October, igio. 



1^7 



American Vae Jonrnal 



^^^^^n 



Dr. Miller's Question-Box 



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



Dk. C. C. MiLi.F.K. Makknco. ll.I.. 



He does Nor answer bee-keeping questions by mail. 



Introducing Queens — Feeding Nucleus 



1. Is a liana t, Caucasian, or a Cyprian 

 queen any harder to introduce than an ItaHan? 



2. I bought a 3-frame nucleus ; would it be 

 all right for winter if fed? 



New York. 

 Answers. — 1. I think not. 



3. Rather doubtful; although in the right 

 kind of a cellar it might succeed. 



American Foul Brood. 



My bees are not doing very well. They 

 have the American foul brood. What must I 

 do to cure it? Some take the bees from the 

 old hive and put them into a new one, and 

 then disinfect the hive; but what they use to 

 disinfect with, I don't know. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — There is probably nothing better 

 than the McEvoy treatment. If you send to 

 Dr. E. F. Phillips. Dept. of Agriculture, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. he will send you a free bul- 

 letin about the disease and its cure. Some 

 disinfect the hive by tlirowin? a handful of 

 straw into the empty hive and burning it out; 

 some wet with kerosene the inside and burn 

 it; and some use a painter's torch. Probably 

 the greater number do nothing at all in the 

 way of disinfecting the hive, believing it un- 

 necessary. 



Metal Queen-Cell Bases. 



Has anybody ever used metal queen-cell 

 bases? If so, why are they not in more 

 general use? I have used some this season 

 in an experimental way, and like them very 

 much. They have so many advantages over 

 others; there is no transferring of the larvse, 

 uo royal jelly to be obtained; they are strong 

 and can be used over and over again, etc. : 

 in fact, they have the advantages of all the 

 others, with few of their disadvantages. 



, Iowa. 



Answer. — I do not remember to have heard 

 of metal being used, although wood is in 

 common use. Wood has the advantage of 

 being a poorer conductor of heat than metal, 

 and it is likely that no one has thought of 

 metal having any advantage over wood. 



Sowing Yellow Sweet Clover Seed. 



1. Wiien is the best time to sow yellow 

 swett clover seed, and how shall I prepare the 

 ground? I want to sow where I have corn. 



2. How many pounds of seed to the acre? 



Tennessee. 



Answers. — 1. Either the white or the yel- 

 low variety of sweet clover may be sown 

 spring or fall, or at the same time other 

 clover is sown in your locality. It doesn't 

 matter a great deal as to preparation of the 

 ground. Prepared as for other clover will 

 be all right, only the ground should be rolled 

 down hard after sowing, as it seems to heave 

 worse in winter than red clover. In your 

 corn ground you may get as good a stand as 

 anv other way by sowing without any prep- 

 aration whatever, at a time when the ground 

 is rather wet, and allowing a lot of stock to 

 tramp it down all over. That seems like a 

 slipshod way of doing things, but the worse 

 you treat sweet clover the better it seems to 

 succeed. The fact is, it is not the easiest 

 thing to get a good stand when ground is very 

 nicely prepared — at least not in this locality. 



2. There is no definite agreement as to the 

 amount of seed per acre, but much lighter 

 seeding will do than for other clovers, as a 

 single stalk will cover more than a square 

 foot of ground. If it all grows, 10 pounds 

 to the acre ought to be a great plenty. 



Grading Honey for Market. 



1. You answered my (juestions on page 292. 

 on grading honey, and selling honey on com- 

 mission. What I want to know is. Arc all 

 the sections in a case of 24 sections of equal 

 weight, or do they run from \ZY2 to 16 ounces 



in the case ? I have been weighing al! sec- 

 tions and putting all of the 16 ounce sections 

 in a case by themselves; the same way with 

 lo-ounce, 14, 13 and 12. Any under 12 ounces 

 are put back to be filled out, if it is not loo 

 late in the season; and if some of the cells 

 of the 14, 13 and 1 2 are not capped over I 

 put them back. As I understand the grading 

 rules, some of the customers get a IS^j-ouncc 

 section for IG cents, while others of the same 

 case get a 16-ounce sections for Ifi 6ents. 1 

 try to fix it so all will be treated alike. 



New York. 

 Answer. — In a case of sections there are 

 different weights, and the sections may run 

 up to 16 ounces eacii, or more; only so that 

 no section shall weigh less than XZYi ounces, 

 and that the cases shall average not less than 

 21 pounds each. If the grocer sells the sec- 

 tions by weight, of course the consumer pays 

 for the number of ounces he gets; if the 

 honey is sold by the section, then some cus- 

 tomers will get better bargains than others. 



Soured Honey — Short of Winter 

 Stores. 



1. I took off 300 pounds of honey, Aug. 20, 

 which seemed to be nice honey, yellow color, 

 pood taste, and all sealed up nicely. I stored 

 it in a warm room, and now it is fermenting, 

 running out through the cappings, and is be- 

 ginning to have quite a sour taste. Today 

 I am putting it hack on the hives to see if 

 the bees can put it in shape. What would you 

 advise me to do with it? What caused it? 

 I do not believe it is honey-dew. 



2. My bees are all in Danzenbaker hives, 

 and are working in the supers yet. but it 

 looks as if they did not have enough stores 

 below to winter on. Do you believe there is 

 any danger of their giving a surplus and not 

 providing for themselves? Missouri. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know what was the 

 trouble. Sometimes bees seal up honey when 

 it is not sufficiently ripened, and that might 

 have occurred in your case. The character of 

 the honey must have had something to do 

 with it. Probably you did the very best 

 thing when you gave it back to the bees. 



2. If there is no fall flow, and the early 

 flow stops short while the frames are full of 

 brood, there may be too little honey in the 

 hive for winter, ecpecially in S- frame hives 

 or smaller. But if there is a fall flow, the 

 bees are sure to crowd honey into the brood- 

 chamber, even if it leaves no room for the 

 queen. At least that is the way it is here. 

 As your bees were working in supers Sept. 

 14, if you had looked in the brood-chamber 

 on that date I'm pretty sure you would have 

 found lots of honev and not much brood. 



Getting Bees from Bee-Trees — Albino 

 Bees. 



1. At a distance of about 7 miles from 

 where I live, on the banks of a river, there 

 are, perliaps. hundreds of bee-trees. The bees 

 can easily be gotten out. But to get some of 

 them it would take a whole day. as the bees 

 have their entrance 1 or 2 inches above the 

 ground and run down into the roots, so that 

 I would have to dig up the whole tree, and 

 some of these trees are very large. How 

 could they be gotten out without the use of 

 some kind of an escape? 



2. Please explain one or more ways in 

 which bees may be taken out of a tree with- 

 out the use of smoke. 



3. Could one by chopping a hole about the 

 end of the combs (lower end) , and setting 

 a cup of gasoline up close to the combs, drive 

 out all of the bees, no matter in what direc- 

 tion the holes run? 



4. In my bee-book I never found anything 

 stating the difference between an albino and 

 another race of bees. Is there anything pe- 

 culiar about them? 



5. Do they gather much? Where could I 

 buy such a queen? 



My bees are golden Italians, and those in 

 the trees arc golden also. California. 



Answers. — 1. Try this: Put in your smoker 

 rags saturated with carbolic acid; blow into 

 the hole the vapor lightly at first, so as not 

 to stupefy the bees, and continue until they 

 think it is pleasanter outside. 



2. Besides smoke or some other vapor ob- 

 jectionable to the bees, I don't think of any 

 otlier way except chopping or using an es- 

 cape. 



3. I'm afraid that merely setting a cup of 

 gasoline there might not trouble the bees 

 enough. Blowing it in with a smoker might 

 do better. 



4. If I am rightly informed, albinos among 

 bees are somewhat like albinos of the human 

 race or other animals; there is a deficiency of 

 coloring pigment. This is accompanied by 

 weakness in other respects; although some 

 have reported albino bees that were said to 

 be good. I have seen nothing about albinos 

 for several years, and don't know where you 

 would find them. 



lepor($ 



Report for Two Seasons. 



I am very thankful for the Bee Journal. 

 It has been a great help to me during the 

 summer. I bought 3 colonies of bees in fall 

 of 1908. They' wintered all right, but 1909 

 was a poor year. They increased to 4 colo- 

 nies and produced not more than 6 pounds 

 of honey. This year I increased to 10 colo- 

 nies from the 4 and got between 300 and 400 

 pounds of comb honey. Some swarms united 

 and went to the woods. 



Bagley, Minn. Algot Berstson. 



Freaky igio in Central Nebraska. 



March was summer; April and May winter; 

 June cold spring: and July hot and dry (only 

 J/2 inch of precipitation for the month.) With 

 a small working force of bees, and the nec- 

 tar drving so fast, the flow from alfalfa and 

 sweet clover was slow, but now we are get- 

 ting a favorable freak finish to the season. 

 August has been cool and showery, and the 

 low places are a jungle of Spanish-needle 

 (first time I've seen it here in years). We 

 are getting a fine fall flow. I expect 1500 

 pounds of honey or better, which means a 

 60-pound average per colony. 



Louis Macey. 



X. Platte, Xebr., Sept. 7. 



Score Another for the Blacks. 



When I hear men bragging about black 

 bees, I think of our boss in the lumber-woods. 

 He was always telling the boys of the good 

 qualities of his wife. He had so much to 

 say in praise of her that I made a long, lonely 

 walk through the woods to sec his home and 

 his wife. 



She was a "niggerl" W.H.Mills. 



Arden, Nebr., Sept. 5. 



Ripening Honey. 



That little air space at the top of every 

 cell of honey as it is in the comb is of par- 

 ticular need. Immediately resting on the 

 honey is an albuminous film. The rising and 

 falling of the temperature causes a waste of 

 a portion of the honey which passes off as 

 carbonic acid gas. The gas passes through 

 the film first and then as the wax cap of the 

 cell is dry the gas can work its way through 

 into the outer atmosphere. If the honey rest- 

 ed against the wax capping the gas could not 

 get through and the refuse would be retained 

 in the honey, and the honey would be 

 spoiled. 



If honey is sealed up in air-tight cans or 

 jars for but a short t'lmc it is correspondingly 

 injured. When the containers of the honey are 

 kept in an airy room and provided with ven- 

 tilated covers a film forms on the surface 

 protecting it from the air, but the ripening 



