164 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Feb. 22, 19C6 



the hungry swarms from yards where there are but few 

 colonies, and they totally neglected. Not much doubt about 

 that. Well, the additional kink is that a few decoy hives 

 posted up on roofs and trees around will take them auto- 

 matically. William Stolley got six of them in one season. 

 He did well — and wants to hear from the fellow that can 

 beat it. Page 30. 



Lumber Pricks in Texas. 



Pass some of those high prices up this way, please ! 

 The Texans call lumber high at S22 per M. Page 31. 



L,ate Swarms North and South. 



Yes, Oct. 31 distances Sept. 22 as record for the lateness 

 of a swarm — or would, except that we can hardly let Cali- 

 fornia, and Texas, and Florida trot in the same class with 

 the Northern States on the Atlantic side of the Rockies. 

 CD And A. J. Burns shows that an imprisoned host of rob- 

 ber-bees can sometimes be enlisted and queened and started 

 off on an honest career as a colony. Possibly some of us 

 may have suspected as much before. Page 34. 



Doctor 2T!iiler's 

 (Question - Box 



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

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

 Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



J 



Two-Pound vs. One Pound Sections 



H. A. Smith, page 126, wants to know what I think 

 about 2-pound sections. They had the field when sections 

 were introduced years ago, but side by side brought 2 cents 

 a pound less than the 1-pounds ; so that notwithstanding 

 the less labor in their production they were driven out of 

 the market. It is somewhat doubtful whether they would 

 do any better now. C. C. M. 



Cutting Small Soft-Maple Limbs In Spring for Sap for 



Bees 



I have 30 colonies of bees whu-h I desire to increase. I 

 also have a grove on my farm of about 10,000 soft-maple 

 trees. Now, as soon as the bees begin to fly well in the 

 spring, and in order to build up fast, if I would cut off a 

 small limb of a lot of the trees so that they could work on 

 the sap, which flows profusely, would it help the bees, or 

 would it be a damage to them ? Nebraska. 



Answer. — I don't know, but I think it would be a good 

 thing. There is just a question whether it might not get 

 the bees out on days so cold that the loss from chilled bees 

 would overbalance any good resulting. Neither would the 

 trial one year tell positively what might be done another 

 year. One year there might be nothing but good weather 

 at the time, and the next nothing hut chilly, windy and wet. 

 At any rate, I rather think I'd try the experiment, not being 

 in a hurry about it till there seemed a fair prospect of fairly 

 good weather. 



■» • » 



To Use or Not to Use Queen Excluding Zinc ? 



On page 105 " Pennsylvania" asks regarding excluders : 

 "Would you use bound, unbound, or wood-andzinc ? " We 

 were just congratulating ourselves on seeing your honest 

 opinion on a matter we have been interested in, when, by 

 answering the first part of query No. 2, you shut off all the 

 rest, and every subscriber to the paper is made a partaker 

 of the apparent snubbing given by half-answered questions. 

 My present opinion favors a full sheet of queen-excluding 

 zinc, because of the larger surface available for the use of 

 the bees. Ontario. 



Answer. — I should regret exceedingly to snub any 

 one, even at second-hand, in this department, and I do not 

 mean to leave a question "half-answered" in any case, 

 even if I can do no better than to say I don't know. I think 

 you will absolve me from the charge if you will look again. 

 It is true that there are two questions, and I gave one 



answer, but that one answer answers both questions. In 

 order, however, to satisfy you fully, I will now give a cate- 

 gorical anUwerto each of the questions. 



The first question is: "Is it necessary to use queen- 

 excluders with dovetailed hives in producing comb honey ?" 

 To that question I answer, No. 



The second question is : " Would you use Njund, un- 

 bound, or wood-and-zinc ?" To that question I answer, No. 



I now submit whether those two answers were not just 

 as fully understood from the one answer I gave : " I wouldn't 

 use excluders for comb honey." 



I can fancy your replying : " Yes, but some may want 

 to know what you would prater if you used either excluder." 

 Very true, and some might also want to know whether I 

 would use excluders for extracted honey, and several other 

 things might be asked. Now, if you are going to hold me 

 responsible to answer all the questions that some one else 

 might ask, under penalty of being charged with apparently 

 snubbing every subscriber of the paper, don't you think 

 you are giving me a pretty big stint ? Bless your heart, my 

 good friend, I don't know enough to answer all the ques- 

 tions now asked, without exposing my ignorance by trying 

 to answer all the questions I can imagine might be asked. 

 You don't want to be too hard on me, do you ? 



Well, now, seeing it's you, I'm going to answer the 

 question I infer you want answered, even though you 

 haven't directly asked it. 



If I were going to work for extracted honey I would use 

 queen-excluders. As to the kind, there are several things 

 to be taken into consideration. The wood-andzinc keeps 

 in shape better than anything else. The all-zinc has a 

 larger number of perforations, but if it should sag down so 

 as to rest on the top-bars, that would shut off a large num- 

 ber of them from use. In any case, either one has more per- 

 forations than needed for free passage of the bees. The 

 wood-and-zinc excluders are rather frail, easily broken, 

 making them in the long run more expensive than the 

 others. So you see there are advantages and disadvantages 

 on both sides. If I were to work for extracted honey I 

 would use wood-and-zinc excluders, because I have 150 of 

 them on hand — barring what have been broken ; and if I 

 had them all to buy I don't know which I would use, with 

 some suspicion, however, that it would be the all-zinc. 



Now, if I haven't been mind-reader enough to answer all 

 that was in your mind, send on any further questions and 

 I'll do my level best on them. 



Shade Protection— Gravel to Keep Down Weeds 



1. Would it be practical for me to move my apiary from 

 an orchard to the west side of a grove with no protection but 

 on the east, as it is too close to the road ? 



2. What would give the quickest protection ? 



3. Would gravel keep the weeds down around the hives 

 very well ? Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, move them in the spring before they 

 get to flying frequently, say at a time when you think they 

 will be confined something like a week before having a 

 flight after removal. Clear off everything at the old place 

 so it will have no resemblance to their old home, and as an 

 additional precaution it will be no harm to set up a board 

 before each entrance, not removing the board until they 

 have had two or three flights. 



2. The quickest protection is a shade-board made of any 

 cheap stuff placed over a hive, letting it project over the 

 south side. This for a protection from the heat of the sun 

 on hot days. But it will not be needed until the days do get 

 hot, perhaps along in June, and even then some good bee- 

 keepers think it is better not to have such protection. So 

 good a bee-keeper as E. W. Alexander is cutting away the 

 trees that shade his bees. 



If you mean protection against west winds, then the 

 quickest thing is a high, close, board fence. For a growing 

 protection, plant cottonwood, or poplar for quick results. 



3. Yes, if deep enough. I don't know just how deep ; 

 perhaps 6 inches. 



Please Send Us Names of Bee-Keepers who do not 



now get the American Bee Journal, and we will send them 

 sample copies. Then you can very likely afterward get 

 their 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. 



