346 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 28, 1903. 



quite satisfied in their own minds if no drones are among 

 them ? Page 246. 



OVERSTOCKING A LOCALITY. 



To Miss Wilson's excellent analysis of the rights and 

 •wrongs of overstocking I would add this : There might be 

 'five grocers in one little tov?n and yet the public be so poorly 

 served that it vcould be altogether right, proper and desir- 

 able for an honest, up-to-date, live man to come in and start 

 a grocery there. A corresponding state of things in apicul- 

 ture is hardly supposable. To get at the moral point, I sup- 

 pose that in almost every case a crowding grocer salves his 

 conscience with the belief that the public are going to be 

 benefited. The crowding bee-man comes much nearer to 

 being a hog, pure and simple. Page 247. 



FEEDING BEES IN WINTER. 



And here is a beginner who has five colonies on a shelf 

 in a nice, warm cellar. He has found he can make them 

 come down and take feed — has done so several times, and 

 says he is going to do so more. This is because (or say 

 partly because) the colony he is particularly monkeying 

 with — he kind 'o thinks it may be a little short of food. 

 Don't, Mr. A. M. Deitz I I hope you will tolerate me in say- 

 ing this. If you really are apprehensive of starvation find 

 out for sure ; and then give them food once for all. I know 

 its tough to ask a boy with the bee-fever to let bees alone ; 

 but their winter quiet should not be intruded on. Pretty 

 sure to do them harm, and may kill them altogether. Page 

 254. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 





Send Questions either to the otBoe of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Wants Honey First, then Increase. 



I have been feeding my bees all spring and have them pretty 

 strong, so much so that I have had to put on the second story so they 

 would have room to cluster on cold nights. Now, I want to get all 

 the white clover section honey I can. I saw in the Bee Journal that 

 to double the story is not a good plan as they will till the upper story 

 first and will not put it in the sections. What I should like to know is: 

 How will it do to take the upper story oil and make a colony out of 

 them? As I desire to increase my colonies, what would you advise? 

 I want all the honey I can get first; increase is a second consideration. 



Illinois. 



AxawER. — Malting a swarm of one story will work well, but you 

 may get a little more honey to work a little differently. When it 

 comes time to put on a super, sort out the eight combs that have in 

 them the most sealed brood, leaving these on the old stand. Take the 

 other eight combs with only enough bees to care for the brood, and 

 set on a new stand. On this same new stand you can also put the 

 story that you take from one or two other colonies, giving a queen or 

 queen-cell. You can get extracted honey from this colony, or two 

 weeks later you can reduce it to one story and work for comb. 



Transferring Bees and Rearing a Queen. 



I have a few colonies of bees in odd-sized hives which I wish to 

 transfer to Hoffman frames. I want to increase all I can. How would 

 this do J On a warm day about 10 o'clock, move the old hive and 

 set a new hive in its place, with one-inch starters and a frame of young 

 brood. Would there be enough bees from the old hive to care for the 

 brood and rear a queen? North Carolina. 



Answer. — Better not try it. It would be a costly way of rearing 

 a young queen, and you wouldn't be sure of a good queen then. Tou 

 would get all the field-bees of the old colony, greatly crippling that, 

 and old bees are not the right kind to rear cjueens. 



A Beginner's Questions. 



1. I am a beginner in the bee-business. I have 2 colonies which 

 wintered finely. They are hybrid bees and I should like to know if it 

 would be right to get an Italian queen and kill the old queen and give 

 them the Italian queen. I have heard that they often kill the new 

 queen when doing that way. 



2. Are all your Italian queens (that you sell, the tested and un- 

 tested queens) fertile, i. e., have they been mated by Italian drones? 



3. In one of our hives the combs are molded and we left them in 

 thinking that the Ijees would clean them out, but they are gathering 



honey now and the comb is the same. Had we better cut the molded 

 comb out or not' 



■1. When I put on supers ought I to put on two at one time ! 



5. Do bees get any honey, or only pollen, out of dandelion blos- 

 soms? 



6. Are all Italian queens long-tongued, i. e., all genuine Italian 

 queens. 



T. What is the best way to get a swarm of bees that are flying? 

 Will throwing sand on them bring them down ? 



5. If the queen has clipped wings wlien they swarm, will she 

 crawl a little way from the entrance and then will all the bees cluster 

 about her so that you can put them in a: hive? 



9. Are Italian bees much better than hybrid bees? 



10. Do bees gather much honey from wild cherry blossoms? 



Michigan. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, that would be all right. There are more or 

 less cases of loss in introducing queens; by following the instructions 

 that come with the queens you will generally succeed. 



2. I am rearing t(ueens only for my own use, but when yon buy a 

 queen of any kind, unless, it is distinctly stated that she is a virgin 

 queen, it is always understood that she is mated and laying. If un- 

 tested, there is no agreement as to the kind of drone she has met. If 

 tested or warranted, it is understood that she has met an Italian 

 drone, unless stated to the contrary. 



.3. Unless the combs are very bad indeed, I think you will find that 

 the bees will clean them before the brood-nest spreads to the moldy 

 combs. 



4. Only one. 



.5. Lots of honey. 



6. They vary. 



7. Let them alone and they will cluster of themselves. 



8. No, if you let them alone, the queen will generally go back into 

 the hive of her own accord. Catch the queen, put an empty hive in 

 place of the old one, and then when the bees of the swarm come back 

 and begin to run into new hive, let the queen run in with them. 



9. Some hybrid bees are just as good as Italians, but when you 

 breed from pure stock you are more sure of having the same blood con- 

 tinued than when you breed hybrids. 



10. I don't know, but I think likely they do. 



Preventing Ants— Fumigating Honey^How Many 

 Swarms for One Hive. 



1. I have my hives standing on elm blocks, 3 feet by 12 inches, 

 two blocks under each hive, and lying down, with a couple of pieces of 

 plank crosswise. Is there any danger of ants getting into the blocks 

 and afterward bothering the bees? (The ground is low, and not 

 sandy. J If so, bow shall I prevent it? 



2. How do you fumigate sections filled with comb already in the 

 supers? 



3. How many hives would yon advise a person to run into a hive! 



Wisconsin. 



Answers.— 1. In the South ants are very troublesome, but not 

 often as far north as Wisconsin. I have, however, had bottom-boards 

 completly honey-combed by large black ants, but only two or three 

 cases. If you should fear any trouble of this kind, you could prob- 

 ably avoid it by painting with coal-tar. The probability, however, is 

 that you will not need to take any precautions. 



3. Pile up the supers, set on top a saucer with two or three table- 

 spoonfuls of bisulphide of carbon, set an empty super over, and cover 

 up 24 hours. But don't bring a light anywhere near or you may get 

 blowed up. 



3. One, if it's strong enough: three, if weak enough. Generally 

 you will not double up prime swarms, but two or three second swarjis 

 may generally be united to advantage. It is better, however, not to 

 allow second swarms. 



Feeding Burnt Honey. 



1. I have some honey which is burnt a little. Will it be all right 

 to feed it to the bees in spring ? Wisconsin. 



Answer. — Yes, it will be all right to feed such honey when bees 

 are having daily flights, but it would be death for wintering. 



Dividing for Increase. 



I am keeping bees on a small scale, but have been at it about 12 

 years, and the most I have had was 34 colonies. I have read "ABC " 

 and some others, and have read journals. Most of the time I run for 

 comb honey in pound bo.xes. I have prevented swarming to a great 

 extent, until I have almost a non-swarming class of bees. Now I 

 want to increase, but I want to get honey, too. The flow is on hand 

 now. 



1. Can't I divide as soon as the fiow is bver, and build up by the 

 next, which comes about June 15? 



2. Can I introduce queens to the queenless parts safely any time I 

 like? 



3. When would I better divide to get ready for the basswood, 

 which will be in about June IS? Arkansas. 



Answers. — 1. Whether you can divide and build up in time for 

 the June 1.5 flow depends largely on the length of time you will have 

 between meals. You don't say how long before June 15 the flrst flow 



