Nov. 15, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



729 



a fftiaranti ^ to suit does not care to do much to improve the 

 general stocK, sounds rather strange. And when a hint is 

 given that tliere is something immoral in the transaction, 

 it sounds still more strange. A queen may be sent out as a 

 tested queen, but the breeder can atTord to send her for less 

 money if he sends her out before the testing. And so it 

 happens that an untested queen is sold for less usually than 

 a tested one. A queen may be sent out as warranted, but 

 the breeder can atford to send for a less price without war- 

 ranting. On the whole, very much the larger part of 

 queens sent out by breeders are untested, and the proba- 

 bility is that in consequence of the larger number and 

 lower price untested queens have done more than tested 

 queens for the improvement of stock in general. But the 

 man who gets a queen with the distinct understanding that 

 she is untested ought not to expect the advantages of a 

 tested or even a warranted queen without paying for them, 

 and if he does, the immorality lies on his side. 



McHenry Co., 111. 



Questions and Answers. | 



CONDUCTED BY 



Die, O. O. MILLER, Mareng-o, 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 



Foul-Broody Hives and Frames. 



When foul brood gets to its worse stage can hives and 

 frames be saved successfully by boiling ? Utah. 



Answer. — Wm. McEvoy says, save the hives, and he's 

 good authority. But he does not advise saving the frames. 



Feeding During the Winter Months. 



What do you think is the best and cheapest food to feed 

 bees during the winter months ? Or will it pay to feed 

 small colonies that swarmed the past summer, that have 

 very little honey now (Oct. 28) ? My bees are in good hives 

 and have expensive (?) queens — that is, the old colonies 

 have. Bees in this section stored very little honey, so we 

 will have to feed, and I have been askt to write for advice. 



Kansas. 



Answer. — As combs of sealed honey seem to be out of 

 the question in your case, the next best thing is some prep- 

 aration of granulated sugar. Don't think of using any 

 cheaper kind. It is not so good for the bees, and as the 

 granulated is more concentrated, it is considered as cheap 

 as coarser sugar. The very best is none too good for winter 

 stores, altho after bees are flying in the spring they may 

 safely be fed almost anything that is sweet. Unless there 

 should be a very warm spell of weather, it is now rather 

 late to feed syrup, and your safe plan will be to feed the 

 sugar in the form of candy as directed in your text-book. 



Bees Affected with Paralysis. 



I have a colony of bees that seems to be badly afflicted 

 with paralysis. The queen is one I reared myself last sum- 

 mer. When I lookt last there were a number of dead bees 

 on the bottoraboard, and some in the combs as well as num- 

 bers outside. With regard to feed and other circumstances, 

 that colony is the same as the others, so I should think the 

 cause is owing to some weakness in the queen. She was 

 not bred from the queen whose colony was troubled with 

 that disease in the spring, but may have been fertilized by 

 a drone from it. 



1. Would it be safe to use the combs, etc., for other col- 

 onies if, as seems likely, it dies out during the winter ? Or 

 if it does not, would it be advisable to unite it with another ? 



2. In directions for uniting and finding queens, I see it 

 advised to shake oif the bees on the entrance-board. Would 

 it not injure a queen if she were to be shaken off onto a 

 board ? 



3. This has been a poor season for honey, and there 

 was little coming in after July, in consequence of which I 



suppose some of my colonies have not been breeding much 

 since then. Towards the end of August I noticed several 

 without brood of any kind, and in some I have not seen any 

 since: in others only a small patch, and only in some that 

 were requeened in August was their brood on 3 or 4 frames. 

 The queens are there all right. Will those colonies be very 

 weak in the spring ? Some had honey enough and some I 

 had to feed. If I had fed them slowly would it have been 

 better? 



4. I fed syrup two parts by measure of water to three of 

 sugar. Will that candy, or should I have mixt tartaric acid 

 with it ? British Columbia. 



Answers. — 1. It will probably be safe to use the combs. 

 If the bees seem very badly affected, it might be well to 

 destroy the colony. If only weak, it may be united with 

 another. 



2. Such a tumble can certainly do her no good, but it is 

 not at all certain that it does her any serious harm, for thou- 

 sands of queens have probably been thus treated with no 

 report of harm from it. 



3. Bees seem to grow old in proportion to the amount of 

 work they do. A bee hatcht in August which works hard 

 till late in the season can not be expected to stand a severe 

 winter, but if there has been no chance for work since it 

 came into existence, it is practically a young bee and all 

 right for winter. Continued slow feeding after the harvest 

 stopt would have secured later bees. 



4. Probably there will be no candying, altho if the feed- 

 ing was done very rapidly there is a possibility of it. Tar- 

 taric acid would be a preventive, but it would be better to 

 omit the acid and feed early equal parts of sugar and water. 



ttueen Slow in Laying Oil-Cloth Covering. 



1. August 4th I divided a colony, and the queenless di- 

 vision built 10 nice queen-cells, but as they were quite weak 

 I gave them a frame of eggs and brood Aug. 11th ; then 

 they destroyed all the queen-cells and built some new ones, 

 but as I never found any queen I gave them another frame 

 of eggs Sept. 7th, and about Sept. 20th I opened the hive 

 and found one cell was hatcht and the others were destroyed. 

 There were plenty of drones in the hive, but the queen 

 never started to lay. Oct. 10th I killed the queen and united 

 the bees with another weak colony. What was the matter ? 



2. Are bokhara clover and sweet clover the same ? 



3. What kind of a cushion over the bees would you ad- 

 vise for outdoor wintering ? Bee-keepers around here use 

 oil-cloth. Is that preferable ? Minnesota. 



Answers. — 1. It is nothing strange that a queen hatcht 

 late in September should be slow about laying, especially in 

 a weak nucleus. Sometimes such a queen will not lay till 

 the following spring. But a queen itarted in a nucleus late 

 in the season is not likely to be of great value. 



2. Yes. 



3. The trouble with oil-cloth is that the moisture will 

 condense on it and fall in drops on the bees. The more 

 packing over the oil-cloth the less the danger. But it is 

 better to have burlap or some other material that will allow 

 the moisture to pass thru. 



Glucose to Prevent Granulation, Etc. 



1. Would it be all right to mix glucose with sugar syrup 

 to prevent the sugar from crystallizing in the combs ? 



2. Are the Adel bees gentle ? 



3. Would the tulip tree do well in this part of Kansas ? 



L. H. 

 Answers. — 1. A few years ago glucose was given a 

 pretty thoro trial, and it was decided that no glucose should 

 be brought any where near bees. 



2. I think they are. 



3. It might, but you can onlj' tell by actual trial. 



Belgian Hare Breeding is the title of a pamphlet just 

 publisht, containing 10 chapters on " Breeding the Belgian 

 Hare." Price, 25 cents, postpaid. It covers the subjects of 

 Breeding, Feeding, Houses and Hutches, Diseases, Methods 

 of Serving for the Table, etc. It is a practical and helpful 

 treatise for the amateur breeder. (See Mr. Schmidt's article 

 on page 680.) For sale at the office of the American Bee 

 Journal. For $1.10 we will send the Bee Journal for a year 

 and the 32-page pamphlet on " Belgian Hare Breeding." 



