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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 10, 1903. 





Nasty's Afterthoughts 





The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hastt, Sla. ii Rural, Toledo. Ohio. 



EXTRACTING- COMBS IN THE FALL. 



I hardly think Mr. Dadantgets entirely to the bottom of 

 the difficulties pertaining to daubed combs after extracting 

 in the fall. Part of the trouble, I am convinced, lies in the 

 fact that a portion of the bees have come to consider them- 

 selves as belonging upstairs to such an extent that they are 

 not willing to stay below. As a natural result of this, they 

 don't want all the honey carried away. Worth trying if 

 they wouldn't bring up some to put in a set of {perfectly dry 

 combs. I first noticed this fall the following interesting 

 fact : Where the super-combs are mostly drone, with a few 

 of worker size among them, they take the honey out of the 

 drone-comb and put it into the worker-comb. The latter 

 can then be taken out and put through the extractor. Page 

 663. 



^^^^^ PROPER TEMPERATURE FOR QUEENLARV.B. 



c_j A. C. F. Bartz clearly shows a possibility of getting a 

 tender and minute queen-larvae soused into a bath a good 

 many degrees too cold. Surely don't do the little thing 

 any particular good, whether or not the harm extends to 

 turning out a poor queen. Right, that comb and all it con- 

 tains is a little hard and slow to warm up when once it gets 

 cold. Wouldn't a carrying-box carefully made to warm by 

 a lamp be about the proper thing for such operations on 

 cold days ? Just give a rest to " Unfold thy bosom, faithful 

 tomb " — or say faithful imbecile asylum. If I'm right, the 

 surfaces of our bodies are not quite warm enough anyhow 

 on such occasions ; and anything tucked under our clothes 

 to get heat on a cold, windy time is in the position of being 

 inadequately warmed on one side and decidedly cooled on 

 the other side. Page 663. 



DIFFERENCE IN SIZE OF BEES. 



Taking the exact weight of two samples of bees in ex- 

 actly similar conditions, is there ever so much difference 

 from normal as 25 percent ? I rather doubt it. We often 

 feel inclined to say so at a casual glance — "These bees are 

 a great deal smaller, or bigger, than mine." Usually a 

 case, of extreme contraction or distension, and not much 

 else. Page 664. 



HOW USE A BINGHAM KNIFE — FOOL QUESTION. 



The problem, which side of the Bingham knife to hold 

 next the comb, rather stirred me up. Which end of a spoon 

 would you stick in your mouth ? You can put in either one 

 — and you can't use the wrong side of a Bingham, except on 

 small combs and around the edges. Handle is set off on the 

 off side when the knife is made. Next we shall be discus- 

 sing whether to drive the nail with the wood or the iron of 

 the hammer— and whether to remove the lid of the honey- 

 pail or punch a hole through the bottom. Isn't it sometimes 

 justifiable to return a pleasant smile and say, That comes 

 pretty near being a " fool question 7 " Too great consider- 

 ation for the great F. O. gives the disagreeable impression 

 that the Journal itself must be set to the key of F. Page 

 666. 



HOW TO USE A BEE TENT. 



On page 679 we read : "Bees always attack your tent 

 from the side where the wind blows." Then follows the 

 very proper hint to do our going out and in on the other 

 side. My guess is, that the meaning intended there is the 

 opposite from the one we would first take from that word- 

 ing. Through a tent which stands in the wind considerable 

 air is drifting, and carrying the smell of honey out on the 

 lee side. I should expect bees to besiege where the good 

 smell came out. 



PERHAPS THBY WERE SOLITARY BEHS. 



I wonder if "Virginia" was not mistaken about the 

 insects he saw entering his hives being yellow-jackets. 

 There are, I believe, solitary bees that enter hives mainly 

 to lay eggs, and have their young reared in cuckoo fashion 

 -developed, born and bred to the sly art of getting past the 

 guards, there is less wonder that they succeed. I never 

 heard of there being enough of them to accomplish any 

 great harm. Page 682. 



HOW CAN THE BLIND LEAD THE BLIND ? 



A cry to me for help, eh ? Another conspicuous case of 

 seeking help in the wrong place, and ignoring the right 

 one. If Mr. Beverlin will look on page 680, he will find a 

 most gracious offer of help — quite adequate for the cure of 

 single-blessedness bread and the resulting wild mathe- 

 matics. Page 685. 



THE TELEPHONE IN SWARMING TIME. 



Yes, Yon Yonson, those new rural 'phones, to call us 

 away in swarming-time. to hive other people's bees while 

 our own go to the woods, we shall long for a 'phone so im- 

 proved as to get out of order in swarming-time. Page 687. 





Dr. Miller's Answers 





Send Questions either to the olBce of the Atnerican Bee Journal, 

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



Keeping Brood-Combs. 



On page 585, you advise me to unite my bees in the 

 spring. You will please inform me what to do with the 

 hives (from which I take the bees) containing brood-combs 

 partially filled with honey and larvee ? By the time I am 

 ready for them for swarms they are ruined by the moth. 



Tennessee. 



Answer. — For fear some one may misunderstand, let 

 me preface my answer by saying that in general spring is 

 not so good a time to unite as fall, for in general bees are 

 united because colonies are too weak, and it is better to 

 unite them in the fall for the sake of better wintering. But 

 when normal colonies are to be united merely because the 

 owner desires to reduce the number, then spring is the best 

 time ; because if the uniting is done in the fall some colo- 

 nies may die in wintering, and the number of colonies thus 

 become less than desired. 



The best thing to do with the combs depends somewhat 

 on circnmstances. Perhaps this will do : When you unite, 

 let the united colony have the two stories and all the combs 

 of the two colonies united, and leave them thus till about 

 time to begin surplus work, when you will take away one 

 story and half the combs, leaving those containing most 

 brood. If swarming begins with you about the same time 

 as the harvest, that will leave only a short time for the 

 combs to be kept, and perhaps they would need no atten- 

 tion till needed for swarms. If, however, you thought it 

 necassary, you could pile them up and treat them with 

 bisulphide of carbon. If working for extracted honey, there 

 would be no need to take the combs from the bees at all. 



If anything in your conditions make my answer inappli- 

 cable, give me the conditions and I'll try again. 



By way of postscript, it may be well to add that at the 

 time of taking away the combs it may happen that there 

 may be so much brood that you will be compelled to take 

 away combs containing more or less brood. In that case, 

 after giving brood to any colony which has not brood in all 

 its combs, pile up the brood on one or more colonies five or 

 six stories high, having a queen-excluder over the first 

 story. Such a colony is not likely to swarm, and by the 

 time you have used the extra stories for swarms you will 

 have a powerful colony for field-work. 



Best Hive-Hyfirifl Bees-Poul Brood. 



Last spring I commenced my first experience in bee- 

 keeping with one colony of black bees. They were in an 8- 

 frame hive, frames being 16'2 inches by 11 inches, with yi- 

 inch top bar. They gave me 2 swarms this season, the first 

 storing 12 pounds of surplus honey. The swarms are in 

 hives of the same size. I wish to produce both comb and 

 extracted honey, but mostly comb, as that is in greater de- 

 mand here. I do not know whether to adopt a hive with a 

 more shallow frame or not. It is better to have a deep 

 frame for winter, I suppose. 



1. What hive would you adopt, i. e., a frame of what 

 dep th, and how many frames to a hive ? I want to adopt a 



