May 18 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



361 



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Doctor ITTillcr 5 Question Box 



^ 



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

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

 Dr. Miller does iu>t answer Questions by mail. 



J^ 



Preventlns Swarming 



Given a 10-frame Langstroth hive and 3 

 supers of 8 combs each, at clover time, raise 

 4 frames of brood to the first super, place 4 

 combs in their stead, and over this place a 

 queen-excluder. Will such a Qolony be apt 

 to swarm? Missouri. 



Answer. — I don't know, but I should ex- 

 pect swarming in a minority of cases, it 

 everything is closed except the entrance. 

 With an opening at each story, allowing 

 abundant ventilation, there might be no 

 swarming. 



Corn and Sumac Honey— Hoffman 



Frame Honey Capacity— Melting 



Combs Containing Honey 



Keeping Queens— Swarming- 

 or Black Brood 



Poul 



1. Does corn yield honey? If eo, is it not 

 of poor flavor! 



2. What liind and of what grade is sumac 

 honey ? 



3. How much honey does an ordinary Hoff- 

 man frame hold when there are S in an 8- 

 frame hivel 



4. How do you melt combs with honey in? 

 perhaps you'll say, just lilie any other comb; 

 if that's the way, where will the honey go? 



Nebraska. 



Answers.— 1. Sometimes it yields nectar 

 in the axils of the leaves; but I don't know 

 about the quality. 



2. I don't know. In this part of the coun- 

 try i i; is in such small quantity that it would 

 probably be impossible to get a sample of it 

 pure. 



3. I think something like 5 pounds. 



4. Not atall "like any other comb," if you 

 want the honey saved in good condition. You 

 must melt it very slowly, so the heat will not 

 spoil the honey. Put it in a crook on the hot- 

 water reservoir of the cook-stove, where it 

 will take several days to melt; or put it in 

 the oven if you are sure it will not get too 

 hot; or set the crock in a dish of water on the 

 top of the stove, with a chip or piece of shin- 

 gle, or something of the kind, under the 

 crock. 



1. We are told that when we have a queen 

 we do not want to use at present, to put her 

 into a nucleus until we do want her. How 

 are we to have these nuclei on hand just 

 when wanted, and what are we to do with 

 them after we take the queen away? 



2. When rearing queens, when are the cells 

 put into Titoff cages — as soon as the prepared 

 cells are put into the hive, or when cells are 

 sealed up '. 



3. How soon are cells sealed after given to 

 bees? 



4. What is your opinion on the Alexander 

 method of controlling swarming, described in 

 Gleanings of April 15! 



5. How are queens reared in a baby nucleus' 

 I often see it mentioned in the Bee .Journal, 

 but never saw any directions on the subject. 



6. Does " baby nucleus" mean simply an 

 ordinary hive with a few frames in, or a small 

 hive full of frames? 



7. Some of my bees that died last winter, 

 and also some which did not die, had small 

 patches of dead brood. It was not sunken 

 into a brown mass as described in foul brood, 

 but retained its shape. Some of it was black 

 and some brown, but all was very soft and 

 seemed decayed. Is it foul or black brood, 

 and if not, is it ever likely to turn into either? 



8. Would l",s-infh sections, with plain sep- 

 arators, hold a pound of honey! If not, how 

 much would they hold? 



9. Do you think it likely that some disease 

 would be the cause of 47 colonies dying last 

 winter and spring in one apiary of about 60 

 colonies? This was the case with one apiary 

 in the county. All had plenty of honey. 



10. Would it be advisable to call in the in- 

 spector? Ontario. 



Answers. — 1. I know of no way of having 

 nuclei but to make them; one way being to 

 fasten one or more frames of brood with ad- 

 hering bees in a hive for 2 or more days. 



2. Cells are not usually caged until nearly 

 time for the young queens to emerge. 



3. They are sealed 5 or 6 days after the larva 

 hatches from the egg. 



4. The plan seems to be good If you can, as 

 he says, have 3 good, strong colonies in the 

 place of one, ready to commence work on 

 your clover harvest. 



0. Just about the same as in larger nuclei. 



6. Any nucleus with a very small number 

 of bees is a baby nucleus; but the term is 

 usually applied to a nucleus in a small hive, 

 with one or two very small frames. 



7. It may be neither. It will not turn into 

 foul or black brood unless it was foul or black 

 brood in the beginning. 



8. There is no such thing as a given weight 

 of honey in a section of a given size. The 

 section you name would sometimes hold a 

 pound of honey, and sometimes more. 



9. Possible, I lui hardly probable. 



10. It would do no harm. 



Prevention of Increase 



1. If one has all the bees he wishes for, and 

 does not care for any increase, how would it 

 do, about the time bees are ready to swarm 

 naturally, to destroy all queen-cells and put 

 on a super so as to give them more room ? Do 

 you think the plan would generally be suc- 

 cessful? 



2. Does a second swarm generally leave the 

 hive the next day, if fair, after the first piping 

 of the queen the evening before? 



New Hampshire. 



Answers. — 1. In the majority of cases it 

 would merely defer the time of swarming. 

 Something, however, depends upon the char- 

 acter of the I'KCs. With colonies given to 

 swarming it would nearly always prove a 

 failure; with tlm.^e little given to swarming 

 it would often prove a success. 



2. Yes. 



Clothing for Bee Work- Bottom- 

 Boards Frames Full of Honey 

 -Lemon-Juice in Sugar-Syrup 

 —Dead Bees— Mice and 

 Snai^es in the Hives 



1. I think it is 

 done so much t ■ 

 as to wear co'. il 

 and suffer with u 

 light wool clotlii 

 let the air thi-^ 

 Try it, and if yn 

 this summer, iu> 

 wool, light ^,'11!, 

 back to your nM 



2. Why do y- 

 the hives wicli 

 summer? 



3. Some of tL 

 of honey. Perh 

 hives. Would i 

 of this and givt i 



a pity that a man who has 

 Qelp others should be so slow 

 n clothing in hot weather, 

 leheat and perspiration when 

 5 are so much cooler. They 

 igh and are less clinging. 

 II don't enjoy yourself better 

 ivided you get light-weight 



in color, I will let you go 

 white cotton. 



put a false bottom-board in 



the deep bottom-boards in 



hives seem to be almost full 

 ;js it was robbed out of other 



be well to take away part 

 mpty combs instead! 



4. All of the colonies except one are gather- 

 ing pollen every fine day. This one has a 

 good-looking and lively queen, but no brood. 

 Will she begin laying? 



5. One man says to put lemon-juice in 

 sugar-syrup and make it as good as honey for 

 the bees. What do you think of it! 



6. There are a great many dead bees about 

 some of the hives and not nearly so many 

 about others, and yet it seems to me that the 

 colonies with the great amount of dead bees 

 are about as populous as any. How do you 

 account for this? 



7. Some colonies that I thought in pretty 

 good condition in the fall are dead. Not from 

 cold or hunger, but there are very many dead 

 bees in and under the hives with a hole in the 

 middle of their backs, and all the inside eaten 

 out of that part of the bee. It looks like too 

 small work for mice, and, in fact, I had con- 

 tracted the entrance too narrow to admit a 

 mouse, and yet I can not find it. What do 

 you think it is? 



8. Last fall and this spring there have been 

 a great many small snakes around here. I do 

 not know whether it is to eat bees or because 

 the hive makes an excellent shelter for them, 

 or because they are after mice. Do you think 

 they are friends, or enemies? 1 used to kill 

 them, but don't any more for I think they eat 

 many mice. Nebraska. 



Answers.—]. There's just one fatal ob- 

 jection to the woolen clothing; bees sting 

 worse. 



2. Because' the bees in summer would fill 

 the space with comb. 



3. It might be well to do so if you find that 

 the queen has not room to lay, but you will 

 find the bees will use up a good deal of honey 

 in brood-rearing. 



4. The likelihood is that a queen with no 

 brood, when others have plenty, is of no value. 



5. It would be better without the lemon- 

 juice. 



6. A very strong colony might have a good 

 many more dead bees than a weak one merely 

 because it had more old bees to die from old 

 age. 



7. In spite of appearances to the contrary, 

 you may be sure that mice are the culprits. 



S. I have seen snakes in hives a number of 

 times, and have always supposed it was 

 merely to have a comfortable place. 



Transferring Bees— Foundation 

 Splints-Moving Bees 



On page 397, in answering "New York" 

 concerning transferring bees, you thought it 

 would be better to wait till they swarmed, and 

 31 days later break up the old colony. 



1. What should be done with the bees at 

 the end of 21 days? 



2. Would it be a good thing to move the 

 box-hive to another part of the yard so as to 

 deplete the number of bees as much as pos- 

 sible before breaking up the old colony ! 



3. Four different times I have tried upset- 

 ting the hive and then drumming, as is recom- 

 mended in bee-books; but it did not work 

 well. We drummed an hour each time, look- 

 ing at intervals under the box to see if they 

 were up. About a pint was all we could get. 

 What was the matter? 



4. What are foundation splints that you 

 use instead of wire? How are they used! 



5. Would it be better to move bees 45 miles 

 by wagon than to have to change cars with 

 them? .Michigan. 



Answers.— 1. One way is to drum out the 

 bees and unite them with the swarm at the 

 end of the 21 days, making kindling-wood of 

 the hive, and wax of the combs. Another is 

 to transfer ioto a new hive, and keep the 3 

 colonies separate. Still another way is to do 

 nothing further, leaving the colony ia the 

 box-hive to build up and oast a swarm again 

 the next year. 



2. Yes, you are to move the old hive to a 

 new stand a week or so after swarming. 



3. I don't know. Possibly you were too 

 gentle in smoKing and jarring. It is also 

 possible that there were so few bees in the 

 hive that you could not get up a stampede. 



4. Little sticks of wood about 1-16-inch 

 square and '4-ioch shorter than the inside 

 depth of the frame. They are boiled in wax. 



