144 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 23, 1905. 



then it may pay you to feed half a pound of diluted honey 

 every other evening, or to change end for end the outside 

 comb on each side. 



2. Itis not so good as solid combs of sealed honey. 



3. It's like the rule for the proportion of oats and saw- 

 dust for good horse-feed— the less savifdust the better. In 

 many cases, however, sugar syrup must be fed when honey 

 enough is not to be had, and then one-fifth honey is better 

 than pure sugar. Sugar alone does better for a winter than 

 for a spring feed. 



4. I have fed many a colony in that way, and it worked 

 well, only for some reason that I did not understand quite 

 a few dead bees were carried out next morning. 



5. I'm not a lawyer, but I should think all that would 

 be necessary would be a writing saying that such a piece of 

 ground was to be leased for such a time for such a considera- 

 tion. 



6. Not unless it was so specifically agreed, in which case 

 the consideration should be correspondingly greater. 



Best Foundation to Use. 



What kind of foundation is better to use for brood, light 

 or medium? Also what kind is better in supers for ex- 

 tractmg? Which is the better cell, the round or hexagonal? 



Canada. 



Answer.— It matters little which kind of cell, or whether 

 light or medium for either brood or extracting frames, only 

 the light foundation needs to be better supported than the 

 medium. 



Bees Noisy In the Cellar. 



It is 64 days since my 21 colonies were put into the cellar, 

 some of them nuclei and some real strong. The room is 

 12x14x5 feet deep, 3 feet under and 2 above. I have 

 a furnace in the cellar, but there is a double-wall partition 

 between the bees and the furnace, and the temperature is 

 always at about 45 degrees. The cellar is dry, cool and 

 sweet, with good outside ventilation when required, and a 

 chimney runs from the cellar up. 



Three of the strong colonies are always more or less 

 noisy, and I do not understand why. Each hive is raised 

 one inch from the bottom-board, and has a cushion on top. 

 At one time I let the cold air in and the temperature went 

 down to 32 degrees, then it gradually went up to 55, and 

 finally down to 45. I let them alone for days at a time, 

 thinking they would quiet down, but that same noise is always 

 heard more or less, while the others are very quiet. The 

 entrances are not spotted, and so far only a few bees have 

 died. 



Would it be better to take them out and leave them out 

 when the weather is warm enough? Illinois. 



_ Answer. — It is not easy to understand just how much 

 noise those bees make. It is possible that they are dan- 

 gerously noisy, and it is possible that the noise they are mak- 

 ing may be safely kept up all winter. The strongest colonies 

 may be expected to make more noise than the others It 

 might do better to take them out and leave them out but 

 likely not. You might try giving them still more ventilation 

 below, or a very little above. 



Italianizing Bees. 



I have 11 colonies of black bees. I wish to increase as 

 much as I can this year, and would also like to Italianize 

 or change to better stock. At the same time I wish to inter- 

 fere as httle as possible with the honey crop, which comes 

 "A'^^r>'"/--^"r"®' -'"'^ ^"'^ August. I notice on page 225 of 

 A B C of Bee Culture" a plan which says to purchase ? 

 choice breeding queen in the spring or summer, not to re- 

 move the old queens until the summer crop of honey is stored 

 and instead of natural swarming take frames and make nu- 

 clei, giving them queen-cells from Italian brood. 



Where will I get the queen-cells? Is it not possible that 

 the Italian colony will not have any queen-cells in it at the 

 time I want them ? Would it be necessary for me to make the 

 Italian colony queenless at about this time? Texas. 



Answer.— You cannot be certain there will be queen- 

 cells in your Italian colony when you want them, but you 



can make it more likely by giving occasionally a frame of 

 brood from other colonies to your colony with the choice 

 queen. Thus building it up strong you will be likely to have 

 queen-cells early enough. But to make sure of them, look 

 through the hive about 10 days before you want to use the 

 ripe cells, and if you find no cells started you must make 

 the colony queenless. Take out the queen with 2 frames 

 of brood and adhering bees, and put them in an empty hive on 

 a new stand, adding from some other colony a frame or two 

 of honey, and filling up the hive with frames filled with 

 worker foundation. A week later let the 2 hives swap 

 places, for by that time the cells will be sealed, and the 

 nucleus with the old queen being put on the old stand will 

 get all the flying force. You can cut out and use the cells 

 9 or 10 days from the time the old colony was made queen- 

 less. 



*-.-» 



"(iood" Candy Made with Granulated Sugar. 



I have made some "Good" candy, using granulated sugar. 

 After I had it made I noticed that the recipe called for pul- 

 verized sugar. I have no way of pulverizing the sugar. ' Will 

 it make good feed as it is? Illinois. 



Answer.— The granulated sugar will make good feed, 

 only it will be rather extravagant, for the bees will be likely 

 to throw out the coarse grains. I don't know of any way 

 to pulverize granulated sugar, unless to borrow the drug- 

 gist's mortar and pestle ; but you ought to have no trouble in 

 getting pulverized sugar from your grocer. 



Shaken Swarms— Rearing Queens. 



I started last spring with one colony. It cast a fine 

 swarm, but as I do not have time to watch them during 

 swarming time, I did not see it come off. It was leaving 

 an appletree when I saw it, and in spite of all I could do 

 to save it, it went off to the woods. I bought 3 colonies last 

 summer, so I have 4 in the cellar at present. 



I would like to make 8 colonies out of the 4 this coming 

 season, and get as much surplus honey as I can, besides. 

 My bees are blacks, and I want to Italianize at least 2 colo- 

 nies. As I have not time to watch them and they are not 

 situated very close to the house, if I allow them to swarm 

 naturally I will be likely to lose them, so I have been trying 

 to plan some suitable method of artificial swarming. The 

 bees are in movable-frame hives, but owing to crooked combs 

 and brace-combs, they are practically immovable. So it would 

 be almost impossible, especially for an inexperienced bee- 

 keeper, to find the queen to clip her wings, or in case of 

 Italianizing to destroy the old queen before introducing the 

 new. I have read considerable during the past year, in bee- 

 books and bee-papers, about shaken swarms, and from the 

 methods given have been trying to arrange one to suit my 

 case. I will outline it and ask your advice as to its suit- 

 ability or practicability. 



I thought to purchase four 10-frame, 2-story Langstroth 

 hives (for extracted honey), with Hoffman frames, and fill 

 them with full sheets of foundation in both stories. Order 

 2 Italian queens in time to have them about the first of the 

 honey-flow from white clover, as it is about the first that 

 yields any surplus. Then when honey is coming in freely, 

 put the new hive with full sheets of foundation and an 

 entrance-guard to prevent the queen and drones from going 

 in, on the old stand ; shake all the bees but a few to care 

 for the brood in front of the new hive, and let them run in ; 

 catch the old queen at the entrance-guard, and put her back 

 in the old hive, removing it to a new stand. Give the new 

 colony an Italian queen. I would have to give the 2 new 

 colonies for which I have no Italian queen, the old queen, 

 and let the old colony rear a queen for itself. 



A neighbor bee-keeper who has had considerable ex- 

 perience, and to whom I was telling my plan, thought it 

 would work all right, and said a good way to get the bees 

 out of the old hive was to place an empty super on top, 

 smoke the bees good, then drum on the sides of the hive from 

 10 to 15 minutes, when all the bees would go up into the 

 empty super, and could then be shaken in front of the new 

 hive. 



1. Do you think the plan would work all right? 



2. Would I need to wait until the bees were preparing 

 queen-cells |pr swarming to shake them, or would it be all 

 right to do it as soon as there is a good honey-flow coming 



