March, igio. 



American Hee Journal 



{Cotitinut'd from page SO.) 

 like those described before. Give mc your 

 opinion as to their value, and how you would 

 pack them for wintering. 



■ 2. Is it possible to have honey stored in 

 supers without separators wJht the ^%\^%\ij)i 

 inch boxes? 



3. The woman mentioned before said that 

 it was never necessary to feed bees anything 

 to winter on, because they always filled the 

 brood-chamber before they started in the 

 supers. According to her, if the bees stored 

 one pound of surplus they had their brood- 

 chamber filled. She claimed to have worked 

 in the apiary helping her husband. Is she 

 right or wrong? New Jersey. 



Answers. — 1. Bees work in any kind of a 

 thinp as to choice in hives is the convenience 

 of the bee-keeper. An important thing in de- 

 ciding as to the kind of hive to use is whether 

 it is commonly enough in use to be easily 

 obtainable. Kspecially is that true if a larger 

 number in the future is likely to be needed. 

 If you have something that is not in common 

 use, it will be difficult to buy others of the 

 same kind, and you can generally buy cheaper 

 tlian you can make. Also, if you ever want 

 to sell, the sale will be more difficult in odd 

 hives. The most important thing about the 

 hive — the size of the frame — you do not give. 

 If it is some odd size, it is decidedly ob- 

 jectionable. I had hives with frames only H 

 of an inch longer and J-i of an inch shorter 

 than the regular Langstroth frame, and I 

 threw aside a hundred of them to adopt the 

 standard size ( 17^^x9 J^i). Without knowing 

 more definitely about them it is hard to judge 

 as to your hives, but from what you say I 

 strongly suspect that they are in a class by 

 themselves, in which case you would do well 

 to adopt something more nearly standard. 



The hives being double-walled may need 

 little packing. If you can get at it, the 4-inch 

 space might be filled with leaves, shavings, 

 chaff, straw, or other material to maintain 

 warmth, with what is of more consequence, 

 a packing of a little greater depth on top. 



2. Yes, and for home use it is just as well. 

 Even for a home market it may do. But for 

 shipping to a distant market separators are 

 almost a necessity, for without them the sec- 

 tions are likely to be so irregular that they 

 will not pack in a shipping-case without inter- 

 fering and causing leaking. 



3. As a general proposition she is wrong. 

 The brood-chamber may be filled before any- 

 thing is stored in the super, then the bees 

 may store a small or a large quantity in the 

 supers, and starve before the winter is half 

 over. For the brood-chamber may be mostly 

 filled with brood — generally is — when storing 

 begins in the supers, leaving empty combs 

 when the brood is hatched out, which must 

 have honey stored in them for winter. How- 

 ever, the size of the hive has something to 

 do with it. With 8-frame hives it often oc- 

 curs, especially if there is no fall flow, that 

 bees store well in supers and then need feeding 

 for winter. In this regard larger hives arc 

 much safer. 



Marking Queens with Color — Uniting. 



Colonies — Forming Nuclei — Boiling 



Beeswax — Transferring Bees. 



1. Why not mark the queens with color 

 so that they may be easily and quickly found, 

 even in a big colony? 



2. I have 2 colonies of common or black 

 bees which I here will call "A" and **B." 

 Colony *'B" I obtained and transferred last 

 fall from a bee-tree into a standard hive. 

 It was a small or weak colony; but it seeras 

 to be more industrious, and more gentle and 

 with a larger queen. And so it is my choice 

 colony which I would like to breed from. 

 Colony "A" is a big one. How can I best 

 build up colony "B" in the spring to be a 

 big one? 



3. How will it do to sprinkle with flour 

 when uniting bees? 



4. How will it do to use a fine spray of 

 water to unite bees? 



5. In '"A B C of Bee Culture," in the 

 Somerford method of forming nuclei, how 

 about that queen that is to te removed and 

 kept caged for 10 days? Is it all right to 

 keep her in the cage alone, or must there 

 be several worker-bees with her ? Must she 

 be provided with food in those 10 days, such 

 as "Good candy ?" How about the tempera- 

 ture for her in the 10 days ? Will it be 

 well enough to place the caged queen, for in- 

 stance, on a shelf in the dwelling in those 

 10 days? 



6. When after 10 days the queen is re- 



turned to her bees, will the bees accept her 

 readily, or will they consider her a stranger? 



7. If in the hives there are some brood- 

 combs that have been transferred into the 

 frames, and there are also some brood-combs 

 which are built on full sheets of foundation, 

 how may I best manage to remove or dispense 

 with those transferred brood-combs, as they 

 are inferior? 



8. Is beeswa.x injured by coming to a boil? 

 If so. can it be detected that the wax has been 

 boiled? 



9. Is it a favorable time to transfer from 

 bee-trees during the time of fruit-bloom? 



Wisconsin. 

 Answers. — 1. I don't know of any objec- 

 tion. It is practised quite a little in Europe. 



2. Just what is the best way depends on the 

 strength of B. If it is very weak, able to 

 cover only 1 to 3 frames of brood, there are 

 two ways to proceed, either or both of which 

 you may use. One is to take from A, a 

 frame of brood with adhering bees, being sure 

 not to take the queen; then to shake or brush 

 the beeS down in front of B, trusting the 

 older bees to fly back to their old home and 

 the younger ones to crawl into B. After 2 

 or 3 days the dose may be repeated, and at 

 intervals afterward. The other way is to 

 swap frames of brood, without taking the 

 bees. Take from A, a frame of brood that 

 is as much as possible sealed and swap it for 

 one of B that is mostly eggs and very young 

 brood. You may continue swapping in this 

 way just as often as you can find in A frames 

 of brood more advanced than those in B. 



If B has as many as 3 frames well filled 

 with brood, or when you have made it as 

 strong as that, you may work more rapidly. 

 Take from A, a frame of the ripest brood 

 with adhering bees, and give to B. Within a 

 week this may be repeated. After B has as 

 many as 5 frames of brood well covered with 

 bees it can stand having 2 frames at a time 

 given to it. If you give bees too rapidly 

 while it is weak, there is danger to the 

 queen. 



3. It is practised a good deal in England, 

 but for some reason not much in this coun- 

 try. I think some have reported favorably, 

 and some not. 



4. I don't believe it would do very well. 

 6. The article in question having to do with 



making nuclei, little was said about the queen, 

 only she was to be kept out of the hive for 

 10 days, and then returned. Generally she 

 would probably be kept in a nucleus of per- 

 haps 2 frames of brood with adhering bees. 

 She might also be kept caged with a retinue 

 of bees, candy being in the cage, or she could 

 be in the cage alone if warm enough, say 70 

 degrees or more. In the latter case she might 

 be kept in the house. 



6. They are not likely to make any objec- 

 tion to her. 



7. Merely remove them and put frames filled 

 with foundation in place. If there is brood 

 in the removed frames, put it in an upper 

 story over an excluder till the brood has 

 hatched out. Do not alternate the founda- 

 tion with the brood-combs already present, 

 but put the foundation at one side together. 

 You will get straighter work if you put a thin 

 dummy between the combs and the frames of 

 foundation. 



8. Bringing to a boil will hardly hurt it 

 if not repeated too much, nor continued too 

 long, and I don't believe the short boiling 

 could be detected. 



9. Yes, very. 



Wintering Bees in a Nail-Keg — Comb 



Honey and Increase — Bee- 



Keeping in Washington. 



I have a swarm that I caught last May and 

 put in a nail-keg, and they seem to work 

 well, filled the keg with comb, cast a nice 

 swarm in July, and had a good flow after 

 that, but I don't know how much honey they 

 went into winter with ; but the other day I 

 noticed that some 12 or more bees had come 

 out of the keg, and had chilled in the snow, 

 and every day since I can see several come 

 out and spin around on the snow and never 

 get back, for the days are cold. What makes 

 them come out? Do you think they are short 

 of stores? 



2. I have them on the summer stand with 

 a piece of burlap wrapped around the keg, 

 with a J^xo-inch entrance. Do they get 

 enough air? 



3. If they are short of stores can I feed 

 them? How is the best way? 



4. If they were in a frame hive I could 

 soon see if they had any honey. I want to 



transfer them in the spring. When is the 

 best time, and how is the best way? 



5. I want to run for comb honey and get all 

 of it I can, and get all the swarms 1 can. 

 How is the best way to manage it? 



6. Would you use the 8 or the 10 frame 

 hive? 



7. We have a very good honey-flow here. 

 It lasts about 3 months, from June 1st to the 

 last of August. We have a milk-weed that is 

 very nearly as good as white clover, smells 

 like clover, and the honey tastes very much 

 like it, but not quite so white. Then there 

 is some alfalfa raised here, and more sowed 

 every year, so I think this will be a good 

 bee-country after a while, for it is new now. 

 Is there a bee-keepers' association in this 

 State, and where are the headquarters? 



8. What books would you advise for a be- 

 ginner? Washington. 



Answers. — 1. The bees coming out as you 

 say, spinning around and dying on the snow, 

 is no sign that anything is wrong. If they 

 were starving they would die in the hive, or 

 at the most they would get no farther than 

 close to the entrance. More or less bees 

 always die through the winter. 



2. That ought to give enough air. 



3. It's a troublesome thing to feed them; 

 but you can put some comb honey under the 

 combs on the floor, and the first day it is 

 warm enough they can take it. 



4. Wait till they swarm, hive the swarm 

 in a movable-comb hive, setting it on the old 

 stand with the nail-keg close beside it. A 

 week later move the keg to a new place, per- 

 haps 10 feet away. Two weeks later still, or 

 21 days from the time the swarm issued, all 

 the worker-brood will have hatched out in the 

 keg, when you can cut up the keg, brush the 

 bees into the hive containing the swarm, and 

 melt up the combs. Instead of this, however, 

 as you probably want increase, you may, at 

 the end of the 21 days, cut out the good combs 

 and fasten them in frames as directed in your 

 bee-book, and transfer bees and comb into a 

 new hive. 



5. If you get all the honey possible, you 

 will not have any swarms, unless you are in a 

 locality where the season is long and there is 

 a heavy flow late. If you have as many 

 swarms as possible, you will not expect much 

 honey. Perhaps the happy medium will be 

 to double your number. When a prime swarm 

 issues, set it on the old stand with the old 

 hive close beside it; move the old hive to a 

 new stand a week later, and that will throw 

 the field-force all into the hive with the swarm. 

 That will make the swarm strong for a crop 

 of honey. If you are anxious for more in- 

 crease and less honey, when the prime swarm 

 issues hive it and put it on a new stand, 

 leaving the old hive on the old stand. Then, 

 if the colony has been strong, you may have 

 another swarm from the old hive about 8 days 

 after the first swarm. Set this second swarm 

 on the stand of the old hive, and move the 

 old hive 10 feet or more away. 



7. Write Legh R. Freeman, N. Yakima, 

 Wash., who will be able to tell you about the 

 Washington State Bee-Keepers' Association. 



8. Dadant's "Langstroth on the Honey-Bee," 

 Root's "A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture," 

 and Cook's "Manual, or Bee-Keepers* Guide," 

 are all good. After one or more of these, may 

 come any of the other books advertised on 

 another page of this paper. 



Cellar-Wintered Bees — Milkweed — 



Bees Superseding Clipped Queens — 



Eggs that Disappeared. 



1. Last winter I had my bees in the cellar 

 with a bottom-board IJ^ inches in depth of 

 opening under the hives in front, but with it 

 all closed except about 1^x33^ inches, with 

 wire-nails placed close enough together over 

 the opening to keep out mice. I had also a 

 cork hole less than an inch in diameter in 

 either the front or back end of each hive 

 about 1-3 from the top. closed with a mouse- 

 proof tin stopper in 10-inch deep Danzenbaker 

 hives, with the frames set crosswise, and lost 

 none by wintering in the cellar under the 

 living room of the house. Although this win- 

 ter has been very mild for Ontario, Canada, 

 till now (February), I can't keep the cellar 

 so warm as last winter, and have had it down 

 to 41 degrees a couple of times, and from that 

 to 45. 



I should have said that last winter the cot- 

 ton covers were mostly free from propolis, 

 and over these 4 or 5 thick quilts, either of 

 felt or cut from bed-quilts, covered with 

 weighted wire or zinc screens to keep out the 

 mice. 



