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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 22, 1906 



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(Dur*Sister 

 Beekeepers 



J 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Bees Wintered Well 



I have just returned from my winter sojourn in Cuba 

 and Florida, and find my bees have wintered well — not hav- 

 ing lost a single colony. My sister bee-keeper visited me 

 to-day — Mrs. A. h. Amos — and tells me her bees are in fine 

 shape, so I think, as a whole, the bees have wintered well 

 on the summer stands in Central Nebraska. f> c" 1 , — ' 



Westerville, Nebr., March 9. Jennie". Booknau. 



Honey for Freckles and Liver Spots 



For freckles and liver spots : Eight ounces of pure ex- 

 tracted honey, 2 ounces of glycerin, 2 ounces of alcohol, 6 

 drams of citric acid, IS drops of essence of ambergris. Ap- 

 ply night and morning. If this does not remove them, you 

 will probably be obliged to use some good proprietary 

 bleach. There are bleaches that are perfectly harmless. — 

 Mme. Qui Vive, in Chicago Record-Herald. 



Lest the supply of honey should not suffice for all the 

 freckles in existence, it may be well to add that in the same 

 column Mue. Qui Vive says : 



"Genuine beauty is never shadowed by a freckle any 

 more than the sun is eclipsed by a candle." 



Thinks She Wants Large Hives 



My Dear Miss Wilson :— I am thinking of buying a 

 new hive and don't know just what I want. My idea is to 

 run one colony only for extracted honey the coming sum- 

 mer. I do not care much for increase. My idea is a larger 

 hive and a " rousing " big colony. Do you recommend a 2- 

 story dovetail hive for this purpose ? If so, how do you 

 manipulate such a colony when you have 2 brood-chambers, 

 in looking for queen-cells, etc.? If you do not recommend 

 such a hive can you recommend a good one for the purpose 

 above mentioned ? 



Also, are the 2-story hives both for comb or extracted 

 honey made in the double-walled chaff-filled ? In a catalog 

 I have, all the hives described seem to be single-walled, and 

 would require much more careful packing than the double- 

 walled hives in winter. 



The frames in my 8-frame Hilton hives are Hoffman 

 frames, and I shall continue to use the same in whatever 

 hive I buy. 



Also, for extracted honey, do you recommend the deep 

 or shallow frames ? 



My reason for changing hives is to get a larger colony 

 than an 8-frame hive can accommodate, and also more 

 honey per colony. I shall run mainly for comb honey, but 

 want one colony for extracted honey for medicinal uses. In 

 case I like the larger hives better after a trial, I shall buy 

 enough to take all my bees. 



Also, are the large hives better than the smaller ones 

 in a city ? Things which apply in the country are some- 

 times quite wrong in a city. 



The fall and winter up to last Friday have been un- 

 usually mild, and the bees have been out some nearly every 

 week. Two weeks ago last Saturday the thermometer was 

 somewhat above 50 degrees, and the bees were all out for a 

 good flight. Since then the thermometer has been down as 

 low as 6 degrees below zero, and the bees are " sleeping." 



Grand Rapids, Mich., Feb. 1. Elsie A. Cutter. 



The decision of the question as to what is the best hive 

 for you depends a whole lot upon what you are going to do. 

 If you do not intend to give the bees a great deal of atten- 

 tion, but expect to leave them a good deal to their own de- 

 vices, then the larger hive, by all means. It allows a larger 

 stock of provisions on hand at all times, with less danger of 

 starvation. But if you expect to give the bees all the atten- 

 tion they need, then the smaller hive may be the better, 



especially for comb honey. By the addition of another 

 story you can have all the advantages of the larger hive, 

 using only one story when it may seem best. With 2 stories 

 you have room for even stronger colonies than with one 

 story of the larger hive, and then, when the harvest comes, 

 you can reduce to one story, throwing the bees largely into 

 the supers. 



If only one colony is to be run for extracted honey, bet- 

 ter have the brood-chamber the same as the rest, for the 

 sake of uniformity, even if not just the best for extracted 

 honey. And for so small an amount of extracting, you may 

 as well have extracting-frames the same as the brood- 

 frames. 



City or country would hardly make any difference as to 

 the kind of hive. 



When brood is in 2 stories, you must lift off the upper 

 story to find queen-cells in the lower story. But you will 

 not have much of that do, for there will not be much hunt- 

 ing for queen-cells before reducing to one story for giving 

 supers. 



You will find the single-walled hives easier to handle ; 

 and the packing for winter is not a very serious matter. 

 You will probably not find chaff hives made so as to be used 

 part of the time single story and part of the time double 

 story. It may not be out of place to say that we often have 

 colonies so strong that a 10-frame hive would not accommo- 

 date them, but with the 8-frame 2-story they can run up to 

 12 or 15 frames if they want to. 



Doctor filler's 

 Question = 33ox 



=\ 



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. 



Formalin for Foul Brood 



What became of the formalin treatment for foul brood, that was 

 so popular a year or two ago? I have not seen it mentioned for some 

 time. Did it prove unreliable? California. 



Answer. — Formalin, or formaldehyde, could hardly be considered 

 as a cure for foul brood, for it would kill all bees and brood submitted 

 to it. Its proposed use was to save the combs of foul-broody colonies 

 from being melted up. Some reported that combs thoroughly fumi- 

 gated with the drug would have no trace of foul brood left, and could 

 be given with sifety to healthy colonies, and others were not so suc- 

 cessful.' The probability is that if rightly used it may disinfect 

 diseased combs; at least that is the belief of some good authorities. 



Drones and Brood In Hives in February 



It is now Feb. 25 — a very warm day — and my nephew looked at 

 his 3 colonies, and found 2 of them with lots of sealed and hatching 

 brood. They are Italians, and have drones hatched out, 2 queen-cells 

 capped over. One cell was just hatched out, and he found the young 

 queen, but forgot to look for the old one. Will the young queen be 

 of any account! Were they superseding the old queen in February, 

 or will they be likely to swarm, as the maple-buds are swelling? The 

 colony is extra-strong for this time of the year, and the old queen was 

 very prolific. I have been keeping bees about 10 years, and never 

 heard of such a thing. 1 am taking 3 bee-papers, and do not remem- 

 ber having read about it. Illinois. 



Answer.— There is nothing unusual in finding brood in the last 

 week in February, but it is very unusual for a young queen to be 

 reared so early. It was probably a sort of forced superseding, the bees 

 recognizing that the queen had so far failed that they must imme- 

 diately take steps to supersede her. A queen reared so early is not 

 likely to prove of great value, and it will be well to keep an eye on 

 the colony lest it be found queenless in April. Swarming is not at all 

 likely in February in Central Illinois, no matter how strong the colony. 



Temperature in Center of Winter Bee-Cluster- 

 Combined Comb-Guide and Starter 



Making 



1. In Gleanings for April 1, 1896, page 307, Mr. Doolittle gives 92 

 degrees as the lowest temperature the bees will allow in the center of 

 the cluster even on frosty nights, and from actual tests he has con- 

 cluded that 92 to 9S degrees is the usual heat in the center of the clus- 

 ter of bees. CZ1 



2. I had no thought of asking questions when I started toiwrite, 



