c 



458 



QUESTION. — 

 I am a bee- 

 keeper on the 

 Isthmus of 

 Tehuantepec. Hon- 

 ey is worth here 

 $1.00 a gallon, and 

 wax $1.12 a pound, 

 U. S. currency. 

 How should I work 

 my bees to get a 



maximum of wax and limit the production of honey? 

 Mexico. Henry Knabe. 



Answer. — We have never tried raising any 

 great quantity of wax, and therefore we do 

 not feel competent to answer your question. 

 We remember one, W. J. Hughes of Yuma, 

 Ariz., in 1917 more than doubled the output 

 of wax; but the amount he secured was 

 probably too small to interest you. At the 

 beginning of the honey flow he confined the 

 queens, by excluders, to the lower stories, 

 and in the two supers above the excluders 

 he placed from six to nine empty frames, the 

 frames being interspersed among those hav- 

 ing combs. As soon as the frames were filled 

 with comb and honey he cut them out and 

 dropped them into the cappings-box. At the 

 close of the day's work the combs were 

 thoroly crushed and chopped with a shovel, 

 and the next day run thru the capping-melter. 

 The results did not come up to his expecta- 

 tions; for at the close of the season he found 

 that he had 2% pounds of wax for each 100 

 pounds of honey, whereas one has ordinarily 

 1 pound of wax to each 100 jjounds of honey. 

 You, doubtless, had in mind the raising of a 

 much greater amount of wax than this. 

 Still, under these conditions Mr. Hughes felt 

 that the practice had paid him, since he be- 

 lieves there was less swarming than there 

 would have been had the frames all been 

 filled with combs. He said, however, that 

 during an exceedingly hot time some of his 

 combs fell down from the frames because 

 they were not wired, and the result was that 

 several of his best colonies were destroyed. 



Questions. — (1) How many colonies can one man 

 keep? (2) How soon could a person build up 

 about 200 to 300 colonies from about ten swarms? 

 (3) Has the bee business any future? (4) What 

 amount of land is required to start a good-sized api- 

 ary ? (5) Would you recommend getting a job in 

 a large apiary ? • Elmer Schutte. 



Illinois. 



Answers. — (1) For a beginner we would 

 not advise more than three or four colonies. 

 These may be gradually increased as fast 

 as experience is gained, until one has per- 

 haps 300 or 400. If more colonies are de- 

 sired, it will be necessary to have helpers. 

 According to some authorities twice the 

 number could be managed in certain locali- 

 ties with help only now and then. (2) It 

 would be possible for an experienced bee- 

 keeper to build up from ten colonies to 300 

 in three years; but an inexperienced per- 

 son would not be able to do this. In fact, 

 he might not have more than 30 colonies, or 

 even less than the number he started with. 

 (3) Yes. But this does not mean that any 

 man who takes it up can make a success of 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



GLEANED by ASKING 



lona Fowls 



LJ 



1 



July, 1919 



it. (See page 427 

 of this issue.) 

 (4) One does not 

 need to own 

 land in order to 

 start an apiary. 

 It is easy to find 

 some farmer 

 who will be will- 

 ing, for a nomi- 

 nal rental, to allow one to place his colonies 

 in the orchard. (5) Yes, it would be a good 

 jjlan to work for some beekeeper until you 

 have gained a little experience. 



Questions. — (1) I have been reading Mr. Somer- 

 ford's method of forming nuclei, and am troubled 

 to reconcile his tightly packing with grass, etc., on 

 account of the statements on page 751 of the ABC 

 book relative to smothering the bees so easily, and 

 in so short a time, by closing their door. (2) In 

 May Gleanings, Miss Fowls, page 327, suggests that 

 frames of eggs and larvEe from the lower story of 

 the brood-chamber be placed in the upper one, re- 

 placing them with empty combs or foundation. This 

 transfer could not be made with my equipment, 

 since the brood-chamber is so much deeper than my 

 supers. What other apparatus would I need, then, 

 in the way of a second story? (3) Is an ordinary 

 super ever used as a second-story brood-chamber ? 



Georgia. W. A. Northrup. 



Answers. — (1) Usually a small nucleus 

 may have its entrance closed for a short 

 time with grass; but during very warm wea- 

 ther there is danger of smothering the bees 

 by shutting them in so closely that it is im- 

 possible for them to escape. The reason so 

 many have used the Somerford plan with 

 success is because the nuclei were so small. 

 (2) If the supers were shallow it would be 

 impossible to move the frames of eggs and 

 . larvae to the second story unless one removed 

 the center frames from two shallow supers 

 and hung the deep combs in the space thus 

 left vacant — a very awkward arrangement, 

 however, and we do not recommend it. The 

 remedy for this would be to have one deep 

 super for each hive; for even those beekeep- 

 ers who prefer shallow extracting-supers 

 often provide themselves with one deep su- 

 per for each hive, to use at the time of 

 swarming. (3) Yes, the ordinary deep su- 

 per has exactly the same dimensions as the 

 lower brood-chamber. 



Questions. — (1) I have read a great deal about 

 placing frames of brood and adhering, bees in oth- 

 er hives. Why are the bees not killed? Is it be- 

 cause they are young? (2) Is there any danger, 

 when picking up queens, that, upon placing them 

 back on the frame, they will be balled? (3) What 

 is the lowest temperature at which brood may be 

 safely exposed and the greatest length of time of 

 exposure? (4) With reference to the Alexander 

 method of dividing, why do not bees left with brood 

 return to their old location? Are they only young 

 bees? Does brood at its latter stage make enough 

 heat for it to finish growth and emerge of itself, 

 or must it be kept warm until the very last day by 

 attendant bees? Arthur M. Cole. 



New York. 



Answers. — (1) When bees are placed in 

 the hive of another colony by simply re- 

 moving entire frames of brood with the 

 adhering bees, altho those bees have a some- 



