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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 15, 



W 



CONDUCTED BT 



DK. O. O. JmLLER, AlAIiElS^GO, ILL, 



LQuestlons may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Br. Miller direct. 1 



Not a Bee-Supply Dealer. 



Dr. Miller : — Please send me your catalog on bee-culture, 

 and prices of boxes and anything you have to sell to benefit a 

 bee-man. L. A. F. 



Answer. — To this and other similar inquiries, I must 

 reply that I don't keep for sale bee-supplies of any kind. Of 

 course, one never knows for certain just what he may do, but 

 at present I have no expectation of ever being interested in 

 selling bees, hives or other appliances. 



Hive Ventilation. 



I hear about " good ventilation " for bees. How should a 

 hive be constructed that it may have good ventilation ? With 

 a body and the super perfectly tight, will a % entrance next 

 to the bottom-board, the whole width of the hive, give su£B- 

 cient ventilation for a strong colony through the summer ? 



Day before yesterday the thermometer was at over 100^ 

 in the shade ; to-day at 60. Is there not danger, where a hive 

 is blocked up an inch from the bottom-board, that the brood 

 may get chilled in some of these extremes of cool weather ? 



Blue Rapids, Kan., Aug. 17. C. G. B. 



Answer. — The old-fashioned way with box-hives was to 

 raise the whole business an inch or so by having a block under 

 each corner of the hive. Possibly harm was sometimes done 

 by that, and in spring and early summer it is important to 

 keep the hive warm so that breeding may not be interrupted, 

 but it Is doubtful if on the whole as much harm was done as 

 by the practice of many nowadays In having an entrance 

 throughout the whole working season of not more than two to 

 five square inches. When the thermometer drops from 100^ 

 to 60° within three days, there is a bare possitility that some 

 brood might be chilled in the lower edges of the comb if the 

 hive is raised an inch all around, but you will generally find 

 that the cluster of bees will be sufficient protection for the 

 brood. Bees may do with a % entrance the width of the hive, 

 and many of them get along with no more throughout the 

 season, but they might do a good deal better with more. In 

 hot weather, certainly no harm is likely to come from two or 

 three times as much. 



Honey in Box-Hires — Swarming. 



1. I have a colony of Italian bees in a box-hive nailed on 

 the bottom-board, with about 50 pounds of honey in it. How 

 would you get the honey out ? or what would you do with it ? 



2. When do they first swarm ? and how will I know it, or 

 find it out? 



3. What is the trouble when the drones ride the workers 

 in and out of the hive, and fuss with those that are bringing 

 in pollen ? 



4. Where is the cheapest place to buy sections, etc.? 



F. W. 



Answers. — 1. Probably you will do as well to let the bees 

 alone till next year. Then wait till they swarm, hive the 

 swarm in a movable-comb hive, set it in place of the old hive, 

 putting the old hive close beside it, then in five to seven days 

 move the old hive to a new place, and three weeks after 

 swarming all the young worker-bees will be hatched out, when 



you can drive out the balance of the bees and unite them with 

 the swarm. Then if there's any honey left in the old hive you 

 can get it. If it has all been used up in rearing young bees, 

 that's the best use that can be made of it. If you should actu- 

 ally weigh all the honey that's in the hive now, you might find 

 it fall short of 50 pounds, for there's a good deal of weight in 

 bees, pollen and old combs. 



2. Most of the swarming is done in the months of June 

 and July, but sometimes a strong colony may swarm during 

 the last of May. There is hardly any sure way by which you 

 can know beforehand when a colony is going to swarm if in a 

 box-hive. In a frame hive you can tell something about it by 

 the queen-cells. But you'll have no trouble about telling 

 when the swarm actually comes, for it will seem that all the 

 bees in the hive, and more, too, will come out of the hive all at 

 once, or as fast as they can pour out. But you hardly need 

 expect swarms before some time in June, and not then till the 

 colony is strong, unless the hive is so small that they are 

 crowded for roonl. 



3. Whenever a scarcity of forage occurs, and almost uni- 

 versally in the fall, you will find the drones driven out of the 

 hive by the workers. The workers seem to pretend to sting 

 the drones, and often a poor drone may be seen with one or 

 two workers on his back biting him. 



4. Consult the advertising columns of this journal. Sev- 

 eral supply dealers may be found there, and any of them can 

 furnish the articles you desire. Write and ask them to send 



you catalogs. 



-^ — . — ^ 



Feeding Flour in Winter. 



How do you feed bees flour for pollen, in the winter? I 

 think I shall have to feed my bees flour. G. P. 



Sabael, N. Y. 



Answer. — You don't need to feed flour or any substitute 

 for pollen in the winter. If they have plenty of honey or good 

 sugar syrup, they are all right without the pollen or its sub- 

 stitute. In spring, some substitute for pollen may be some- 

 times fed to advantage. 



What Caused the Loss of Queens ? 



I had, last winter, three fine Italian colonies of bees stand- 

 ing side by side. I examined them the preceding fall and 

 found each with a good young queen. I opened them once in 

 the early spring, but did not look for the queen ; they seemed 

 in a normal condition. Two months later I opened the first in 

 order, and could not possibly find the queen, but noticed at 

 least four of the combs full of capped drone-brood. I imme- 

 diately examined the other two hives, and to my surprise I 

 found them queenless, and in the same condition as the first. 

 You can imagiue what followed — thousands of drones. Now 

 for questions: 



1. What do you conjecture as to the cause of the loss of 

 my queens ? 



2. Did those queens likely die early in the spring ? 



3. Are combs Injured by having drone-brood reared in 

 them as described ? 



I forgot to say that all the combs were from good founda- 

 tion and worker-cells. I must confess I was disgusted with 

 the condition of things, but I have not had the experience re- 

 peated. W. L. 



Forest City, N. C. 



Answers. — 1. I've sat for some time puzzling over your 

 question, trying to think of some answer that would not 

 utterly ruin what reputation I may have as an answerer of 

 questions, and I think I'll have to give it up. If the bees had 

 been reasonable enough to have lost the queen in only one 

 hive, the answer would be easy ; several ways in which a 

 queen might come up missing, but when it comes to three in 

 a row, it seems there must have been some special reason. 

 True, all three of them may have been balled by their own 

 bees and killed — such freaks sometimes occur ; or the queens 

 may have been of poor quality although good-looking, and so 



