THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



169 



in our apiary is about % of an inch, 

 more or less. 



We tliink that IJ^ inches is the right 

 distance from centre to centre for the 

 frames; a little less will do, but you ex- 

 perience more difficulty in taking them 

 out. 



I am a novice in bee-keeping, yet anx- 

 ious to learn, and am taking your inter- 

 esting Bee Journal. Query 1st. I have 

 a colony of bees, which I have supposed 

 to be pure since introduction of queen 

 last summer, but there are some peculiar- 

 ities about the worker bees that create in 

 my mind a suspicion of impurity. The 

 worker bees all seem to have three dis- 

 tinct yellow bands, yel there are many of 

 them with the whole of their bodies, be- 

 hind the yellow bands, perfectly black, 

 while all the others are uniform in color 

 and have all the other marks which in- 

 dicate purity. Is it common among pure 

 Italian bees to have such variableness in 

 the same hive? J. W. McNeil. 



The worker bees whose bodies behind 

 the yellow bands are perfectly black are 

 the old ones who seem darker than the 

 others because they are deprived of hair. 



1. Is a frame, 8 inches deep by 16, in 

 the clear, deep enough for out-door winter- 

 ing in Michigan ? 



2. Is a frame 10x16 in the clear, better? 

 If so, how many frames to the hive ? 



3. Is a frame 11x16 too deep? If not, 

 is 8 frames enough for the Langstroth 

 hive? 



4. What size and shape frame is best, 

 and how many to the hive ? W. A. M. 



I cannot answer the first question, as I 

 never have lived in Michigan, yet I be- 

 lieve that bees, in the North, need a deeper 

 frame than in the middle or Southern 

 States. 



The frames which have given us the 

 best results, so far, are the Quinby frame, 

 11 inches by 18 — 8 or 9 frames to the hive. 



If I was to begin anew, I would make 

 my frames 16 inches long by 12 or even 14 

 inches high, especially if I lived in 

 Michigan. 



I use here hives wide enough for 11 

 Quinby frames. By means of one or two 

 partition boards I reduce the hive to-7 or 

 8 frames, for winter, filling the empty 

 spaces with dry leaves, chaft", or dry moss. 



When the honey harvest begins, I put, 

 outside of the partition boards of a few of 

 my best stocks, one or two frames filled 

 with dry combs, and I examine these 



combs every day. As soon as bees begin 

 to bring honey in these outside combs, I 

 give plenty room to all my colonies, either 

 at side or above, or both, to prevent 

 swarming. 



Is there anything known that will re- 

 move the glue from the hands ? 



A. B. Mason. 



Yes! alcohol or spirits of turpentine 

 will remove bee glue instantly. We pre- 

 fer alcohol, for its odor soon disappears. 



Why will not bees eat candied honey? 

 I have several times offered this candied 

 honey and they only eat out what liquid 

 honey they can, and reject the rest. I 

 have placed a card containing candied 

 honey in a hive, and then on looking, after 

 a few days, would find the grains in the 

 bottom of the hive. C. H. Whitmobb. 



Your bees have not been able to eat 

 your candied honey because you gave it 

 in cold weather. In summer they would 

 have eaten it all, for heat is necessary to 

 melt candied honey. 



How shall I hive my bees? When 

 they swarm naturally, sometimes they 

 stay in the hive an hour or two at a time, 

 and sometimes will not be lead. C. M. 



The first swarm led by the old queen 

 remains generally in the hive in which it 

 is hived. The queens of the second 

 swarms, being unfertilized, leave the 

 swarms to hunt for drones; then the 

 swarm follows. It is advisable to give all 

 the swarms a comb of young brood as 

 soon as they are hived. The bees, finding 

 that they have the means of raising a 

 queen, will not leave the hive. It is bet- 

 ter not to let the bees swarm naturally, 

 but to swarm them artificially. 



m ■ m 



|^"° The Southern Kentucky Bee-keep- 

 ers' Association will meet at Smith's 

 Grove, Ky., on L. & N. R. R. on June the 

 1st. We expect to have an interesting 

 time. Would be glad for all who can 

 come to be with us. We want communi- 

 cations on bee-culture. We want for exhi- 

 bition, bee hives, honey-boxes, extractors, 

 and uncapping knives, bee veils, queen 

 cages, bee-feeders, and any and every thing 

 in the line of bee-culture will be received 

 and put on exhibition and sold, or re- 

 turned as may be wished ; we sold every 

 article exhibited one year ago. A com- 

 mittee of arrangements will provide homes 

 for all who come. We hope our brother 

 bee-keepers will give us a lift as we are 

 working for the advancement of scientific 

 bee-culture. N. P. Allen, President. 



