March 23. 19CS. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



233 



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X)octor ZTttllcr's 

 Question '- Sox 



J 



Send Questions either to the ottico of the American Bee Journal, 

 or to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Dimensions for a Honey-House. 



I intend to build a honey-house in the spring. It is to be a stor- 

 age-room, workshop and extracting-room combined, for a yard run 

 lor both comb and extracted honey. What size would you advise 

 building for an apiary of from SO to 100 colonies? New York. 



Answer. — Rather hard to say ; 

 to have it 18x24 feet, two stories. 



likely you'll find it none too large 



Maple Syrup for Feeding— Puttlns Bees Out of the Cellar 



1. Would maple syrup be good for feeding bees in the spring for 

 stimulative brood-rearing i 



2. What is the best method to pursue in putting the bees on the 

 summer stands in the spring? I have 150 colonies in the cellar in good 

 condition, and I want to put them out very early in the morning, 

 about 3 o'clock. Qoebec. 



Answers.— When the weather is warm enough so bees are Hying 

 every day it will do very well to feed maple syrup, or any other sweet 

 that Dees will take. No more should be fed, however, than will be 

 used up in brood-rearing. If, however, it be fed at a time when bees 

 can gather from the flowers, it will do little in the way of stimulating. 



3. It will be all right to take bees out at night, or even the pre- 

 vious evening, provided the day following be favorable for them to 

 fly. If it should turn out a bad day the bees might fly out, become 

 chilled, and never return. 



Bees Gnawing Starters in the Sections. 



When double starters or full sheets of foundation are put in the 

 sections don't the bees gnaw the starters off ? I have been using the 

 small triangular piece a^ut yX-inch wide, but find that the bees very 

 often gnaw the piece entirely off, and often — very often — leave only 

 the thin line of wax where foundation had been attached to the sec- 

 tions. I have also noticed that wider and longer pieces of foundation 

 had been gnawed down to about '4 of the original size. I want to use 

 double starters above and below this season, but if my bees are to at- 

 tack them and gnaw and mutilate them as has often been done in the 

 past, I want to know how to correct this trouble. Virginia. 



Answer. — I don't believe you need have any trouble of the kind. 

 I'll tell you what I know about it. In a full honey-flbw you will 

 probably find that there is no gnawing, no matter what the size of the 

 8tart«rs nor the kind of foundation. At the close of the harvest if 

 they have a chance they are likely to do more or less gnawing. The 

 thinner the foundation the more likely they are to gnaw. I prefer 

 thin-super foundation to extra-thin. They are more likely to gnaw a 

 little strip than a lirger piece. With starters above and below, and 

 not more than I4 inch between them, the bees seem to think their first 

 business is to fasten together the two pieces. For some reason they 

 do not gnaw before harvest as they do after, and I don't remember any 

 trouble even when sections were put on 10 days before needed. It you 

 use thin-super foundation, and fill the sections with upper and lower 

 starters, and then lake them off with reasonable promptness when the 

 season is over, I think your trouble will disappear. 



Cleansing Flights— Bees and Fruit— Hybrids vs. Italians 

 -Weight of Hives. 



In reading about the care of bees in the cellar I have often noticed 

 the caution not to leave them out too long when giving them their 

 cleansing flight, as they may start to brood-rearing, or they may not 

 do well in other ways. 



1 Why should their ease be different from those that have been 

 on the summer stands all winter' 



3. What are all the good points for the good of fruit-trees and 

 their fruit in having a near-by apiary to work the honey out of the 

 fruit-bloom, as 1 so often see advocated by the Government? 



3. I have been experimenting since last spring with a hybrid col- 

 ony and some red clover Italians by close observation in every wa 

 and my judgment is that the Italians are superior in almost every • 

 spect. They gather more honey, build the combs just as even and fi 11 

 as the hybrids, are much more gentle, and, I believe, winter better, i»- 

 I put the Italians out of the cellar last week to give them a flight, ac.l 

 did not find over a hundred dead bees. To-day I am giving the hybrids 

 a flight, and find a full pint of dead bees on the t)Otlom-board. I be- 

 lieve it will pay one to stock up at least every two years with good se- 

 lect Italian queens. 



4. In weighing or hefting a hive, about what percent ot the 

 weiffht would you consider other than honey or food for the bees J 



^ MiSSOCKI. 



Answers.— 1. I don't know. Sometimes we know a thing with- 

 out knowing why. There is also a oossibility that there may not be so 

 great a difference as supposed. We know, however, that bees are not 

 exactly in the same condition before corning out of the cellar as those 

 wintered out-doors. There is also a diHerence afterward, those from 

 the cellar not being protected by packing, usually. 



2. I'm not sure that I understand. If you mean in what way are 

 we to secure all the good possible to the fruit from the bees, I don't 

 know of any special thing to be done other than to have plenty ot bees 

 not farther than a mile or so away. 



3 You can't be too sure from a single case. Next time you may 

 happen to have a hybrid better than a pure colony. Yet your idea of 

 getting in fresh Italian blood is good. 



4. I don't know. It will vary according to the varying weight of 

 the hive, cover and bottom-board. Empty combs vary no little, ac- 

 cording to age. One hive may contain much more pollen than another. 

 Find out as nearly as you can what your hives weigh with combs 

 heavy with pollen, and add to that 8 pounds for bees (you'll not often 

 And that many bees), then add 25 pounds more for honey for cellaring, 



and 30 for out-doors. 



. ^ . » 



Dead Bees-Liquid Oozing from Hives. 



I am a beginner in the bee-business. Last summer I bought 5 or 

 6 colonies of bees in box hives. Some of them had no frames at all. 

 Two were in dovetailed 8-trames hives with supers but no sections. 

 They did not store much honey, but seemed to have plenty to last over 

 wiDtcr 



This has been a very cold winter here. Since Jan. 2 the tempera- 

 ture has gone all the way from 3 or 4 degrees below to 35 degrees be- 

 low zero. But at this time I think there are live bees in all the hives, 

 except possibly one. Last fall I tacked heavy carpet-paper snugly 

 around the hives and then placed straw and leaves around the north 

 and west sides about I3 ot the way up, and also underneath, as the 

 hives were about 6 inches from the ground on the summer stands. 



I clean the snow out of the entrance at the bottom every day, and 

 find dead bees there. One of the colonies in the dovetailed hives seems 

 to be very strong, no super on, and the bottom entrance was very 

 small and constantly filled with ice from steam or condensation with- 

 in I have enlarged the entrance and find a great many dead bees. In 

 some of the hives they come out and try to fly when it is zero weather, 

 and from some others whenever it moderates a little liquid honey 

 oozes out at the entrance. . 



I would be pleased to know what causes the honey to run out in 

 this way, especially in such cold weather. 



[ like to work with bees, but have had no experience. I have been 

 reading the American Bee Journal since Jan. 1, and hope to gain some 

 information and instruction therefrom. Kansas. 



Answer.— It is nothing out of the common for a comparatively 

 large number ot bees to die in winter, in every hive, from old age. It 

 isn't the best way to disturb the bees daily by raking out the dead. 

 Try to have it arranged another winter so this will not be necessary. 

 Better have a space ot two inches under the bottom-bars, and then it 

 the entrance is at the upper part ot this space there will be little dan- 

 ger of clogging the entrance. The vapor from the bees settles on the 

 walls of the hives in the form ot frost in considerable quantity, and 

 when this melts the water will run out of the entrance. Sometimes 

 the frost or moisture settles on the unsealed honey, and then sweet- 

 ened liquid runs out of the entrance, as in your case. You did well to 

 enlarge the entrance so as to allow free escape of the vapor and 

 foul air. 



Some Facts About Honey and Bees.— This is the 

 subject of an article written by Mr. J. E. Johnson, and pub- 

 lished on pages 581-82 of the American Bee Journal for 

 Aug-. 25. 1904. We have republished it in 4-page leaflet 

 form for general distribution, and furnish it, postpaid, at 

 35 cents per 100 copies. Send all orders to the ofBce of. the 

 American Bee JournaL 



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 them 

 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. ._»^,. 



Maple Sugar and the Sugar Bush, by Prof. A. J. Cook ; 

 44 pages ; price, postpaid, 30 cents. This is by the same 

 author as " The Bee-Keepers' Guide," and is most valuable 

 to aU who are interested in the product of our sugar-maples. 

 No one who makes maple sugar or syrup should be without 

 It. Order from the ofiBce of the American Bee Journal. 



See Langstroth Book Offer on another page of this 

 copy of the American Bee Journal. 



