American Hee Jonrnal 



or puffs are admitted without any com- 

 pensation ; usually, however, as inti- 

 mated, there is some ulterior reason for 

 such notice, especially when an adver- 

 tisement of the article noticed is dis- 

 played elsewhere in the paper. 



In making these comments I inust 

 say that 1 have a very high regard for 

 Mr. Terry and his work; also for the 

 usefulness of the Practical Farmer, but 

 I cannot sever Mr. T.'s connection with 

 the editorial department of the paper 

 from the business office, no matter how 

 much the editor and Mr. T.'s friends 



may think the latter is above writing 

 pufTs on demand of the business depart- 

 ment of the paper. 



Several rea<lers of the said Farmer 

 have written me in praise of the stand 

 I have taken. .Anyway, I have it to my 

 credit, though perhaps not altogether 

 deserved, of having had a hand in oust- 

 ing department portraits from two 

 great papers, to-wit the American Bee 

 Journal and the I'ractical Farmer. Oh, 

 no; never mind the thanks! I was 

 doing siniplv what I considered my 

 dutv. 



Dr. Miller's Question-Box 



Send Questions either to the ofticc of tlic American tiuc Journal or direct to 



Dk. C. C. Millek. iMa.kkn<;o, III. 



He does not answer bee-keeping questions by mail. 



Reinforced Comb Foundation 



1. Is the reinforced comb foundation safe 

 with two wires in a Langstrotli frame in the 

 brood-nest ? 



2. Is the extra-thin surplus reinforced 

 comb foundation drawn out quicker in cool 

 nights, like in Nevada, than the thin surplus 

 comb foundation ? 



3. Is the midrib less in it than in comb 

 foundation not reinforced ? and do bee-sup- 

 ply dealers and manufacturers of comb 

 foundation offer to sell it - Ut.^h. 



Answers.— I. It ought to be safe with al- 

 most any kind of reinforcing, although 1 do 

 not know to what kind of reinforcing you 

 refer. 



2. I don't think T ever before heard of ex- 

 tra-thin surplus reinforced foundation, but 

 1 don't think it would be drawn out quicker 

 than other foundation 



3. I don't understand this, and I don't think 

 I ever saw such foundation for sale. 



What Ailed the Bees ? 



I have found that about -3 of the bees of 

 this locality died with the brood-chambers 

 full of honey, with no brood. What was the 

 cause? . , ,, 



1 had 2 swarms of bees this spring by IVIaya. 



Indiana. 



Answer. — You do not say when the bees 

 died. One would naturally suppose in the 

 winter; only you say there was no brood in 

 the hive, and that looks a little as if they 

 died in the spring after brood ought to be 

 present. It is of course impossible to say 

 without knowing more about the case, but if 

 they died in winter it might be that they 

 starved to death with much honey in the 

 hive, because the steady cold so long con- 

 tinued did not allow them to leave the clus- 

 ter to reach out where the honey was. Again. 

 the trouble may have been diarrhea. Of 

 course, one would not expect brood in the 

 hives in winter, but if they died after time 

 for brood in the spring. I don't know what 

 the trouble was. It might be queenlessness. 

 only that would hardly be on so large a scale. 



A regular swarm as far north as you are so 

 early as May i is something remarkable; 

 but this was a very remarkable season. 



Dequeenlng — Queen-Cells for Requeening 



1. Is it a good practice, if working for ex- 

 tracted honey, to requeen by deqiieening 

 shorllv before the close oi the main honey-flow, 

 if followed by two months with little nectar 

 and then enough fall honey for wintering ? 



2. Will a sealed, or nearly sealed, queen- 

 cell. <// Me <-/<>.«■ of the honey-flow, be accepted 

 shortly after dequecning to the exclusion of 

 cell-building ? 



3. Would it be an advantage to give more 

 than one queen-cell ? Virginia. 



Answers.— I. Yes. with a string to the any- 

 swer. Some, perhaps, would have no string. 

 But I wouldn't like to dequeen a colony that 

 had a good queen, unless I felt sure she 

 would get a better one. Even if you give a 

 young queen reared from choice stock, you 

 are not always certain of any improvement 

 since you don't know what drone she may 

 mate with. It is safer to requeen only the 



third or half of the apiar\ that has done 

 poorest work. 



2. If the queen-cell be unsealed, or sealed 

 only a short time, you may count on other 

 cells being started, with possibly swarming 

 as soon as the virgin from the cell given is 

 ready to go with the swarm. If the virgin is 

 nearly ready to emerge, although cells may 

 be started there is more likelihood that the 

 bees will tear them down. Something de- 

 pends upon how dearthy the dearth of honey 

 is. The safest thing is to give a virgin that is 

 not more than 12 hours out of the cell. 



3. Yes. and no. If either cell were bad. as 

 sometimes happens, the other cell would 

 make all right. But with 2 cells, there might 

 be the chance of swarming. 



Queen-Cells and Swarming 



1. At what stage in the development of 

 queen-cells are bees apt to swarm? How 

 long before or how long after being capped 

 over ? 



2. Am I correct in my understanding that 

 they are capped over 7 days after the eggs 

 have been placed in them ? 



3. Is there any way of determining accu- 

 rately the ageof the larva, or. in other words. 

 how long it has been in process of develop- 

 ment, without waiting for it to be sealed 

 over ? New Jersev. 



Answers.— I. About the time the first 

 queen-cell is sealed. Of course it may be 

 delayed after that time if weather is unfa- 

 vorable. 



2. It is possible that in some cases matters 

 may be hurried as much as that, but the rule 

 is : 3 days in the egg. and then ^ days of feed- 

 ing. "That would make 8 days after the lay- 

 ing of the egg. 



3. Nothing very definite. In general terms 

 it may be said that the larva makes most of 

 its growth in the last 2 days of its 5 days of 

 larval existence; and I think it doesn't 

 cover the bottom of the cell till after it is 3 

 days old. 



Starling With Bees 



1. Would you recommend a full colony or 

 a 3-frame nucleus with a tested queen for a 

 beginner ? 



2. Will you kindly explain how to handle 

 the super when examining the brood-frames? 



3. Would you start with common black 

 bees and a good Italian queen, or with all 

 Italian bees? Peoria. 



Answers. — i. Get the full colony if you 

 can get one near at hand. If you have to 

 send oft a distance, get X\w nucleus, as ex- 

 pressage on a full colony would make it very 

 expensive. If you care nothing for expense, 

 get the full colony in either case. 



2. I suppose you want to know what is 

 done with the super while you are examin- 

 ing the frames. Set it with one end on the 

 ground, the other leaning against the body 

 of a tree that is within reach, or against an- 

 other hive, or even against the hive at which 

 you are working. Of course the bottom of 

 the super will face toward the tree or other 

 object of support. .-Another way is to place 

 the cover of the hive flat on the ground and 

 stand the super on one end on the cover. 

 This applies only when the cover is flat. Or 

 set the super on end on another hive. If 



there is danger of robbers troubling, put an 

 emi)ty hive or super on the ground close by. 

 put the super or supers on that in the same 

 position in which they were on the hive, and 

 then cover over. 



3. A little butter to start with the whole 

 business Italian, but in 6 weeks all will be 

 Italian anyhow provided the queen is Italian 



Swarm Prevention and Increase 



1. What do you think of this plan for 

 swarming prevention and increase at the 

 same time? Go to a big colony, which is 

 taking care of queen-cells preparatory to 

 swarming, and lift out say 3 frames of brood 

 with the queen, and place them in another 

 hive for increase, and give the parent colony 

 a queen-cell of some desired strain from 

 which to rear their queen, taking care that 

 all the older cells were first destroyed ? 



2. Do you favor placing the new swarm on 

 the old stand when a natural swarm has 

 issued, setting the old one a few feet away ? 



Illinois. 



Answers.— I. The plan will work. You 

 don't say what you will leave on the old 

 stand. Better leave on the old stand the 

 queen with the 2 or 3 frames of brood, and 

 put the rest on a new stand. 



2. Yes. but still better it is to set the old 

 hive close to the swarm which has been put 

 on the old stand, and move the old hive 

 to a new stand a week or so later. 



Growing Yellow Sweet Clover 



There is some sweetclover in this vicinity, 

 of the white variety, which yields a good 

 quality of honey for a month or more. White 

 clover is our main dependence for honey. 

 There is very little basswood here, but con- 

 siderable fruit-bloom, which yields some 

 nectar in favorable seasons, to be divided 

 among 7 bee-keepers within a radius of 5 

 miles, some of whom shamefully neglect 

 their bees, and lose the greater part of their 

 new swarms which go to the woods. Several 

 have lost all their bees by not giving them 

 the proper protection during the winter. 

 Kindly give me the address of some one who 

 grows yellow sweet clover for seed, as I wish 

 to purchase 20or 30 pounds for experimental 



Purposes on my new farm of 80 acres. I 

 ought it this spring. It is located about \Vi 

 miles from here, and I intend to move my 

 bees next December, when I take posses- 

 sion. Michigan. 



.Answer. — I do not know of any one now 

 who has yellow sweet clover seed, but 

 likely some one will advertise it for sale in 

 this journal, as has been the case in the 

 past. Coming 2 or 3 weeks earlier than the 

 white sweet clover, the yellow is of great 

 value where there is a scarcity of common 

 white clover, or in years when white clover 

 blooms, and yields no honey. 



T-Supers — Shallow Frames for Chunk Honey 



1. In answer to a correspondent, you said 

 it would be better to make the T-super 17^ 

 inches instead of 17*3 inches as you gave me. 

 Have you tried that length ? It seems to me 

 that there is a surplus room to wedge. Will 

 vou tell me how you wedge, if one end or 

 both? What kind of wedge do you use? I 

 wedged some with the broken sections or 

 any little pieces: wedged both ends, each 

 row of sections wedged independent of the 

 others. The bees put propolis beside some 

 of the wedged end of the sections. 



2. I have read of people producing bulk or 

 chunk honey in shallow frames. What is 

 the depth of the frame, inside measure? I use 

 H-inch strips to make my frames. Do you 

 think 8-inch lumber will be too deep? "The 

 top and bottom pieces, and the 'i-inch space 

 I have would leave the honey 6^ inches 

 deep. Kentucky. 



Answers.— I. I use, as you remember, lit- 

 tle sticks i2x'4X"8 or thinner than '/a) to 

 wedge in at the top between the sections. 

 Well, when the sections fit in at the bottom 

 too loose, they will sometimes drop down at 

 one end, and putting in a wedge at one end. 

 as you speak of. will do nothing to prevent 

 that unless merely by the tightness of the 

 wedging. Instead of wedging at the end, I 

 take one of those little sticks I first men- 

 tioned, and put in the angle of one of the T- 

 tins. That virtually makes the bottoms of 

 the sections H-inch longer, and prevents 

 any dropping down at the end. 



I have not tried supers i7'/» long, but the 

 fact that I can. and do, shorten some of the 

 I7js ones H of an inch by putting in the strip 



