100 



March, 1915. 



|~ ^ r ^B&^ 



American %ae Journal 



moth-tight they will be safe. If the combs 

 have had outdoor freezing all winter, then 

 they will need no f iirnigatinti. only the moth 

 must be kept from them. 



Moving Bees to and from Out Yards and Home 

 Cellar 



1. When bringing bees from out yard to 

 home cellar, sho.ild they be given a Hight 

 before put into cellar.^ 



2. When taking bees from cellar, should 

 they be given a flight before being taken to 

 out yards? Ohio. 



Answer.— I and 2. Yes to both questions. 

 At least it is better. Bringing home from 

 the out yard causes a good deal of excite- 

 ment with extra consumption of stores, and 

 so the bees are not in Quite so good shape 

 for the winter's confinement as if they have 

 the chance for a flight Still, it may happen 

 that they are brought homewhen there is no 

 likelihood they will have weather for a 

 flight, in which case it is better to put them 

 right in the cellar. In the second case it 

 does not make so much difference, but it 

 can seldom happen that they will not have a 

 chance to fly before being hauled away. 



Water in Bee Cellar— Concrete Floors 



Onjan. 16. we had a heavy rain and about 

 3 inches of water fell. My eaves troughs 

 did not carry the water, and it ran down my 

 cellar walls I dipped up about two pails 

 full. The floor is damp in under the hives. 

 where I cannot dry it. and two of the side 

 walls. The temperature at the bottom is 44 

 degrees; on too 50 or 52 degrees. So far the 

 bees have wintered finely, as far as I can 

 tell. 1 have 106 colonies in the cellar, size 

 10x18 feet, and feet deep. Is that too many ? 

 The cellar walls are made of concrete. I 

 dug this cellar last August; the floor is con- 

 crete also. Did I make a mistake by con- 

 creting the floor ? How would it be to put a 

 stove in the cellar and have a fire for sev- 

 eral days, even if the temperature went up 

 to 65 or 70 degrees ? Would it hart the bees ? 

 1 am heating foot stones and putting them 

 down cellar. Will this do more harm than 

 good? Wisconsin, 



Ansvi-ek —The quality and temperature 

 of the air are things to be considered. If 

 these beall right, water in the cellar will do 

 no harm. One case attracted attention 

 some years ago inwhich bees wintered in 

 excellent condition in a cellar with a con- 

 stantly running stream of water. But with 

 a wet cellar bottom it is better to have the 

 temperature a little higher than if the cellar 

 were dry. Your heated stones will likely do 

 good rather than harm. A stove might be 

 all right, too, only don't have an oil stove 

 without some sort of chimney to carry the 

 gases out of the cellar. Raising the tem- 

 peiature temporarily to 65 or 70 degrees 

 might do good if the bees were uneasy, but 

 not necessary if they are quiet. In any case 

 it would not do to continue it long. 



Your cellar is large enough for the bees 

 you have in it. The concrete floor is not 

 considered the very best. Years ago Adam 

 Grimm built a special bee cellar with a con- 

 crete floor, or its equivalent, and it was not 

 a success. Still it might not have been en- 

 tirely the fault of the floor. Some object to 

 a concrete floor because the noise or jar- 

 ring of one pile of hives is communicated to 

 others. 



Extractor Speed — Brood Combs 



I. I would liki- to know the speed that a 

 honey extractor must run to do good work. 

 1 have some cog wheels speeded three turns 

 of the smaller to one of the larger. Will 

 that speed enough to extract honey ? 



J Should the brood frames be extracted, 

 and can it be done without injuring the 

 brood ? Georijia. 



Answers.— I. Three to one will give you 

 pleiityot speed; all that is necessary is to 



turn fast enough. Indeed, there is no trou- 

 ble about getting speed enough with no cogs 

 at all. The first extractor I knew anything 

 about had none; each revolution with the 

 hand made a revolution with the baskets. 



2 Unless you are very careful you are 

 likely to throw out brood if any is in the 

 comb; audit is not considered best to ex- 

 tract honey from such combs. 



Getting Colonies 



' Boiling Over " for the Honey 

 Flow 



Several years ago my uncle moved to 

 Madison. Wis,, and donated to me his bees 

 ii colonies in box hives), which I accepted, 

 and since that time we have had more or 

 /<■.« honey for our own use. Several times I 

 have tried to get at the inside workings of 

 beedom. but I confess it has been consider- 

 ably like "Greek "to me. 



At present I have 17 colonies in the cellar 

 !8 frames each of Hoffman pattern, and they 

 seem to be doing nicely. Within the last 

 few weeks I have had a rathersevere attack 

 of bee fever. I want to see if I can't really 

 make my bees do something worth while— 

 not get an enormous crop of honey every 

 year, but to do at least as well as the aver- 

 age "modern" beekeeper. Next spring I 

 hope to clip my first queen's wing. I have 

 taken the American Bee Journal during the 

 past year, and the pages that interest me. at 

 least as much as any, are those containing 

 your department of questions and answers; 

 hence I have a few questions which I trust 

 you will answer through your columns. I 

 confess I have somewhat of a dread of ask- 

 ing foolish questions, and I am quite sure if 

 I " seek diligently" I can find answers to 

 most of my queries without asking ques- 

 tions, but I have been helped through your 

 answers to questions that have been asked 

 by others— some of which may have seemed 

 rather foolish to you perhaps, so my ques- 

 tions may possibly help some other ama- 

 teur. 



From what I have read, it seems impera- 

 tive to have a hive " boiling over " with bees 

 at the proper time if one is to get honey in 

 the supers. Now. what is one to do if the 

 queen will not lay but a moderate number 

 of eggs though she has plenty of room ? The 

 following plan suggested itself to me: Two 

 queens will probably produce more bees 

 than one. hence why not either divide a col- 

 ony as soon as practicable in the spring, 

 placing each division side by side, and just 

 at the beginning of the honey flow, give each 

 colony in the evening a sprinkling of some- 

 thing with an odor perhaps essence of pep- 

 permint diluted, and the day when when 

 bees are flying, take one hive away, and if 



necessary move the other on the line tha 

 formerly divided the two. Or. instead o 

 making equal division, use a small division 

 from some other colony placed by the main 

 dependence and treated as above. Use 

 divisons for increase if desired or double up 

 late in the fall. Might not a moderate lay- 

 ing queen produce stronger bees than a 

 very productive one ' How would it be to 

 place under the brood a super of shallow 

 frames of comb for building up purpose in 

 the spring, if a lo-framehiveis used ? Would 

 a queen be any more inclined to go down 

 into the shallow frames than into another 

 full depth body ? Wisconsin. 



Answer— Im not likely to receive a severe 

 shock from receiving foolish questions. 

 First, because I've answered so many that 

 it's hard to get up any of a new kind; and 

 second because I've a vivid recollection of 

 the time when I wanted to ask the same 

 kind of questions myself, but had not the 

 chance that this department affords. So 

 don't hesitate to ask. 



You are quite right in thinking it impor- 

 tant to have strong colonies ready for work 

 when the harvest begins, but you are not so 

 right in thinking that you have weak colo- 

 nies because the queens will not lay enough. 

 At least the chances are uq in a hundred 

 that you are wrong. For in that one case in 

 a hundred it may happen that the queen is 

 so poor that she will not lay enough eggs 

 under the most favorable circumstances; 

 but it ought hardly to be one in a hundred. 

 The likelihood is that you never had a 

 queen but would have laid twice as many 

 eggs as she actually did lay in spring if she 

 had had the proper encouragement. 



Like enough you had a queen last spring 

 that at one time kept only four frames filled 

 with eggs and brood. She might have laid 

 more eggs, but what use ? She was laying 

 all her bees could cover, what more could 

 shedo? If you had taken from some other 

 hive enough bees to double her family, she 

 might have laid double as many eggs or 

 more. 



If. on the other hand, you had taken away 

 half of her bees, you would thereby have 

 caused her to lay only half as many eggs <'r 

 ^t\^s. So you see your scheme would lessen 

 instead of increasing the number of eggs. 



W. 1. COX. OF PORTER. WASH.. BFLIEVES IN HONEY EXHIBITS 



