Feb. 2, 19t5. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



89 



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Doctor ZTliUcr's 

 Question = Sox 



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Send Questions either to the office ot the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, III. 



Bee-House Bees Exercising In Winter. 



Is it ijest to open the doors of the bee-house on Bne days for the 

 bees to exercise? It is perfectly dark when the door is closed. 



Michigan. 



Answer. — It the construction is such that the bees will easily find 

 their way back to their hives, they may be allowed to fly; otherwise 

 not. 



When to Clip Queens' WInss. 



When,is the proper time to clip queens' wings? Vermont. 



Answer. — Your desire for a speedy answer suggests that you may 

 be thinking of clipping in winter. Don't do it. Neither should you 

 do it on the day bees take their first flight in the spring. But any 

 time after that before swarming-time, on a day when bees are flying 

 and gathering from flowers. 



Moving Bees a Short Distance. 



I have 6 colonies of bees, and want to move them this winter 

 about 300 yards, over in a young orchard. Can they be moved with- 

 out the bees leaving the hives next spring when they begin to fly? 

 Will they go back to the old place where they were last year, or will 

 they take to their new places where I intend to put them this winter? 

 I would not want to lose the bees by moving them. Oregon. 



Answer. — Move them at a time when they have had no flight for 

 a long time and there will be no trouble, especially if the old spot is 

 changed as much as possible in appearance. 



A Method of Preventing Increase. 



I have kept bees on the farm for 14 years. I aim to keep down 

 swarming as far as possible, by hiving the prime swarms on old 

 stands. I hate 50 colonies now. and don't want any more increase. 

 What will probably be the result if I hive prime swarms on the old 

 stand, and break up the old colonies, and about eight days later unite 

 it with the prime swarm? Or can you suggest a better plan? 



Subscriber. 



Answer. — Tour plan may work all right if you don't mind the 

 loss of brood. Here's a plan that would not result in loss of brood, if 

 you don't mind the trouble: When a prime swarm issues kill or re- 

 move the queen, returning the swarm, and a week later destroy all 

 queen-cells but one. Better still, put your ear against the hive each 

 evening, beginning a week after swarming, and when you hear piping 

 destroy all cells the next morning. 



Hives, Sections, Supers, Etc. 



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I would like to have a catalog of bee-supplies describing the 

 hives, sections and frames that you use, and where they can be had. 

 with prices. Which is the best arrangement for honey with the least 

 trouble and manipulation, to keep bees with outdoor wintering, where 

 the temperature goes as low as 30 degrees below zero! I have been 

 thinking of making box-hives of 2-inch lumber, 3J.2 feet deep, 12 or 14 

 inches inside measurement; fit them up with frames, with supers lo 

 suit, and interchangeable with 2-pound sections. 



West Virginia. 



Answer. — Taking the last part of your letter first, I should 

 advise against you making more than one or two hives, such as you 

 describe, till you're sure you'll like them. I doubt whether you will. 

 Two-inch lumber will be expensive and unwieldy without correspond- 

 ing advantage. Very likely you think the heavier lumber will be 

 warmer for winter ; but you can have the extra warmth more easily 

 with some kind of outside packing, if it's nothing more than corn- 

 stalks piled around, and you will find the thinner walls better for sum- 

 mer. If the cold is so continuous that there Is seldom any chance for 

 the bees to fly in winter, it would be worth your while to try at least a 

 colony or two in the cellar, Tou see it isn't so, much the severity of 

 the cold as its continuousness that is to be considered. If the teiii 

 perature goes down to 30° below zero every two weeks, and if the 

 bees have a chance to fly every two or three weeks, they'll winter oiii 

 doors all right. If it never goes below zero, but keeps somewhere in 

 that neighborhood without a chance to fly for five months, then they 

 are better in the cellar. 



I'm sorry to say that I don't know of a catalog that has every- 



thing in it just as I use it, but any catalog will contain what I use with 

 just two changes that you can have made to order. I dislike having 

 anything but regular goods, but when I think any one thing out of 

 the regular order is decidedly better Jor me than regular goods, I feel 

 obliged to make the change. One of the things is a plain cleat on 

 each end of the hive I'.x".., and as long as the full width of the hive. 

 It is away ahead of short cleats or hand-holes for handling the hives, 

 and it strengthens the weakest place in the hive — the thin part left by 

 the rabbet. The other is the Miller frame, which you can have made 

 to order. You'll get nearly the same thing it you order the regular 

 staple-spaced frames, I feel very confident you'll like the full cleats, 

 but you may not like the Miller frame as well as I. It makes as little 

 trouble with bee-glue as any self-spacing frame I know of. 



As before said, by ordering specially these two changes you can 

 get from any catalog the things I use, which are: The 8-frame dove- 

 tailed hive (unless you pay very close attention to your bees the 10- 

 trame may be better for you, especially it you winter them outdoors), 

 the T super, the common 434x1% section, with plain wooden separa- 

 tors. Yes, there is one other thing, too, that is different from the 

 catalogs, but it is not so important in my estimation as the other 

 things, and that's the bottom-board. It is just the plainest kind of an 

 affair, a box open at the front end and two inches deep. You will 

 find them in the catalogs as much as Ji-inch deep, but for winter two 

 full inches is none too deep. In summer the extra depth may be 

 filled up with a piece of board, or in any other way. 



It just occurs to me that if you get a regular 10-frame hive it will 

 be without a dummy. I don't believe I could stand that; for the 

 dummy is of the greatest importance in getting out the first frame; so 

 in that case I should probably use 9 frames and a dummy thick 

 enough, or, still better, two thin ones. 



I thank you for your kind words. 



"Shook" Swarms and Out-Aplarles. 



1. I want to start an out-apiary ot about 12 colonies next spring 

 for the production of comb honey. I would like to practice the 

 shook-swarm method. What would be best to shake the bees on, 

 empty combs, starters, or full sheets of foundation? 



2. When would it be advisable to practice the shook-swarm 

 method, when they have the frames mostly full ot brood, or would 

 they have to have queen-cells started, as I can not visit the out-apiary 

 but once in a week? 



3. Would I have to put a frame of brood in the empty hive with 

 the shook swarm ? 



4. I practiced the shook-swarm method a little last summer, but 

 some of them would swarm out again the next day. What was the 

 cause of that? 



5. Now, it I want to produce extracted honey would it be neces- 

 sary to have a queen-excluder above the first story, or let the queen 

 have full access to the hive? Wisconsin. 



Answers. — 1. Empty combs are probably best, and full sheets of 

 foundation next. 



2. Wait till queen-cells are started, at least the earlier ones. As 

 the season advances you can shake without waiting for queen-cells, 

 provided you are sure you want them all shaken. 



3. Not sure. Perhaps it would be well to give one frame ot brood 

 to be taken away at next visit. 



4. 1 don't know. Possibly it was hot in the empty hive, and they 

 swarmed out just as a natural swarm often does under the same cir- 

 cumstances, A frame ot brood may hold them, 



5. You can do either, depending upon circumstances. It all 

 stories have combs just alike, use an excluder; it combs in the upper 

 story are widely spaced and well built out, an excluder may not be 

 neceesary. It is said the queen will not trouble so much if extracting 



frames are shallow. 



< I > ■ 



What Is Honey?— Honey Inspectors. 



Dr. Miller, you, like Solomon of old, are called on to solve all 

 hard and knotty questions. In these days ot adulteration and pure- 

 food laws, a farmer with an apiary is likely to be " jerked " for selling 

 his own production. His milk, cider-vinegar, and buckwheat flour 

 must be inspected. And now the big honey-producers are forcing a 

 honey-inspector, and I would like to know what honey is, and all that 

 is honey. 



Long ago, before sweets were manufactured, honey was given to 

 man ; all the liquid, viscid sweets that the bees gathered and stored in 

 waxen cells and capped over was honey, pure and unadulterated 

 honey, and was good food for man. We know there are as many 

 kindsot honey as there are sources from which it is gathered. 



Please explain honey so that we need not fear to feed our bees and 

 get "jerked " for it, Illinois. 



Answer,— My good friend, if Solomon didn't know any more 

 about things in general than I do about bees, he was something of a 

 slouch in wisdom, after all. Certainly, I don't feel competent to the 

 task of saying in a few words just what honey is. It will hardly do 

 to say it's any liquid substance that bees store in cells, for it ought 

 not to include sugar syrup. No more will it do to say that nothing is 

 honey except that made from nectar gathered from the flowers by the 

 bees, for with that restricted definition I wouldn't dare to guarantee 

 as pure a single pound ot any honey I might produce. Some kind of 

 a definition should be framed that would include anything sweet 

 stored by the bees without being fed by man. possibly ; and possibly 

 that isn't right. Sealed proposals for a satisfactory definition may be 

 sent postpaid to this otUce ! 



