Oct. 4, 1906 



American Ttec Journal 



than ' 4 iDch across, anil galvanized or rusted, 

 so as not to be smooth enough to be crowded 

 farther in when the frames are crowded to- 

 gether. One of these is driven into the top- 

 bar atone end, and another within 2 1 ., inches 

 or so of the bottom end of the bottom-bar on 

 the same end, and the same thing repeated on 

 the other side of the frame at the opposite 

 end. A guage is used to drive the nails in to 

 exactly the right depth, but in Europe thou- 

 sands of such spacers are in use with heads 

 of such thickness that they may be driven in 

 the correct depth automatically. After using 

 thousands of these spacers for a number of 

 years, I am more pleased with them than 

 ever, but if I had it to do over again, I would 

 try very hard to get the automatic sort of 

 nails. You may ask why such nails as spacers 

 have not come into use more generally. I 

 think the chief reason is that manufacturers 

 and dealers object that the nails will be in the 

 way of the uncapping knife. But what dif- 

 ference does that make to those who work for 

 section honey entirely? Neither ought the 

 nails to be so much in the way of the uncap- 

 ping knife, as they are only at one end on 

 each side. 



2. There isn't really such a great difference 

 in the matter of size of sections, and I am 

 somewhat skeptical as to their being anything 

 better than the kind most generally in use, the 

 4 1 4 x4 1 4 , although I have tried the other 

 kinds, some of them on a pretty large scale. I 

 doubt the correctness of your idea that bees 

 will begin sooner in a 4x5 section. The width 

 of the two is about the same, and if the bees 

 begin building at the top, as they always do, 

 they must begin in the taller section farther 

 away from their previous work than in the 

 one ; [ inch lower down. Looks as if they 

 would prefer the one that allows them to 

 start their work the lowe6t down, doesn't it? 



Hive-Ventilation in Moving Bees- 

 Entrance-Blocks— Thin or Extra- 

 Thin Section Foundation 



1. What is the highest temperature that 

 you consider safe in moving bees without 

 ventilation? Say that you had to move them 

 when the thermometer stood at 50 degrees, 

 how much ventilation would you give? 



2. In making the entrance-blocks, as de- 

 scribed on page 47 of your "forty Tears 

 Among the Bees," would it not be better to 

 make the entrance with two spacing nails on 

 one edge of the board instead of cutting the 

 notch ? 



3. Do you use thin surplus foundation, or 

 extra-thin, in the sections? I think the ques- 

 tion is not answered in your book. 



Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. With the thermometer at 

 zero it might be safe to. move bees without 

 ventilation, but even then a strong colony 

 might be the better for it, for the moving 

 would be likely to 6tir them up to so much 

 action that they would need fresh air. When 

 1 move my bees in fall and spring, they have 

 no other ventilation than that afforded by the 

 entrance covered with wire-cloth. But then 

 my entrances are 12x2 inches. Still, when i 

 had entrances 12x 3 8 , years ago, that was all 

 the ventilation they had, and the temperature 

 was sometimes a good deal above 50 degrees. 

 So I would feel safe in saying that at 50 de- 

 grees I would allow a ventilating opening of 

 12XV, and perhaps half as much would do. 



2. One of the 6ad things about writing a 

 book on bee-keeping is that by the time the 

 ink is dry some of the things in the book are 

 not true. I don't use entrance-blocks such as 

 described in the book you mention. Unless 

 wedged in very tight, there was danger of the 

 blocks falling out of place, and if wedged 

 very tight, the sides of the bottom-board were 

 crowded apart. So this year I used an en- 

 trance-board of the same size, only % inch 

 thick, being held in place by a small wire- 

 nail at each end driven through the board into 

 the front of the hive, but only partly driven 

 in, so a6 to be withdrawn easily. Your ques- 

 tion, however, has nothing to do with that. 



You want to know whether, instead of hav- 

 ing at one lower corner a hole an inch square, 

 it would not be belter to have a shallow space 

 extend the entire entrance. The chief idea of 

 that 1-inch hole probably was that there was 

 no danger of its being clogged. If the en- 

 trance ran the width of the hive, it would 

 hardly be less than ! 4 inch deep, making the 

 opening amount to 3 square inches, or three 

 times as much as the 1-inch hole. That lets 

 in more cold air than we care for, and yet 

 there is some danger of clogging, with no 

 greater depth. You will see that the square 

 hole allows the smallest entrance without 

 danger of clogging. 



3. Thin. I'll tell you why. The best I can 

 do, there will be times when sections are on 

 and the bee6 are not working in them. It 

 may be before they begin work, or after the 

 harvest has closed, or a few days lull in the 

 middle of the harvest. At such times the ex- 

 tra-thin foundation is likely to be gnawed 

 down in a very unpleasant way, and they are 

 not so bad on the thin. If you don't have 

 the same trouble, you will wisely use the ex- 

 tra-thin. 



teporfsand 

 experiences 



Swarm That Staid Out Long— 

 Poop Season 



I had a similar experience to that of No. 3, 

 on page 705. A swarm came out with a 

 clipped queen and clustered somewhere in 

 near-by timber, where I could not find them, 

 and it was about an hour before they re- 

 turned. They were gone so long that I had 

 given up all idea of their returning. I have 

 concluded that the farther they go from the 

 hive to cluster when the queen is not with 

 them, the longer it will be before they become 

 satisfied that their queen is not with them. 

 As to why they gave up the idea of swarming, 

 probably it was that when the queen was re- 

 turned to the hive there were so few bees left 

 in the hive, or with her, that they made no 

 objection to her destroying the queen-cells, 

 and before the swarm returned, the work of 

 destruction had been completed. 



It has been a poor season for honey here. 

 Basswood, from which we got most of our 

 honey last year, was an entire failure this 

 year — not a blossom to be found, owing, 

 doubtless, to late frosts. White clover wa6 

 abundant, and the colonies that were strong 

 in mature bees did well. I extracted 115 

 pounds from one colony, and 114 pounds 

 from another, but about X ot them have 

 stored no surplus. 



Until June 10 it was very cold, rainy, 

 cloudy and windy, so that colonies, unless 

 they were very strong in the spring, failed to 

 rear sufficient brood to be in condition to 

 take advantage of the white clover harvest, 

 or else spent their strength in swarming. It 

 has emphasized anew the importance of get- 

 ting all colonies strong before the honey-flow 

 begins. 



There are 35 acres of buckwheat one mile 

 from here, and for 2 or 3 hours in the morn- 

 ing the bees are now (Aug. 17) working 

 briskly upon it. 



From 75 colonies, spring count, I have ex- 

 tracted 2200 pounds, and taken off about 250 

 pounds of comb honey. The colonies that 

 did the best were the ones that did not 

 swarm. j. Ridley. 



Monticello, Minn., Aug. 17. 



box fastened over the hole, and when they 

 hatched out some of them would run in the 

 box; then I would listen, and when I heard 

 one piping in the box I would take it out. 

 This I did in time of swarming, and when I 

 introduced a queen I made a box like a gum, 

 with a hole in the top, and placed the intro- 

 ducing cage, with a queen-bee down through 

 the hole, and when the first swarm came out 

 after a few days I moved the old stand off a 

 little piece; then I put the box on the old 

 6tand; then some of the returning field-bees 

 would cluster on the cage; some of them 

 would stop a while and then go to the old 

 hive, and when the caged queen came out she 

 was introduced to the field-bees; then 6he 

 would take the cluster of bees and follow 

 them in the old hive and lead out a swarm of 

 bees, or else she would drive out another 

 swarm. Then she would swarm, which made 

 3 swarms in all. 



I produce two kinds of honey — what I call 

 tame honey and wild honey. Tame honey 

 will granulate, but the wild honey, which is 

 gathered from flowers, does not. The colony 

 that I have run for tame honey since July 12 

 has stored 40 pounds. If I did not close down 

 on the bees, they would never swarm. 



Some of the people around here say their 

 bees have not swarmed yet this year. I have 

 nothing on the place that has a hoof. My 

 failure was because I could not have field- 

 bees enough in one colony, so I used an extra 

 one for brood, and now I have 5 instead of it, 

 and I got 2 takes of honey from it. 



James L. A. Miller. 



Rosebud, Mo., Aug. 14. 



Queen-Reaping Years Ago 



There is a little honey coming in gradually. 

 There has been a great deal of honey-dew this 

 year. When I U6ed the box-hive I reared 

 some queen-bees by having auger-holes in the 

 side of the hive and a piece of comb in a little 



Rathep Poop Season— Weak Colonies 

 Over Strong— Swarming, Etc. 



The American Bee Journal is a great help 

 to the bee-keeper in many ways. One gathers 

 a wonderful fund of knowledge from what 

 others are doing in the business, through this 

 medium. For this reason it is indispensable 

 to the bee-keeper. I consider it a great aid 

 to one, even if he has but a single colony of 

 bees. 



The season in this vicinity has been rather 

 poor, although enough honey has come in 

 from white clover to assist the bees in build- 

 ing up 6trong, and causing swarming. As 

 yet we have not taken off any surplus, and I 

 think it doubtful if we will get any at all, a6 

 it i6 now August. Our surplus usually comes 

 from heartsease, and that is at its best this 

 month. 



As I wrote a year ago, I had 12 colonies to 

 put into winter quarters. In the spring I 

 took out but S, 4 having died from lack of 

 stores and the dreaded disease — foul brood. 

 With the assistance of an expert I have gotten 

 rid of foul brood, and am getting some new 

 queens. I now have my bees in good shape 

 for the fall flow of honey, if any comes. 



I now come to a matter of much interest to 

 myself, as well as to others: How to 

 strengthen weak colonies in early spring by 

 putting them on top of strong ones, with an 

 excluder between. I did this with 2 or 3, and 

 lost in every case. That, in my judgment, is 

 an error, as it is a fact that, after you have 

 done this, if the nights should turn cool the 

 bees will go below and leave the queen, which 

 cannot pass through the excluder. By fol- 

 lowing these suggestions I lost some valua- 

 ble queens. A bee-keeper never knows what 

 he can do with some of these new sugges- 

 tions until he tries. 



I also tried to prevent my bees from swarm- 

 ing by tiering up one story on top of the 

 others — by taking brood-frames from below 

 and putting in the top story — practically 

 making 2 colonies from 1 ; however, never 

 doing this with any bees unless they showed 

 indications of swarming. 



In the early spring I bought sweet clover 

 seed and scattered it broadcast from the hand 

 along the roadsides, thinking that was the 

 way to do it, and not one kernel came to 

 gladden my vision. What must one do to 

 have it ? 



Alfalfa is said to be a great honey-plant. 

 My experience is that it is practically worth- 



