9S 



March, 1914. 



American l^ee Journal 



the last three to five days or more un- 

 der the same conditions in about 40 to 

 tiO percent of cases. In demoralized 

 colonies percent is considerably less. 

 It is true that our conditions /lere are 



certainly, as a rule, by far less favor- 

 able than in the United States; there- 

 fore, your results are considerably bet- 

 ter than ours. 



Zug, Switzerland. 



Dr. Millers 



Answers^ 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



Dr. C. C. Mh.i.er, Marengo. !li,. 



He does not answer bee-lteeping questions by mail. 



What Section to Use 



1. Wliich section is best for the 8 frame 

 super, the 4'4X4Hxi'8 or the 4X5xi:'s section ? 



2. Wliich width of these sections men- 

 tioned, if well tilled, will hold just one 

 pound of honey, the rii-inch width or the 

 i5^-inch width ? Oregon. 



Answers.— I. There is little to choose, but 

 most beekeepers would prefer n'Axi'AxiH to 

 either. 



2 There is no size that will uniformly give 

 just one pound of honey. The amount stored 

 in a section varies with the season, bees. etc. 



Goldens or 3-Band Italians — Painting Hives 



1. Is it a fact that the 3-bauded the bee 

 from northern Italy) is the best Italian bee 

 for the extracted honey producer, because 

 it utilizes less wax in capping its comb than 

 the lighter (the bee from southern Italy) or 

 golden Italians ? 



2. If the queen-breeders of Italy have not 

 used the careful methods in selecting their 

 stock that the American breeders have, why 

 are the daughters from imported Italian 

 queens, those one generation from imported 

 stock, the best bees for the extracted-honey 

 producer, as Doolittle claims on page o. in 

 Jan. 1 issue of Gleanings in Bee Culture ? 



3. If a 3 banded Italian queen mates with a 

 golden drone, what will be the color, uni- 

 formity and temperament of the progeny ? 



4. If atTKliliii Italian queen mates with a 

 )-i*<iW(i/ drone, what will be the color, uni- 

 formity and temperament of the progeny ? 



5. Same as question No. 3. but substitute 

 Ceatiuiii (black) drone in place of aohle/i 

 drone. ^, , , . 



6. Same as question No. 4. but substitute 

 Ccriinw (black) drone in place of j-lnnniid 

 drone. , ,, ,. 



7. Does a cross between a j-tomtor Italian 

 and a pure,f('/A'«. or between a pure a^'A/c// 

 Italian and a j-lhiinh-J make as energetic 

 honey-gathering-hybrid progeny as a cross 

 between a pure m^./Wci/ Italian as a pure 

 golden Italian and a pure German ? 



8. Is it a fact that a strong colony of bees 

 soon varnish and make impervious to mois- 

 ture the entire inside of a new wooden hive, 

 and if so upon what grounds do you object 

 to the exterior of the hive being painted ? 



California. 



Answers.— I. I don't know; I didn't know 

 a difference in amount of wax in cappings 

 was claimed. 



2. Taking this question, and looking ahead 

 at the next five questions, it seems pretty 

 evident that you're trying to exhaust my 

 stock of "I don't know" answers. In the 

 present question I might make the guess 

 that if Italian breeders, as you say. have not 

 carefully selected, then careful selecting on 

 this side would improve the next generation. 

 Perhaps a better guess is that irrespective 

 of previous care in selecting, when the 

 daughters of an imported queen meet 

 drones of stock kept here, there is more or 

 less in the way of crossing, and a first cross 

 is likely to have unusual vigor. But I don't 

 hold Mr. Doolittle responsible for my 

 guesses. 



3, 4, S- '>. and 7. One reason for saying I 

 don't know to all these questions is that one 

 of the factors in each of the problems is so 



variable as to prevent a definite answer 

 There are good goldens and poor goldens, 

 and different grades from good to poor. 

 Neither is it certain that I could answer sat- 

 isfactorily if the varying factor were elimi- 

 nated. In the matter of color, however. I 

 should not expect uniformity, but part of 

 the progeny following one parent, part fol- 

 lowing the other parent, with perhaps inter- 

 mediate shades, 



8 No, I have so good authority as Doolittle 

 and Dr. Phillips for saying it is not a fact, 

 the latter saying that blisters are raised on 

 the outer paint through moisture that has 

 passed through theinner propolizedsurface. 



Transferring from Box-Hitfes to Modern Hives 



When is the right time to transfer bees 

 from box-hives to modern hives, and how ? 



Kentui. KV. 



Answers —Wait until the bees swarm (in 

 your locality they are likely to swarm in 

 May . then hive the swarm in an up-to-date 

 hive and set it on the old stand, setting the 

 old hive close beside it. A week later move 

 the old hive to the opposite side of the 

 swarm, and then two weeks later still, or 

 three weeks from the time of swarming, 

 when all the worker-brood will be hatched 

 out. break up the old hive and add its bees 

 to the swarm. Then you can melt up the 

 old combs. ^ 



Reinforced Foundation 



1. Have you tried dipping cloth into wax 

 and passing it through a foundation mill ? 

 If so. what kind of cloth, color, and prepara- 

 tion ? 



2. Will bees accept that kind of founda- 

 tion ? 



3. Do you think the color of the cloth will 

 make any difference ? 



4. Will tin cloth injure the rollers of the 

 millr' 



5. If the cloth will work, would it not do 

 without wire or splints ? Washington, 



Answers,— I. The nearest I ever came to 

 anything of the kind was before comb foun- 

 dation was to be had, when I coated paper 

 with wax and gave it to the bees. Of course 

 it was not put through a foundation mill, 

 which, at that time, I had never heard of, 



2. Yes, the bees built comb on my waxed 

 paper, but it could be drone-comb as easily 

 as worker, and if it had been put through 

 a mill I suspect the bees would have torn it 

 down. At any rate ,). Y. Detwiler afterward 

 sent out samples of the same thing with tin- 

 foil in the center and then run through a 

 mill, and my bees tore it down. 



3. I don't think color would make any dif- 

 ference, but inati'rial might. 



4. Yes. I would expect tin cloth, or wire 

 cloth to injure a foundation-niill. To be 

 sure, foundation has been made with wires 

 running through it at intervals, but that is 

 made on a special mill which makes the sep- 

 tum of the foundation entirely Hat. 



;. If you should succeed in getting foun- 

 dation with wire cloth in it, or indeed 

 any similar base, neither wires nor splints 

 would be needed. But from what I know 

 about the matter. I think you will only waste 

 time in any such experiments. 



Preventing Swarming^Sour Honey--Honey-Dew 



1. <-'an I prevent swariuing if I remove the 

 queen after the colony has built up strong 

 and let it rear another queen ? 



2 What color is the Caucasian bee if the 

 stock is pure? 



3. If a queen is introduced in the spring, 

 will the colony swarm the same season? 



4 How does it work to set an empty hive 

 on the old stand, say with tive frames with 

 empty combs, the queen to be introduced 

 so the bees can get at her to let her out, and 

 let the old bees go into the new hive; then 

 after the bees accept her remove the queen 

 in the old hive, and about eight days later 

 return the bees to the new hive on the old 

 stand.' 



5. How do Cyprian bees stand our winters? 



b. What makes honey sour in the hive 

 when the flow is at its best and no honey- 

 dew? This season I ran my bees for comb 

 honey; in some of the hives honey soured 

 before it was capped 



7. Why is it that in honey-dew seasons 

 some colonies gather more honey-dew than 

 others ? Such has been my experience. 



8 Do certain races gather less honey-dew 

 than others ' I have been told so ? 



Illinois. 



Answers— I. You can hardly find a surer 

 way to make them swarm, for when the first 

 young queen emerges a swarm will issue 

 with her. You can prevent this, however, if 

 you kill all cells but one, about a week after 

 removing the queen. There is a little dan- 

 ger, however, that you may not leave one of 

 the best cells-you may even leave a cell 

 containing a dead larva, A safer way is to 

 leave all the cells; then a week after re- 

 moving the queen put your ear to the hive 

 each evening until you hear the young 

 queens piping. When you hear this go to 

 the hive the next morning and kill i;//queen- 

 cells, leavingthe youngqueen that is already 

 at large. 



2. About the same color as the common 

 black bee 



3. Generally yes. But if three require- 

 ments are fulfilled, you may feel pretty safe 

 against swarming: the queen must be a 

 young queen of the same season; she must 

 not be introduced until swarming time; and 

 there must be about lo days between the 

 time the old queen stops laying and the new 

 one begins. 



4. I don't believe there would be any gain 

 over introducing the queen direct without 

 so much trouble. 



5. I think about the same as Italians. 



(). I don't know. I know it sometimes oc- 

 curs, and I suppose it is something in the 

 character of the honey itself. 



7. I don't know. Possibly there is a differ- 

 ence in colonies as to their preference for 

 different sources One year I had one or 

 more colonies that gathered honey of light 

 color while the rest gathered buckwheat. 

 It might be that they strongly preferred the 

 lighter honey, or it might be that they just 

 happened on the lighter honey in some par- 

 ticular place. 



8. I don't know. It is possible. 



Preventing Swarming 



When one of your strong colonies havinr 

 two supers almost full, decides to build 

 cells, how do you proceed to bring about 

 contentment in the hive and restore the 

 storing impulse ? Minnesota. 



Answer —You are supposing things that 

 hardly occur. I wouldn't expect to find on 

 a strong colony in a good How a couple 

 of sutlers almost full and nothing else. 



