1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



343 



Mr. Taylor — The matter of temperature has much to do 

 with the ease with which bees can be carried into or out of a 

 cellar. If the weather is too cool, it is just as bad as though 

 it were too hot. What might be termed a cool, cloudy day is 

 best. I have the hives pried loose from the bottom-boards, 

 and a block put under the edge of each hive to hold it up. 

 This is done sometime previous, so that the bees may be quiet 

 at the time they are carried down. Tn the cellar the hives 

 are stacked up in single piles. That is, one hive is first set 

 down, then another on top of that, then another, etc. Then, 

 in carrying them out, only the ones in one pile are disturbed 

 at the same time. Sticks are placed on top of the first hive, 

 then the next hive set on these sticks, then sticks put on top 

 of the next hive, and the next hive on top of these sticks. In 

 carrying them out a hive is set down upon a bottom-board, 

 and if the bees show any disposition to leave the hive, the en- 

 trance is closed until the hive is placed upon its summer 

 stand. There is no necessity of rushing all of the bees out at 

 one time, and in that exhausting the strength of the one who 

 does the work. A few may be carried out in the morning, 

 then a few in the evening. The next suitable day, a few more 

 may be carried out, and this can be continued until they are 

 all out. 



Mr. Aspinwall — With me the loss in weight in wintering 

 bees has been greater in the cellar than in the open air. In 

 open air wintering there is always a chance for the bees to 

 fly if there comes a suitable day. 



(Concluded next week.) 



CONDUCTED BY 



OK. C. C. MILLER, AtARMIfGO, ILL. 



LQuestions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.l 



Candied Comb Honey — Keeping Ilouey from 

 Candying;. 



1. I have some comb honey that is candied, and unfit for 

 table use. How can I best prepare it for fall feeding ? If 

 by heating, how shall I separate the wax from the honey ? 



2. How can I keep honey from candying? H. M. S. 



Answers. — 1. Melt it very slowly. One way is to set it 

 on the reservoir of a cook-stove where it can never reach the 

 boiling-point. Another way is to set it in a pan of water on 

 the back of the stove where the water won't boil, having 

 pieces of shingle, or something of the kind, in the dish of 

 water under the vessel of honey. No matter if it takes sev- 

 eral days to melt it. When cold, remove the cake of wax, and 

 there's your honey. Of course, it will candy again if left long 

 enough. 



2. Hardly in any way to be recommended. You can heat 

 it to 1600, and seal ,it while hot in fruit-jars. But if you heat 

 it too much, you'll spoil it. 



W^et Inside tiic Hive — Couib.L.cvcier. 



1. I have had bees only three years, have read up consid- 

 erable, made a great many mistakes, and kniiiv that I have 

 yet to learn a great deal, so I ask for information. I must say 

 that some of your answers, and a great deal of information 

 from the American Bee Journal, have saved me many a dol- 

 lar. About two months ago we bad several weeks of very fine 

 weather, so that the bees reared brood at a fine rate ; for the 

 last month it has been raining most of the time. I now have 

 a hive full of bees, but no brood or honey, so I am feeding 

 several colonies. I have 7 colonies in dovetailed hives with 

 flat covers, and I find part of them very wet inside, so bad 



that I can scrape the paint off the bottom-boards with a knife. 

 Have you any way to manage to avoid this ? I have one hive 

 shellac-varnished, and the others painted inside. If I can 

 afford it, I will shellac all I make hereafter, and will surely 

 shellac the bottom-boards, and by keeping the hives well 

 slanted to the front, I know that the water will not soak into 

 the wood, but will run out at the entrance. I don't allow any 

 water to get in from the outside, or the bees would have all 

 been drowned long ago. I use a movable shingle roof to each 

 hive. 



2. I have seen mention made of a comb-Ieveler made by 

 Mr. B. Taylor. Can you describe it to me, or inform, me the 

 easiest way to get it '? Lbaeneb. 



Oregon. 



Answers. — 1. The matter of having trouble from having 

 too much wet from the outside working into a hive is some- 

 thing that has not come within my own experience. At least 

 not from working through the wood, although I've had trouble 

 with cracks in covers, and have found nothing that would so 

 effectually keep wet from coming through cracks as a cover- 

 ing of tin. I wonder if it isn't possible that at least some of 

 the wet that troubled you came from the inside instead of the 

 outside. After I commenced using tin covers I sometimes 

 found the inside of the cover soaked, and great drops standing 

 over it, the moisture coming from the bees themselves. The 

 only remedy I know of for this is to have a fair slant to the 

 hive, and to have a good-sized entrance. 



2. It is an arrangement of sheet iron, kept hot by a lamp 

 standing under it, and a section placed upon it is melted down 

 to a certain point determined by a stop. The work is done 

 with great rapidity and with great perfection. Having used 

 it, I can heartily recommend it. 



Transferring; Bees. 



Last winter I bought two colonies of bees in box-hives. 

 They are eight miles from my place, so naturally swarming is 

 out of the question. Now, I would like to do one of two ways, 

 viz: 



1st. Drive the bees out, a la Heddon, on frames with nar- 

 row starters, with sections on top. Set the boxes alongside, 

 and put the entrances at right angles to the new hives. Turn 

 gradually the old boxes around until the entrances are close 

 to the front of the new hives, and in about a week or ten 

 days remove both old boxes to a new stand, and set one on top 

 of the other. Twenty-one days from the driving transfer to 

 a new hive. 



2nd. Drive the bees in box No. 1 on narrow starters, with 

 sections on top, and set new hive on the stand of No. 1. Re- 

 move the good combs to a second new hive, and fill up with 

 foundation. Move box No. 2 to a new stand ; put the second 

 new hive filled with combs and foundation on the stand of No. 

 2, and furnish a queen for this hive. 



I could set box No. 2 alongside of this last new hive, but 

 in such a way that the entrance is at right angles to the 

 other, turning the box around gradually until the entrances 

 of both the box and No. 2 are together, then in about a week 

 remove the box to a new stand. After two or three weeks I 

 could transfer the combs and all to a new hive. 



Which do you think is best ■? Or is there a better plan? 

 I could work all for comb honey, or one for comb and the 

 other for extracting. I will not drive till about the first of 

 June. H. A. 



Oregon. 



Answer. — The first thing I should want to do would be to 

 get those bees just about eight miles nearer home. For by the 

 plans laid out, a number of visits will be needed, making much 

 travel. However, there may be special reasons why it is not 

 desirable, and perhaps not possible to move them now, and it 

 may be that other business frequently takes you where the 

 bees are. Either way you mention can be carried out, only it 

 is not a very good plan to transfer a colony late in June with 

 the combs full of brood and honey. Better leave the last job 

 of transferring till next year in fruit-bloom. But you can 

 avoid either way by adopting the first plan, which, on the 

 whole, will probably bo most satisfactory. 



Tlie Names and Addresses of all your bee- 

 friends, who are not now taking the Bee Journal, are wanted 

 at this office. Send them in, please, when sample copies will 

 be mailed to them. Then you can secure their subscriptions, 

 and earn some of the premiums we have offered. The 

 next few months will be just the time to easily get new sub- 

 scribers. Try it earnestly, at least. 



