Dec. 31, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



839 



nothing' for a private answer. Do people generally work 

 better when they work for nothing- than when they get pay 

 for their work ? No, whatever may be their defects, the 

 answers in this department are the very best I know how to 

 get up, and I couldn't improve them for private circulation. 

 But with study and practice I may improve ; and hope that 

 in the future this department will be a shade better than in 

 the past. 



Send on your questions and I'll give you the best 

 answers I have in stock, but don't ask me to make an ex- 

 ception in your case as to the place for answering. 



C. C. MlI^LBR. 

 #-.-^ 



Hives and Management for Comb Honey. 



1. What consideration led you to change from the 10- 

 frame hive? This would have been a valuable point in 

 "Forty Years Among the Bees." Please give me this 

 answer as exhaustively as possible. I am running 150 colo- 

 nies for comb honey, and am ready to purchase that many 

 hives, hence the question above. 



2. Do you use "double deckers " with all your colonies 

 up to the honey-flow 7 



3. If you have but 8 frames of brood at the commence- 

 ment of the honey-flow, where is the advantage of " double 

 deckers" if the same amount can be secured in a 10-frame 

 hive ? I had 8 frames of brood in all my colonies at the 

 commencement of the flow. I fed 1200 pounds of sugar in 

 Doolittle feeders, however. 



4. You speak of much swarming the season just past ; I 

 thought you practiced forced swarming, examining colonies 

 every 10 days for queen-cells. Well, how did you manage 

 swarming //;« season ? In your late work you speak of sev- 

 eral methods not yet tested. What is the method you de- 

 pend upon in the management of swarming ? 



5. Is there any method superior to hiving or brushing 

 on 5 frames with starters ? In practicing this method the 

 past season, when white clover produced more pollen than 

 honey, I had several hundred sections spoiled by pollen and 

 brood, notwithstanding I used full sheets in sections. The 

 pollen in the sections was not always accompanied with 

 brood. Some of my finest cases of comb honey had pollen 

 exclusively, no brood at all. Comb-building was very slow 

 during a large period of the honey-flow. 



6. In practicing forced swarming, I think the hatching 

 brood should be transferred to the forced swarm so gradu- 

 ally as will keep the forced swarm in about the same condi- 

 tion as the colony from which it issued would have been in, 

 had it had no inclination to swarm. The two drives, at in- 

 tervals of 10 days, will not accomplish this result. How 

 about shifting the parent colony every few days to the 

 right, left, rear, and top, till most of the hatching brood is 

 transferred from the parent colony to the forced swarm ? 

 How often should this shifting be done ? I have practiced 

 this to some extent this season, having scarcely a swarm 

 issue from the forced swarm, though swarming was "furi- 

 ous," having had 16 in the air one Lord's Day by 10 o'clock. 



7. On the S-starter plan, I think the forced swarm, at 

 the close of the honey-flow, should be transferred to the 

 parent colony, which should have had just enough bees 

 left (with a young queen) to protect the combs. After dis- 

 posing of the old queen in a forced swarm, how should we 

 proceed so as to get the forced swarm back to the parent 

 colony, so as to have the brood and queen out of the five- 

 starter combs into the parent hive ? 



8. As to the question of putting the second super above 

 or under the first, I will say from a pollen-and-brood-in- 

 sections standpoint, put the empty super above. I believe 

 that had I practiced the reverse this season I would have 

 had half of my supers with more or less pollen ; but even as 

 it was I had plenty of both in the sections, because the first 

 super had but full sheets instead of combs half filled with 

 honey. 



9. In regard to wax-larva; injuring sections, I will say 

 that when the />/az« sections are packed in shipping-cases 

 without fumigation, the wax-larva? are about equal in some 

 instances to an uncapping-knife. I have seen the entire face 

 of a section uncapped almost completely. Would a tea- 

 spoonful of carbon-bisulphide poured into a shipping-case 

 after it is filled minus one section, then the missing section 

 replaced and the lid nailed on, be sufficient to destroy all 

 eggs and larvaj ? Does the bisulphide kill the eggs ? 



10. How does it come about that while I have much 

 swarming, my neighbor, 50 yards away, has practically no 

 swarming among his blacks year after year, although they 

 are so crowded for room that they build comb on the outside 



of the hive ? I bejieve it would pay to rear queens from his 

 stock for a non-swarming strain, or else ferret out the con- 

 ditions peculiar to him that begets such results. 



11. How many cubic feet per colony is required in cel- 

 lar-wintering ? I am thinking of putting the bees indoors. 



12. And now for wintering in southern Ohio : A gentle- 

 man conceived the idea of banking his colonies to the top of 

 the brood-chamber, and having packing on top of it. The 

 result after several years has been a uniformly splendid 

 wintering, so that colonies not protected would not compare 

 with them the following season for strength and profit. 



13. I am surprised at your using the Hubbard press and 

 Daisy foundation-fastener, when the Rauchfuss is so supe- 

 rior. I can fold and foundation 3 sections per minute. 



You will have to excuse me for the fusilade of questions, 

 suggestions to questions, etc., for I have been 20 years 

 among the bees, and have scarcely asked a question. No 

 wonder I am no further along. My crop was only 2 tons 

 from 100 colonies, with the prospect of feeding one ton of 

 sugar. Increased 50, however. Ohio. 



Answers. — 1. I changed partly to be in fashion, partly 

 because hives and supers were lighter to handle, and that 

 bees might sooner finish up work in the smaller super. The 

 lOframe hives were not large enough at all times, and two 

 stories of 10 frames each were too large. 



2. No, only where they are actually needed. Some 

 years few may be needed, some years many. So long as a 

 colony has plenty of room in 8 frames there's no use in giv- 

 ing more, but it's a draw-back to restrict them to 8 when 

 they need more. 



3. By referring to my first answer you will see some ad- 

 vantages of 8 frames, even if 10 frames would hold all the 

 brood, as lightness of handling hives and supers, etc. To 

 some this matter of heavy or light handling is a small 

 thing; to others it is very important. 7/ you have but 8 

 frames of brood, never going beyond that, the case would 

 be difi'erent, but by giving two stories you will often go be- 

 yond the capacity of the 10 frames, having 11 to 14 frames 

 of brood. 



4. As a matter of fact I don't depend upon anything, for 

 lack of something entirely dependable. The past season 

 watch was kept for queen-cells. If only eggs were found in 

 cells, they were destroyed, and some colonies were satisfied 

 to go through the whole season without getting any farther 

 than to have eggs in cells. Such colonies are likely to 

 give very satisfactory results. Some years a goodly num- 

 ber of colonies will not even go as far as to have eggs in 

 cells, but last season was so badly exceptional that I'm not 

 sure whether there were any of that kind. If upon the next 

 visit cells were found well-advanced, perhaps sealed, it was 

 pretty evident that the bees meant business, and would be 

 likely to swarm before the next round. Then perhaps a 

 swarm was sndken. Perhaps the queen was removed — killed 

 if not entirely satisfactory in every way, otherwise put in a 

 nucleus — and at the next round all cells were destroyed and 

 a queen given. If a young queen was given that had just 

 begun laying, no more attention was given to that colony 

 for the season ; if their own or any other old queen was 

 given, they were further watched. Sometimes, when in a 

 big hurry, cells were destroyed even when well advanced ; 

 and in that case the queen would likely turn up missing at 

 the next visit. A young laying queen was given in her 

 place and that colony counted settled for the season. I 

 think that covers most of the cases, for some other things 

 were tried on so small a scale as not to be worth relating. 

 You see, I'm not very thoroughly settled in the matter, and 

 perhaps never will be. It may be said in passing that as a 

 matter of course there were cases in which cells were started 

 for superseding instead of swarming, but one could not 

 easily tell, and the safer way was to consider all cells as 

 meant for swarming. 



5. Shaking or brushing upon 5, or any other number of 

 frames, is in my judgment not to be compared with the plan 

 of having a colony go through the season without making 

 any preparation whatever for swarming. Neither does it 

 compare in results, I am afraid, with the plan of letting a 

 colony go queenless 10 days and then giving a queen that 

 has just begun to lay. //your large amount of pollen and 

 brood in the sections was due to the fact that 5 frames with 

 starters were given, then the plan of having a larger num- 

 ber of frames, or having them filled with foundation or 

 drawn combs, would be superior. 



6. My plan of working involves an objectionable 

 amount of labor ; I'm afraid shifting frequently the old 

 hive would be still worse. I don't know just how it would 

 work, and I don't know how often the shifting should be 



