Oct, 19, 190S 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



731 



itself by certain rough-and-ready measure- 

 ments — touching the work with some of its 

 members. A live creature doesn't have to 

 measure as a machine would have to do it. 



And here's a big battle at boxing, worth 



traveling to 'Frisco to see ; 

 Ho, somebody 1 you go sponge Arthur, and 



somebody sponge Mr. D. 



DRONE-JDICE AS AN APIFUGE. 



The Forestier experiments which Mr. Da- 

 dant gives on page B32, are appetizing, to say 

 the least. Half inclined to think, though, 

 that the results will dissolve into thin air 

 when American bee-keep»rs try a hand. 

 Easily tried and soon settled, I should say. 

 As to protecting the hands with crushed 

 drones, I don't realize any need of having my 

 hands protected. I don't want to work with 

 ray bees when they are in any such infuriated 

 frame of mind as to sting my fingers. The 

 beginner would not feel so; but even he 

 would get harm rather than good if he had 

 the means of disregarding entirely the mood 

 that bees badly handled in bad weather can 

 be gotten into. At least one thing in these 

 attractive experiments looks very suspicious. 



The understanding is that drones can enter 

 other colonies about as safely as they enter 

 their own. If this is so it's queer that the 

 juice of alien drones themselves would be un- 

 noticed. I don't believe we want an apifuge — 

 not very sorely at any rate. But if wetting a 

 queen in the juice of crushed drones is certain 

 to give her a kind reception in the colony the 

 drones came from, that will be a valuable 

 addition to our resources. 



Daily Wax-Secretion op Bees. 



No, sir. Your 26,000 bees are not going to 

 secrete a pound of wax in one day. 'That 

 would require each bee to secrete wax at the 

 rate of its own weight in 6 days. Cut those 

 figures down heavily. Nearly 20 years ago I 

 was much interested in my own experiments 

 on this line. Memory poor, and haven't time 

 to hunt up the records just now, but the wax- 

 secretion of a colony is nearer an ounce per 

 day than a pound per day. Wax is produced 

 in scales — scales small and thin — and only 6 

 of them on a bee. They would have to grow 

 too much like .Jack's bean-stalk to equal one- 

 sixth of the bee's total weight in one day. 

 Page 634. 



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

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

 Dr. Miller does twt answer Questions by mail. 



Removlne Supers for Winter 



I have 1.5 colonies of black bees, with su- 

 pers on. Will it be best to take the supers 

 off, and leave them off during the winter, or 

 leave them on the hives empty? 



Tennessee. 



Answer.— It will be well to take off the 

 supers, most cerlainly if sections are in them. 

 No harm to leave the supers on if they are 

 filled with some sort of packing. 



Increase and Rearing Queens 



1. When I get out and can attend to the 

 bees, if I find they have eggs and larvie in the 

 brood-nest, would you advise me to put a di- 

 vision-board in the hive, placing the combs, 

 lartae and part of the bees on one side, shut- 

 ting off the queen and bees on the other side! 

 Understand, this is with the view of making 

 increase between now and spring I noticed 

 the bees were active upon the flowers before I 

 was disabled, and hope there are still drones. 



2. If the queenless beesshould make queen- 

 <:ells and place therein an egg, how long be- 

 fore the cell will be capped? 



3. What is the time, generally speaking, 

 from the capping until the queen cuts herself 

 out of the cell? 



4. How long is i^ on an average, from the 

 placing of an egg in a queen-cell till she 

 comes out a full-fledged queen ? 



5. If there are no drones, can we not by 

 feeding incite the queen to laying, and there- 

 by produce drones? 



6. If there are drones, and the queenless 

 bees have formed queen-cells, would you form 

 a nucleus of bees by taking 2 frames of bees 

 and one of honey, giving each nucleus a 

 capped queen cell? 



7. How long after the cell is capped should 

 it be before it is placed in a nucleu? 



California. 



Answers. — 1. A man who has been through 

 the mill as you have, certainly deserves to 

 succeed, but I doubt the wisdom of making 

 any increase before next season. A colony 

 gotten through the winter in good shape, and 

 strong for the beginning of the season, will 

 allow you to build up better than two weak- 

 lings that you might have if you divide now. 

 Moreover, if you decide to try the plan you 

 outline, you might do so without any great 



loss, and then unite for winter if you did not 

 succeed. 



2. In 8 or 9 days from the time the egg is 

 laid the cell should be capped. But instead 

 of an egg, queenless bees will start with a 

 larva 2 days or so of age, and ought to be 

 capped 4 to 6 days later. 



3. About a week. 



4. 15 or 16 days. 



5. Possibly, but it's uphill business. 



6. Yes, but hardly so late in the season. 



7. The riper the cell the better, say within 

 a day or two of hatching, or 5 or 6 days after 

 it is sealed. 



Wintering Bees In a Building— Taking 

 Off Supers for Winter 



1. I have recently put up a building to 

 winter bees. Can I cut a hole in it and place 

 the hive in front of it? 



3. I would also like to know if I can paint 

 a hive when the bees are in it. If so, when is 

 the best time to do it? 



3. When should I take off supers for win- 

 ter? Vermont. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, you can have a small 

 opening in the wall, and have a passage lead- 

 ing to it from the hive. But reports of win- 

 tering in this way have not generally been 

 the most favorable. 



2. Yes, the bees will not object, and the 

 best time, so far as they are concerned, is 

 when they are not very actively at work. 

 Now is a good time. 



3. Just as soon as the bees stop storing, and 

 in the present case that probably means some 

 time ago. 



Management for Comb Honey 



1 hive paid the strictest attention to the 

 questions you have answered in the American 

 Bee .Journal, liat kindly inform me if I have 

 the right idea of the way you handle your 

 colonies to produce abundantly of comb 

 honey. I do not know of your method of 

 getting colonies ready for the flow, but Mr. 

 Doolittle's plan is as follows : 



Six weeks before the flow, take a frame of 

 honey, breaking the cappings. and place the 

 same in the center of the colony. After " 

 days he inserts another frame of honey in the 

 center of the brood-nest, prepared as before. 



I failed to say that when he has decided to 

 commence operations he equalizes the stores 

 so that he knows each colony has enough to 

 carry it at least 2 weeks without any fear of 

 starvation. Is your plan different from thisi 

 Will I be asking you too much for your plan? 



Here is my point: If you have colonies 

 good and strong, and ready for the flow, do 

 you contract the brood-chamber down to say 

 5 or 6 frames, so the queen has only a few 

 frames to lay in, and so the bees will rush the 

 nectar into the supers? 



Also, by having only 5 or 6 frames in the 

 brood-chamber, you don't rear considerable 

 bees to become consumers instead of gather- 

 ers after the flow is over. Delaware. 



Answer.— All I do is to see that each col- 

 ony has abundance of honey, and then let 

 them build up at their own sweet will. So 

 you see you're not asking a great deal when 

 you're asking me to tell you that, and you 

 will please feel free to ask any questions you 

 like. 



As to further management, I don't con- 

 tract to anything less than one story of 8 

 frames. If the queen will occupy more than 

 one story, I give the second, and then, when 

 supers are put on, the colony is reduced to 

 one story. That useless-consumer theory 

 may be overworked, and I'm not afraid of 

 having colonies too strong at any time. 



I thank you for your kind words at the end 

 of your letter. 



May Be Robbing-Feeding for 

 Winter 



1. I believe my bees have paralysis. I have 

 only 3 colonies; they have stored no honey. 

 There are no other bees within a mile. It 

 looks as if my bees were robbing each other. 

 I have sprinkled sulphur over them once. 

 How often ought I to sprinkle them? They 

 are all fighting each other. A few seem to try 

 to get into the top of the hive, but I think 

 they are my own bees. I have contracted the 

 entrances. 



2. If I feed with a Boardman feeder, will 

 the bees whose hives are filled up below take 

 it up into the super? Two of the colonies 

 have one super on, and one has more. 



3. Would it be better to use a half-gallon 

 Mason jar rather than a Mason quart jar? 



4. The bees may have honey below. How 

 much syrup ought I to feed them? 



5. Would it be best to requeen them? They 

 are black and cross. According to the Ameri- 

 can Bee .Juornal they have bee-paralysis. 



Missouri. 

 Answers.- 1. It it is a case of paralysis, 

 keep up the sulphur every day or two till 

 cured. But your saying the bees try to get 

 in at the top makes it look like a case of rob- 

 bing. 



2. Whatever feeder you use, the bees will 

 carry up into the super the feed after the 

 brood-chamber is filled, and of course that 

 wouldn't do. 



3. One will answer as well as the other. 



4. That depends upon how much they al- 

 ready have Feed till they have in the brood- 

 chamber about 30 pounds in all. 



b It would be profitable to get a better 

 strain of bees. 



Location for Bee-Keeping- 

 Feeder 



Miller 



1. If you were free to select a location for 

 bee keeping, where would you go? 



2. What do you think of Northwest Colo- 

 rado as a location for a bee-keeper? also 

 Southwest .Missouri? and Big Horn Basin in 

 Wyoming? 



3. Where can we get such information in a 

 ready reference form? 



4. Should the inside wall of the Miller 

 feeder be a bee-space, or less, from the bot- 

 tom ; Would it not be better to be less than 

 a bee-space, to keep the bees from the main 

 part of the feeder? Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. It's a prob- 

 lem on which I'd put a lot of study if I had it 

 to decide. It certainly wouldn't be likely to 

 be such a location as I now have, with only 



