SEPTEMBER 15, 1913 



have used both the 4x5 and the square section; 

 Lut I like the tall one better, and shall use it en- 

 tirely next year. In the sections I use starters, but 

 full sheets of foundation in the brood-nest in order 

 to avoid drone combs. I gave most of my honey 

 away, but sold some at 25 cents a pound, and clear- 

 ed about $10.00. Adolph C. Kroll. 

 Northampton, Mass., March 10. 



Why the Bees Die that Accompany the Queen 



■WTiat causes the bees, accompanying a queen in 

 shipping-cage, to die while being introduced? I have 

 gotten of you three queens this summer. In the first 

 case not a bee died. With the second about one-third 

 of them died after the cage was put in the hive 

 during the time the queen was being released ; but 

 the queen was all right so far as I know. With the 

 third queen, about half the bees died in the cage 

 after being put in the hive ; and, fearing the queen 

 would die, I released her. She was favorably re- 

 ceived, but died inside of 24 hours. Have you had 

 such experience .' 



Asheville, N. C, Aug. 2. O. Beomfield. 



[As a general rule a queen-bee will stand longer 

 confinement in a mailing-cage than any of her at- 

 tendants. Whether this is due to the fact that she 

 is more vigorous than they, or whether it is because 

 they feed her and thus use up their own vitality, "we 

 can not say. The probabilities are that bees in the 

 hive during the interim of confinement feed the 

 queen new honey when they would not feed her at- 

 tendants. The candy in the cage becomes hard, and, 

 unless usable to the bees, it might cause them to 

 starve; while the queen, favorably received b.v some 

 of the workers of the hive, would be lavishly fed. 

 It is a well-known fact that the bees accompanying 

 the introduced queen will die, as a general thing, be- 

 fore she is released. — -Ed. ] 



Uses for Propolis 



Having occasion last spring to graft a couple of 

 fruit-trees I got together my tools, but could not find 

 the grafting-wax. After a search I found a lump 

 about the size of a base ball. Being a little hard I 

 warmed the wax, and worked in a little linseed oil. 

 When the weather warmed I noticed the bees ap- 

 parently helping themselves to the wax around the 

 grafts, so I lightly touched it on top with, a little 

 I arbolic emulsion that I happened to have left after 

 treating cabbage and cauliflower for root maggots. 

 Some weeks later, on looking through my tool-box 

 I found a ball of grafting-wax intact. Then what 

 was it I had used for grafting? Propolis, and it 

 worked finely. Since then I have used it thinned 

 down with linseed oil for painting wounds when 

 pruning fruit-trees. It also makes a good tanglefoot 

 for flies if warmed and thinned with molasses; then 

 spread it on manila paper. 



George H. Bedford. 



East Stroudsburg, Pa., July 26. 



Wintering in a Room Kept Cool with Ice 



Although I am a beginner with bees, I will give 

 here my experience in the past winter. I have six 

 colonies which I have been wintering in a cooler 

 used for butter in the summer. I placed the hives 

 on a board about two feet from the bottom' floor, and 

 have left the entrance open the whole width of the 

 entrance of the hive. The temperature has been 

 around 28 to 30 degrees most of the time. The colo- 

 nies all had a good supply of honey gathered from 

 the field. Out of six hives I do not think that I lost 

 over two quarts of bees that died from old age. 



The cooler is cooled artificially, although in the 

 fore part of the winter there was no ice in it. But 

 about the middle of February the temperature was a 

 little higher — about 32 ; so we got the ice into it, 



65J 



and it then kept just 28 degrees for weeks. The 

 room is 8x10x7 ft. There are four spaces between 

 the outside and inner wall, lined with good build- 

 ing-paper. There is a cool-air inlet at the bottom, 

 and an outlet at the top four inches wide by the 

 whole length of the cooler, with a trap-door at the 

 inlet and one at the outlet so as to open and close 

 as the temperature goes up and down. The outlet 

 from the roof runs up high enough so that there is 

 a good draft. The inside of the cooler is always very 

 drv. 



Malone, N. Y., March 17. J. N. Vassau. 



Another who Winters Bees in Cold Storage 



I sold a colony of bees to Mr. Henry Schneider, 

 of Pottstown. last fall. He is treasurer of a cold- 

 storage plant, so he put the bees in cold storage in a 

 room where the temperature is kept at 32 degrees. 

 They weighed 56 pounds in the fall. He weighed 

 them Jan. 4 to Feb. 24. They consumed 3 pounds 

 of honey in that time. We took them out March 15. 

 Then they weighed 49 V2 pounds. They came out 

 fine and "lively. W. B. Reitmeyer. 



Pottstown, Pa., April 2. 



[Wintering bees in cold storage is rather startling. 

 In both the above accounts it appears that the air 

 was fresh and dry. These experiments do not prove, 

 therefore, that a temperature in a bee-cellar below 

 35 degrees does no harm. — Ed.] 



Queen rearing; No Difficulty in Getting Cells or 



Virgins, but Can't Get Them Mated Fast 



Enough 



We have had no trouble to get the cells and to 

 hatch the virgins ; but when it comes to getting them 

 mated, it's a different proposition. I notice in 

 Gleanings where you say that your basswood api- 

 ary will produce 3000 queens besides its full quota 

 of honey. I should like to know how you can pro- 

 duce and mate that many queens from a yard and 

 still get its full quota of honey ; for by any system of 

 mating that we have used, we have always found 

 that it takes considerable strength from the bees to 

 make the nuclei and mate the queens. Do you still 

 use baby nuclei? I thought I saw in Gleanings a 

 while back where you claimed that the two-frame 

 nuclei of standard size was the best, and that the 

 babies were too small, troublesome, and fussy. Now, 

 to take two frames of brood, bees, and honey from 

 a colony here just before a honey-flow weakens it so 

 it will not store as much honey as it would have by 

 several pounds. I have had no experience with the 

 baby nuclei; but if they're a good thing I might 

 consider adopting them provided you could make 

 them to dovetail in with the Danzenbaker hive. We 

 have used mostly, to mate our queens, two frames 

 divided off to one side of a colony with entrance in 

 the rear: but it leaves the brood-chamber of the 

 main colony too small, besides weakening it some- 

 what to get the nuclei started, and interfering with 

 uniform storing in the super above. The best method 

 that we have found to mate queens is in connection 

 with increase, when we want to fill up empty hives. 

 Just divide the hive half and half with one entrance 

 in the front and the other in the rear, and put two 

 frames of brood and bees and honey in each half 

 with a ripe cell, or a virgin. 



Now, I had thought that, if you could make us a 

 combination nucleus mating and shipping box, of 

 two and three frame capacity for the Danzenbaker 

 frame, then that, together with our divided empty- 

 hive system in connection with increase, might be 

 the best systems for us to adopt. Then by one sys- 

 tem we would be getting increase and queens, and 

 by the other we would be getting salable nuclei and 

 queen 



We should like to know how you mate your queens 

 so inexpensively, and also to have your advice as to 



