867 



American Ttee Journal 



A spacious hall has been secured for 

 the meetings, just two blocks from the 

 International and Great Northern Rail- 

 road depot. This hall is situated some- 

 what away from the main 'and noisy 

 part of the city, and should be an ad- 

 mirable place for the convention ses- 

 sions. 



Hotel accommodations have been 

 secured at the Grand Central Hotel, 

 located just intermediate on the same 

 street from the above-named depot, or 

 it is one block from the depot, and the 

 hall one block from the hotel. 



Further particulars will be given 

 next week. 



©cfarMillerSvga 

 ftuesfion-B^ 



_ 



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



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



UP Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Drones With Yellow Bands 



This season I noticed some drones with 

 yellow bands on them. Is this anything un- 

 usual ! Ohio. 



Answer. — It is nothing unusual where 

 there is Italian blood; although the markings 

 of the drones are not so uniform as those of 

 the workers, the yellow appearing as blotches 

 rather than bands. It may be that you have 

 black bees, and so long as they remained 

 black there would tie no yellow on the drones. 

 Then one or more of your young queens met 

 drones from apiaries within 2 or 3 miles, said 

 drones belonging to Italian or hybrid colo- 

 nies, resulting in drones with yellow mark- 

 ings in your apiary. 



Perhaps a Hunger-Swarm - Uniting 



Weak Colonies-Thick Syrup 



Uncapped for Winter 



Stores 



I have only 3 colonies of bees, and they 

 have been so weak that the moth have both- 

 ered them very much the past summer. I am 

 feeding them now for winter. One colony is 

 in fair shape for winter, but 2 are very weak, 

 probably not enough bees to make more than 

 one good colony. One of these swarmed out 

 of the hive yesterday, but the queen was 

 clipped, and so the bees came back. There 

 were no moths in the combs, although there 

 were a few — 2 or 3 — on the bottom-board. 

 This colony has scarcely any honey in the 

 hive, but some brood and plenty of pollen. 



1. What was the cause of their swarming 

 out? 



2. Although these 2 weak colonies seem to 

 have good queens, would it be best to unite 

 them and then continue feeding for winter? 



3. What is a good plan for uniting weak 

 colonies in the fall? 



4. Will bees winter on thick syrup put in 

 the combs and left uncapped? Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. It looks line a hunger- 

 swarm, the bees swarming out because out of 

 honey. 



2. Yes, it is better to make 6ure of having 

 the united colony pull through the winter 

 than to run the ri6k of having both so weak 

 as to be l06t. But if you practise wintering 

 in the cellar, a weak colony will make it 

 which would be pretty sure to die outdoors. 



3. If there is any choice of queens, kill the 

 poorest 2 or 3 days before uniting. Then 

 take an empty hive, and put into it a frame 

 from each hive alternately, using the frames 

 that are best till you have your hive full. 

 Another way is to set the hive you have made 

 queenless over the other hive, a sheet of 



manilla paper between the hives, and a hole 

 in the paper large enough for a single bee to 

 pass through. In a few days you will find 

 the paper thrown out in bits at the entrance 

 and the bees united. Then you can reduce to 

 one story, removing the extra frames. 



4. Yes, but not so well as if they have time 

 to cap it. 



Foundation Splints of Wood and 

 Broom-Corn 



This season I decided to use splints to stay 

 up ihe foundation in brood-frames, but 1 

 couldn't get them small enough to suit me. I 

 could split them out of redwood very easily, 

 as small as V-inch square, but I believe you 

 recommend 1-16 The Ij-inch square splints 

 make strong, straight combs, and no sagging 

 of the upper cells of the foundation, as they 

 do with the horizontal wiring, but the 5s -inch 

 splints are a little too big. I noticed that the 

 queens skipped a good many cells where these 

 splints were in the bottom of the cells. 



I thought I had found a perfect substitute 

 for both splints and wire in common broom- 

 straw. So I put in several hundred frames 

 with foundation, strengthened with 4 straws 

 to the sheet; these straws were selected 

 straight and all of a size as nearly as possible. 

 They were placed in boiling wax and then 

 laid on the foundation while hot, and also 

 pressed into the foundation the same as wire. 

 Those that were built out were the prettiest 

 combs I ever saw, but the bees cut out the 

 straws of about % of them, leaving slits in 

 the sheets %-inch wide. Possibly it was the 

 kind of bees that would account for it, for 

 those colonies that kept the straws in made 

 no attempt to remove them. There was a 

 fairly good honey-Bow at the time. The bees 

 were low-grade hybrids. Can you guess what 

 the trouble was? I would like very much to 

 use the straws if I were sure that the bees 

 would leave them in. They made no attempt 

 to remove the splints. California. 



Answer. — Your experiment is a very inter- 

 esting one, and I don't know enough to be 

 positive why you succeeded in some cases and 

 not in others. I suspect, however, that the 

 character of the bees had less to do with it 

 than the condition of the strawsof the broom- 

 corn. Of course, you understand that in a 

 splint of perfect broom-corn there is an out- 

 side flinty surface like glass, and if the spliDts 

 were used hot enough when put into the 

 foundation, there would be nooutside coating 

 of wax, and the bees would refuse to try to 

 attach anything to the glassy surface. 



Opposed to that view, however, is the fact, 

 if I understand the matter correctly, that the 

 matter went by colonies, each colony either 



making full use of the splints, or else refus- 

 ing them altogether. Of course, it might be 

 that in some frames you used the splints hot 

 enough for the wax to run off, and in other 

 frames cool enough for a coating of wax to 

 remain, and that in some way you gave the 

 right kind to one colony and the wrong kind 

 to another ; but that does not seem probable. 



I have never noticed but that the 1 -16 

 wooden splints were used alike by Italians 

 and hybrids, but there is a bare possibility 

 that it might be different with the broom-corn. 

 In any case the splints of wood, 1-16 square, 

 work so well and cost so little, that there is 

 no very great need to seek for anything else. 



I may remark in passing, that I have 

 said that the splints were sliced, but I have 

 been told that I am mistaken about that, they 

 being sawed. Your splints % square took up 

 so much room that one would expect that at 

 least some of the cells over them would not 

 be used by the queen. It is just possible that 

 you would be able to have them '^xl-lG, and 

 if these were well coated and pressed flat into 

 the foundation, they might work as well as 

 the 1-16 square. 



Your report seems to 6how that when you 

 do get the splints to work right, the combs 

 are exceedingly satisfactory. I think that 

 will be the general verdict. 



Bee-Gloves 



-Wax Worms 

 Bee Noises 



-Strange 



1. What kind of gloves do you think best 

 for handling bees? Will bees sting through 

 kid gloves? 



2. Will the queen sometimes get through 

 the queen-excluder? 



3. What is meant by " splints " in frames? 



4. How do wax-worms get in empty combs 

 after being stored in a moth-proof box? I 

 looked them over before putting them in the 

 box, and a few weeks after there were worms 

 in some of the combs. 



5. On page 722, I notice some one from 

 Wisconsin heard a strange noise from a col- 

 ony of bees. I heard the same noise here 

 some time ago, and it sounded to me like the 

 noise that the gearing would make in ma- 

 chinery. 1 believe it came from the drones, 

 as they were driven out by the workers. 



6. Have you ever heard of " Prof. Jonkin 

 and His Busier Bees," the man who crossed 

 his bees with lightning-bugs? Iowa. 



Answers.— 1. Bees will sting through any- 

 thing as thin as kid gloves. Buckskin does 

 better, but is not always proof against stings. 

 Rubber gloves are good, but uncomfortable. 

 Pigskin is probably as good as anything, and 

 not expensive. It has a disagreeable smell, 

 especially when new. 



2. If the perforations are just right, a nor- 

 mal queen ought never to get through. Some 

 say that a virgin will get through because 

 smaller than a laying queen. But I am of the 

 opinion that the thorax of a virgin is as large 

 before as it is after she gets to laying, and no 

 matter how large the abdomen of a laying 

 queen may be, it is yielding, and if the thorax 

 gets through the abdomen will follow. 



3. Pieces of wood 1-16 inch6quare and long 

 enough to reach from top-bar to bottom-bar. 

 boiled in wax and pressed into the foundation 

 vertically in brood-frames to prevent sagging. 

 They have the advantage over wiring that 

 they allow the foundation to come clear down 

 to the bottom-bar. If used when conditions 

 are favorable, they allow the frame to be en- 

 tirely filled with comb from top to bottom. If 

 used when little honey is coming in, the bees, 

 instead of building clear down to the bottom- 

 bar, are likely to gnaw a passage next the 

 bottom-bar. 



4. The eggs were there, and hatched out 

 after being shut up in the box. 



5. I think you are the first one to mention 

 such a thing. 



6. I don't remember to have heard of Prof. 

 Jonkin, but I have heard of bees crossed with 

 lightning-bugs. But I sometimes have doubts. 



