374 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 14, 1900. 



ties, crowd the vacant space full of sawdust or cinders just 

 the same. 



Our comrade was also going it strong when he stuck to 

 his efforts to have queens get to laying up-stairs until he 

 had lost an even 50 queens — with no success to balance. 

 Page 290. 



TWO KINDS OF PRICES. 



" Decide what prices ought to be, and then stand by 

 thoseprices." Page 295. That sounds like the millennium 

 — but that isn't here yet. Alas, in the noddles of bee-folks, 

 all the same as other folks, the " price that ought to be," 

 and the highest price that can be extorted from the buyer, 

 get swapt in the cradle, somehow. 



ROBBKR-BEES AND BALLED QUEENS. 



On page 297, that quotation from a foreign bee-paper, 

 about the foolishness of thinking that robber-bees ball a 

 queen, is probably all right in the main. Robbers are in- 

 deed there for honey — not for reginacide — but perchance no 

 one interferes, and after awhile the honey is gone, and the 

 hive is filled with a miscellaneous crowd largely new com- 

 ers, who are like a city mob, " the more part know not 

 wherefore they are come together." Who wants to guaran- 

 tee the queen's life, then ? Not I. And I doubt whether 

 mysterious balling comes as often from young alien bees, 

 as Mr. Mulor thinks. More than half the time her own 

 children do it, I suspect. They think wrongly that she 

 needs superseding. More strictly speaking, they don't 

 think at all ; but it is part of their duties to supersede when 

 there is little young brood and little scent of fertility in the 

 hive. Unfortunate!}', these same lacks come about in fam- 

 ine times without the queen's being to blame, and they are 

 unable to discriminate. 



THAT CALIFORNIA COMB FOUNDATION IMPROVEMENT. 



If Mr. Vogeler's patent wrinkle concerning foundation 

 proves to be of decided value he'll have a lovely time keep- 

 ing possession of it — it is so easily done — just a brush and 

 some melted wax. Easy to see that natural comb in pro- 

 cess of construction always has a rim at the mouth of each 

 cell. This rim is steadily moved upward by pinching. But 

 I opine that side-walls will have to be higher than we 

 usually see in foundation before rims can be brusht on. 

 Page 297. 



VALU.4BLE "SM.'^SH" HONEY IN CANA.^N. 



Another peculiarity of that Canaan honey of Connecti- 

 cut, which you overlookt. Editor York, is that producing it 

 in brood-comb and recovering it from the smash of a tree 

 makes it worth 20 cents a pound. Page 297. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. C. MILLER, Marengo, 111. 



[The Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail. — Editor. 1 



What to do with Frames of Comb and Honey. 



Geo. H. Adkins, (on page 348) should not think of melt- 

 ing up the combs left by those 44 colonies that died, but 

 should bend himself to the task of having them all occupied 

 by bees before the summer is over. If they are kept in a 

 cool, dry cellar, worms will make progress in them verj' 

 slowly. A damp cellar will do if a dry one is not to be had, 

 and will prevent progress of the worms just as well, but the 

 combs are more likely to be mold}'. Occasionally the combs 

 may be lookt over, and wherever the web of a worm is seen 

 the worm can be dug out with a wire-nail. Under each of 

 the six colonies a hive full of combs can be put, and it will 

 be all the better if the bees are obliged to pass down thru 

 the lower hive to find an exit. After the bees have had this 

 hive-full of combs for a few days, perhaps for a week, an- 

 other hive-full can be put between the lower story and the 

 one containing the colony. 



When the first swarm issues, or is made artificially, use 

 for it a hive full of combs that have been cleaned up by the 

 bees (a swarm is likely to object to being put on unclean 

 combs), and a few days later this swarm can have a hive 

 full of combs put under to be taken care of, and later an- 

 other. In this way, as increase goes on, you can have an 

 additional number of combs cleaned up and kept clean, and 

 if the original 6 be increast to 17, all your combs can be in 

 the care of the bees. Even supposing the original 6 be- 

 comes only 13, in which case all would be likely to be quite 

 strong — you can put not only two stories of combs under 

 the colony, but you can put a story over the colony. 



I have had 3 hive fulls of combs taken care of in this 

 way: The 3 stories were piled over the colony, and from 

 the colony was taken a frame of brood with adhering bees 

 to put in the upper story. This had the effect to oblige the 

 bees to traverse all the stories in going from the lower story 

 to the brood in the upper. A hive full of combs could also 

 be put under the colony, thus making the pile 5 stories high. 



That keen-eyed observer, E. E. Hasty, albeit he claims 

 not to see as well as he would like, hints on page 342 a fear 

 of infantile death in the S-story arrangements. Mr. Hasty, 

 no doubt the matter could be arranged to that effect, but as 

 a matter of fact my bees have taken good care of the brood 

 in these upper stories. C. C. Miller. 



Young Bees Flying-Width of 10-frame Hive- 

 Langstroth's Book. 



1. When young bees take their first flight, do they not 

 run up the side of the hive beforeflying, just like robbers do ? 



2. What is the width of a 10-frame dovetailed hive ? 



3. Is there much difference between the editions of 

 "Langstroth on the Honey-Bee " of 1862 and the present 

 one revised by the Dadants ? Ohio. 



Answers. — 1. Not generally so much " up the side of 

 the hive " as on the alighting-board. Then they fly circling 

 with their heads toward the hive, and a novice sometimes 

 thinks they are robbers. 



2. 14 and 4s inches, inside. 



3. A great difference. 



Bees Killing Each Other-Brood Died- 

 Sowing for Honey. 



Italianizing' 



I have one colony of Italians that kill each other. They 

 seem to be diseased in some way. Some of them vary in 

 size and color, some being as black as coal. They just fight 

 and kill each other at the entrance of the hive. They were 

 all right early in the spring, and were the prettiest Italian 

 bees I ever saw. Is it bee-paralysis? What ought I to do 

 with them ? I had a colony affected in that way in 1898, 

 but they are all right now. 



2. I have a young swarm that (most of) the brood died 

 about the time it was two-thirds grown, and the bees would 

 carry it out. It looks very much as if it had starved. 

 It is'not ropy, and looks very white except on its abdomen, 

 which looks dark. I took it away from the bees and gave 

 them some more combs. What is the matter ? What is the 

 remedy ? 



3. I have 22 colonies of bees, the most of them blacks, 

 and I want to Italianize them. Can I divide the Italians 

 into 2-frame nuclei and rear queens that will be all right ? 

 If so, when will be the best time ? Any information about 

 queen-rearing will be appreciated. I have tried dequeening 

 a colony and supplanting them with eggs to rear a queen, 

 but it takes some time and does not give a well-mated queen 

 every time ; besides, the whole colony loses too much time. 

 I think that by rearing several queens in small hives I can 

 test them before I introduce them. 



4. Will buckwheat do well to sow after wheat ? We 

 harvest about June 1st. 



5. Will sweet clover do well this far South ? Ga. 



Answers.— 1. Very likely it is bee-paralysis, and you 

 can only hope it will disappear as it did before. Many rem- 

 edies have been given, but so far nothing that seems 

 reliable. 



2. It looks like starving, and, if so, all is no doubt well 

 by this time. Still, so much trouble is coming lately from 

 new diseases that one cannot but feel uneasy, and if the 

 trouble continues it might be well to consult Dr. Howard or 

 Mr. McEvoy, who are experts in such matters. 



You cannot rear good queens without their costing 

 something. You can divide a colony into a number of small 



