1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



215 



As soon as the bees get fairly to work and begin to in- 

 crease in numbers, give each colony a second story, putting 

 the hive with empty combs or foundation under the full one. 

 Very likely the bees will work down into this lower story more 

 or less, and at any rate the extra room will have a tendency to 

 prevent swarming. 



About the time of the beginning of the main harvest, lift 

 off the upper story and put it on a new stand, leaving the 

 queen on the old stand in the partially empty hive. This 

 makes your work very little, and if you do nothing more each 

 hive put on a new stand will rear its own queen, but it will be 

 a great help if you can give to each a cell ready to hatch. 



The Queen-Clipping Deviee. 



Who and where is Mr. Monette ? lam anxious to learn 

 more about his queen-clipping machine. J. W. P. 



Answer. — Mr. Monette is at Chatfield, Minn., and is a 

 well-informed practical bee-keeper. I have never seen his de- 

 vice, but from the explanation given in a late number of this 

 journal, I should think it might be a good thing. 



L.ucern or Alfalfa — Sweet Clover. 



Can you inform me about a grass called lucern ? In Amrt-- 

 ican Bee Journal of 1894, page 434, in "Bee-Notes by the 

 Wayside," Mr. E. S. Lovesy speaks of lucern. Where can the 

 seed be bought ? Is it sweet clover? Will it grow in this 

 State ? How many kinds of sweet clover are there, and 

 which is the best for bees ? J. R. F. 



Rochester, N. Y. 



Answer. — Lucern is the same as alfalfa. I only know of 

 the white and yellow sweet clover, and I believe the white is 

 best, but I never saw much yellow. 



^ I » 



Size of the Hire. 



Which is the better size for a bee-hive, 13>8x20xlO, or 

 13^x20x12 inches, outside ? It seems to me 10 inches in 

 depth is rather shallow. F. M. C. 



Answer. — Most bee-keepers prefer a frame hot so deep as 

 would be taken in a hive 12 inches deep. The additional two 

 Inches makes quite a difference about taking out and putting 

 in the frames. Some would prefer the deeper hive on account 

 of the increased capacity, but others would say it is better to 

 have two stories of the shallower frames. Opinions vary wide- 

 ly, and its one of those questions you'll have to settle for your- 

 self. Just now, for myself, I'm iuclined to try two stories with 

 standard sized frames. 



Turning Honey into AVax by Feeding. 



I have had a dim idea or plan in mind for some months, 

 and would like to know what you think of it. I do not think 

 that I can depend entirely for suport upon the bees, as the 

 honey-flow is not very heavy. There is no clover, and almost 

 no basswood bloom here, but plenty of locust, some golden-rod 

 and wild flowers. The yield from locust is very uncertain, and 

 cannot be depended upon. I am afraid that what little I 

 could do in the way of artilicial pasturage would not be much 

 help. 



I like to manage an apiary first rate, but I am afraid I 

 must have some other business than bee-keeping if I stay here. 

 My idea is to give the bees as much freedom as possible in 

 their house-keeping arrangements, examining iheni once or 

 twice in the spring and summer, and seeing that they are in 

 good conditton for winter. Having clipped queens, some one 

 at home can easily manage swarming with the bees in 10- 

 franie Langstroth hives tiered up so as to furnish plenty of 

 room. 



As I cannot attend to them closely during the proper time, 

 comb-honey is out of the question. I might do as the Dadaut's 

 do, and, during my slack times in business, after the season is 

 over, extract all surplus. But there is a serious objection to 

 extracted honey with me — it is from badly mixed sources, and 

 is what I call strong or rank honey, and does not have ready 

 sale. Therefore I should like to turn those surplus frames of 

 honey into wax. 



In the late fall I can easily get away from business for two 

 or three weeks. At that time I should like to feed back the 



surplus honey for the wax it will bring. The combs that con- 

 tain the surplus and those obtained by feeding back should 

 make quite a quantity of wax from 2.5 colonies of bees. I will 

 give a few points, as J think of them, in favor of the plan : 



1. The combs being new, they would be easily worked 

 into wax by any method. 



2. It would be A No. 1. in quality, and would bring the 

 highest price. 



3. The market price of wax in New York is as high, or 

 higher, than in other cities, I think. 



4. The great demand for it would insure a good market. 



5. There would be no trouble from granulation in feed- 

 ing back for wax, as the result is neither comb nor extracted 

 honey, nor winter stores. 



6. The feeding back would fill the hives with young bees, 

 which I think is a good point. 



As comb and extracted honey seem to be out of the ques- 

 tion with me, I should like your advice as to whether you 

 think it would add something to my income to follow this plan. 

 I do not expect great returns, but if it would bring me in a 

 small sum every year — that with the pleasure of handling the 

 bees, would satisfy me. In what way would you feed back 

 the honey? Would you uncap it and place it at a short dis- 

 tance from the apiary, or would you feed it in the hive ? If 

 so, how ? A. M. 



Stamford, Conn. 



Answer. — If you have 1,000 pounds of extracted honey 

 of so poor quality that you can get only o or 6 cents a pound 

 for it, and feed it all back to the bees, I've no kind of an idea 

 that all the wax you could get from it would begin to bring 

 you as much money as the honey before feeding. You can't 

 get all the honey turned into wax, only enough to contain the 

 honey. Don't try it on a large scale. 



Bees That Store "So Honey. 



I have bad a colony of bees In a Langstroth hive for about 

 10 years, and it never swarmed and never gathered any 

 honey, but seemed to be very strong through the honey sea- 

 son. I never look in the hive, as it is so much trouble. Can 

 you tell me what is wrong ? R. H. E. 



Springfield, Tenn. 



Answer. — Hard to tell. The bees maybe very poor stock, 

 and a cliange of queen might help. There may be a greatdeal 

 too much drone-comb, and cutting this out and giving worker- 

 foundation would be a good thing. 



Queen-Excluding Honey-Boards and Extracting. 



Does it pay to buy queen-excluding honey-boards when 

 producing extracted honey ? If they are not used will the 

 queen enter the supers so as to discommode the apiarist? 



B. D. D. 



Answer. — A large number think it pays well. There is a 

 growing tendency to avoid extracting from combs that have 

 brood in them. Still, there may be no great need of excluders 

 if the bruod-nest is very large and the extracting-combs are 

 spaced wide apart. Dadant says queens are not so likely to 

 go up if extracting-combs are shallow. 



M I M 



Is Foxglove Honey Poisonous i 



1. Is honey gathered from digitalis or foxglove poison- 

 ous ? 



2. "Would you advise starting an apiary in a neighbor- 

 hood where it grows. Amateur. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. I don't believe it is. I con- 

 fess to just a little skepticism about there being much, if any, 

 honey that is poisonous. 



2. I might possibly make a mistake in the matter, but I 

 should't pay any attention to foxglove. Even if the honev is 

 objectionable, is there enough of it to make any difference ? 

 Perhaps it might be well to say that there is such a thing as honey 

 being in effect poisonous to the bees, even when all right for 

 people to eat. In some places bees get honey that seems all 

 well enough, only the bees can't winter on it, so it might as 

 well be poison for them. 



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