622 



July 19, 1906 



American Hee Journal 



out migrating, and simply sit down and stay there. I migrated 

 for about 20 years of my life, and I was sick, and $150 

 worse off than nothing, until I sat down and began 

 to do things, and then I found myself in better con- 

 dition.- It was a question with me whether this migratory 

 bee-keeping might not be an expensive amusement. 



Mr. Holtermann — It would be very expensive if it were 

 an amusement. 



Mr. Abbott — I wanted to find out whether Mr. Holter- 

 mann was pursuing this line of action simply because he 

 found satisfaction in it, and was solving problems he wanted 

 to solve, or whether he believed it was of practical utility 

 to all the bee-keepers in the United States and Canada. Down 

 in Missouri we can get from 150 to sometimes 250 pounds 

 of honey from a single colony of bees if the clover yields 

 well. When there was plenty of basswood, 150 or 200 pounds 

 was nothing. Now if Mr. Holterman doesn't get more than 

 that it seems to me it would not be practical for us to move 

 if we would only get honey to the extent he would get. He 

 said all of this boxing-up business, and so on, would be 

 ready in ten minutes, but I question if he can get ready to 

 move for less than a dollar per hive every time he moves. 



Mr. Holtermann — Did you have this kind of device? 



Mr. Abbott— Yes. 



Mr. Holtermann — I doubt it. 



Mr. Stewart — I moved 90 colonies of bees 7 miles a year 

 ago last fall, and it cost about $10. I moved them out of a 

 location where there was no possible show of their getting 

 any surplus honey at all. I got from that apiary 1,500 pounds 

 of honey after I moved them. You can figure whether it 

 paid or not. 



Mr. Holtermann — I have been practicing this for 4 

 years, and if I am in the bee-business another 4 years, and 

 have the necessary health and strength, I shall likely practice it. 

 I keep a careful record of all my expenses, and I know at the 

 end of the year what I have. 



Mr. Baxter — I know in Illinois that the moving of bees 

 has paid under certain circumstances. I have seen it done. 



Dr. Miller — I would not be fool enough to spend money 

 moving bees 5 or 10 miles in any direction, no matter whether 

 I got at home 50 pounds or 150 pounds, because I wouldn't 

 gain anything by it. There wouldn't be anything more to 

 get where I moved them. But it is not a question whether 

 at home I got 150 pounds or 20 pounds, it is a question as to 

 whether I get more somewhere else. Now, if there is some- 

 where that I can go to where there is a yield of honey and 

 none at home, I might make money by moving, even if I 

 were to have 150 pounds at home. 



Mr. Abbott — It is all right to discuss these things, but 

 is there anything in it for the great mass of bee-keepers? 



(Continued next week.. 



Deeded. Certainly comb is often built after the middle of July ; 

 for example, the comb built for buckwheat honey. 



3. If the combs are well filled it ought to be a plenty. 



4. Probably they will. 



Bocfor Millars 

 %esfion-B9)c 



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



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



Ht3?" Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Renewing Brood-Combs-Stores for Winter-Chunk 

 Honey vs. Section Honey 



1. How many years can bees use comb in the brood-chamber be- 

 fore it should be cut out and new comb built ? 



2. How late in the season can bees build comb? Bee-keepers here 

 say not after the middle of July. 



3. Will a single Dauzenbaker brood-body hold enough honey and 

 brood to winter safely here? 



4. Will my bees store more honey in shallow extracting-frames 

 (that is, chunk honey) than in sections? North Carolina, 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. I've seen instructions to have comb 

 renewed every 3 or 4 years; but in my 45 years' experience I have 

 never yet rejected good, straight worker-comb merely because it was 

 old. I don't see but the oldest combs I have are all right yet. 



2. I suppose they can build comb any time; at least I've known 

 them to do it in winter; and they will probably build it any time it is 



Catnip Honey 



Finding that catnip does well here, and finding the honey is bitter, 

 I want to ask whether or not the honey will sell; and where and to 

 whom, and at what possible price? Georgia. 



Answer. — Catnip has the reputation of producing honey of good! 

 quality, and it must be that the bitter honey comes from some other 

 plant that is yielding at the same time. Bitter honey is of course unfit 

 for table use, but it can be sold for mechanical purposes at not very 

 much less than good dark honey, probably through any commission- 

 house at your nearest large city. Unless you have a very large quan- 

 tity of it, your best plan may be to feed it in spring and have it all 

 used up in making brood. 



^ ■ » 



Color of Caucasian Bees 



I have read different accounts about Caucasian bees, but had 

 never seen any until the other day a gentleman who breeds them 

 showed me some. They looked like the Italians, only the dark stripes 

 seemed a little blacker. Now, if I read rightly, it stated that the Cau- 

 casians were a little darker than the black bees. How can I tell them 

 from other bees? Minnesota. 



Answer. — It is not likely that aDy one can give in words a de- 

 scription so exact that by that description alone one who has never 

 seen a Caucasian bee can make a definite decision. There are said to 

 be lighter and darker Caucasians, so that, like other bees, you are not 

 to expect all to be alike. I can give no description better than given 

 on page 250 of this journal, by Rev. Lyon and Prof. Benton, as both 

 of these gentlemen are familiar with Caucasians. 



A Beginner's Questions 



1. If one should place a super of sections on a strong colony, the 

 sections mostly tilled with comb from which the bees had taken the 

 honey the year before, and when they got them partly filled with 

 honey (but not capped), and one should raise the super and place 

 under it a super of sections with ODly starters, would there be any 

 danger of the bee6 carrying the honey from the upper super to the 

 brood-frames below? 



2. How long after the prime swarm is hived before there will be 

 young bees hatching? 



3. How long after a virgin queen is hived with an afterswarm be- 

 fore she will be laying? 



4. Does it hinder the bees from putting in honey to have a drone- 

 trap on the hive? 



5. Is it any harm to destroy the drones the first part of the season 

 when there are lots of them ? or would it be better to let them live 

 until after swarming is over? 



6. Is there any danger of blood-poisoning from the stinging of 

 bees? Maine. 



Answers. — 1. The bees would carry no honey from the upper 

 super into the brood-chamber unless the super should be left on after 

 the close of the harvest, and they would make very slow work about 

 it then. I do the very thing you mention every year. 



2. It takes 3 weeks from the time an egg is laid until the young 

 worker emerges, so it will be 3 weeks from the time the swarm is 

 hived until the first young bee emerges, if the queen should begin lay- 

 ing immediately after the swarm is hived; and it will not be long after 

 the hiving before she begins to lay. 



3. A week or so. 



4. Not seriously. 



5. In the average apiary there will probably be enough drones left 

 after you have made the attempt to kill them all off. Prevention is 

 better than cure; so it is better not to have drone-comb in any hives 

 except in a few where your best honey-gatherers are. 



6. I don't believe so. 



*-•-#■ 



Few Drones with Transferred Bees— How Often to 

 Renew Combs 



1. I had 4 colonies in box-hives which I transferred to movable- 

 frame hives last 6pring by drumming most of them out, and then after 

 3 weeks to a day I drummed out the hatched and nest, emptying the 

 boxes. They were fair-sized colonies, and at the first drumming about 

 an equal amount was drummed out of each box — all workers and the 

 queen of each ; at the second drumming 3 boxes gave about an equal 

 amount— all workers; but the fourth box had at this time about 3 or 4 

 times as many workers and about 20 husky drones. Is there any sig- 

 nificance in this? Should the others also have had drones? 



2. I put them all in 10-frame, full-sheet, wired-foundation hives, 

 and would like to know how many years these frames with comb may 

 be left in the hives before they should be replaced by new foundation? 



Illinois. 

 Answers— 1. It is not likely that there was any special significance 

 in the fact that no drones were present at first drumming and only in 



