212 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 16 190S. 



good luck by daubing the queen with honey, the bees accepting 

 the queen nearly every time I used the plan. 



I would like to have you visit me next summer. I am 

 sure you would enjoy it. Michigan. 



Answers. — 1. It will probably make very little differ- 

 ence. If they flew very little during that two weeks after 

 being moved, it may make no difference. If they flew much, 

 some of the bees will be likely to want to go to their old stands. 

 Even that will not be likely to do any harm, for they will 

 be kindly received, and what are lost to one colony will be 

 gained by the other. 



2. Set them out and let them have a flight; then bring 

 them home as soon as convenient afterward. 



3. There are steps to my cellar, and a man just picks 

 them up and carries them out. 



4. I don't think he does. Not manv do, and one of the 

 thmgs now under discussion is whether it is best or not 



5. Hard to tell. It is possible that the young queen was 

 still present, up to the time of uniting the two colonies, and 

 wnile they would accept no queen alone, they preferred the 

 Jaymg queen when it came with another colony 



6 The difficulty of changing is not the reason I don't 

 use the Danzenbaker hive. If I were now using Danzenbaker 

 hives entirely, I think I would be to the expense of chang- 

 ing to the dovetailed. The difficulty of handling closed-end 

 frames without killing bees, is a serious objection but I 

 might stand that rather than to buy all new hives A more 

 t'.meT'as i^^i'^h" V^""' ''" t™/^.-y«. I Aink a hundred 

 TZ'Je^ TU ^fZ '' /^/""'^ '"'° ^^^*'°"= as with the 

 dovetailed. The c osed-end frames must be warmer, I" think 



easil^'a ' Mm. '/ ^°" "" "^"l?'^ Danzenbaker frames a 

 easily as Miller frames, especially as they grow older and 

 If you have no trouble with pollen in sections, the Danzen 



^no/f*"'^/' ? ^^""^ l^'"S ^°' y°"- The manufacturers are 

 good friends of mine, but I can not believe they are doin^ a 



fo highly.'^ °" bee-keepers by praising the Danzenbake? hive 



h».o'^' "^7^°"' '^''°'^" 'J"'"'' although I said I did. That was 

 because I was not sufficiently acquainted with the Eno-lish 

 language. I on y hold them under water for a short time 

 ?W°"^i, ^r,''™" '■" *'^^y appear entirely dead Ted 

 that method last year with a good manv, and it's safer than 

 putting in an uncaged queen without " the wettin" but in 

 many cases not so safe as caging. wenm,, but in 



accejt. *''''"'' ^°" ^°' ^°"'" ^'"'^ invitation, but can hardly 



Cutting Foundation-Placing Hives in the Cellar- 

 Increase and Rearing Queens. 



I took advantage of the club offer when renewing mv 



Sv of 'Tortv V.' ""T"''" B« Journal to also ^btfin a 

 copy ot 1-orty Years Among the Bees," which I have read 



Tlr^\riLTt -""'T •?' '"^^ ""■"ber classed as '.' 

 vThch l^Lll Ih T^'f ! '=°'°'^'" '" *'^^ house-cellar with 

 wliich 1 have had about 5 years' experience (the number of 



^^n/""^'"^ ^"■°'" ' '° ^5)' I ^^■'' take the "liberty ?o 

 comment upon some parts of the valuable book • 



li^-i ,/" directions for cutting foundation (pages 142- 



144) would not the board mentioned, with its guides work 

 much better ,f those guides for cutting were efch r^'ade of 

 anowTthe^'fre" "''' J-t space enough between Zm?o 

 rn?Z u i ?" passage of a 2-mch roller knife, which 

 could be dipped into heated water between cuts? The space 



Itc uno^fh'/' °H '%''^ "^"'^^ '^•^'"^ ^'^ '"=■'«' 6H inches, 

 etc upon the guide frame; strips 5^-inch wide bein<^ used 



Th^'kn'if/'^'"' /°' /""!"« '^' '^-'"-^h bottom st°arters 

 The kmfe is made of a thin steel disk, having a small hole 



handle pTss"'."""'"' "'"'^ "" "''' '^°'ding^he crotch°ed 

 /'• ^" Fis. 109, page 301, I found a free advertisement 

 m Javor of Montgomery Ward & Co., for which I hope you 

 rece.ved a nice donation. If you have not you should ^ 



3. In placing the hives in the cellar I think it' a verv 

 good plan to have the hive-bodies pitch forward to such an 



w1ir';un't?'/v,'"^rfr 1^-=^* -"'y =°"''™^^ on the "over" 

 w run to the end of the hive instead of dripping on the 

 cluster, as it would if the hive stood level 



.r.jt' K V°" *'?'"'' '' ^o"''' he profitable for me to in- 

 crease by the method mentioned by you on page 260? 



5. Would the field force of No. 4, as in plan given page 

 360, rear a good queen from young brood if I did not have 

 a queen or cell to give them, when the made colony is placed 

 where No. 4 was. No. 4 removed to a new stand, as per 



second part of plan given? I am interested in farming as 

 well as bee-keeping, so when the bees need the most atten- 

 tion the farm requires most of my time, hence one of them 

 must suffer. New York. 



Answers. — 1. Not having tried it, I cannot say how- 

 it would work. 



2. I made the mistake of not contracting beforehand 

 that I was to receive a stipulated amount if that box should 

 be allowed in the picture. I'll know better next time. 



3. I'm a little surprised to find that the hives don't 

 pitch forward in the book. They do in the cellar. Wait a 

 minute, and I'll go down cellar and see how much * * * 

 I find the hive at the back end is from 1 to 2 inches higher 

 than at the front. I'm not sure there's any great advantage 

 in it. Certainly the slant is not enough to make the drip 

 run to the front. Wouldn't it need 6 inches or more for that? 

 and so much slant would hardly be desirable. Besides. I 

 doubt that water often settles on the cover in my cellar. 



4. It's largely a matter of convenience. If convenient 

 for you to use the plan, I think you'll like it and find it 

 successful. 



5. No, or at least I wouldn't be satisfied with queens 

 reared in that way. So much depends upon the queen that 

 the best is none too good. You would be trusting to field- 

 bees to start cells, and nurse-bees are the right ones for that 

 purpose. If you want the bees to rear their own queen, you 

 might combine the two ways ; first set your brood over No. 4 

 over an excluder for an hour or so; and then set in place of 

 No. 4, and you would have young bees enough. But there 

 might, in that case, be some danger of swarming at the 

 maturing of the first young queen. 



Streaks and Scum in Granulated Honey. 



Last fall, when extracted honey in tanks began to granu- 

 late, I run some into paper oyster pails. When it became 

 thoroughly candied in the paper pails, it had a white scum- 

 like gum on top, and also white streaks running irregularly 

 through the honey, so that it had a mottled appearance, when 

 cut through. When winter set in I melted some of the same 

 honey in the tanks, and run it into paper pails. When the 

 honey in these latter pails were fully candied again it was all 

 one solid color — no streaks running through it, and no light 

 shades on top or on the sides. 



How can I prevent these light streaks and scunirlike 

 coverings, without re-melting before running into the paper 

 pails? 



What would be the effect of running into the paper pails 

 as soon as the honey is cleansed, after extracting? 



Michigan. 



Answer. — I cannot speak with authority, but I'll say 

 how it looks to me, and if I am astray I hope some of the 

 good brethren with experience will straighten me out. I 

 suspect that the streaked effect might be caused by different 

 kinds of honey settling in different strata in the tank. It 

 might also be caused by air-bubbles being caught in the partly- 

 granulated honey. When the honey was melted, the air- 

 bubbles could escape. It is quite possible that if the honey 

 was run directly into the pails as soon as cleared it would 



be all right. 



*-•-*- 



Winter Hive-Entrance— Afterswarms-Alsike Clover- 

 Piping of Queen— Alley Traps. 



1. I winter my bees on the summer stands, having them 

 in winter-cases with inch and a half sawdust between walls 

 of the winter-cases and the hives. I allow an entrance of 

 only 2 inches by .J4- Is this too small? 



2. As to afterswarms, I have all queens clipped ; hive 

 the swarm on the parent colony's stand, removing the parent 

 colony to a distance. Parent colony still insists on sending 

 out an afterswarm. Would it be better to destroy all queen- 

 cells in the parent colony as soon as the young queen is 

 heard piping, so as to be certain of allowing «o afterswarm? 



3. Can virgin or unfertile queens pass through queen 

 excluding zinc? 



4. Would 70 or 80 acres of alsike clover planted on the 

 farm where the apiary of 50 colonies is located make any 

 appreciable increase in the average of surplus honey stored 

 by the bees ? 



5. What should I consider a fair yearly average for 50 

 colonies in this State? 



6. Colony A swarms. Will a young queen be always 

 heard piping in about 7 days thereafter? 



