January. IQIO. 



American Hee Journal 



tree are Ijciiig planted in this State ; 

 that by buying stock in these schemes 

 one cannot help but get rich. 



Tlie eucalyptus is all right; so is the 

 planting of it, but I would caution 

 any one having anything to do with 



these schemes. Better get some land 

 and raise your own trees ; you will 

 then surely know "where you are at." 

 Gold bricks and eucalyptus stock are 

 good things to let alone, even if some 

 of them seem genuine. 



o<r 



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Docfor Miller^ 

 %esfi0n-B9x^ 



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



DR. C. C. MILLER. Marengo. 111. 



Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Wintering in Outside House — Hive- 

 Ventilation — Wintering Queen- 

 less Colonies. 



1. Is it a good idea to put bees in an out- 

 house for wintering? Will it be better tiian 

 leaving them on the summer stands? 



2. Is it a good idea to ventilate the hive 

 near the top by boring a small hole to let the 

 damp air out? 



3. Will a 'colony of bees that loses its 

 queen in October or November live througii 

 the winter? and can they be kept until May, 

 or until the shipping season begins? 



Illinois- 

 Answers. — 1. It will be all right if they are 

 well packed and warmer on top than on the 

 sides, only you must be sure that there is a 

 clear entrance for them to fly whenever a day 

 is warm enough. 



2. Some favor and some oppose the idea. 

 The important thing is to have warm packing 

 on top. 



3. They are not so likely to live over, but 

 sometimes they do. It will probably be more 

 profitable to unite them with a colony having 

 a laying queen, even if you divide again in 

 the spring. 



Getting Increase of Colonies. 



I am a beginner and have fifteen colonies. 

 I would like to increase. I divided one colony 

 the past fall. In August I took 3 frames 

 out of one colony, bees and brood together. 

 I did not look for the queen. I did not 

 know if I had the queen in the old or new 

 hive, but they are both all right at the pres- 

 ent time. Would you advise dividing that 

 way in May or June, or not at all in that 

 way? If not, kindly explain how is best. 



Penn. 



Answer. — Your plan of dividing could 

 hardly be easier, but it might be better. It 

 you take the 3 frames of brood and bees and 

 put them on a new stand, all the older ones 

 will return to the old stand, leaving a rather 

 discouraged lot of bees not in condition to 

 rear the best kind of a queen. Better make 

 sure which is the queehless part and leave it 

 on the old stand. Then a week later you can 

 let the two hives swap places, if you like. 

 You will sec that by having on the old stand 

 the part that is rearing a queen, at least for 

 the first week, there will be a stronger force, 

 especially of the older bees, and you will have 

 a much better chance of a good queen. 



Keeping Bees Warm in Winter. 



I thought that all bee-keepers who wrote 

 about bees advised keeping them warm in 

 winter, so that they would not "burn" so 

 much honey to keep up heat, but when I read, 

 in "Forty Years Among the Bees," page 304. 

 a bout your warm cellars and plenty of fresh 

 air, I thought it would not take so much 

 honey as it would in a cellar without the fur- 

 nace. But when I turned to page 324 and 

 saw what you wrote later on, you say that 

 the bees in the warmer part of the cellar 

 starved to death. How can you tell in what 

 temperature bees will use the least stores in 

 winter? 



A neighbor of mine says that to have plenty 

 of cold air bv having cracks in the sides of 

 the hives and setting them on boards with 

 the hives apart so the bees will keep too cold 

 to eat much honey, is the best to winter them. 

 He left a colonv up in an apple-tree where he 

 hived them, and said that they did fine until 

 a snow-storm came and blew the hive down. 

 Another neighbor claims that in hiving swarms 

 that get contrary and will not stay in the 

 hive, to tie a red wasp in the head of the 

 hive thev will stay all right. This is sup- 

 I)osed to be put in, in case the queen gets lost 

 or killed. Another oneclaims his mother had 

 a swarm and the "king" got killed, and she 

 made a "king" out of flannel and tied it up 

 in the hive, and they did all right. 



Tar-Heel. 



Answer. — About 45 degrees above zero is 

 considered the temperature at which bees are 

 most nearly dormant, and at which they will 

 consume least stores. If colder they must 

 consume more to keep up the heat, and if 

 warmer they are more active and use up more 

 stores. 



Your neighbors seem quite original in some 

 of their views. You do not mention the color 

 of the "flannel king." The wrong color might 

 be fatal I 



Breeding to Improve Bees. 



Please read the enclosed clipping on trap- 

 nested stock as layers, and give your idea of 

 it as to whether it could be carried out in 

 bee-keeping. I think the same system ought 

 to be. Then we would get some good stock. 



New York. 



In the long and interesting clipping you 

 have sent, the part to which I think you re- 

 fer reads as follows: 



"We believe it is an error to breed from 

 the 'abnormal' hen. By 'abnormal* I mean 

 a hen whose laying record is too far removed 

 from the average ('normal') of the flock ot 

 which she is a member. For instance, when 

 our flock average for last year was 162 eggs 

 per hen, we considered all hens varying more 

 than ten per cent from the record 'abnormal.' 

 This applied to those laying above as well as 

 those laying below the average, and we con- 

 sidered hens laying uniform eggs between the 

 numbers 170 and ISO. the best breeders in 

 the flock. These we housed by themselves to 

 use in further developing the strain. 



"In this selection great care was taken to 

 pick out only such breeders as showed strong 

 vitality. It is the heavy layer of weakened 

 constitution that will nullify all previous good 

 work accomplished with the strain, since she 

 cannot transmit to her offspring the first es- 

 sential to a successful career as an egg layer. 

 viz.. a healthy, robust body. 



"It seems to me the way to improve a strain 

 of egg layers is not to take the star perform- 

 ers who have (judged by the average per- 

 formance of the flock) overstrained them- 

 selves, but rather to take those that have done 

 a little better (not exceeding ten per cent) 

 than the rest. If a whole flock can average 

 162, the all-round best birds, for that flock, 

 are slightly above the average." 



I am not a scientific breeder of either bees 

 or biddies, and so not competent to pass 

 opinion as to whether there is much in this 



for bce-kcepcrs or not. Some time ago the Bee 

 Keepers* Review contained several articles on 

 the same line written by a man well qualified 

 as a breeder of fine horses. They appeared 

 to be ably written, going into details which, 

 if carried out, might produce results, but it 

 seemed to me that it would be somewhat difli- 

 cult for us everyday bee-keepers to understand 

 and carry out the instructions given. If any- 

 one has tried to put them in practice, I do 

 not remember to have seen any account of it. 

 According to the teaching of the clipping 

 here quoted, the matter is much simpler: It 

 is merely to select for breeders those which 

 give not more than ten per cent better results 

 than the average. For instance, if your aver- 

 age per colony this year was 60 pounds per 

 colony, and you had one or more colonies yield- 

 ing 100 pounds each, and one or more yielding 

 66 pounds each, you are to breed next year 

 from those which gave GO pounds each. Tile 

 idea is that the 100-pounders are freaks, in- 

 constant in habit, and so are likely to hark 

 back to poorer work, while the GC-pounders 

 are more likely to be permanent in their pos- 

 terity. 



If I may be allowed to venture an opinion, 

 the idea that a hen which has overstrained 

 herself by too heavy laying has weakened her- 

 self thereby and will consequently have a 

 weakened posterity hardly applies to bees. But, 

 of course, I don't know for certain. 



I suppose it is undisputed that in many 

 cases where a new strain has been established 

 in some class of domestic stock, the starting 

 point has been with some animal which showed 

 a marked departure from the ordinary type — 

 a sport or freak — and then the effort was made 

 by selection to make permanent that freakish 

 departure. 



I must confess that for years I have been 

 breeding from freaks. In other words, I have 

 bred from queens whose worker progeny gave 

 me the largest yields. The result has been 

 exceedingly satisfactory, so far as yield is 

 concerned. Whether I might not have done 

 as well or better by persistently breeding each 

 year from stock whose yield was only ten 

 per cent above the average, I cannot say. 



I am confident of this, that if a bee-keeper 

 breed each year from stock better than the 

 average, he will be sure to improve his stock, 

 whether he follows the plan of breeding from 

 stock 10 per cent above the average or from 

 that which is 100 per cent better. 



Requeening Colonies. 



I have 170 colonies of bees, 70 of them 

 with Italian queens that I bought of reliable 

 queen-breeders. The balance (100) arc com- 

 posed of common bees, partly Italian and mixed 

 with black bees. Now, I do not feel able to 

 buy queens for the 100 colonies, and ask for 

 the best way to requeen them, and wish you 

 to be particular to give me a method that a 

 common bee-keeper ought to be able to under- 

 stand and use. I do not care to try cell-cups 

 or any method that is adapted to experts. I 

 wish to requeen the 100 colonies from cells 

 reared from eggs of some of the best queens 

 I now have. "Southwest." 



Answer. — I can do no better than to re- 

 peat my reply to "Tennessee" in another col- 

 umn. The second plan given is the way I 

 rear queens for my own use, and by using 

 brood each time from the best stock I have 

 developed bees that are truly hustlers. You 

 can do the same. Only don't make the mis- 

 take I did, and regard only gathering qualities. 

 Look out for temper at the same time. 



Transferring Bees — Getting Extra 



Brood - Combs — Introducing 



Queens — Best Honey 



Strains of Bees. 



1. I have one colony of bees with crooked 

 combs which I am unable to get out of the 

 Iiivc. Would you transfer them early in 

 the spring, or wait until they swarm ? 



2. How do you like putting a hive with one 

 frame of brood over the colony to be trans- 

 ferred, and a queen-excluder between, when 

 you catch the queen in the upper hive ? 



3. What is the best way to get extra brood- 

 comb for late swarms ? They do not draw 

 out foundation well. I use shallow frames 

 in the supers. 



4. Would like to rear a few queens, but think 

 the Pratt method too complicated for a be- 

 ginner. Can you tell me a simple way to rear 

 them? 



5. Can you give me a safe way to introduce 

 a breeding-queen? I was not very successful 



