September, 1912. 



279 



American Hee Journal 



decided difference in the lonsrevjtyof bees. 

 It is a matter of no small importance, and if 

 by selection \vc can secure a strain of bees 

 tliat live bill a day or two longer than 

 usual there will be a decided gain, provided 

 dhat a day or two be added to their storing 

 tays. and not to the time spent as nurse- 

 bees. If you have such a strain of bees you 

 are fortunate. It certainly looks a little 

 that way. .And yet I'm not so sure that we 

 have established that the average lives of 

 . your bees is iiinre than six weeks. You say 

 "without any apparent decrease in num- 

 bers." It would lie more satisfactory if we 

 could have the actual count then and now. 

 for a look at theni now with only the recol- 

 lection of a few weeks ago for comparison is 

 not the most reliable thing in the world, 

 'rhen there's another thing. Those bees 

 werenot in a normal condition. We know 

 that work makes a liigdifference in the lives 

 of bees. In the winter they live several 

 times as long as in summer. If work makes 

 so much difference it is quite possible that 

 there is a further difference depending upon 

 the kind of work. May not nurse-work be 

 iiiuch harder on them than field-work? A 

 lot of those bees of yours did not do their 

 regular "stunt" of nurse-work, and their 

 lives may have been lengthened accordingly. 

 The fair wav is to take bees under normal 

 conditions. To a colony having a black 

 queen give an Italian queen, allowing all 

 work to go on regularly, and then see how 

 lone it will be until the blacks have disap- 

 peared. This has been done many times. 

 and I think in no case has the average life 

 run beyond about six weeks. If it has in 

 your case it is exceptional. 



with young bees. But Im not the best 

 guesser in the world. 



Carrying Nuclei Over Winter — Amount of Honey 

 Necessary 



1. In the spring I had one colony of blacks 

 in a modern hive, and .: in home-made hives. 

 I transferred the latter, and got i fine Ital- 

 ian queens from a reliable breeder. I have 

 reared lit queens. I want to take as many 

 queens through the winter as possible. How 

 can this be done under the following cir- 

 cumstances; Honey comes in up to the 

 latter part of October, and begins early in 

 March. 



2. I have several hives which hold 3 

 nuclei of 3 regular-sized frames each. About 

 how much honey will it take for each? 



3. If it takes 30 pounds of honey for a 10- 

 frame hive, can we be safe in allowing 3 

 pounds to each comb of bees. i. c, pounds 

 for 3 combs. 12 pounds for 4 combs, etc.? 



4. What is the least number of frames, 

 well filled with bees this is the only way I 

 know how toestimate) and honey w-ill it take 

 to go safely and profitably through the win- 

 ter ? 



5. Poplar blooms about May 10. linden 

 about June 10. so we must be ready for sur- 

 plus by May i. Can I expect a 2. 3 or 4 frame 

 nucleus this fall to be ready to store by 

 May I ? KENTtCKV. 



Answers —1. There will be no trouble as 

 to rearing almost any number of queens, so 

 the question resolves itself into finding out 

 the least number of bees that will bring a 

 queen safely through the winter. You will 

 accomplish that by assembling several 

 nuclei in the same hive. You have already 

 had in the same hive 3 nuclei of 3 frames 

 each. It is possible that four 2-frame nuclei 

 will do all right. A lo-frame hive having an 

 inside width of 14'^ inches would allow 3 

 compartments each 3 inches wide, and a 

 fourth compartment of 4'^ inches in which 

 you could have a 3 frame nucleus. This is 

 on the supposition that your 3 partitions are 

 made i^f -h stuff. These 4 nuclei well stocked 

 with bees would likely go through all right 

 in your Kentucky climate. But the three 

 3frame nuclei might be safer. 



2. May be 12 pounds. 



3. No. If it takes 3 pounds for each of the 

 10 frames when they are snugly crowded to 

 gether. any spreading apart will make more 

 honey needed. It is the outside of a cluster 

 that is hard to keep warm, and when you 

 put in division-boards you are to some ex- 

 tent making additional outsides. If you 

 need 30 pounds for 10 frames, and then put 

 in 2 division boards and u frames. I think 

 the i;will need more honey instead of less 

 than the 10 did. .And the more divisions you 

 put in the more honey per frame must be 

 figured. 



4. From what has already been said you 

 will see that I would estimate 2 frames to 

 the nucleus, with just a litlle question 

 whether 3 frames might not be better. 



.s. I should guess that a 4-frame nucleus 

 miglit. or even a 3-frame if well crowded 



Inquiry from Japan, Wliat Kind of Bees are Best? 



I would be glad to know what kind of bees 

 are best for section or extracted honey 

 goldens. 3banded Italians or Carniolans ? 



Can you kindly supply me with golden 

 Italian and vbanded queens this autumn ? 



Japan. 



Answer. -All things considered you can 

 hardly do better than to choose the 3-banded 

 Italians for either comb or extracted honey 

 Some say they do not seal comb honey so 

 white as they should, but I have not been 

 troubled in that way. There is no doubt a 

 difference in different strains. Black bees 

 have the very best reputation for making 

 white combs, but the blackest bees 1 ever 

 had made the darkest sections. They were, 

 however, Tunisians from Africa, and not 

 the common blacks. 



I cannot supply you with the bees you de- 

 sire, as I rear bees only tor my own use. 



the fire begins to die down in the evening, 

 then shut the door and leave it until morn- 

 inir. I'lit the stove-handle in the oven, and 

 then in the morning you will not forget to 

 take out the wax before building the fire 



Then you will scrape off the dirt from the 

 bottom of the cake, which you can do more 

 easily while the cake is a little warm. With 

 a large amounl of such scrapings it may be 

 worth while to melt the whole of it to get out 

 the littte wax in it. but with a small amount 

 It IS not worth the trouble. 



Giving Queen-Cells to Nuclei- 

 Carbon 



Bi-sulphide of 



Purifying Beeswax 



Please tell me how I can purify beeswax. 

 I can melt it and get it out of the combs by 

 the hot-water process, but after I get it 

 melted I cannot get the dirt separated from 

 the wax. as underneath the wax there is 

 some kind of fine dirt: that is. the dirt does 

 not settle to the bottom of the vessel that 

 the water and beeswax are in. I would like 

 to know some way to get this dirt out of the 

 wax. and will you please give me a way to 

 mould the beeswax into one or two pound 

 blocks. I have read many bee papers and 

 books, but I cannot findanything about puri- 

 fying beeswax. Oregon. 



Answer.— Your wax is only following the 

 general rule A large partof the impurities, 

 while heavier than wax are lighter than 

 water, so they settle between the water and 

 the wax. In other words, you will find a 

 layer of sediment on the under surface of 

 the cake of wax when it cools. There is not 

 very much difference between the weight of 

 the wa.x and the sediment, so that it takes it 

 a long time to settle. So if the wax cools 

 very rapidly much of the sediment will be 

 mixed up with it. Your effort must be to 

 keep the wax in the liquid state a long time: 

 or, as it is often expressed, you must let the 

 wax cool slowly. One way to do this is to 

 cover up warm with blankets or something 

 of the kind. If the amount of wax is small, 

 it will be longer cooling if you have a good 

 deal of water under it. Another way. with a 

 small amount, is to put it in the oven of the 

 cook-stove, leaving the oven-door open until 



1. Desiring to start a new colony, I did ex- 

 actly as you advised in May issue, page 150— 



.'\ little variation." etc.— with only the one 

 difference that I left the nucleus on top of 

 the other hive 2 or 3 days longer than you 

 advised. I did not succeed. Is that the rea- 

 son r' Possibly the queen, on emerging, was 

 detained from her mating Hight. or squeezed 

 through the excluder and got killed down- 

 stairs. I think I put two queen-cells in pro- 

 tectors, deeming that two would be better 



2. About treating brood-frames full of 

 honey with bisulphide of carbon, after re- 

 moving the same from the hive, what about 

 the danger of enough of the scent remaining 

 so that later, when feeding it back, the bees 

 object to it. In doing this I had 2 colonies 

 act queerly. Bee-Keeper. 



Answers.— t. Perhaps I was not explicit 

 enough. I intended to instruct that the 

 queen-cell should be given at the time the 

 nucleus was formed. ,i//cr the brood had 

 been in an upper story for a week. If that 

 had been done it would probably not have 

 done any harm to leave the brood in the 

 upper story 2 or 3 days longer. If you put a 

 ripe queen-cell into such an upper story, 

 you woiild be likely to fail in the majority of 

 cases. The queen would likely hatch out all 

 right, and might continue unmolested until 

 the time for her wedding flight, when her 

 frantic efforts to get out might induce the 

 bees to ball her. Of course, there would be 

 a gain in time by putting the cell in the up- 

 per story in advance of putting the nucleus 

 on its own stand, but in that case it would 

 be safer not to leave the brood in the upper 

 story even so long as a week. Three days 

 would be safer. 



I don't suppose putting in the two cells 

 did any harm. 



2. I never tried giving back to the bees 

 frames that had been fumigated with bi- 

 sulphide of carbon, until they had been out 

 of the hive a good many days: but I should 

 not have supposed it would take more than 

 3 or 4 days to air the combs sufficiently. But 

 that may be a wrong view. If you have any 

 definite proof in the case it may be useful. 



Bee-Papers Necessary in Bee-Business 



I have been taking bee-papers ever since I 

 was 14 years old. and I am 2H now. I am tak- 

 ing all the papers, and have almost all the 

 books, and still I do not have enough to read 

 on bees. I have been keeping bees for my- 

 self the last a years. I would have been out 

 of the bee-business if it hadn't been for the 

 papers and books. I have never made less 

 than double my expenses, and have in- 

 creased from 5 colonies to 17?: have bought 

 all dovetailed hives, and built a good honey- 

 house in the 8 years. I have full sheets of 

 foundation in all the hives, getting breeder- 

 queens, queen-rearing outfit, and mating 

 hives, but I could not have done it without 

 the bee-papers. If I only had one colony of 

 bees I would w-ant the bee-papers. If a man 

 hasn't time to read a bee-paper he isn't a 

 bee-keeper, and never will be. 



I have put a lot of money in good Italian 

 breeding queens. I am always looking for 

 something better in the line of bees, and I 

 am getting results. But I couldn t have 

 done it without the bee-papers. 



I am getting pleasure and happiness, big 

 honey crops. and better profit by taking bee- 

 papers so why doesn't it pay? If I hadn't 

 taken any bee-papers I would have today 



one or two colonies of black bees in box 

 hives, and lost all the pleasure and profit. 

 Erie Co.. N. Y. Emu. W. Gutekunst. 



Increased from 2 Colonies to 7 



I had 2 colonies last fall, and they came 

 through the winter in fine shape. I made 

 3 nuclei from the strongest colony, and they 

 each cast a prime swarm, so that I have 7 

 in all. 



1 think they are just the common bee. 

 They have one band of yellow, and the rest 

 is mostly black, and when the workers get 

 old their bodies are nearly black and glossy. 

 I thought I would requeen with a good grade 

 of Italian stock while my apiary was small, 

 and protect myself against foul brood and 

 the bee-moth. Geo. H. Elskamp. 



Maurice. Iowa 



Bad Stores Caused Heavy Loss in Wis- 

 consin 



We have liad a hard winter and spring, 

 and a heavy loss in bees. " .Minnesota " asked 

 on page 181 of the .American Bee Journal for 

 June. " Why the bees died ?" Now. my bees 

 had plenty of honey, and so did many others 



