762 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Nov. 29, 1900. 



now keeps only about 80 in two apiaries, owing to his ill- 

 health, and devotes most of his time to his journal, with the 

 help of his kind wife, who has bent her energies to the task 

 out of devotion to her husband. 



The curiosities of this little park are not confined to 

 bee-plants, for I saw there many sorts of exotic plants, or 

 trees, from the cedar of Lebanon to the bamboo of our 

 southern countries, which seems to thrive in the climate of 

 Lake Geneva. As one instance of Mr. Bertrand's love of 

 observation, I will say that he showed me a record of his 

 remarks on the growth of the latter, which we all know is 

 very rapid, and if I remember righth', the fastest growth in 

 warm weather was as much as an inch in the spa".e of an 

 hour. On the other hand, I saw an American tree — a blue 

 ash, I believe — that seemed like a homesick exile, stunted 

 and suffering as if in want of nutrition. 



Two days after our arrival we took an excursion on the 

 lake, to visit the home and the apiary„of a bee-keeper who 

 had formerly been in the employ of our host as landscape 

 gardener, but who had saved enough to be independent, and 

 was keeping bees and growing grapes on a very pretty lit- 

 tle farm on the lake shore. We were received, as in every 

 other place that we visited, with the utmost cordiality, but 

 with a little of the excess of hospitality so common 

 among the working classes and the peasants of Europe. 

 You must eat, you must drink, and it serves nothing to say 

 that you have just had your dinner, that you are neither 

 hung-ry nor thirsty, for you will be given no peace — in fact, 

 you will almost offend those naive people if you do not ac- 

 cept what thej' consider themselves in duty bound to offer 

 you. It is hospitality carried to extremes. 



\ Questions and Answers. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DU. C. a. MU^I.HK. A/areng-o, 111. 



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



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



Doctor to send answers by mail. — Editor.! 



Cellars for Wintering Bees. 



In answer to Daniel Whitmer's question, on page 711, I 



may say that one summer I was at Adam Grimm's place, 



and he sho%ved me a cellar that he had just built, specially 



intended for bees, having a cement floor. The next time I 



was there he told me it was not a success, and he thought 



the cement floor was objectionable. The cellar under my 



own house was divided into 3 rooms, one of them intended 



for bees, having a cement floor. It did not seem to work 



satisfactorily, and for years the bees have been cellared in 



the rooms with clay floor. Mr. Whitmer wants the cement 



floor for convenience in sweeping up dead bees. He might 



take Mr. Doolittle's plan and put half an inch of sawdust 



on the cellar bottom, which would make it easier to sweep 



up the bees. 



•-•-* 



Caging the Queen to Keep Down Increase. 



To keep down increase I would like to try the plan of 

 caging the queen. I use the 10-frame Simplicity-Root hive. 



1. What style and most convenient cage should be used ? 



2. In what part of hive (or brood-chamber) and in what 

 manner, should the caged queen be placed ? 



3. I presume tlie swarm is returned, and queen-cells cut 

 out then ; and also cut out again 5 days afterward ; and 

 finally, in S more days, again destroyed and the queen re- 

 least ? 



4. In case swarming has been delayed, and a young 

 queen should have emerged, when the swarm issued, should 

 said young queen be destroyed, or taken away '! 



Ukkgon. 

 Answkks. — 1. When I followed the plan of management 

 I learned from Mr. Doolittlc, I used a very simple little cage 

 of my own devising, which cost less than a cent for ma- 

 terial and was easily made. Take a pine block Sxlx'j inch, 

 and wrap around it a piece of wire-cloth 4 inches square. 

 The wire-cloth is allowed to project at one end of the block 

 a half inch. The four sides of this projecting end are bent 

 down upon the end of the stick and hammered down tight 



in place. A piece of fine wire about 10 inches long is wrapt 

 around the wire-cloth, about an inch from the open end, 

 which will be about the middle of the stick, and the ends of 

 the wire twisted together. Then pull out the block, trim 

 off the corners of the end a little so that it will easily enter 

 the cage, slide the stick in and out of the cage a number of 

 times so that it will work easily, and the thing is complete. 

 When not in use the block is pusht clear in, so as to pre- 

 serve the shape of the cage. Such cages can be carried in . 

 the pocket without danger of being injured. 



2. The best place is between two combs in the brood- 

 nest. It is tnore convenient, however, for the first S days, 

 to put the caged queen in at the entrance, far enough in so 

 there will be no danger of the bees deserting her if a cool 

 night should come. 



3. No, no attention was paid to queen-cells till 5 days 

 ensued, then they were cut out, and 5 days later, (10 days 

 after the issuing of the swarm) the cells were again cut out 

 and the queen liberated. 



4. I never had a case of the kind. Unless the old queen 



were especially valued it might be better to leave the young 



queen. 



♦-•-» 



Feeding Bees in Winter. 



When I come to put my bees into the cellar I find, by 

 weighing them, some are too light to winter. I have 80 col- 

 onies, and about 20 will need feeding. How can I best feed 

 them in the cellar? The light ones are all on top, so I can 

 get at them easily. I have a few frames of honey, also 

 some frames of hard candy that I have prepared. Can I 

 give them these, or would I better give sugar syrup ? How 

 would I better feed them, and when ? Now, or wait till 

 toward spring ? I would prefer doing it now if it is just as 

 well. Wisconsin. 



Answer. — Don't feed syrup in winter. Use the combs 

 of honey and the candy. It is just as well if not better to 

 feed right away. Very quietly remove the outside comb or 

 combs at one side, so that you can put the frame of honey 

 or candy right next to the bees. The bees will do the rest. 

 Of course you will not use any smoke. If your work is care- 

 fully done you will have no trouble. 



When to Put Bees Into the Cellar. 



Is this a good time to put bees into the cellar? They 

 had a good flight Nov. S. Northekn Illinois. 



Answer. — I don't know, and I'd give a good deal to find 

 the man that does know. My bees had a flight the same 

 time as yours, and the right thing was to put them into the 

 cellar Nov. 6, if Nov. 5 is to be the last day they can fly. If, 

 however, they have a chance to fly again within the next 6 

 weeks, they're better off to stay out till then. The trouble 

 is that no one can be certain about it. I think mine will 

 stay out till late in November if they do not have a chance 

 to fly before then, and if they are put in then without a 

 chance to fly, I shall wish very much that they had been 

 put in early in the month. But it is a very unusual thing 

 that bees do not have a chance to fly later than Nov. 5, only 

 happening once, I think, in a great many years. 



Getting Extra-Large Colonies hy Artificial Heat. 



Is it practicable or desirable in forming extra-large col- 

 onies, to use artificial heat on the outside of the bottom and 

 back of the brood-chamber (those parts of the brood-cham- 

 ber being a single board, the rest being double and filled) ? 

 If so, within what limits, it being understood that the heat 

 is to be uniform ? Calii-ornia. 



Answer. — I doubt the advisability of anything of the 

 kind. At one time Mr. A. I. Root was quite enthusias- 

 tic about advancing- a colony in spring by means of artifi- 

 cial heat, and he made a sort of hotbed about it. If I re- 

 member correctly, the colony petered out — at any rate, the 

 proceeding was a damage to the colony. 



Please send us Names of Bee-Keepers who do not now 



get the American Bee Journal, and we will send them sam- 

 ple copies. Then you can very likely afterward get their 

 subscriptions, for which work we offer valuable premiums 

 in nearly every number of this journal. You can aid much 

 by sending in the names and addresses when writing us on 

 other matters. 



