AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



745 



answered by 

 Marengo, III. 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufficient special Interest to 

 require replies from the 20 or more apiarists 

 who help to make "Queries and Replies" 80 

 interesting on another page. In the main, It 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly Interest beginners.— Ed. 



Fixing: tlie Bees in the Cellar. 



I put my bees into the cellar Nov. 9, 

 taking the bottom-board off and putting 

 a super under each hive, with a cloth 

 spread over the frames. Now is that 

 the way, or will I have hives and no bees 

 in the spring? B. 



Hammond, Wis. 



Answer. — I believe it's a good plan to 

 put a super under the hive. There is an 

 advantage in that there is no danger of 

 the entrance being clogged with dead 

 bees. If I understand you correctly, 

 there is no covering over the hive except 

 the cloth. That may or may not be 

 best. Something depends on the cellar. 

 With abundance of ventilation below, 

 there ought to be no need of ventilation 

 above. If, however, the cellar is warm 

 enough, there may be no harm and pos- 

 sibly some good in having the ventila- 

 tion that will take place through the 

 cloth. 



Honey-Dew Stores — Transferring. 



In July I bought one colony of bees in a 

 box-hive, which I brought home. They 

 filled the box with honey, which is about 

 50 pounds, and it is almost entirely 

 stored from honey-dew. I have also 3 

 other colonies in sections of trees, which 

 are as well supplied with honey as the 

 box-hive, but also stored from honey- 

 dew. Now the trouble is this : Since 

 they have begun to live on their stores 

 they are dying — more so in the box-hive 

 than in the logs. 



1. Do you think it is the honey-dew 

 that is killing them ? If you think it is, 

 then I can explain why they are dying 

 more in the box-hive than in the tree- 

 sections — those in the logs were left 

 about two miles from here this summer, 

 where they had a wet meadow where 

 there were some fall flowers, and they 

 gathered about K of their stores from 

 boneset and mint. 



2. Can I transfer them to frame hives 

 on empty combs, and feed sugar syrup, 

 doing the work in a good cellar ? or is it 

 too late to transfer at this time of year ? 



Ridgeway, Wis., Nov. 19. H. K. 



Answers. — 1. Honey-dew has the 

 credit of having proved fatal to bees in 

 repeated instances, and it is quite possi- 

 ble that your bees are suffering thereby. 



2. It is a bad time of the year to 

 transfer, and if they were transferred 

 they might be no better off to have syrup 

 than the honey-dew. Not but what 

 syrup is better than honey-dew, but it is 

 not safe to feed it generally in winter. 

 If they could fly often enough, they 

 might come through all right, but it is 

 not likely the winter will be warm 

 enough for that. I'll tell you what you 

 can do: You can make candy in cakes 

 such as described by Pres. Abbott at the 

 St. Joseph convention, and put it over 

 the frames. The bees will feed at least 

 partly on that, and will probably come 

 through all right. [See page 760. — Ed.] 



''Warranted Purely Mated" Queens. 



I bought a 5-banded Italian queen, 

 warranted purely mated, and the bees 

 that came with her were good looking 

 bees. I introduced her all safe, and she 

 was a " dandy " for laying, for in a week 

 she had almost 3 frames full of eggs; 

 but when they came out to have their 

 flight, I must say that I was surprised 

 for they were almost all black. Now, 

 did the breeder mean by saying " purely 

 mated" that it was by a black drone? 

 I did not take it that way, but if that is 

 the game, I don't want anything to do 

 with bee-keepers of that style. A. E. 



Answer. — An Italian queen, war- 

 ranted purely mated, would certainly 

 not be understood to be mated with. any- 

 thing but a full-blooded Italian drone. 

 But she may have mated with a black 



