June 21, 1906 



541 



American Bae Journal 



territory, and I can not tell him where to go. If he wants 

 to come down to Rice County, Kansas, I can point him to 

 an excellent place there where they have good climate, lots 

 of Alfalfa, good looking women, and splendid men. 



Mr. Holtermann — I am a specialist in bee-keeping, and in 

 regard to the question of how many colonies of bees a man 

 should keep, I agree with the idea first of all that if a man 

 won't keep them properly he would better not keep them 

 at all. In the next place, as to how many the specialist shall 

 keep, I am finding a difficulty which I am unable to over- 

 come and produce first-class honey, and that is, that at a 

 certain stage in the honey-flow in the average locality there 

 comes a time when we shall extract. Now if those bees 

 are run in the best way, the honey is all ready to extract at 

 about the same time, and the difficulty I find is to ex- 

 tract all at the same time. I have got up to something like 340 

 colonies of bees, and am wintering 339, beginning with 300. 

 I have tried to do my work quickly, intelligently, and ex- 

 peditiously, and I have at different times taken out from be- 

 tween 5200 and 5300 pounds of honey in a day, and yet it puzzles 

 me to overcome that difficulty of dealing with those colonies 

 at about the same time. I have used 6-frame extractors, and 

 I am selling them now and taking an 8-frame; I have or- 

 dered a gasoline engine, and I am having made an uncap- 

 ping machine. I am trying to increase the speed of extract- 

 ing, but the greatest difficulty which confronts me is that 

 of dealing with those colonies at that time quickly; and un- 

 less I can succeed in increasing my speed of extracting, I 

 can't increase much beyond the 300. I have read Mr. Town- 

 send's system and method, and I may be wrong, but I am 

 convinced that there are very few indeed that could carry 

 on out apiaries and keep bees in the way in which Mr. Town- 

 send seems to be successful ; and I think it would be a mis- 

 take for bee-keepers, and for the welfare of the people at 

 large, to let the idea go out that people can conduct out 

 apiaries and run them successfully, except under very ex- 

 ceptional conditions, by visits of that limited number in a 

 year. 



(Continued next week.) 



HiSkri 

 nesfion-B 



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



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



fl2P Dr. Miller does iwt answer Questions by mail. 



Making Honey-Vinegar 



I 6ee occasional mention made by you and others of making vin- 

 egar from unsalable honey. Will jou kindly tell me your method of 

 making the vinegar. Massachusetts, 



Answer. — If you dilute honey with water, and keep it long 

 enough, you can hardly prevent it from becoming vinegar. You can 

 take2pound6 of honey for a gallon of vinegar, or you can dilute 

 honey with water till it is only strong enough to float a fresh egg so 

 that a patch of the shell about as big as a silver dime shall float out of 

 the water. Then use the same means you would with cider for vin- 

 egar, letting it stand exposed to the air, keeping out the flies with mos- 

 quito-netting. Standing in the sun hastens the process. It takes a 

 year or two for it to " make." 



Growing Catnip and Sweet Clover— Salt and Sulphur 

 for Poul Brood 



1. They must be sown in the fall, and the sweet clover must be 

 covered. It will not grow in just any old way, at least not for me. If 

 I had known this a few years ago I could have had a good stand on 

 several acres that I now have to plow and re-seed, for although I have 

 800 acres of land I do not want a poor stand of sweet clover. It is too 

 valuable — the sweet clover I mean. 



3. I had foul brood in my yard last season, and I put salt and sul- 

 phur into every hive and around every entrance, and I can not find a 

 single cell of it now. If I do later I will report; but it may be that it 

 was not the salt and sulphur, for I did some painting also. If it 

 proves a cure, to which would you advise me to give the credit J 



I will tell you why I do not ask as many fool questions as I used 

 to do. It is because I read the American Bee Journal, and I also have 

 some bee-books, one of which is called " Forty Years Among the 

 g ee8 >> Nebraska. 



Answers.— 1. You are quite right that there are some ways in 

 which 6weet clover may utterly fail to make a stand. Vou may be 

 right that it is better sown in the fall, especially in your locality, but 

 I doubt whether it would fail here if sown in the spring, provided 

 conditions are all right. The one thing that causes failure is having 

 the ground too 60ft, for then it heaves in winter. The most of it here 

 grows along the roadside where the ground is very hard and the seed 

 tramped in. Perhaps it might be all right in soft ground if covered, 

 as you say ; but it must be covered deep enough so it will not heave in 

 winter 



You talk as if you had some acres of ground occupied with sweet 

 clover. Please tell us more about it. What do you use it fort If for 

 forage, do you u6e it green or dry? How much ground have you oc- 

 cupied with it? 



Do you seed down good land to be occupied entirely with catnip? 

 and is it of any use except for the bees? 



2. The probability is that neither the salt nor the sulphur was a 

 cure, nor yet the painting. It is nothing new for foul brood to seem 

 to disappear entirely for a time when a good flow of honey comes, but 

 in such case it is likely to reappear. If yours was genuine foul brood, 

 and does not appear again, be sure to report. 



Better to ask " fool questions " than to remain in ignorance; but 

 you are taking the wise course to get all you can from the books; and 

 when you've done that, there's still room for plenty of questions. 



When Do Bees Swarm ?-0ther Swarming Questions 



1. About what time do bees generally start to swarm? 



2. If a queen and drone fap is put on the hive, a swarm issues, 

 and the queen gets in the trap, but manages to find her way back, or I 

 put her back, how soon will they try again? 



3. If I put part of the bees in an empty hive without a queen, 

 will they rear one? Minnesota. 



Answers.— 1. It depends upon locality. In Minnesota likely 

 about the time white clover gets under good headway, and from that 

 on. If any one can give a more definite answer, I'll gladly yield the 

 floor. It will be about the time the first queen-cell is sealed. 



2. Generally the next day ; possibly not till 2 or 3 days ; possibly 

 not at all with that queen, for she may be badly treated by the bees, 

 causing her death if she doesn't swarm to suit them (but I wouldn't 

 like to be too positive about this) , the first virgin that emerges issuing 

 with a swarm something like 8 days after the time of the first swarming. 



3. Better not try it. The bees will be likely to desert unless you 



imprison them for a couple of days, and if they do rear a queen she 



will not be likely to be of the best; and no matter how good she is, it 



will not be far from 3 weeks before she gets to laying, and the force 



will be pretty well reduced and discouraged. Give them at least a 



mature queen-cell. 



■» ■ » 



Some Questions on Management-T-Supers 



1. The past winter was rather disastrous to bees in this vicinity, 

 and has left us with a good many empty combs; and while I want 

 some increase to occupy them, I have some hives that I don't want 

 their forces divided. If I retain their queens should they swarm, and 

 let the bees return to their hives without the queens, then when I hear 

 their young queens piping I destroy all queen-cells,.will they be likely 

 to swarm again? They are in 10-frame hives, and I have given them a 

 10-frame super on top. Do you think they will be likely to swarm? 



2. I wish to save their old queens, and have in mind taking other 

 hives, and by taking 1 frame with queen and putting into new hives 

 and shaking or brushing the bees into them, and putting the hives 

 with the brood on new Stands and giving them these queens, will they 

 accept them at once, or should I wait a day or two? 



If on the 8th day after swarming a queen is hatched, and several 

 days should ensue when it was unfit to go through and destroy queen- 

 cells, or they to swarm, would not several queens be hatched out? 

 Would there not be fighting to a finish? Some one has 6aid that the 

 worker-bees would guard the cells and not let them hatch if they con- 

 templated swarming. Don't that sound a little " fishy?" Queens are 

 hatched hy a process of Nature. Can they retard that process? 



4. I have heretofore been at a loss how to save queens for future 

 use. To show my ignorance I will ask: How do queen-breeders 

 manage to get their queens with accompanying bees into shipping- 

 cages? Do they take the worker-bees in their fingers? 



5. I had an extra queen about May 1 that I wished to save. So 

 from one of my strongest colonies I took 2 frames of brood and put 

 them on the old stand, and filled up with empty combs. I put the old 

 hive with queen on a new stand. I supposed many bees from the old 

 hive would return. As they did so. they fought till fully a pint of 

 bees were killed. I supposed the queen which I put on top of the 

 brood would be killed (she was in a shipping-cage). After they were 

 through fighting I opened the hive and found the queen liberated and 

 all right. Was such action to be expected under the circumstances, 

 or was it a freak ? 



6. I have seen much discussion between you and others about the 

 T-super. I have been using aT-superfor years, and will not use any 



