December, 1915. 



American Hm Journal 



spring and use drone-traps as much as pos- 

 sible on my remaining colonies, what per- 

 cent of the Italian queens which are reared 

 will be purely mated ? 



3. How can I be absolutely sure that they 

 are not crossed with my bees? The only 

 bees near me are four or five colonies which 

 are three-fourths of a mile distant. 



4. Would Italian bees store enough more 

 honey per colony so that it would pay to re- 

 queen each colony ? 



5. My location is such that I can now keep 

 about 300 colonies; however. I wish to plant 

 about icoo basswood trees alonE three miles 

 of road fence. Would they be too close to- 

 eether ? , . , , _, , 



6. How many colonies would they supply 

 work for, countinii 75 pounds of surplus per 



colony ? ,.„ , . J r u J 



7 If there are different kinds of basswood 

 trees, which is the best honey producer ? 



8. Where can I obtain the seed ? 



9. At what time would it be best to 

 plant it ? ,,.,,, ^1. 



10. How many years would it be before the 

 trees would produce any amount of honey ? 



11. How much comb honey can one expect 

 from a colony during a good season, pro- 

 vided no increase is made? Illinois. 



Answers.— I. Your bees are most likely 

 Italian. Leather-colored Italians are 3- 

 banded. but not all sbanders are leather- 

 colored. If I am correct, 5-banders and 

 goldens are the same. 



2. I don't know. Maybe 6o percent, maybe 

 90, 



3. There is no easy way by which you can 

 be absolutely sure. You might come near it 

 by keeping in cellar the nuclei with virgins 

 and drones, then taking them out and by 

 feeding stir them up to flight in the after- 

 noon after the other drones have ceased 

 flight. 



4. Possibly; possibly not. Depends on how 

 good they are. 



5. They would do all right, being nearly a 

 rod apart, but it would be better to have 

 them farther apart. 



6. I don't know, and I don't know of any 

 way to find out. 



7. There are the American and the Euro- 

 pean. I think the American is the better, 

 but I'm not sure. 



8. It is possible you can get the seed of 

 seed dealers, but it ought not to be difficult 

 to get some one who lives where basswoods 

 grow to save seed for you, a single tree 

 yielding a large quantity of seed. 



9. Probably in the fall. 



10. I think something like is years from the 

 seed. 



11. The amount varies greatly; from noth- 

 ing to 300 pounds or more. Dr. E. F. Phillips 

 estimates the average at 25 to 30 sections 

 per colony. That, of course, takes good 

 seasons with bad. If you take good seasons 

 alone, it might be twice as much. 



warmest part of the hive, and their candy 

 contents would be easily accessible to the 

 bees through the holes between these circu- 

 lar tin containers. This plan of feeding is 

 easily adjustable, as a sufficient number of 

 feed containers can be used for either large 

 or small swarms with no danger of feed 

 running out to kill the bees. Tin can manu- 

 facturers can supply these at small cost. 

 California. 



Answer.— This plan would work all right. 

 I should think. In weather a bit cold the 

 bees would not reach the candy quite so 

 readily as if laid directly on the top-bars. 



than 100. But if you mean the bees are to 

 forage on no more than the 10 acres, it would 

 have to be extra good pasturage to support 

 10 colonies 



5 The majority of beekeepers seem to 

 think nothing is better than the lo-frame 

 Langstroth. or dovetailed. 



Size of Hives 



1. I purchased a colony of bees in a home- 

 made hive with outside measurements. 

 Twelve inches high, i8 inches long, 13 inches 

 wide and Jj inch thick. Is this a standard 

 size ? 



2. How far apart should frames be placed 

 in a hive to prevent cross-building and brac- 

 ing of comb ? 



3. I would like to know if there is a book 

 on making hives ? Ohio, 



Answers— I. No, it is not a standard size. 



2. The spacing in general use is ijs inches 

 from center to center, but some excellent 

 beekeepers prefer iH This for the brood- 

 chamber; but some space wider in extract- 

 ing-supers, up to not far from 2 inches. But 

 the spacing does not prevent cross building, 

 rhat is done by filling the frames with comb 

 foundation, or at least having starters of 

 comb or foundation. 



3. I know of no such book. 



Good Locations for Beekeeping — Best Hive for 

 Comb Honey 



1. I would like to find out what part of Illi- 

 nois and Wisconsin is best for beekeeping? 



2. What kind of land is best adapted for 

 beekeeping? 



3. Name the kind of pasturage I must have 

 to get good honey ? 



4. On 10 acres of land how many colonies 

 could I have ? 



5. What is the best kind of hive for comb 

 honey? Illinois. 



Answers.— I. Good locationsarescattered 

 all over both States. Your problem will be 

 to find one not already occupied, or one 

 where you can buy out another beekeeper. 



2. Perhaps where there is lime enough for 

 clover to do well. 



3. White clover, basswood. and fruit blos- 

 soms are a few of the principal honey-plants 

 in the States named. 



4. A very large number of colonies can be 

 put upon 10 acres if surrounding pasturage 

 is enough to support them, although gener- 

 ally there will not be pasturage for more 



Queen in Nucleus 



1. I have a fine breeding queen that I put 

 into a nucleus in the early spring. The re- 

 sult was that my queen became so feeble 

 that she did not lay at all. and the bees tried 

 to supersede her. To save her. I put her 

 into a strong colony and she went to laying, 

 and has as fine a colony of bees as I have 

 ever seen. What was the cause of her not 

 laying in the nucleus ? 



2. Will this queen be good next year ? 



3. Have you ever experimented with a 

 queen to see if she would stop laying if put 

 with just a few bees ? Texas. 



Answers— I. I can only guess. My guess 

 would be that you introduced the queen 

 into a nucleus the bees of which were some- 

 what hostile to her. but still allowed her to 

 lay enough so that they could start queen- 

 cells: or that she didn't lay at all. and the 

 queen-cells were started on brood they pre- 

 viously had. Then she was introduced into a 

 full colony that was in a humor to receive 

 her kindly, when she did good work. Possi- 

 bly you may object to this that she was not 

 introduced into the nucleus, but that the 

 nucleus was formed of her own bees In 

 that case it might be that something may 

 have happened in forming the nucleus, or in 

 handling it afterward, that made the bees 

 hostile to the queen, for you probably know 

 that it sometimes happens that the queen 

 is balled merely because the hive has been 

 opened. You seem to lean toward the be- 

 lief that she did not lay because the nucleus 

 was weak. Might be. but for the fact that 

 the bees tried to supersede her. that super- 

 seding showing that the bees were not fully 

 satisfied with her. 



2. In considering what she might do next 

 year. I think her last performance should 

 be considered rather than the previous per- 

 formance in the nucleus, for her after-per- 

 formance showed her to be a good queen, 

 and the previous trouble was with the nu- 

 cleus rather than the queen; so she wio' be 

 all right for next year. 



3. Never experimented directly in that 

 way. But I have had quite a number of 

 cases in which a queen was introduced into 

 a colony and remained a week or more with- 



Old Combs 



1. Will combs that have had brood reared 

 in them from one to three years spoil the 

 color and flavor of honey if used for extract- 

 ing frames ? . 



2 Which makes the best extracting frames 

 the shallow frames or the regular brood 

 frames? Ohio. 



Answers —I. There may be a slight differ 

 ence, but you probably could not tell the 

 honey from that stored in newly built 

 combs. 



2. Shallow frames are in some respects 

 better; but it is a little less troublesome to 

 use frames of the same size as in the brood- 

 chamber. 



No feeder 



How will this new plan of feeding bee 

 work? Place tin containers about the size 

 of a half pound baking powder can rover 

 containing bee candy, above the brood 

 frames, inside a linch wooden frame to ht 

 on the top of the hive under the cover. 

 These tin containers set side by side just 

 bove the brood frames, would be in the 



APIAKV of E. H. UPSON IN NORTHEK.N l.NDlANA 



