 

 the only safe thing seems to be to shake, un- 

 less it be that it is just as well to give sealed 

 combs in fall. In either case there must be 

 the destruction of the diseased combs. 



When to Treat European Foulbrood? 



1, Late this fall several cases of European 

 foulbrood have developed. I first doubled 

 them up and shook one of them. Now a 

 week or so ago I went into them again and 

 found (in two of them) no trace of foulbrood. 

 The shook swarms are also all right. Now 

 these -swarms are liable to break out again 

 in the spring. What is the earliest time 

 that you would advise to treat them ? Would 

 you advise the lo day method with requeen- 

 ing? 



2. If I put a queenlessswarm on full sheets 

 of worker foundation, or if they lose their 

 queen soonafter I hive them, will they build 

 any more drone-cells than they would if 

 they had a queen ? Of course, if they had 

 only starters they would. Iowa. 



Answers — i. In most cases I should hardly 

 expect a recurrence of the disease. In any 

 mild case of European foulbrood. if the 

 queen were a good one that I wanted to keep, 

 I should cage her for lo days in the hive and 

 then free her. If the queen were poor, or if 

 I could give a better one. I would kill the 

 queen and at the same time introduce a vir- 

 gin just emerged, or else introduce a laying 

 queen 10 days after the killing. In a severe 

 case I should kill the queen and proceed as 

 just mentioned. Operateas soon as conven- 

 ient after bees have gotten nicely to work in 

 spring. 



2. If you have a queenless swarm, it is not 

 likely that it will build at all, but will return 

 to the mother colony. A swarm will also re- 

 turn if it should lose its queen within two or 

 three days after being hived, or even longer 

 than that. But if it should lose its queen at 

 any time too late to return to the old hive, 

 you would be pretty sure to find a let-up in 

 comb-building, with drone-comb put in 

 wherever there might be any place not en- 

 tirely filled with worker-foundation. Some 

 have even reported the worker-foundation 

 torn down or changed to drone-cells. 



Drones in Worker-Cells 



To cure foulbrood I transferred my bees 

 onto new foundation and reared young 

 queens, and two or three of them produced 

 nearly half drones in worker-cells. Of 

 course, they were a great deal smaller than 

 drones reared in drone-cells, and they were 

 not by themselves, but promiscuously mixed 

 in the cells. Who can explain the case ? I 

 have kept bees 40 years or more, and never 

 saw anything like it before. I destroyed 

 them and introduced other queens. Ohio. 



Answer.— Such cases are not common, but 

 they do happen now and then. Generally it 

 is because the queen is old and the supply 



