May 7, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



297 



Questions and Answers. 



DR. O. O. MILLER, Maroairo, 111, 



[The Qnestlons may be mailed to the Bee Jonrnal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not aslc the 



Doctor to send answers bT mail. — Editor.1 



Removing; Drone-Comb— Uulting Queenless Colonies. 



1. On page 7S1, of '" Forty Years Among the Bees,'' under the head 

 oC " Mending Combs," am I to understand that all drone-combs should 

 be removed { 



2. Under the title, " Queenless Colonies," page 115, you speak of 

 uniting a queenless colony with another. Do you accomplish that by 

 placing the brood-chamber of the queenless colony above or below the 

 other brood-chamber? 



3. In reducing a storied colony to one story (page 130), do you 

 take the extra brood-frames to other coloa'ies with the ad her ing been I 

 Or do you brush off all the bees ! 



I have enjoyed reading the book, and gained much helpful infor- 

 mation. It's valuable index makes every topic instantly accessible. It 

 is a worthy companion to the " A B C of Bee-Culture," and with that 

 invaluable thesaurus is kept constantly at hand. Nebraska. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, when you have tried your best to keep out all 

 drone-co.nb, enough will still be left to rear all drones needed. But 

 it's a good plan to leave some drone-comb in one or more of your beet 

 colonies. It is just as important to rear best drones as to rear best 

 queens. 



2. Either way. Generally put the queenless colony above; but if 

 the queenless colony is strong and the other weak, put the queenless 

 colony below. It is a good plan to put newspaper or thicker paper 

 between the two, with a hole big enough for one bee to pass at a time. 



3. All bees are brushed off, leaving the colony full strength. 

 I thank you for your kind words. 



aneen Killed— Peedlns Bees. 



What shall I do with one colony of bees that I have? To-day, as 

 I was looking at my bees I saw one colony that were flying well, but 

 were not carrying in as much pollen as they had been in the habit of 

 doing. In front of the hive I saw a few bees, perhaps a half-dozen of 

 them, and on looking closer I found they had their queen out there; 

 of course she was dead. They were "lapping " her, as I call it. What 

 shall I do with this colony i I don't want to lose them, for I have now 

 lost half of my bees. 



I have been feeding them for some time (perhaps a week) from 

 one pint to quart of syrup, one-half sugar and the same of water. 

 They have taken it all right until to-day (April '20) ; they take some, 

 but not as much as they did. 



They commenced carrying pollen about the middle of March. 

 Why did they kill their queen * 



The bees are ugly, and when I go by the hive they will fly and 

 strike at me more than ever before. New Hampshire. 



Answer. — Some accident may have happened to the queen ; or she 

 may have died of old age. It is possible a young queen is present, or 

 they may have a queen-cell more or less advanced. In any case, if the 

 colony is strong, give them a frame of brood, the younger the better. 

 If they start queen-cells, they may be allowed to continue them, or you 

 may give them a laying queen. Possibly it may be better still to unite 

 them with a colony having a laying queen. 



Sulphuric Acid for Purifying Beeswax. 



What is used for purifying wax for making comb foundation ; 



How is it applied, and in what quantities* Ohio. 



Answer.— A large part of the impurities will be gotten out of the 

 wax by slow cooling, or rather by keeping it hot a long time. If the 

 melted wax is allowed to cool rapidly the impurities do not have time 

 to settle. But foundation-makers use sulphuric acid to make a com- 

 plete job of purifying, throwing a jet of steam into the wooden tank 

 containing the wax and acidulated water. For common people like 

 you and me, a different plan must be taken, using the acid, however, 

 of some strength, about one part of acid to 100 of water. It nmy be 

 more convenient, although more expensive, to follow G. M. Doolittle's 

 suggestion, instead of sulphuric acid using a pint of strong vinegar in 

 one quart of water for every ten pounds of wax. 



To use the sulphuric acid on a small scale, the following directions 

 are given in Root's A B C of Bee-keeping: 



"Use a large earthenware kettle, for anything else would hu apt 

 to be affected by the acid. Into this put a small quantity of water, 

 then a proportionate amount of acid. Allow it to come to a boil, and 

 put in a cake of wax. 



"If this is too slow and tedious a job, a large iron kettle that will 

 hold seven or eight pails of water may be used. Fill this kettle uimut 

 half full of water, slightly acidulated. Start a slow fire under it, and 

 when the water gets to nearly boiling put in the cakes of dark-colored 



wax that are to be brouglil l<i a luight yellow. Keep hot for a few 

 minutes, and then yllow the lire to die down. As soon as all the parti- 

 cles of dirt have settled in the water, with a dipper dip off the free 

 wax on top, being very careful not to agitate or stir up the dirt in the 

 water. 



"While the iron in the kettle may be attacked slightly, yet it will 

 do no particular harm. When through with the kettle, clean it out 

 with boiling water aud rub it over with grease." 



Keeping Queens After Hatching. 



I have read a great deal about queen-rearing in bee papers and 

 also in books, but I have never been able to understand how the queens 

 are kept after they are hatched, where so many are reared; also by 

 what method the queens are mated. Please give me some information 

 on these points. Michigan. 



Answer. — There is no way to keep young queens, or to have 

 them fertilized, except to have them kept in separate hives, or at least 

 in separate apartments, so that there can be no communication be- 

 tween any two nuclei in which the queens are kept. Some queen- 

 rearers use small hives with small frames, but the general way is to 

 use brood-frames of the regular size, with one to three frames for each 

 nucleus. The young queens are left to themselves to be mated, flying 

 out of the hives when a few days old to meet the drones in the open 



Colony with Laying Worker. 



All my bees are in good shape excepting one colony ; it Is the same 

 one I had so much trouble with last season and wrote about. In 

 examining it this spring I tind it is again without a queen, and laying 

 workers are doing business, breeding is going on, and only drones are 

 being hatched out. I never saw drones in a hive, in this part of the 

 country, in the month of April. Eggs are attached to the sides of the 

 cells and piled together 3 or 4 in a spot, like fly-blow. 



What would I better do with this colony '. Would I better try 

 giving it a laying queen, or break it up and scatter them among the 

 other hives? Of course I can do nothing with it until the weather be- 

 comes warmer and I have the bees put out. When would be the best 

 time to doctor it, immediately on putting it out-of-doors, or wait till 

 the honey-flow begins? The colony has plenty of stores. 



Ontario. 



Answer — Those bees are old and of no value as nurse-bees, but 

 might do a little as field-bees. The only advisable thing is to break up 

 the colony right away, and give the bees to colonies in good working 

 order. 



Bisulphide of Carbon for Fumigating Honey— Putting 

 on Sections. 



1. Do bee-keepers use bisulphide of carbon in the place of sulphur 

 for destroying moths in hohey? If so, how is it used? and in what 

 quantity? 



2. When a swarm issues do you take the sections from the old 

 hive and put on the new? If so, how long before you put sections on 

 the old hive again. New Y'ork. 



Answers. — 1. Probably most bee-keepers do not yet use bisul- 

 phide in preference to sulphur, but probably they will in the near 

 future. Just how it is used depends upon what it is to be used upon, 

 etc. One way is to use it upon brood-combs. Pile up several hive- 

 bodies filled with the combs to be treated, put an empty story on top, 

 and in this set a saucer containing two or three tablespoonfuls of the 

 drug, and cover up close. Don't allow a light or fire to come anywhere 

 near it unless you want an explosion. 



3. Unless an excluder is used, don't put the sections on the swarm 

 for a day or two — wait till the queen gets fairly started to laying be- 

 low. Don't put sections on the mother colony till it becomes strong 

 enough to store in the super, which may not be till next year. 



Spring Management of Bees. 



We have had now over a week of fine weather, though the nights 

 are cool. The fruit-trees are in full bloom, and the bees hustling. 



I have 3 colonies of bees, oje of which I formed last year from a 

 nucleus. This one is in a double-walled hive with burlap over the 

 frames and a super filled with leaves, and cap over all. It seems to 

 be the strongest colony now. This morning I found the bottom-board 

 well sprinkled with wax-scales (white instead of yellow), and bees 

 fanning about the entrance although it was quite cool. Thinking 

 they might need room I removed the winter covering and gave them 

 an extracting super (Ideal) with comb drawn and some honey in a 

 few sections from last year; the most of this honey was not capped 

 and was not candied; I kept it all winter in the attic, right up under 

 the roof, wrapped in paper. No moth or mice disturbed them. 



My question is: Did I do right to give them the super? 



I did not look into the hive as it was too cold to expose the brood, 

 this being at H :!.') a.m. 1 do not gel ii chance to examine my bees ex- 

 cepting on holidays, unless I do it Sundays, which I prefer not to do 

 unless absolutely necessary, which is not the case this year. Our next 

 holiday is May 30. I would like to know whether or not they all 

 have brood. The queens were reared last year, all young and pro- 

 lific. . ,111, 



It seems to me a good many useless questions are asked j'ou by 



