June 22. 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



441 



years she will discover all the secrets of the 

 universe. 



BOSNIAN HIVES SHOULD BE POPCLAR. 



Bosnia seems to be the place for those who 

 howl about the high price of hives — the gov- 

 ernment furnishes free lumber to make bee- 

 hives. " Wish the kickers were all in 

 Bosnia 1" (Hive-trust man.) 



FBKDING SUGAR AND FEEDING BACK HONET. 



So Hutchinson thinks that feeding sugar 

 and feeding back honey are much alike in 

 that almost any results fan be secured. That 

 phrase, " Almost any results can be secured," 

 sounds like a stand-patter, worth memorizing. 

 I suppose a good few of us experimented a 

 little at feeding for sugar-honey — and our sec- 

 tions cost us much more than market price — 

 and nevertheless we knew pretty well that we 

 could make a success of it if It were worth 

 while. Telling outsiders that sugar can not 

 be profitably fed for surplus is not to be rec- 

 ommended — foolish, because they won't be- 

 lieve it — and immoral, because most likely it 

 isn't true. Page 344. 



HIVING SWABMS ON DRY COMBS. 



Bees do swarm sometimes when they are in 

 a very hungry condition ; and it's not good 

 practice to hive such on combs of honey. 

 Results in excitement much like a robbing 

 scrape, with more or less of actual robbing 

 mixed in. Hive them on dry combs, and ex- 

 change for the combs of honey at nightfall. 



When the honey-How is on, the practice re- 

 ferred to is not so bad ; but even then bees 

 like dry combs best, and will be a little more 

 likely to stay. I 'age 345. 



EXTRACTED VS. COMB HONEY. 



I would lift my voice in behalf of that fool 

 on page 345. ITe is not damaging the honey 

 market probably, while his wise (1) brother 

 may be doing just that thing. 



QUEENS AND BABY NUCLEI. 



If a queen is put in a baby nucleus only in 

 warm weather, and only when ready to mate, 

 the harm the new device does would seem to 

 be reduced to a minimum. Quite curious if 

 queenless bees are less tolerant of super- 

 numery young virgins than bees of a colony 

 with a laying queen are. According to .John 

 W. Pharr, page 34C, the latter will feed them 

 through the wires — presumably by the 

 amount of sting-poison which they evaporate. 

 Yet possibly this last may be wrong. All 

 queens soon die from nerve causes if entirely 

 bereft of company. Perhaps with only ene- 

 mies for company death would be about as 

 speedy, and the cause about the same. 



SOUTHERN CANE SYBUP VS. HONEY. 



So, according to the average Southern pal- 

 ate home-made cane-syrup is better than 

 honey. We can thank Mr. Ashley for that 

 item — even if we quarrel with the item itself. 

 Page 348. 



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X)octor ITItUcr 5 Quc5tton=23ox 



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



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



It^" Dr. Miller does 7iot answer Questions by mail. 



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Stachelfiausen's Practice With 

 Shaken Swarms 



On page 246 Mr. Stachelhausen says: 

 " I put the shaken or natural swarm on the 

 old stand, and the parent colony close by its 

 side; 10 days afterward the most of the bees 

 of the old hive were shaken in front of the 

 swarm and the queen-cells cut out." 



I am in the dark as to why he waits 10 days 

 in th,e case of a natural swarm. Is there not 

 danger that, in case the old colony was not 

 too much weakened by the loss of its field- 

 bees, a second swarm may issue 8 days or so 

 after the first one issued* Iowa. 



Answer. — Although both shaken and nat- 

 ural swarms are mentioned, I suspect that 

 when Mr. Stachelhausen spoke of " 10 days " 

 be had shaken swarms particularly ia mind; 

 for surely, in the case of a natural swarm, as 

 you say, there would be danger of a second 

 swarm before the expiration of the 10 days. 

 With a shaken swarm there would be no such 

 danger, provided queen-cells had not been 

 started before the sliaking. If I am wrong in 

 any way about it, will Mr. Stachelhausen 

 kindly correct, if this should happeu to catch 

 his eye? 



Introducing Queen-Cells or Queens 



Suppose an apiarist has a number of choice, 

 ripe queen-cells in protectors, or just-hatched 

 virgin queens in cages, and they are of supe- 

 rior strain. How can he introduce them to 

 full colonies, remove the old queen at the 

 time of introduction, and Avfowthat they will 

 be accepted, and that the bees u'ill nut rear 

 queens from their interior brood, lake the 

 swarming notion, and do other things ob- 

 jectionable! Kentucky. 



Answer.— I don't know. That is, I don't 

 know how he can be entirely sure, for bees 

 are somewhat given to cutting up all sorts of 

 didoes. But by doing as you say he can be as 

 reasonably sure as he can of most things in 

 bee-keeping. Sometimes a queen-cell that 

 looks all right contains nothing but a dead 



larva. In that case the colony would start 

 cells of its own, and if strong enough would 

 be likely to swarm as soon as the first virgin 

 was ready to fly. So it would be a little safer 

 to give a virgiu queen. If not more than a 

 day old, and caged, its acceptance would be 

 practically certain. Indeed, if you take a vir- 

 gin not more than 6 hours old — possibly it 

 would be all the same if not more than 24 

 hours old — go to the hive and give to it the 

 virgin queen without any caging, and then 

 kill the old queen, there would be no question 

 as to acceptance. There are still two"ifs" 

 in the case ; (/' there were no cells in the hive 

 previously, and //' the virgin is not lost on 

 her wedding-trip. To provide against the 

 first, you must make sure to kill all queen- 

 cells in the hive at the time of giving the vir- 

 gin or queen-cell; otherwise you will be 

 pretty sure of swarming; and as to loss on 

 the wedding-trip, you must take your chances 

 and be ready to make good any chance loss. 



Best Kind of Bees 



Which kind of bees would you advise a be- 

 ginner to get, the (Jerman .or black bees, the 

 Italians, or the Carniolans? Which are the 

 best for comb honey ? Maine. 



Answers. — 1. It doesn't make such a great 

 deal of differeuiu what kind of bees a begin- 

 ner starts with, as it is so easy to change 

 stock by the purchase of queens. So if he 

 can get no other than black bees handily, let 

 him start with them, and then get an Italian 

 queen. Of course, if he can get Italian stock 

 that will be better. 



3. Italians arc: more gentle than black. Car- 

 niolans are reported to be still more gentle ; 

 but some report them cross. Carniolans may 

 not all be alike, or not all pure. 



Swarms Uniting 



Last year a lar^je swarm of bees came ofl, 

 and while I v as preparing to hive them a 

 swarm issued .' > n another hive and settled 



with them. I didn't know how to separate 

 them, and as they seemed to agree I put 2 

 hives together, one on top of the other, mak- 

 ing a double-decker of it. They did well. 

 This was a new thing to me. In a few days 

 another swarm came off, and while getting 

 them into the hive a swarm from another col- 

 ony came pouring into the hive. There was 

 nothing else for me to do but to make another 

 double-decker. This thing was repeated the 

 third time. 



This spring one of those double-deckers has 

 swarmed. There seemed to be a half barrel of 

 bees. They couldn't all get in a single hive 

 any way I could fix it, so another double- 

 decker was made. 



What should I have done with them, and 

 what am I to do in the future. If they keep 

 this up I will have to get some 10-bushel 

 boxes. Iowa. 



Answer. — Some throw a sheet over the 

 hive to prevent another swarm uniting with 

 it. If they persist in spite of the sheet, you 

 can help matters by having a smoker in full 

 blast and playing lively upon them. A better 

 way is to have your queens clipped; then 

 when a swarm issues, move the old hive away, 

 set a new hive in its place for the swarm to 

 enter on its return. Pick the queen up when 

 she comes out, and let her run into the new 

 hive with the swarm. With this management 

 swarms will seldom oSer to unite. 



A Queenless Colony 



1. My bees are doing very well now. I win- 

 tered 7, but have lost 2, and one other is very 

 weak. What shall I do with it? I think the 

 queen is lost, so I have thought that I would 

 put in with them the first swarm that comes 

 along. 



2. Would you advise putting another super 

 on the hive before they swarm? They seem to 

 be rather lazy. Wisconsin. 



Answers.— 1. Yes, you can put a swarm 

 with them if they are queenless, or you can 

 unite them with the weakest of the others. 



2. Giving more room is not a cure for lazi- 

 ness unless they actually need the room. But 

 be sure to give them all the room they need, 

 and the best way to be sure of that is to give 

 it a little before it is needed. 



Asking Questions - 

 —Feeding Honey- 



Hive-Ventilation 

 -Ants in Supers 



1. Can one ask as many questions as he 

 wishes, if they are not answered in his bee- 

 books and are about bees? 



2. Does a hive need ventilation if in the 

 shade, and, if so, would it need it when the 

 temperature gets up to 90 degrees in the 

 shade or below that? How low can the tem- 

 perature get before it needs shutting down ? 



3. Is it all right to feed honey in the comb 

 from a colony that has died during the win- 

 ter, if it smells all right, and would it be if it 

 did not? 



4. Would it do to put a littlechunk of comb 

 honey at the entrance at night to stimulate 

 brood-rearing? 



5. Do black ants harm anything in the up- 

 per stories? Iowa. 



Answers.— 1. Yes, provided he does not 

 ask more than 53 times in a year. 



3. Yes, I once had combs melt down in a 

 hive so thoroughly shaded that the sun did 

 not shine on it all day long; but there was a 

 thicket on one side and a corn-field on the 

 other, so that there was little chance for the 

 air to stir. .\ colony must have ventilation 

 to some extf.m always; and, of course, it will 

 have some ventilation with a very small en- 

 trance. At any time when bees are busy 

 gathering til .c should be sufBcient ventila- 

 tion so the bees will hang out. An entrance 

 equivalent to '.i square inches is as little as 

 should be a!' .wed, and if that can not be had 

 otherwise . lie hive should be blocked up. But 

 20 square luehes of ventilating space is better 

 than 9. Tliere is no need to make any change 

 when the teiijperature runs up to 90 degrees, 

 nor when it runs down on cold nights. 



3. Yes, ii it all right to feed honey from a 



