AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



137 



answered by 

 Marengo, III. 



In tbis department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufficient special interest to 

 require replies from the 20 or more apiarists 

 who help to make " Queries and Replies " so 

 interesting- on another page. In the main, it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners.— Ed. 



Hearing and Introducing' Queens. 



I wish to make a start in bee-keeping. 

 I have one colony of blacks in box-hives, 

 and expect to purchase one or two more 

 colonies of blacks in box-hives. I wish 

 to buy only one Italian queen, and rear 

 others from her to Italianize all of the 

 colonies, which I expect to transfer to 

 dovetailed hives. 



At what time ought I to buy the 

 <iueens ? and how can I best rear and 

 introduce the queens ? Can I have the 

 virgin queens purely mated ? J. H. 



Brinkleyville, N. C. 



Answek. — I wish I knew what text- 

 book you have. One of the first things 

 is to get a good text-book and read it 

 over a number of times, or rather study 

 it over a number of times, before the 

 next season opens, and then you can be 

 in shape to act more intelligently with 

 less danger of failure. My word for it, 

 a good bee-book will more than pay its 

 way the first year. To tell all that you 

 ought to know about rearing and intro- 

 ducing queens will take more room than 

 can be allowed in this department, but 

 after you have studied the thing over 

 quite fully in the books, there will still 

 be points upon which you will like to 

 ask questions, and I will cheerfully do 

 the best I can upon them. 



It is doubtful if you can make a sure 

 thing of having queens purely mated. 

 It is a matter over which you have no 

 direct control. The mating occurs up 

 in the air, perhaps a quarter of a mile 

 or a mile away, and if there are black 

 bees within two or three miles of you, it 

 lessens your chances. 



So far as your own bees are concerned. 



with only a few colonies, by cutting out 

 drone-comb and by putting on drone- 

 traps you can get rid of all objectionable 

 drones, but you must also make sure 

 that there are none reared within two or 

 three miles. 



Some recommend this course : Keep 

 your young queen fastened in the hive 

 till pretty late in the day, when drones 

 have ceased to fly, then by opening the 

 hive, and at the same time giving some 

 liquid feed, you will induce the young 

 queen to fly, while at the same time you 

 have done the same thing with the col- 

 ony or colonies having your choice 

 drones. 



Generally, the plan is to take your 

 chances, and then keep weeding out 

 those badly mated. 



Correct Width of Top-Bars, Etc. 



What do you think is the correct width 

 of top-bars— 1 1/16 or l>s' ? If we 

 intend to leave only J^-inch space be- 

 tween the top-bars, it seems to me we 

 will have to make the top-bars wider, or 

 it will crowd the brood-combs too nar- 

 row. If the width of the natural brood- 

 comb is l}i inches through, it looks to 

 me as if we ought to have the top-bars 

 the same width, as the brood would be 

 in the frame below. 



Also, what is the depth that will an- 

 swer the purpose of thick toy-bars ? 

 Will %-inch thick answer just as well as 

 % or ]4 ? Which of the three do you 

 prefer? G. D. L. 



Tacoma, Wash. 



Answers. — The dimensions of top- 

 bars belong to some extent to matters 

 that are unsettled. The tendency for 

 some time has been to have them nar- 

 rower than formerly, and with my pres- 

 ent light I should prefer l}^. Some say 

 that this is too close, and that bees will 

 fill such a space in an objectionable 

 manner sooner than a wider space. I 

 should explain that with a top-bar 13^, 

 spaced 1% from center to center, there 

 is i-i space between top-bars. From 

 careful measurements I have found that 

 ii inch is the space that bees leave be- 

 tween two surfaces of comb when filled 

 with honey and sealed over, and also 

 the space they leave between the surface 

 of a section and a separator. I have 

 also tried top-bars with the ^ inch space 

 between them, and so far with success. 

 It is just possible, however, that on 

 further trial — that is, on longer trial — 

 1 may find the bees filling in wax or 

 propolis. But I build a good deal on 



