900 



Oct. 25, 1906 



American ggg Journal 



still remains of drones issuing from worker- 

 cells sealed flat, providing there was no mis- 

 take in observation. With regard to the 

 character of the queen : as she was bought 

 for a tested queen that mean6 she was purely 

 mated. From what you say as to her worker- 

 progeny it seems pretty clear that she was 

 not, and the dealer who made a mistake in 

 the ca6e will probably be glad to replace her, 

 unless it be shown that it is a characteristic 

 of pure Caucasians to p r oduce such differ- 

 ently marked workers, which I think is not 

 the case. 



Wintering Bees in" a Cellar or Shed 



My bees have done well. I have a cellar 

 20x30 feet made of half boards and half sand, 

 with the front even with the street. The 

 back is 6 feet below the ground. The cellar 

 is dry, and is 8 feet deep, and will not freeze 

 in winter. Would I better put my bees into 

 the cellar or let them 6tay in the 6hed I have 

 built? The garden has a 7-foot fence made 

 of %-inch boards, placed close together, so 

 that no wind can blow through them. The 

 roof of the shed is of %-inch boards 6 feet wide, 

 20 feet long, and 6 feet above the ground, 

 with the front all boarded up, and fronting 

 the south. It is also sheltered by houses all 

 around, and gets the sun all day. 



Massachusetts. 



Answer. — I don't know. It will be a good 

 plan to put part in each, and then you will 

 judge better as to the future. If obliged to 

 decide for one or the other, I should make a 

 guess in favor of the cellar. 



Why Did the Bees Leave ? 



A neighbor of mine put a swarm of bees 

 into an 8-frame hive about June 15. They 

 filled the hive with comb, brood, eggs, and 

 honey about Aug. 15. They left it in that 

 condition. The brood was hatching out after 

 the swarm had left; there was no bee-moth, 

 no robbers, and no ants to bother it. Why 

 did they leave? Illinois. 



Answer. — Hard to guess why they should 

 do such a fool thing when they had honey, 

 and so were not starved out, and the only 

 guess I can make is that a young queen was 

 reared and the bees swarmed out and went 

 with her on her wedding-trip. But I don't 

 guarantee this guess in face of the fact that 

 eggs were present, and so a laying queen 

 must have been in the hive within 3 days. If 

 any one has a better guess, he can have my 

 place on the witness stand. 



Perhaps Some New Bee- Disease 



On page 802, is a communication signed 

 " Illinois," and headed "Chaff Hive-Cover— 

 Pure Italians," etc. He speaks about a bee- 

 disease, and losing 10U colonies before he 

 caught on to the trick. I wonder if his bees 

 have the same diseases as mine have. I sent 

 a sample to our State bee-inspector, and he 

 pronounced it foul brood, but it would not be 

 cured by the McEvoy treatment, nor would it 

 yield to the Alexander method of treatment. 

 It has the general symptoms of foul brood. 

 However, it has none of the stringyness of 

 foul brood nor the glue smell. The larvae be- 

 come almost ready to cap over, then turn a 

 coffee color and turn up Chinaman-shoe fash- 

 ion and die. The bees carry the grubs out, 

 only to repeat the operation. It seems to be 

 spasmodic in its operation, as sometimes I see 

 only an isolated cell, and at other times some 

 of the frames have almost all the larv;i< dead. 

 Then, when it is bad, it has a sourish smell. 

 I sent a sample to the A. I. Root Co. and they 

 say it is not foul brood. Whatever it is, it is 

 very contagious, as I took some queen-cages 

 that had never been used about my bees, but 

 had been in a box with others that had been 

 used about mine, over to my nephew, and he 

 used them, and his bees are all diseased but 

 one colony that he got from Texas about a 



year ago last spring. I have been trying for 

 3 years to cure my bees, but have not suc- 

 ceeded, and have lost all but 8 out of 30 colo- 

 nies. Last fall I took all the honey away from 

 them and fed them sugar-syrup. In the 

 spring I shook them all out on new founda- 

 tion and rendered up all the old combs, boiled 

 all frames, took all hives and sprinkled them 

 with coal-oil, burned them out, and the same 

 with hive-covers and bottom -boards. The 

 refuse, after rendering, I buried 2 feet under 

 ground. So I think there was no chance of 

 spreading it. The smoker I washed in car- 

 bolic acid, aUo all the tools and my hands — 

 tools and tips of my fingers in pure carbolic 

 acid. I have sent a sample to Dr. E. F. Phil- 

 lips, at Washington, or rather, A. I. Root sent 

 it for me, but I have not heard from them as 

 yet. I think it is some new disease in this 

 part of the country, and it is getting rid of 

 almost all the bees here. Illinois. 



Answer. — As I have said a number of 

 times, I'm not an expert in bee-diseases, and 

 don't know that I can say anything to help 

 out. unless it be to suggest that to follow the 

 McEvoy treatment I think you are required 

 to operate when the flow of honey is on. Tak- 

 ing away the honey in the fall would hardly 

 be counted orthodox, neither would throwing 

 the bees on foundation in the spring, if you 

 mean real spring before the honey-flow. I 

 should place much reliance on the diagnosis 

 of Dr. Phillips. 



When to Remove Supers In the Fall 



When 6hall I strip the hives of supers? 



Vermont. 



Answer. — Long ago, if sections are in the 

 supers. They should be taken off just as soon 

 as you decide the bees will store nothing more 

 in them. If not taken off yet, the sooner the 

 better. As to extracting supers, they are not 

 spoiled as sections are by being left on ; but 

 they may as well be taken off at once if they 

 are still on. 



Inspecting Hive Contents When Buy- 

 ing Bees 



Is it advisable to lift off the tops of hives, 

 and raise the frames to inspect the amount of 

 honey for winter use, this time of year or 

 later? The propolizing will then be broken, 

 but one has no other way to determine the 

 amount of honey for winter use, when buy- 

 ing hives of all shapes and sizes, as I have 

 done this fall. It is impossible to lift the top 

 out and inspect frames simply by " looking 

 down." One can not do it. Arkansas. 



Answer. — Only as a matter of necessity 

 should a colony be disturbed after this time 

 of year by having its fastenings broken up 

 and its frames lifted out. It is better, though, 

 for it to be thus disturbed than to starve. You 

 can generally, however, decide the matter by 

 weighing. Find out, if you can, about what 

 a colony with its hive and everything but 

 honey weighs, and then count that it should 

 have enough honey to weigh 30 pounds more. 

 That will oblige you to break open only the 

 light ones, and that i6 better than to break 

 open all. 



Which is the Bottom-End of a 

 Queen-Cell? 



Which end of a queen-cell is the bottom — 

 the end that a queen hatches out of, or the 

 end where the egg is laid? Penn. 



Answer. — The top is the bottom, always. 

 Sounds tangled, doesn't it? You see it's like 

 a teacup ; when the cup stands full of tea, the 

 bottom of the cup is toward the ground ; and 

 then when the cup is turned upside down the 

 name "bottom" still belongs to the same part 

 we called "bottom" before, although the bot- 

 tom now points skyward. The bees build 

 queen-cells upside down, and so the bottom 



of the cell, like the bottom of the teacup when 

 turned upside down, always points skyward. 

 (To be sure, in rare instances a queen-cell lies 

 horizontally, but that occurs so seldom that 

 it doesn't count.) Then when we speak of 

 the other end of the cell, the illustration of 

 the teacup fails. For when a teacup is up- 

 side down, the part that is downward is still 

 called the top; but the part of a queen-cell 

 that is downward is not the top, but "the 

 lower end." So the egg is laid in the bottom 

 of the cell, and the young queen emerges 

 from the lower end. Absurd way of talking, 

 isn't it? But please don't blame me; I wasn't 

 born when bee-keepers agreed to talk that 

 way about a queen-cell. 



Hive-Entrances and Cushions in Cel- 

 lar-Wintering of Bees 



1. How big shall the entrance be for cellar- 

 wintering, the temperature 40 degrees, Fahr. ? 

 My hives are 18 inches wide, and the entrance 

 is % inch, full width. Is this entrance too 

 big for strong colonies? 



2. Is there any need of having cushions on 

 the top for cellar-wintering, temperature 40 

 degrees, Fahr.? • Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. For cellaring there is no 

 danger of having the entrance too large. 

 Your 18x% entrance is none too large for a 

 6trong or a weak colony. My hive-entrances 

 are nearly twice as large; they are 12x2- 

 inches. 



2. There is no need of cushions if the cover 

 fits close and there is a large entrance. 



Feeding Unsalable Honey in Sections 



At the end of our principal honey-flow we 

 had quite a number of unfinished sections. 

 We put these 'in supers and back on the 

 hives. They have since been filled, but with 

 a grade of honey unfit for the market. We 

 wish so to manipulate this that we can save 

 the sections for honey next season. I notice 

 you advise leaving the supers on during the 

 winter where the weather is not too severe. 

 Would it be well to put on queen-excluding 

 boards in order to prevent brood in the sec- 

 tions, or would this really be a drawback any 

 way? We wish each colony to swarm once 

 in the spring. Texas. 



Answer. — I'm afraid I didn't express my- 

 self very clearly if you got the idea that I 

 advised leaving sections on the hive over 

 winter. I wish you had referred to the page. 

 Not only do I not advise that, but advise 

 against it very strongly. If left on the hives 

 over winter, it is not likely they would be in 

 good condition for market, no matter if after- 

 ward filled with the finest honey. Sections 

 should never be left on the hive for a day 

 after you are satisfied the bees are through 

 storing. When not storing honey in them, 

 the bees are likely to soil them with propolis 

 and darken them. Better take them off right 

 straight, and not put them on again till about 

 the time the bees need them next year. Ex- 

 cluders would not be needed if sections were 

 left on. _ 



Honey in Sections on Hives for Win- 

 ter Stores— Italianizing 



1. I have some colonies that will be short 

 of stores this winter, and also have a lot of 

 unfinished sections. How would it do for me 

 to uncap the sections and put them back on 

 the hives? Will the bees carry the honey 

 down? 



2. I have 40 colonies of bees, and Oof them 

 Italian. What is the best method of Italianiz- 

 ing the balance of my apiary next spring 

 without any loss? Virginia. 



Answers. — If there is vacant space in the 

 brood-chamber the bees will be likely to carry 

 the honey down satisfactorily ; but when they 

 are fairly provided below they are sometimes 



