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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug. 30 lyuo 



nearly or quite as great an extent as. Prof. Cook tells us in 

 his article on page 482, enters into the composition of fruits 

 and vegetables. Where did this water come from ? Some 

 from the honey in their food, some from the pollen which 

 entered into the chyle formed, but mostly from the " rill " 

 or watering-place which the bees visited "to secure the nec- 

 essary water for the chyle out of which the larval bee grew 

 from the tiniest speck scarcely discernible to the naked eve, 

 until each comb full weighed nearly or quite four pounds. 

 90 percent of which was water. 



With six combs of brood to the hive we have an approxi- 

 mate weight equal to about 20 pounds, or 2>^ gallons of 

 water ; and yet Prof. Cook would have us believe, " I doubt 

 then if it is correct to say that bees need water to aid in 

 brood-rearing." Oh, Professor I 



Onondaga, Co., N. Y. 



^ Questions and Answers. | 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. O. MILLER, AJareng-o, HI, 



(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 



Colonies Building Drone-Comb. 



I have two colonies with queens hatcht last spring. For 

 awhile they built nice worker-comb and I supposed they 

 would do so all summer, but since they became populous 

 they have been determined to build drone-comb. Will it do 

 to cut out the drone-comb, and after pinching out thelarv:t, 

 put the new drone-comb into sections for the bees to fill 

 with honey? Bkginnek. 



Answer. — Yes, but it will be a tedious job to pick out 

 the larva; one by one. Sprinkle fine salt on them, and the 

 bees will clean them out, but you must be sure to miss none. 

 If left out of the hive a few days, the bees will clean them 

 out when given to them. But it will do little good to cut 

 drone-comb out of the brood-combs, unless you fill in the 

 places with patches of worker-comb or foundation, for if 

 left to themselves the bees will promptly fill up again with 

 drone-comb. 



Clovers for Tennessee. 



1. I want to sow some kind of clover this fall that will 

 bloom nest summer for my bees, and for hay. Will either 

 one of the sweet variety bloom next summer, if sown this 

 fall or next spring ? 



2. Will alsike or alfalfa clover do as the above ? 



I mean for Tennessee, as I want to buy the right kind. 



3. Will any of the above-named clovers be a torment to 

 the farm, as it has been said of the sweet variety ? 



Tennessee. 

 Answers. — 1. Neither white nor yellow sweet clover 

 will bloom next summer if the seed is sown next spring, 

 but either will bloom next summer if sown so as to start 

 growth this fall. 



2. Alfalfa will not bloom the first year, but alsike will. 



3. Neither one of them is troublesome on cultivated 

 ground, but sweet clover is persistent on the roadside. It 

 is a mistake to think that sweet clover is hard to kill out on 

 cultivated ground. It grows one year and blooms the next, 

 and then dies out root and branch the second winter. It 

 can be plowed under so as to prevent going to seed, and 

 that's the end of it. 



Holy Land Bees Filling the Brood-Nest, and Avoiding 

 the Super. 



1. All things equal in the spring, and allowing each 

 colony to swarm once, which will get the more surplus comb 

 honey, a colony of 3-banGed Italians, or Holy Land bees ? 

 Are Holy Land bee> very savage ? 



2. Would a cross between 3-banded and golden Italians 

 be an improvement ? I have heard that crosses usually are 

 better, 



3. A colony declines to go into the super, but fills the 



brood-nest with honej' ; I have furnisht a young queen, and 

 she has scarcely any room to lay ; I have no extractor, and 

 I don't know what to do. Minnesot.\. 



Answer. — 1. Taking both kinds as the average, it 

 might be safest to risk the Italians. Root's A B C of Bee- 

 Culture says: " The Holy Lands seem quiet enough, and 

 the queens are enormously prolific ; but for some reason or 

 other, at the present writing quite a number of the friends 

 are getting rid of them, and going back to the Italians 

 again, as more gentle." 



2. A first cross is likely to show increast vigor; but 

 without care in selection the successors of that first cross 

 are likely to deteriorate. 



3. About the easiest thing to do is to get an extractor, 

 and you may find this a profitable investment if you have 

 several colonies. However, it may be better to get the bees 

 to empty the combs than to empty them yourself. Uncap 

 the honey in the parts of the combs that you think ought to 

 be occupied with brood. Instead of uncapping with a sharp 

 knife, it may be still better to scratch the surface with a 

 three-tined fork. The tines of an ordinary table-fork are 

 too far apart for best work. Tie them together with fine 

 wire so that the points shall be about 3-16 of an inch apart. 

 Of course the wire must not be too close to the ends of the 

 points, say half an inch, or more, distant. Still another 

 waj' is to take a common wire hair-brush and strike repeat- 

 edl3' upon the cappings hard enough to pierce them. The 

 bees will clean the honey out, giving the queen room to lay, 

 and this also tends to have the emptied honey stored in the 

 sections. You can aid the matter by giving a bait-section 

 in the super, a section that is partly or wholly drawn out : 

 a good way being to take a half-filled section from a colony 

 storing well in the super, taking bees and all. 



Tulip or Whitewood— Uniting Weak Colonies. 



1. Will the tulip or whitewood tree live and thrive in 

 northwestern Iowa ? 



2. I had a colony of bees in a home-made hive which in 

 the spring showed signs of having had the bee diarrhea, 

 and I of course had to feed them, as they did not have any 

 honey left in the combs. They did fairly well for awhile, 

 but were attackt by the bee-moth and became so bad that I 

 united it with a weak after-swarm. Both swarms had 

 queens. The swarms united quite peaceably. Is there 

 danger of both queens getting killed ? or do you think that 

 I ought to have killed one queen ? Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. Somewhat doubtful. I made a little at- 

 tempt at it without success, but possibly you might do 

 better. 



2. There is not much danger that both queens were 

 killed. Indeed, it is a common practice to unite two colo- 

 nies without paying any attention to the queens, unless 

 there is a choice of queens, when the poorer is killed. 



Please don't blame the bee-moth unjustly. The colony 

 did not fail because the moth attackt them, but the moth 

 attackt the colony because the bees had reacht the point of 

 failure. If you want to bid defiance to the moth, keep all 

 colonies strong. Even a rather weak colony will keep the 

 moth at bay if the bees are Italian or partly Italian. 



Colonies Seemingly Queenless. 



I am a beginner in bee-culture, and in looking thru m_v 

 14 colonies of bees I found two colonies seemingly queen- 

 less. There were no eggs or brood in any stage. I gave 

 them each a frame from a strong colony containing eggs 

 and brood in all stages, and two days later I found no 

 queen-cells. What shall I do ? Oregon. 



Answer. — The great probability is that a virgin queen 

 was present, and most likely before this answer appears she 

 will be laying all right. You did exactly the right thing. 

 Of course there is a possibility that the virgin queen may 

 have been lost later, and a week after giving the first frame 

 of brood it may be well to give another, if you do not find 

 the queen yet laying. 



There is a possibility that the bees were hopelessly 

 queenless, and slow about starting (|ueen-cells, and that al- 

 tho no queen-cells were started within two days, they might 

 be started later. If the bees have not been queenless so 

 long as to be old and reduced in strength, a continued giv- 

 ing of brood, especially young brood, will result succes.'-- 

 fully. 



