794 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Dec. 13, 1900. 



and a draft of cool air is hurtful. Good food is quite as 

 important as good air. But if the cellar is not right, they 

 may have good food when put in and very poor food when 

 taken out. The honey may absorb moisture and sour in the 

 hive. I leave the bottom-boards in the yard all winter, and 

 have better success than when I leave them on the hives. 

 If bottom-boards were nailed on, I would pry them off, or 

 perhaps bore a hole in the front end of the hive for better 

 ventilation. 



I put 99 colonies in the cellar to-day, and 175 colonies 

 last week. They are a little lighter in stores than usual, 

 but I think they will winter. 



Juneau Co., Wis., Nov. 22. 



Questions and Answers. | 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. O. O. MII.LER, Afareng-o, UU 



[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 m^ail. — Editor.1 



Combs that Seem to Have the " Blues." 



What is the matter with my bees ? All seem to be doing 

 well, but some have combs that have a bluish-white color, 

 and have a strange smell. I don't think it is foul brood, as 

 they did this same thing last year, in the fall, but came out 

 all right in the spring. Ohio. 



Answer. — I have seen what I suppose is the same thing 

 many a time, and don't know why it is. It looks a little 

 like a kind of mold, but no harm seems to come from it. 



Laying More than One Egg in a Cell. 



There is one clause in Dr. Corya's letter that you seem 

 to have overlookt — " lay two or more eggs in a cell " — which 

 I think shows very plainly that the fault is in himself in- 

 stead of the queens. I have never known a queen to lay 

 more than one egg in a cell unless she was crowded. Those 

 queens are, I have no doubt, prolific, producing the eggs, 

 and must lay them somewhere, and all the cells being oc- 

 cupied she puts in another egg instead of dropping it, as 

 queens often do. I think you have sometimes exprest the 

 same thing. 



I have never reared a queen for sale, but have bought 

 quite a number, mostly untested, but have never felt like 

 censuring the breeder. Wyoming. 



Answer. — You are right that a queen will lay only one 

 egg in a cell so long as she has room, but bees are so much 

 inclined to make exceptions to all rules that I would not like 

 to crowd too hard upon that point. 



Bees Dying in a Colony Plain Sections to Hold a Pound. 



1. My bees are packt on the summer stands, and when 

 I examine them I find many more dead bees in front of the 

 hive containing my "premium queen " than any other, and 

 by looking in at the entrance I see that the bottom is cov- 

 ered. I fed this colony quite late with sugar syrup made as 

 follows : 



I tied a clean white cloth over the end of a common tin 

 funnel and put it in a glass fruit-jar, then filled the funnel 

 full of the best granulated sugar, and poured on cold water 

 till it stood half an inch deep over the sugar. I let it perco- 

 late thru, and fed it as it came thru. It seemed very nice 

 and thick. Could this have anything to do with their dying 

 ofl:' so ? 



2. What width of plain sections do I want to use with 

 fence-separators, to insure their holding a full pound 

 <4Xx4,'4 sections) ? 



3. If I fold the sections and put in the foundation dur- 

 ing the winter, and pack them away in boxes, will the bees 

 work it as freely and easily next summer as they would if 

 put in just before placing on the hive ? Iow.\. 



Answers. — 1. Late feeding of syrup might be enough 



to account for the trouble. August and September are the 

 best months to make sure bees have enough for winter, if 

 sugar and water is to be the feed. 



2. You may as well give up first as last the idea that 

 you can settle on any size of section that will always give 

 just a pound in weight. If you should find a size that would 

 make the average weight of your sections exactly a pound 

 this j'ear, there might be a difference of an ounce or two 

 next year. The season has a good deal to do with it as well 

 as the management. I have just figured up the weight of 

 the ordinary' 4'+ section, taken in two different years at 

 random. In one year the average weight was 14.45 oz., in 

 the other 15.29 oz. It may be that some years would show 

 a weight lighter than either, and some years heavier than 

 either. 



But some approximation can be made. If the uprights 

 of the fences be S-32 of an inch thick, then a plain section 

 should be about 5-16 of an inch narrower than a plain sec- 

 tion of the same length and height to be of the same weight. 

 According to that, a season and management that would 

 make a bee-way section l^s wide weigh 15 ounces, would 

 need a plain section about 1 19-32 wide to weigh a pound. 



3. Some think there is a decided difference, but I have 

 always believed the di&'erence so little that the foundation 

 is always put in in the winter, and then the supers are filled 

 ready to put on the hive. Sometimes they stand 2 or 3 years 

 before the bees get them, and it seems to work all right. 



Bees Balling Queens. 



In your answer to my question about bees balling their 

 queens, you seem to think the trouble has been on account 

 of my disturbing the ball, or that they were superseding, 

 that there is nothing unusual with the bees. If you will 

 carefully read my statement of the cause you will see that 

 your supposition is incorrect. Whenever I find a ball I cage 

 the queen, and liberate her after a few days. You did not 

 notice that I said that when two swarms settle together, or 

 I unite two colonies, they kill both queens, or I afterwards 

 find them queenless. If I changed places with two hives, 

 or put a few strange bees into a hive, the queens are very 

 sure to disappear. Wyoming. 



Answer. — This is only another illustration of the many 

 cases in which I imagine I know something, when I really 

 don't know. There is certainly something exceptional 

 about such fatalitj' with queens, and I'd give a cooky to be 

 with you a few days to see if we could ferret out the mys- 

 tery. Possibly, however, I couldn't tell a thing about it if I 



were there. 



* . » 



What Ailed the Bees? 



I had 32 colonies wintered on the summer stands come 

 thru last winter all right, and were in splendid shape for 

 business. When fruit-bloom opened a number of colonies 

 apparently were getting ready to swarm, when all at once 

 there appeared to be not half so many bees as there were a 

 few days before. I learned since that a neighbor less than 

 a half mile from my bees sprayed his 7-acre orchard when 

 in full bloom. I have lost 11 colonies the past season. They 

 did not die right away, but lingered along thruout the sea- 

 son, two giving up as late as October. Almost all have 

 queens, but little brood in the comb, just here and there 

 one ; the queen is stupid, doesn't care to get out of the way. 

 I examined carefully one colony that was affected. The 

 second time I opened the hive I found brood, but it was scat- 

 tering. In about 3 weeks I examined the same comb again, 

 and found the brood on both sides about 6 inches, in all 

 stages of growth. If poisoned, has the colony gotten over 

 it ? Would the poison gathered at fruit-bloom affect the 

 queens all summer ? 



I thought at first there might be foul brood among my 

 bees, or some other disease, but there is nothing to indi- 

 cate foul brood from the descriptions I have read. 



Illinois. 



Answer. — I confess I don't know enough to answer, 

 and will be glad if any one will help us out. Without hav- 

 ing any positive knowledge of the matter, I have always 

 supposed that bees poisoned in fruit-bloom would soon get 

 over its effects ; but I may be all wrong in that, and it may 

 be that the queen may be permanently injured. The col- 

 ony that showed increast amount of brood at the last ex- 

 amination has at least the appearance of recovery. 



