January, ipio. 



I ^,^^-_. .cw ^^') American Bee Journal 



to space Ifg inches, which is all right for 

 brood-frames. Of course they might be made 

 differently. 



2. I don't know. If the hive has no chance 

 for ventilation except the ordinary entrance, 

 I should expect a break -down, especially il 

 the weather is very hot. With abundance 

 of ventilation below and on top it might be 

 all right. But with the slack horizontal wiring 

 that is sometimes advised I should expect so 

 much stretching at the upper part as to make 

 tlie comb unfit for brood-rearing. 



3. I think so. Of course I suppose you 

 mean to take bees in the trap with the queen. 



4. |/4 inch. 



fi. No; but more than I like. 



*>. Years ago I had ^^-inch space between 

 top-bars and super, and there was a bad mess 

 in the space. I then used Heddon slat 

 honey-boards. That left the mess as bad 

 as ever between top-bars and honey-board, 

 but almost entirely clean between honey-board 

 and sections. With j4-inch space between 

 top-bars and super there is so little building 

 that I prefer not to use the honey-board. 

 Possibly the size of the top-bars (IJ^x'^^) has 

 something to do with it. 



Italianizing — Rearing Queens. 



1. A friend bee-keeper told me that if I 

 had a colony of Italian bees and black bees, 

 and wanted to get pure stock of Italians from 

 that colony, I could get them by boring a 

 two-inch hole in a block of wood and cage a 

 young queen, or, in other words, a ripe queen- 

 cell and a fine drone of her kind for 7 days, 

 and the queen would be mated with that 

 drone. Is that so? 



2. What are the best bees for me in Rap* 

 pahannock Co., Va.? 



3. Do you think I can ,rear my queens all 

 right now if I can get them mated the way I 

 want? 



I have black bees and Italians. 



Virginia. 



Answers. — 1. There might be one chance 

 in a million for success if it were not that 

 the drone would be likely to die before the 

 end of 7 days. 



2. Probably Italians as nearly pure as you 

 can keep them. 



3. Vou can rear the queens all right; but 

 will probably never control the mating. 



Rheumatism and Bee-Stings. 



I would like a little space in the American 

 Bee Journal to probe the truth of bee-stings 

 being good for rheumatism. Last year I suf- 

 fered very much with rheumatism. I took 

 everj' precaution and fixed so they could not 

 sting me. This year I did not have time to 

 fix for them, and they stung me whenever 

 they wanted too. In fact, they made me very 

 sick at my stomach. The trouble all seemed 

 to settle there, and that was the last of my 

 rheumatism. Before, at this time of year, I 

 could hardly get my clothes on for pain. The 

 bee-stings drove the trouble into my stomach, 

 and when my stomach trouble left me I was 

 well of rheumatism, and have been ever since. 

 Now what did it? I took no medicine. This 

 is a true statement. It was the last time I 

 worked with them this year, that they stung 

 me so badly and made my stomach hurt. 



Tennessee. 



Answer. — No doubt some would credit the 

 cure to the stings, while others would deny 

 that the stings had any effect. The trouble 

 is to tell whether a cure comes on account of 

 the stings or merely after the stings. So 

 many cases have been reported where the 

 stings were believed to have effected a cure 

 that one can hardly blame people for having 

 faith in them. 



Sweet Clover and Alfalfa. 



1. I have about 2 acres of pasture I have 

 thought I would sow in sweet clover, and 

 possibly the cow would eat some and the 

 bees some, and it would fertilize the ground 

 some; and in the fall it would die and there 

 would be about as much blue-grass as if the 

 sweet clover had not been there. I saw 

 not long ago an advertisement where some 

 fellow had yellow sweet clover seed for sale. 

 Which is the better, yellow or white? 



2. Can I sow it on the sod and get a crop 

 next year? and when is the best time of year 

 to sow ? 



3. If I were to get a stand of sweet clover 

 and then sow alfalfa in among it without 

 breaking up the ground, would the alfalfa 

 catch? It is said that the sweet clover im- 



pregnates the ground with the proper bac- 

 teria. What do you think of the alfalfa idea? 



Illinois. 

 Answers. — 1. It depends upon circumstances 

 which is better for you. One kind yields 

 probably as much nectar as the other, but the 

 yellow is 2 to 4 weeks earlier than the while. 

 If you have a good yield of white, or Dutch, 

 clover, the white variety of sweet clover is 

 better, as it follows the white clover. In a 

 failure of white clover, yellow sweet may be 

 better than white sweet. 



2. You are not likely to get a good catcli by 

 sowing sweet clover on sod; but you may 

 succeed if you sow in early spring and let 

 stock tramp it in the ground while the ground 

 is wet and muddy. 



3. The same thing may be said about a catch 

 of alfalfa as is said in the previous reply about 

 sweet clover. Good idea to get in alfalfa for 

 cattle and horses, but the likelihood is that in 

 your locality it will be worthless for bees. 



Dog-Bane or Bitter-Root. 



Has the weed commonly known as dog-bane, 

 bitter-root, or honey-bloom (technical name is 

 Apocynum androssemifoHum) any special value 

 as a honey-plant? New York. 



Answer. — I don't know, but the fact that 

 it has not been reported as a good honey- 

 plant makes it a pretty safe guess that either 

 it is not a very good yielder, or else it is 

 not found in sufficient quantity to be worth 

 considering. 



Making T-Supers. 



I would like to have a T-super. I hare 

 made some hives, but don't understand how a 

 T-super is made. Will you kindly describe it? 

 British Columbia. 



Answer. — The T-super is a plain box with- 

 out top or bottom. It should be the same 

 width as the hive on which it is to be used, 

 H inch deeper than the sections to be used 

 in it, and !4 inch longer, inside measure, 

 than the length of the 4 sections. Ihus. 

 a super for an 8-frame hive, to contain 24 

 sections of the size 4S'4x4 J4xl^, will meas- 

 ure, inside, 17J4xl2J^x4J^ inches. To sup- 

 port the sections at each end, a strip of tin 

 is nailed on, that projects yi inch inwardly, 

 and 3 T-tins, each 12 inches long (which can 

 be bought of supply dealers), will be sup- 

 ported by 3 squares of sheet-iron nailed on 

 the bottom at each side, or else by staples 

 driven in and bent over. 



Producing Honey Without Separa- 

 tors. 



I saw an article in the November issue 

 about producing comb honey without separa- 

 tors, and I don't understand the method. 1 

 would like to have you explain it. 



Kansas. 



Answer. — I can hardly see what there is 

 to explain. According to Mr. Morrison the 

 single requisite for getting straight sections 

 without separators is to have the sections 

 narrow enough. He says they must be 1% 

 inches in width, and you will see that in the 

 same article Mr. Hutchinson thinks IJ^ is 

 narrow enough. Except that one matter of 

 width, there is nothing special about the sec- 

 tions. If you want to try the experiment, 

 all you have to do is to order sections of any 

 size you desire, only so the width is 1 % 

 inches, unless you want to try Editor Hutch- 

 inson's IJ^^ inches. Whether any change must 

 be made in your supers depends upon the 

 kind of supers you have. A T-super Aill 

 need no change, but if you use any kind 

 of frames of bottom supports for the secti:>ns, 

 then these must be of the right width. 



Spiders and Bees — Chaff Cushions — 



Feed for Spring — Getting Bees 



Down Into Brood-Nest — 



Queen Candy. 



1. Do spiders ever injure bees? 



2. Is not the purpose of the chaff cushion 

 partially defeated by placing a super-cover, 

 or enameled cloth, over the brood-frames, and 

 under the cushion? I see this plan advocated 

 in Gleanings. 



3. Which would be best to feed bees in 

 the spring to encourage brood-rearing, syrup 

 from granulated sugar, or candy made from 

 honey and powdered sugar? 



4. How can I best get a colony of bees 

 down into the brood-nest in very cold weather? 

 They are clustering on the empty extracting 

 frames which I neglected to take off before 



tliis, although there is plenty of honey below. 

 (Dec. 20, 1909.) 



5. How do you make queen candy? 



Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. Not to any great extent. If 

 their webs are allowed at the entrance of a 

 hive, a few bccs will be caught and killed. 



2. No; the object is to keep the hive warm, 

 and especially to have the top of the hive 

 warmer than the sides; and the cushion will 

 help to confine the heat whether over or un- 

 der the cover. 



3. I'robably the candy, just because it has 

 some honey in it. 



4. It seems almost impossible that the bees 

 should have clustered on the extracting-franies 

 unless there was considerable honey in them. 

 On a day when it is warm enough for the 

 bees to fly, shake and brush them from the 

 extracting-combs down upon the brood-combs. 

 If you are afraid the bees will starve before 

 a flight-day comes, take them into a warm 

 room late in the day, and operate at night 

 with very little light. But it is quite possi- 

 ble that when a warm day comes the bees 

 will shift their location of their own accord. 



5. Take a small amount of extracted honey 

 warmed and work into it enough powdered 

 sugar to make a stiff dough. Let stand a 

 day or longer, and if it becomes thin work in 

 more sugar. 



Transferring Bees — German Bee- 

 Paper — Preventing Swarming, 



I am only a starter in the bee-line, and 

 have to learn a lot to be successful. I started 

 with 3 colonies 2 years ago, and did fairly 

 well. A few months ago I bought 11 colo- 

 nies, which are housed in ordinary boxes, 

 turned upside down, and I expect to hare 

 a hard job to transfer them next spring, as 

 the bees have built the combs solid in the 

 box, and there is no way of getting at them. 



1. My idea is to set an 8-frame Langstroth 

 hive on top of the hive next spring, and after 

 making some opening on top of the old hive, 

 drive up into the new hive with smoke. Ot 

 course I intend to give each about 3 com- 

 plete frames, and the rest foundation. Do 

 you approve of this plan ? Maybe it would 

 be better to set the old hive with the bees 

 on top and drive them down into the new 

 hive. 



In the American Bee Journal I often see 

 the Pratischer Wegweiser mentioned. Being 

 a German, it would be good for me to have 

 it. Kindly tell me how to get it. 



3. I would also like to get a little handbook 

 of preventing the swarming of bees tha^ is 

 practical, and does not cost too much. 



New York. 



Answers. — 1. Either plan will be all right 

 if the bees will move, but you may find them 

 very stubborn about it. They will travel up 

 more readily than down, and pounding on the 

 hive will help no little to make them go up. 

 Instead of making an opening in the top of 

 the hive it may be a good deal better to turn 

 the hive upside down. That is on the gup- 

 position that the bottom is not nailed to the 

 hive, and, even if it is, the bottom can be 

 knocked off. 



2. Praktischer Wegweiser fuer Bienen- 

 zuechter is published in Oranienburg. Ber- 

 lin, and costs 75 cents a year. 



3. I do not know of a handbook on that 

 subject. The nearest that comes to it is 

 probably "Forty Years Among the Bees," 

 which can be had for $1.00, postpaid, at the 

 office of the American Bee Journal. 



Hives — Drawn-Combs for Swarms- 

 Best Strain of Bees — Best Super 

 Chaff Hives. 



1. I use 10 frame Woodman Protection 

 hives with Langstroth frames. Would it not 

 be a good plan to extract the honey mostly 

 in the spring at the beginning of the honey- 

 flow and give the queen more room to hatch, 

 as last year my hives were full of honey 

 in the fall and 'the bees died off heavily m 

 the fall, and did not consume much honey 

 through the winter, although they swarmed 

 quite early, but little swarms? I think this is 

 because the queen did not have much room 

 to hatch. What do you think? 



2. In hiving a swarm don't you think it a 

 good plan to supply the new swarm with 

 drawn combs, 3 or 4 of them or more, as it 

 would give the queen room to lay at once, 

 and they would breed up faster? 



3. Which is the best super for comb honey, 

 and gives the best results, and the most con- 

 venient to use ? Would not one extracting- 



