666 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. IS. 1903. 



may be a questioQ as to winter supplies. Your next, and perhaps 

 your last duty, is to study up carefully your bee-book, and then try to 

 put in practice its teachings. 



2. The matter is not much under your control, except that you 

 should do nothing to encourage brood-rearing. If any feeding is 

 necessary, let it be done rapidly, for slow daily feeding after the man- 

 ner of a natural honey-dow has some tendency to start breeding. 



3. With rare exceptions, like all virtuous maidens, worker-bees 

 are expected to spend their nights at home. But that has nothing to 

 do with the question of moving, for if you move them a short distance 

 at night all the field-force will return to the old spot the very first time j 

 they return from the fields. 



the climate make the difference? Answering your question directly, I 

 may say that in this country the Italians are so superior to the blacks 

 as honey-gatherers, th,it even if the Italians should be more inclined 

 to swarming (I wish we had a single word in our language to express 

 that, like the German word schwarnilusiig) ^ I should still prefer the 

 Italians on account of their superiority in other respects. 



Core-Cobs for Smoker-Fuel. 



I often see fuel for smokers mentioned, but never my favorite. 

 Did you ever try it, corn-cobs broken up with a hammer ? Try soft, 

 pithy ones first. After a few trials you can select your fuel and break 

 fine or coarse to suit your purpose. Pennsti.vania. 



Answer. — Yes, indeed; among the many things I have tried for 

 smoker-fuel I have used quite a few corn-cobs. The matterof smoker- 

 fuel is largely one of convenience. For some time the most conven- 

 ient thing for me has been dry chips from the chip-pile, gathered on 

 dry days and kept under .shelter. It isn't at all certain, however, that 

 something else may not take their place next year. The chips need 

 no preparation, and make an excellent smoke. 



Position of the Winter Stores. 



I am a Ijeginuer in bee-keeping. This is my first experience and 

 season. I have 3 colonies in S-frame chaff-hives, with shallow ex- 

 tracting-frames on them. The bees have the supers quite well filled, 

 but very little in the brood-body. Will they carry it dowQ before cold 

 weather, or will they winter ia the super where the honey is? 



Don't the bees have to have their winter stores in their brood-nest 

 to winter without loss? Is it best for me to get the honey down in 

 the brood-nest; If so, how shall I proceed to do it? 



I have looked all over my text-books and bee-papers, but so far I 

 have been unable to find the information I want. 



I want to winter the bees out-doors, and as they have little in the 

 brood-nest, and honey above, it worries me as to whether they will 

 winter this way. Michigan. 



Answer. — The bees must winter where their stores are, and the 

 great probability is that they will have stores all right in the brood- 

 combs. It is quite possible that the bees have more in the brood- 

 combs than you suppose, if you have not looked at them very lately, 

 for when brood-rearing begins to cease all they gather will go into the 

 brood-chamber. If vacant cells are still left below, the bees will carry 

 down honey from the super. It occasionally happens that the colony 

 may settle in the super for their winter quarters, but that is not likely 

 to happen. 



•* • *• 



The Use of Formaldehyde. 



I read the interesting article by R. L. Taylor, on page 503; also 

 another article by (i. W. Haines, page 536, in Gleanings in Bee-Cul- 

 ture, on formaldehyde for curing black brood. Now, I would ask : 



1. Can full, capped extracting combs be disinfected by the pro- 

 cess of closing them up in an air-tight box or cupboard aud fumigat- 

 ing ihem with formaldehyde ? 



2. Foundation also, when it gives suspicion of being infected, 

 may it be disinfected then? 



3. What do the bee-keepers in America think of formaldehyde as 

 a cure for black brood i 



4. I think by this time there may have been invented a machine 

 by which formaldehyde is made directly by metilic alcohol (in Italian 

 alcohol metilico.) Italy. 



Answers.— 1. I wish I might say to our good friend in Italy that 

 there is do doubt as to the efficacy of formaldehyde. Tests have been 

 made, seeming to show that formaldehyde fumes utterly destroy foul- 

 brood spores in honey fully capped ; yet a few have reported adversely. 

 At present we do not really know yet whether to depend upon the 

 drug or not in case of fully sealed combs. 



-'. There is probably little doubt as to success with foundation. 



3. It is probably just as reliable with blacli brood as with foul 

 brood. 



4. That may be in the future. Possibly in Italy j'ou may get 

 ahead ol us. 



Bees for Non-Swarming. 



In your book, " Forty Years Among the Bees," you say that you 

 work toward a non-swarming strain of bees. Why do you say nothing 

 about black bees? The blacks are less inclined to swarm than Ital- 

 ians. Switzerland. 



Answer. — The above comes from an esteemed German bee-keeper 

 across the water, and it is quite possible that if I lived in Germany or 

 Switzerland, I might pay close attention to black bees. There are 

 good bee-keepers there who say the Italians are not so good as the 

 natives, and I have wondered no little why there should be such a 

 difference of opinion in the two countries. Is it possible that you 

 have a better strain of blacks than we have in this country, or does 



Loss of Queens in Introducing. 



I have tried to introduce an Italian queen in one of my colonies, 

 which they did not accept. I found the queen a day later in front of 

 the hive dead, so I thought I would try again, and bought two more 

 queens. I tried the second one; I left her in the cage three days, and 

 then took off the pasteboard and let them eat out the candy, which 

 took another 24 hours. I looked in 4 days afterwards, and there I 

 found the dead queen in front of the hive, and also the third one the 

 same way. What is the reason they do not accept the queens, as I 

 had destoyed all the queen-cells? Will it be time enough yet for them 

 to rear a queen if I put in a frame of brood, and they have no drones 

 in the hives? or will they rear their own queen? Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — It's hard to tell just what the trouble was. In almost 

 any plan of introducing there will sometimes be failures; one case 

 failing where a number succeed, and you can't tell that you've done a 

 thing different in the onecase — it just seems like pure contrariness on 

 the part of the bees. Probably the best thing is to unite the bees with 

 other colonies. 



*-.-* 



Preparing Bees for Winter— Using the Bingham Honey- 

 Knife. 



1. I have 54 colonies of bees, and want to prepare them for winter. 

 The hives have plain board covers, and some are old and may leak 

 when the rainy season sets in. Would you advise me to put ducking 

 under the cover to keep out the rain and cold? If so, what weight 

 should I get? and would it be advisable to give it a coat of oil to make 

 it waterproof? 



2. Is there anything else I could use that would be better than 

 duckmg? You understand, I wish to keep the expense down as low 

 as possible. 



3. Would it hurt the bees if they should get wet, on account of 

 the cover leaking* 



4. In using the Bingham uncapping-knife. is it proper to use the 

 beveled side or the smooth side of the blade next to the comb? I 

 haveiseen it used both ways. California. 



Answers. — 1. Don't do it; if the rain gets through the cover it 

 will not help to have something inside to hold the moisture. 



2. The cover of a hive is a poor place to economize. But the 

 thing to do is not to have something inside, but outside the leaky 

 cover. Perhaps shingles, shooks, or cheap boards. 



3. Yes, indeed. 



4. I don't know. I wish several would tell us their preference, 

 or whether they use both ways. [Perhaps Mr. Bingham will give the 

 right way to use his knife. We used the bevel edge on the comb. — 

 Editor.] 



Honey-Plants for Louisiana— Red Clover Queens. 



1. What is the best honey-plant that will grow in Louisiana? 



2. When planted and how cultivated on high land? 



3. Will California sage and catnip grow on Louisiana high lands? 



4. By introducing red clover queens now in colonies that will 

 work up to November 15, 1903 (as it never gets cold here before that 

 time of the year), when will the queens begin laying, and when can I 

 expect swarming from the same colonies? 



5. Is cotton and Lespedesia (a species of clover) honey-plants of 

 any consequence? There are miles of it around here. 



Louisiana. 

 Answers.— 1 and 2. I don't know, and hopefully refer the ques- 

 tion to some of our Louisiana friends. 



3. I must also refer this question, venturing the guess that catnip 

 would succeed, but not the wild sages. 



4. If introduced at> any time before colonies in general cease 

 brood-rearing, you may expect her to begin laying within a week of 

 introduction ; and you may expect swarmmg next season at the usual 

 time for other colonies to swarm. If it be your object to have the 

 colony swarm as early as possible, you can hasten matters by exchang- 

 ing combs of brood with other colonies, swapping sealed for unsealed 

 brood. 



5. Again I must refer this question. You can decide the question 

 yourself by a little watching when the plants are in bloom. 



A Beginner's Questions. 



I wish information on some points that I do not find in the books. 



1. What stock of bees is the one I enclo.se you? I have one large 

 colony of these. 



2. What is the average life of a colony, or the worker-bee? 



3. When the bees are quieted with cold is it all right to lift frames 

 out to examine for the queen? 



4. What make of hives is the best for a Ijcginner to have? 



5. Is it not best to have the hives set up on legs about 6 inches 

 high, and to keep the legs saturated with kerosene so as to keep away 



