98 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



been said pro and con with reference 

 to the palatability of sweet clover that 

 it led to an experiment by the Iowa 

 station. This experiment was con- 

 ducted last summer to determine 

 whether cattle used to feeding on sweet 

 clover and alfalfa would show any pref- 

 erence for one forage over the other. 



Six yearling heifers, all about the 

 same size, were fed 80 pounds of sweet 

 clover hay and 80 pounds of alfalfa hay 

 in the same rack at the same time. 

 Forty pounds of each hay were placed 

 alternately in the rack so that the ani- 

 mals would have equal access to both. 

 After the heifers had eaten until they 

 would eat no more, the hays were taken 

 out and reweighed. There were 34 

 pounds of sweet clover left and 48 

 pounds of alfalfa, thus showing that the 

 animals had eaten 14 pounds more of 

 the sweet clover than alfalfa, or 2.3 

 more pounds per head. 



In grazing these same animals on 



alfalfa and sweet clover pasture, side 

 by side, no preference was shown for 

 alfalfa. The sweet clover was eaten as 

 readily, although it was five or six feet 

 tall and therefore very coarse. Yet 

 some people insist that cattle will not 

 eat sweet clover at all. Give them a 

 chance. Sheep will even show a greater 

 preference than cattle for sweet clover. 

 Horses thrive well on it, even eating 

 the forage when it is very coarse and 

 woody. W. E. Bowers. 



Virginia Polytechnic Institute. 



3- I don't know; but I think it will make 

 no difference unless you have a aueen so 

 Drolitic that she needs more than i6 frames. 



i. Yes. provided you have as many bees in 

 one case as the other. But would you ? 



Wabash Valley Meeting.— The Wa- 

 bash Valley beekeepers are going to 

 hold a meeting at Mt. Carmel, 111., 

 March 10, to organize a beekeepers' 

 association. Headquarters to be at 

 the Merchants Hotel. All beekeepers 

 are invited to attend. 



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-keeoine Questions by mail. 



To Those Who Send Questions to Dr. Miller: 



It seems necessary every now and then to 

 mention some points to be kept in view by 

 those who send questions to be answered. 

 First, as to the time of sending. It occurs 

 sometimes that a subscriber sends a ques- 

 tion and asks that it be answered, say in the 

 April number, when the April number is in 

 print. A subscriber should understand that 

 it takes a number of days from the time a 

 question is mailed before it can appear in 

 print. There's the time of your letter going 

 through the mail. Then, if a number of 

 questions come in the same mail, as often 

 happens, it may be more than a day before 

 I can mail the answers, and some exigency 

 may arise which will occupy several days. 

 Then there's the time of the journey from 

 Marengo to Hamilton, after which the nim- 

 ble fingers of the printer must put the an- 

 swers in type, letter by letter, then the dif- 

 ferent forms must go through the press, one 

 side being printed at a time, and then it's a 

 big job to get all the journals dressed in 

 their wrappers and addressed before Uncle 

 Sam can be ready to carry them to you. The 

 outcome of all this is that if you want an 

 answer in the April number, your letter 

 must get to me in time so I can mail the 

 answer from Marengo not later than March 

 10. That makes it that you must mail your 

 letter perhaps three days before that date, 

 if you are not far from Marengo, and several 

 days sooner if you are very far away. If you 

 mail your letter to Hamilton, so it must be 

 forwarded to me. then it must be sent still 

 earlier. It is a little better, always, if you 

 s«nd your letter direct to me. 



At the head of this department appears 

 each month the statement: "he does NOT 

 answer beekeepine questions by mail." 'Yet 

 in spite of that 1 get letters saying some- 

 thing like this; "I know it is your rule to 

 answer no questions by mail, but it will be 

 too late to be of any use to me if the answer 

 comes in print, so please answer by return 

 mail." Looks like I might accommodate in 

 such a case, doesn't it? But the trouble is 

 that nearly every one would prefer an ear- 



lier answer by mail, so if I should answerall 

 by mail then you would get no good of the 

 answers I make to others, and I should give 

 up answering altogether. 



So don't think of asking answers by mail, 

 and better send questions to Marengo 

 rather than to Hamilton, and send them in 

 good time, and I'll be not only willing but 

 glad to answer all your questions in the Bee 

 Journal to the best of my ability. 



Bees Dying 



■What is the trouble with my bees ? During 

 the cold spells so many have died. Is it due 

 to old bees or is it due to something else ? 



Alabama. 



Answer.— 'Without any particulars I can 

 only guess. It maybe because an unusual 

 number of bees are old, as you suggest, 

 brood-rearing having ceased earlier than 

 usual. It may be on account of unwholesome 

 stores— possibly honeydew— and it is possi- 

 ble there may be some other trouble that I 

 know nothing about. 



Eight-Frame vs. Ten-Frame Hives 



1. Will bees winter better outdoors in 8' 

 frame hives than in lo-frame hives, provided 

 they have plenty of stores and same amount 

 of bees ? 



2, Will there be as much brood in a 2 story 

 8-frame hive as in a 2Story loframe; that is 

 will the queen lay as much in the 2 stories 

 as when she could stay in the lower story ? 



3 Will the bees swarm more in an 8 frame 

 hive of two or more stories than in a lo frame 

 hive of two more stories, letting the queen 

 go in the second story ? 



4. I expect to run for comb and extracted 

 honey. Can I get as much extracted from 

 8-frame hives as from lo frame hives, if I 

 pile up the stories and let the queen go in 

 the second story ? Illinois. 



Answers.— I. I should say they would. At 

 the same time it is only fair to say that in 

 general a colony in an8frame hive would 

 not have the same amount of bees and stores 

 as one in a lo-frame hive. 



2 Naturally one would think it a hindrance 

 to a queen to go up and down from one story 

 to another, but when I have tried it I could 

 not see that it made any difference. 



Colonies Dying — Distance of Hives 



1. Early in the fall I had I2 colonies, but 

 before I was aware of it I think three of 

 them were robbed. I examined them and 

 found there were no bees. A few days ago 

 I went out to see how they were getting 

 along and found two more hives with bees 

 all dead sticking in the combs (or cells) in 

 the lower part of the brood-frames and to 

 the front end of the hives, and every frame 

 was full of honey and brood and sealed very 

 nicely. 



They were in good patent hives and were 

 protected by a pad of leaves on top of the 

 hive and a pasteboar-d box a trifle larger 

 than the hive and turned down over; also a 

 good wind break of boards on the west. I 

 took out the frames and examined them, 

 and found they contained brood and what I 

 took to be queen-cells; they projected con- 

 siderably from the level of the surface like 

 little mounds. Do you suppose they froze 

 to death ? 



2. What can I do with those hives that 

 have the dead bees and brood in them ? If I 

 clean out the dead bees and put another 

 swarm in the same hive in the spring, will 

 they clean it out and go right to work? If I 

 undertake to cut out portions of it that will 

 cause the honey to leak and will make a bad 

 mess. I would like to save the brood-frames 

 if possible and the time of refilling ? 



3. How close to each other would you sug- 

 gest placing hives? 



4. What can I do to prevent robbing? 



5. I find some dead bees in front of each 

 hive. Are they drones that have been killed 

 off ? Nebraska. 



Answers —I. I suspect those bees starved. 

 Like enough the colony was weak, the cold 

 was very severe, and the bees were gathered 

 in a small cluster with no honey in imme- 

 diate contact with them, and unable to 

 reach the honey which was in abundance in 

 the hive. Then they starved or froze, which- 

 ever you please to call it. They were likely 

 queenless. and the " little mounds " drone- 

 cells. 



2. Brush off the dead bees, and when the 

 weather gets warm and bees are flying daily, 

 set a hiveful of the combs under a strong 

 colony, forcing the bees to go down through 

 these combs to get outdoors. They will be 

 cleaned up ready for the first swarm that 

 comes. 



3. Set your hives in pairs, the two hives of 

 each pair as close together as you can with- 

 out having them touch each other. Between 

 each pair allow a space of three feet, a little 

 more if you have plenty of room, and a little 

 less if you are crowded for room. If you 

 have more bees than you want to put in one 

 row. you can set another row back to back 

 with the first row. If you have still more 

 bees, you can set another row facing one of 

 those rows with ten feet between the rows, 

 more or less according as you have room. 



4. The thing to prevent robbing is to keep 

 colonies strong, and if you have a colony 

 that is not yet strong let its entrance be 

 small, and see that there are no cracks 

 through which robbers can enter. Be care- 

 ful not to have any pieces of comb with 

 honey or dripping honey lying around. Don't 

 allow queenless colonies. 



5. They may be drones, but more likely 

 workers, for workers are always dying in 

 winter. 



Buy Full Colonies or Pound Packages 



1. What is the best way of uniting pound 

 packages of bees without queens to weak 

 colonies in the spring ? 



2. Which would you consider the better 

 way for increase, full colonies at $7.00 or 

 pound packages with queens at $3. 25 ? 



3. I had a colony of bees with an old queen 

 that was clippecf. About August they tried 

 to supersede her. They built three or four 

 cells, and after they were hatched the hive 



