November, 1916. 



American Hee Journal j^ |g % 



mium. Miller silver medal; 2d, bronze medal; 

 3d, diploma. 



jj, 150 pounds of extracted honey— ist pre- 

 mium, Lantrstroth silver medal; 2d. bronze 

 medal; 3d, diploma. 



C, 12 sections of clover comb honey— 1st. 

 2d. and jd premiums, diplomas. 



£>, 12 sections of raspberry or other light 

 comb honey— ist. 2d. and 3d premiums, 

 diplomas. ... 



/•;, 12 sections of amber or dark honey— ist. 

 2d and 3d premiums, diplomas. 



/■', 12 pounds of clover extracted honey— 

 1st. 2d, and 3d premiums, diplomas. 



i; 12 pounds of raspberry or other light 

 extracted honey— 1st, 2d. and 3d premiums, 

 diplomas. 



//. 28 pounds of amber or dark extracted 

 honey— ist, 2d. and 3d premiums, diplomas. 



/. 12 pounds of extracted candied honey- 

 most salable condition for market — ist. 2d. 

 and 3d premiums, diplomas. 



./. 12 pounds of beeswax— ist. 2d. and 3d 

 premiums, diplomas. 



A', One dozen honey cookies. 



/,. One dozen bran honey cookies. 



A/, Two-pound honey fruit cake. 



jV. Best new apiarian appliance. 



Diplomas will be given for classes 7 

 to /, as in other classes. Exhibits must 

 not bear the name or mark of exhibi- 



tor until after judged. All exhibits 

 must be the product of the exhibitor 

 or a inember of his family. 



All exhibits must be in place on the 

 evening of Nov. 30. The gold medal is 

 given by the American manufacturers 

 of bee-supplies, and is known as the 

 Manufacturers' medal. 



The silver medal is given by the 

 Michigan jobbers in bee-supplies, and 

 is known as Jobbers' medal. 



The bronze medal is given by the 

 association, and is known as the Asso- 

 ciation medal. 



The challenge medals must be won 

 three times before becoming the prop- 

 erty of the exhibitor. This is the sec- 

 ond year for competition for these 

 medals. 



Programs will be sent to all members 

 of the association, and can be secured 

 by any other interested beekeeper. 



F. Eric Millen, Sec.-Treas. 



East Lansing, Mich. 



Dr-MiluerIs <^.An^wers^ 



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



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo. II".. 



He does not answer beeUeepine Questions by mail. 



How to Winter Aflerswarms 



What would be the best thing to do with 

 four colonies of beei that are afterswarms 

 and have stored practically no honey for 

 their use this winter? They have young 

 queens and are breeding good. There are 

 about six frames of bees in each colony and 

 nearly all of the space is filled with honey. 

 Not much prospect of any honey flow this 

 fall. ^ ^ 



I have tan other colonies in good shape. 

 Would it be practical to unite them with 

 some of those colonies? And if so, how 

 would be the best way to do it ? Indiana. 



Answers.— From your description these 

 are good colonies that you can have ready 

 for winter by merely feeding them. If you 

 wish to unite each one of them with another 

 colony, there would be nothing difficult in 

 that. Kill the queen that you think poorest; 

 put a sheet of newspaper over one of them 

 (of course directly over the brood-frames), 

 set the other hive (without any bottom- 

 board) directly on this, and three days or 

 more later put the best frames of brood in 

 the lower story. You can unite without 

 killing either queen, although it is at least a 

 little better to kill one of them. 



Introducing Queens— Hatching Queen in Cell 



In the distress (or srhoke) method of intro- 

 ducing queens, how manv puffs of white, 

 choky smoke must be given? Would four 

 good puffs with a good smoker be too much ? 

 Must the roar caused by the puffs be heard 

 continually for ten or more minutes, namely 

 up to the moment when the one-inch wide 

 space at the entrance is opened again; or 

 can it go dwindling down so that it can 

 hardly be heard at the end of ten minutes, 

 and if not heard at all at the end of ten min- 

 utes is it a sure sign not enough smoke was 

 given ? 



In the distress method, Arthur C. Miller, 

 in Gleanings in Bee Culture, page 63, says 

 that a failure in this method is known the 

 same or next day. How is it known, by 

 opening the hive, or if the queen is not ac- 

 cepted, do you find her at the entrance of 

 the hive dead ? 



In the starvation (Simmins) method, is fail- 

 ure known also the same or next day ? How 

 is it known ? 



I put a tine queen-cell into a cell protector. 



put the protector into a nucleus into which 

 I shook about two cupfulls of bees and put 

 the nucleus in a dark cellar for 70 hours. 

 When I took the nucleus out and looked at 

 the protector, the cell was almost all eaten 

 up by the bees, though I had put a tin stop- 

 per at the wide entrance of the protector. 

 What was the mistake in this case, as there 

 was no queen in the nucleus ? 



Montana. 



Answer.— I suppose three puffs, if strong 

 enough, would be all right, and four puffs 

 could hardly do much harm. The roaring 

 would die down in ten minutes or less. 



In the place to which you refer in Glean- 

 ings. Mr. Arthur C. Miller says: "Even 

 were it not better than the cage method. I 

 should continue to use it. for a failure Is 

 known the same or the next day, while by 

 the cage method it is sometimes a week be. 

 fore the queen is out, and a day or two 

 more before we know she is safe." I think 

 his idea is that when the distress method is 

 used we will find the queen laying the same 

 or the next day, while with the cage method 

 it will be a day later, or more, before the 

 queen begins to lay. and sometimes more 

 than a week later. 



By the Simmins method the queen ought 

 to be laying sooner than if caged. She cer- 

 tainly has the chance to lay at once if kindly 

 accepted, whereas there is delay by caging, 

 no matter how friendly the bees may be. 

 The presence of eggs is proof of success, 

 while the absence of eggs is proof of failure, 

 although by '.no means sure proof, for the 

 laying may be much delayed. The presence 

 of the dead queen at the entrance is prompt 

 proof of failure, although one cannot always 

 be sure of finding her there after she is 

 killed. 



In the case of the cell gnawed to pieces it 

 does not necessarily follow that there was 

 any mistake on your part. It may merely 

 mean that the bees departed from their 

 usual behavior, and did not respect the 

 point of the cell, but gnawed it down. I 

 should have just a little suspicion, however. 



that another virgin was in the nucleus and 

 did the gnawing. Virgins have a craze for 

 gnawing down queen-cells, even the cells 

 from which they themselves have emerged. 

 Only a day ago I found in a nursery a virgin 

 not a day old, and she had torn out one side 

 of the cell from which she had emerged. 



Kind of Bees 



\Y,hat IS the difference between golden 

 Italian bees, leather colored and 3-banded ? 

 Which do you think are the best workers 

 and the best color ? 



I heard a man say this summer there was 

 only one kind of black bees and that was the 

 German. I was at R. A. Morgan's, of Ver- 

 million. S. Dak., and he had some black 

 bees that were as big or bigger than the Ital- 

 ians. I hey were very gentle. What kind 

 were they ? I am starting beekeeping again 

 and have full blooded stock only, and ex- 

 pect to keep them that way. I want to use 

 lo-frame hives with 8-frame supers, or 8- 

 frame hives on top and leave space at the 

 back so I can remove brood in the middle 

 of the honey flow and replace it with empty 

 frames without lifting off the supers on top 

 of the hives, then I can use that brood for 

 increase or put it above, and when the 

 brood hatches the frames will be filled with 

 honey. 



Do you think the plan will be all right or 

 do you know of any better way ? 



Iowa. 



Answer —Golden Italians are supposed 

 to have workers mostly with five bands. 

 Leather-colored are what the name indi- 

 cates, much the same color as fair leather, 

 being darker than the brighter yellow bees. 

 Like most others, I prefer the darker bees, 

 although there are good and poor in all 

 kinds. 



Carniolan and Caucasians are much like 

 black bees in color, but with lighter bands. 

 Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish them 

 from blacks. 



I know of only one kind of black bees, and 

 yet there may be a difference in that one 

 kind. I suppose from what you say that Mr. 

 Morgan's bees were blacks. 



Better not try the plan you mention on a 

 large scale until you find out whether you 

 will like it. 



Kind of Queens Compared— Requeening 



1. Takint' the golden, 3 banded and leather 

 colored Italians, how do they compare in 

 gentleness, hardiness, and honey getting 

 qualiiies, taken as a race ? 



2. Are the goldens more inclined to " bor- 

 row " or rob than the others mentioned ? 



3. Will they stand our cold win;ers, win- 

 tering out, as well as the others ? 



4. I had some leather-colored bees but 

 they have " mixed" with others, and I now 

 have everything .from three banders to all 

 black in every hive, but they are very quiet 

 and are fair workers, but if I was sure that I 

 would not get something worse ttian what 

 I have, I would like to get some full-blooded 

 stock, and I am "struck " on the appearance 

 of the goldens. Would you advise me to 

 make the change ? 



5. Which would be best, to requeen early 

 in the spring and avoid the hybrid drones or 

 requeen during swarming time and use fer- 

 tile queens from a dealer ? 



b. Is there any way to tell which hive a 

 swarm came from. when, as they frequently 

 do. they have come out unobserved ? If the 

 queen is clipped, one does not know where 

 to look for her. and if one practices the 

 method of hiving the swarm on tfie old 

 stand, putting the old colony on a new stand 

 to discourage afterswarming. one is equally 

 " up against it " if it is not known which col- 

 ony cast the swarm. 



7. Some beekeepers here leave their ex- 

 tracting combs on the hive until October or 

 November, allowing the bees to thoroughly 

 ripen and thicken it. and at the same time 

 they will carry down what they need for 

 winter stores; of course, this "easy way " is 

 spen to criticism, but the main problem 

 here is to get the bees off the combs. Es- 

 capes are very slow, and in some cases will 

 not remove them at all. so some have tried 

 the ' carbolic acid method." A dilute solu- 

 tion of carbolic acid is used and a few drops 

 are sprinkled on a cloth which is laid over 



