1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



119 



that my wife could not hang out anything ou the lines but she 

 got in the way. 



Well, I caught a well-developed bee-fever, and I wanted 

 information. I got some out of an old mechanical recipe-book 

 about making bee-hives, and there were some pieces from the 

 "Bee-Keepers' Text-Book." Picking up a copy of the Michi- 

 gan Farmer, I wrote to Mr. George Hilton, who sent me sam- 

 ples of several bee-papers, and I sent in my little subscription 

 to the Bee Journal, and also got the " A B C of Bee-Culture," 

 but did not know a box-hive from a Langstroth until a gentle- 

 man from Michigan, who was visiting, told me that what I had 

 were " patent hives." Well, then it was winter, and I could 

 not disturb them, so I just let them go and trusted to provi- 

 dence, but got left. 



Now, here is my statement : Of my 20 colonies I found 

 one dead, so that left 19. I averaged about 30 pounds of 

 honey in 1895. My wife settled six swarms, and I lost two, 

 making a gain of 4 ; I gave a friend one, so I have 3. The 

 bees gathered honey till the 1st or 2nd of October, and I 

 fixed them up for winter the middle of November. I went 

 among them every day or so, and that caused some caustic 

 remarks from some people anent sleeping among the bees, but 

 I put that down to jealousness or meanness, or my helpmeet 

 among the rest. 



Well, I found out I could yet learn a little. I found one 

 of the old colonies defunct, or like that bee-paper. You will 

 understand now. I took it into the house and opened its hive ; 

 I found no bees to amount to much — say a dozen — a few 

 drones half-hatched out, and stores all right. I cleaned them 

 all up, took all the dead bees away, and put them in a spare 

 room. I suppose they lost their queen and just dwindled 

 away. Shall I give that colony to a young swarm, or prop- 

 erly, the first I can get ? 



1. Did I lose the queen, and did they dwindle, say from 

 from the time they cast the last swarm, or about that time ? 

 that was in the middle of August. 



2. What shall I do with the frames, 12x10 inches ? Shall 

 I hive a swarm in the hive as it stands, or take say two frames 

 from each end, that would be four ? R. B. 



Havana, III., Jan. 16. 



Answeks. — 1. The great probability is that the colony 

 swarmed and failed to secure a laying queen afterward. It is 

 no very unusual thing for a young queen to be lost on her 

 wedding-flight. 



2. If the frames are not of the size you desire to use, you 

 can either melt up the combs or else cut them out and fatten 

 the worker part in such frames as you desire to use. If you 

 desire to continue the use of that sized frame — mind you, I'm 

 not urging you strongly to use an odd-sized frame — then you 

 can use the whole of the frames to hive a swarm on, but it 

 will be a good thing to cut all the drone-comb out of seven or 

 eight of them and fill up with patches of worker-comb cut out 

 of the other one or two combs. Still better than to use them 

 all in one hive it may be best to use two, three or four in two or 

 more hives to put swarms on. 



Buying Bees — Keeping Bees Pure. 



1. Can I buy a colony of Italian bees in an 8-frame hive 

 with a tested queen ? That is, do they sell them that way, or 

 only in nucleus form? 



2. What should such a colony cost, packed and delivered 

 at their express office ? 



3. Have you any of your own in that form ? If so, give 

 me your price. 



4. If I bought a colony in that condition, could I divide 

 during the honey-flow of white clover or basswood '.' 



5. I have some hybrids. Could I keep my young queens 

 from being fertilized by the hybrids if I went to the trouble of 

 cutting the drone-comb out of the hybrid colonies? There are 

 no other bees within % of a mile of my place. They are all 

 hybrids — no Italians in my neighborhood that I know of. 



Baraboo, Wis. H. W. S. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, full colonies are sold, but not so often 

 as nuclei. 



2. You will not be wise to buy anything of the kind this 

 time of the year, and before time to buy you'll find advertise- 

 ments in this journal, some of them giving the prices of full 

 colonies, and those that don't give prices will be glad to send 

 you a price-list. I can't tell you what their prices will be. 

 But if you want to get a full colony, try to buy from some one 

 not too far off, for express charges are fearful. 



3. No, sometimes I have honey to sell, but nothing else 

 except advice, and you can have all of that you want for the 



asking, providing you want it in print, for the publishers pay 

 me for that. 



4. Certainly, if you get a strong colony from a distance 

 you can divide it or let it swarm, just the same as if you had 

 wintered it. 



5. It will be of no use to cut out drone-comb unless you 

 put patches of worker-comb in place of that cut out, for the 

 bees will fill up the empty place with drone-comb 19 cases out 

 of 20. Of course, the more Italian drones and the fewer 

 blacks, the better your chances, but if there are blacks within 

 % of a mile there will be a pretty good chance of your bees 

 mixing with them. 



Foul Brood — Color and Solar Ileal. 



1. What degree of heat is necessary to destroy the germs 

 of ioul brood ? 



2. Can there be danger of introducing foul brood by the 

 use of foundation made from wax that was melted in the solar 

 wax extractor ? 



3. What color has the least tendency to absorb or reflect 

 solar heat ? H. C. B. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. There has been quite a lit- 

 tle discussion and experimenting about it, and some say the 

 germs are destroyed at 2123. Indeed, I don't know that any 

 one directly contradicts this. Dr. Howard, in his book on 

 Foul Brood, says : " That the vitality of the spores of bacillus 

 alvei is not always destroyed when exposed to a temperature 

 approaching 212'^ for 45 minutes. .. .but that boiling for an 

 hour would desrtoy their vitality." 



2. I think it is generally believed that there is no danger 

 of infection from foundation, no matter how the wax may 

 have been melted in the first place, for in making the founda- 

 tion the wax is held at a point sufficiently high, and for a 

 suEBcient length of time, to destroy all spores. 



3. Black absorbs the most and reflects the least. White 

 reflects the most and absorbs the least. 



Sweet Clover — Leather-Colored Bees. 



Db. Miller : — After reading a great many valuable arti- 

 cles in different bee-papers, and seeing you are interested 

 about sweet clover, and seeing what others have said about it, 

 I will give my experience where we raise alfalfa, sweet clover, 

 and sainfoin. I cut about 375 tons of alfalfa hay, which is 

 good bee-pasture, so I can't tell how much honey sweet clover 

 produces, but after it blooms it is just covered with bees until 

 frosts. One frost will not kill it. Sainfoin is the earliest bee- 

 feed in this country, but it doesn't last. I am well satisfied 

 you can raise more sweet clover bee-feed from sweet clover 

 on the same amount of ground than anything I ever saw. We 

 use the hay to top our stacks, so I can't say how valuable the 

 hay is, as it is always damaged, but here is the secret: It 

 never blooms so profusely when once cut, and if it is seasonble 

 it never stops blooming until it is killed by a freeze. It gets 

 about 8 feet high if let alone. After it is cut it gets about 5 

 feet, but it is not so full of blooms. You want to cut say half 

 before it blooms, so if it is not seasonable you will be all right. 

 Just before it blooms is the time to cut it for hay and honey. 



Our bees do not work on white clover very much. We 

 never get a cell of dark honey. We get 120 pounds to the 

 colony, spring count, of comb honey, on the average one year 

 with another. I produced over 2,000 pounds of comb honey 

 and 1,000 pounds in brood-frames, th^t I kept over to use 

 next spring. I don't manage my bees like any one else, win- 

 ter or spring. 



Have you what is called leather-colored bees ? If so, I 

 want to buy or exchange queens. I have seven fine queens 

 from different yards. You can have any color you like, from 

 the dark imported to the yellowest. Oregon. 



Answer. — As you have the dark imported, you have the 

 leather-colored, for they're all one and the same thing. 



Tlie Alsike Clover Leaflet consists of 



pages. 



with illustratious, showing the value of Alsike clover, and 

 telling how to grow it. This Leaflet is just the thing to hand 

 to every farmer in your neighborhood. Send to the Bee Jour- 

 nal office for a quantity of them, and see that they are dis- 

 tributed where they will do the most good. Prices, postpaid, 

 are as follows : 50 for 25 cents ; 100 for 40 cents ; or 200 

 for 70 cents. 



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