June 8, 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



409 



do right, or ought the bottom to have been 

 left loose' Iowa. 



Answer. — The foundation should not be 

 fastened at the bottom, but should be about 

 1^ inch short of reaching the bottom (unless 

 you usealso a small bottom-starter), other- 

 wise it is likely to sag and buckle. But that 

 was not the reason the bees gnawed it. They 

 probably gnawed the foundation because you 

 gave it to them entirely too early, when they 

 have no use for it. In your locality sections 

 should not be given till after clover is in 

 bloom. A book of instruction would be a 

 paying investment. 



Colony With a Poor Queen 



I have a colony of bees, hived about .luly 1 

 last year, which is not doing very well. I 

 found a queen in the hive to-day, but there 

 were hardly any eggs and only a small 

 quantity of brood in 4 or 5 frames. The queen 

 is very small compared to other queens in the 

 bee-yard. What ought I to do with this col- 

 ony* Iowa. 



Answer.— If you had said the small amount 

 of brood and eggs was all in one frame, there 

 might be reason for believing that the queen 

 was all right in a very weak colony; but 

 when you say there is brood scattered in .5 

 frames, that condemns the queen. The only 

 thing to do is to destroy the queen and give 

 the colony another queen or a sealed queen- 

 cell, or else allow the bees to rear a queen, 

 giving them unsealed brood from other colo- 

 nies. All this on the supposition that the 

 colony is strong enough to be worth saving, 

 which is indicated by the brood scattered in 5 

 frames. 



• — «-^»» — • 



Corn Honey 



I am sending you a sample of corn honey — 

 a thing not often to be had. Three colonies 

 brought in about 100 pounds last season, but 

 the other bees did not get beyond the pollen 

 contained in the tassels. Everything must be 

 just so for corn honey — plenty of rain during 

 the night, and temperature from about 70 to 

 SO degrees during the day. Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — Thanks for the sample. It is 

 granulated extracted, of not very heavy body, 

 rather light amber in color, and of rather 

 pleasant flavor. 



Space Between Bottom-Board and 

 Brood-Frames 



How much space can be left from the bot- 

 tom-board to the bottom of the brood-frames 

 in summer or during the honey-flow, without 

 danger of the space being filled with comb? 



Missonai. 



Answer. — I don't know just how much. 

 Probably as much as 'i.^ of an inch with nar- 

 row bottom-bars, and perhaps a full inch 

 with bottom-bars I's wide. 



Wintering Bees— Early Drones- 

 Swarming 



My success in wintering bees in a cellar for 

 the first time the past winter prompts me to 

 relate it briefly, so you may form your own 

 conclusions as to whether it was ventilation 

 or what that gave me my success. 



About Nov. 10, 1U04, I was passing through 

 the bee-yard and found a colony with plenty 

 of bees, but almost destitute of stores. I put 

 an empty super on, filled a pan with very thick 

 syrup from granulated sugar, and hoped for 

 warmer days, but was disappointed. There 

 were only a few days from then till I moved 

 them into the cellar that were warm enough 

 for the bees to go up and get the syrup. I 

 think they emptied the pan twice. Nov. 30 

 real winter seemed to be on us, and I carried 

 the bees to the cellar. There was a pan on 

 this hive nearly full of syrup which I removed 

 and marked the hive " Very poor. " 



I made no preparation, but left the covers 



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"About the South" is the name of a 64-page 

 illustrated pamphlet issued by the Passenger 

 Department of the 



ILLIi\OISCEiWRALR.R.CO. 



in which important questions are tersely an- 

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Southern Farm Lands, 



Mississippi Valley Cotton Lands, 



Truck Farming-, Fruit Growing-, 



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 addressing 



A. H. HANSON, G.P.A., CHICAGO, ILL. 



23A4t Please mention the Bee Journal. 



LICE SAP LIFE 



Tliaf:- how they live and thrive. 

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flDiaru For Sale 



In one of the best locations in the United 

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22A4t MusEOGEE, Ind. Ter. 



ITALIAN QUEENS 



Tested $1.25 each 



War. Tested 1. 00 " 

 tntested . . . .75 " 

 6 or more, lo percent 

 less. 



Xo disease. Good Queens 

 ar.d prompt service guaran- 

 1 "ed. If you want a busi- 

 ness strain of bees send 

 vour order to 



CHAS. M. DARROW, 

 D. No. 1. MILO, MO. 



:3Atf 



Please meutiou Bee Journal 

 when writing advertisers. 



on without any cushion or top ventilation, 

 and no ventilation below except the suQimer 

 entrance. The thermometer registered from 

 38 to 4.T degrees almost all of the time, and 

 the bees were constantly humming. Some 

 weeks after they were put in a few dead bees 

 began showing on the floor, and I suppose 

 during the winter I swept up a quart of dead 

 bees from the 10 colonies— the number I put 

 in. They were let severely alone till March 

 5, 100.5. It being a warm sunshiny day I car- 

 ried out one colony. This was a colony of 

 yellow Italians that I had developed last sum- 

 mer from a :^-frame nucleus. My reason for 

 selecting this colony was that I noticed there 

 was some dripping at the entrance, while the 

 others were perfectly dry. I should state that 

 this hive stood only 6 inches from the bottom 

 of the cellar, while the others were a foot 

 from the bottom and tiered up on each other. 

 I found the bottom-board covered with a 

 black muck and smelling ugly. I cleaned this 

 all off. The bees had a fine flight and I re- 

 turned them to the cellar that evening. There 

 was a hive full of bees and some honey and 

 abundance of brood In all stages. This, re- 

 member, was March 5. 



March 1? being very warm in the morning, 

 I went into the cellar, and although it was 

 very dark it was full of bees, flying in every 

 direction. I immediately opened the outside 

 entrance and without coat, hat, or gloves car- 

 ried out the 10 colonies. I got several doses 

 of anti-rheumatic for my temerity. I put 

 them on the summer stands and they have 

 been there since. I found them nearly all 

 very populous, but not a great supply of 

 honey. There was one with only a few bees 

 and every comb full of honey. It is building 

 up riipidly now. It seemed to me that I took 

 out more bees than I put in. In 2 colonies I 

 am sure I did. The hives in these two in- 

 stances would hardly hold the bees, and one 

 of them sent off a swarm May 12, covering 

 every frame in an S-frame hive. It was a 

 tremendously big swarm. Did they rear 

 brood all winter? 



Now the colony that swarmed is poor in 

 honey. In fact, they are all getting skimped, 

 as there were 4 big freezes here after fruit 

 was in bloom, and I think these destroyed the 

 saccharine in the blossoms. Then it is rain- 

 ing so much it is impossible to gather any 

 nectar. I am going to have to feed some if it 

 does not soon warm up and bring out white 

 clover. 



Now as to the colony fed syrup in Novem- 

 ber and marked " Very poor." It came 

 through in fine condition and is now threaten- 

 ing to swarm, though it is almost destitute of 

 honey. The colony of yellow Italians that I 

 put out March 5 and then returned till March 

 17 (the day I took all of them out) and which 

 was full of bees March 5, dwindled and died 

 till they did not cover more than 3 frames. 

 Was this because of the flight March 5, or 

 was it because the bees were not healthy * I 

 am unable to account for the early appear- 

 ance of so many drones. Can you i Remem- 

 ber I am only a novice. 



I reported No. 1 as sending out a very large 

 swarm May 12. I put the new colony on the 

 old stand, and moved the parent colony the 

 width of itself west, expecting to carry it to 

 some distant part of the yard when the 8 days 

 were up. This morning (May 18) was cloudy 

 and windy, the thermometer registering 58 

 degrees. The parent colony sent out another 

 good swarm. I caught one queen, and saw 

 another with the swarm, which I put baclj in 

 the parent colony. May 10 I carried it toan- 

 oiher part of the yard. Lying in front of this 

 parent colony this morning is a dead queen, 

 and a cap off of a queen-cell. Did the queen 

 I returned kill another, or get killed? If it 

 were not so cold I would examine the hive 

 and see how many more queens are there. 



Illinois. 



AS8WER.— As you are south of latitude 40 

 degrees, it would generally be supposed that 

 outdoor wintering would be best for you; but 

 your success iu cellaring seems a pretty good 

 warrant for its continuance. 



One factor iu your favor, judging from the 

 sketch j'ou send, is that there is abundant 

 provision for ventilation without letting light 

 into the cellar. 



It is not at all likely that brood was reared 

 all winter iu any colony : but the rearing of 

 so much brood at an unusually early date 



