1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



27 



it seems to mc that if you would give the locality that each 

 question comes from, in your department of "Questions and 

 Answers " it would be of some value. Of course, V''" know 

 the place the questions come from, but suppose I should de- 

 sire to speculate on the question for myself, it would help me 

 to know whether the questioner lived in Illinois, Texas or Cal- 

 ifornia. E. S. M., Crawford Co., Iowa. 



Answers.— 1. Yes, there's an even SI. 000 available from 

 A. I. Root, and I think that any commercial agency will show 

 him to be tinancially responsible for a good many times 

 Si, 000. That is, you can on your own responsibility offer 

 any amount you please up to .§1,000 for a pound of comb 

 honey properly finisht without the aid of bees ; then if your 

 offer is taken up, and you have to pay the money, you can fall 

 back on A. I. Root to make the ofTei- good. 



I think, if A I. Root's offer is called " a bluff," I would 

 talk somewhat in this way: "See here, my friend, if you know 

 where to get a pound of comb honey made without the inter- 

 vention of bees that can't be told from the genuine article, 

 you're just the man I want to see. I don't care to make any 

 bet in the case, but I do want to buy, and I'll do something 

 that's a good deal safer than betting for you. Bring me the 

 pound of honey with satisfactory proof that the bees have had 

 nothing to do with it, and I'll pay you SlO for it. lOf course, 

 you can name any larger amount, or offer any piece of prop- 

 erty, or agree to deposit a sum in the bank to be paid on re- 

 ceipt of goods.] This is no bluff on my part, for lean make 

 money on the honey at the price I offer." In that case I think 

 he'll either have to produce the goods, or shut up. 



2. In some cases at least there would be an advantage in 

 knowing something about the locality of the man who has a 

 question answered. The matter may be thought over by our 

 good friend, the editor. You know editors know everything, 

 and I don't know much about anything but bees, and as .losh 

 Billings says, a good deal that I know about bees ain't so. [All 

 right, we'll (ry to know enough hereafter to indicate the local- 

 ity of the questioner. But we dont " know everything" just 

 yet.— Editor.] 



Best Size or Hive-Entrance — Importing Italian 

 Queens. 



been 12.\3^. At this time of the year the entrance is 12x2 

 inches, the entrance being closed by wire-cloth three meshes 

 to the inch, allowing the free passage of a bee, but excluding 

 mice. In summer some of my hives are raised up in the old- 

 fashioned way, with a block under each corner, making it 

 open clear around. 



2. If you mean to furnish queens for all the colonies ia 

 an apiary of good size, I'm sure it wouldn't pay at all. It 

 might pay for the sake of getting better stock, and as a rule I 

 think you'd find the imported queens do as well or better than 

 their daughters. But that would depend greatly upon the 

 kind of stock already in your possession. There's nothing 

 impossible about finding stock in this country better than any 

 imported. 



Keeping; Bees in a Store. 



Next summer I am going to put in iny jewelry store » 

 colony of bees in an observatory hive. I want to keep them 

 in the store through the winter. The mercury ranges from 

 40^ at night to TO- in the daytime. Would the bees do all 

 right In such a warm room, if properly ventilated ? 



T. J. B., New Berne, N. C. 



Answer.— Generally such things are failures, but I think 

 not always. It's worth the trial. Give abundant entrance. 



Why Melt Back Comb in Sections ?— Flavor of 

 Honey Nauseating. 



1. What is the best size for the hive-entrance? Ours is 

 about ?4'xS inches, and I don't think it is large enough. I will 

 tell you why. I have one Langstroth hive which is mouse- 

 eaten in the entrauce, and for three years it has more than 

 doubled any other in results. I have several lO-frames besides 

 it, but I prefer the S-frame dovetail hives. 



2. Will it pay me to import Italian queens? Will they 

 do as well as the young queens reared from them ? 



P. A. N., Iowa. 



Answers. — 1 There may have been other reasons why 

 that one colony did better than the others, but I've little doubt 

 that at least part of the difference was due to the difference 

 in entrances. I have gradually come to want my hive-en- 

 trances larger and larger. One-fourth by S inches is smaller 

 than the smallest I ever had, and of late my smallest has 



1. Why do sections with full comb have to be cut back in- 

 stead of letting the bees have the full comb to be refilled? I 

 have a lot of sections which the bees filled and capt, but the 

 honey was so bad (tasting like croup syrup) that I had to wash 

 it out, leaving the sections filled with nice white comb. Now 

 I thought of giving the bees the sections next spring, but hav- 

 ing seen several articles about cutting them back, I ask the 

 question for information. 



2. Can you suggest any reason for the honey being so 

 nauseous to the taste? It was very dark, and gathered dur- 

 ing August and September— the second lot of sections put on 

 the hive ; the same colony having filled the first lot of sections 

 earlier in the season with beautiful, clear, limpid honey. 



C. M. M., St. George, Md. 



Answers. — 1. If the combs are perfectly white and clean, 

 and if they do not come within a quarter of an inch of an? 

 other surface, then there is no need of cutting back. Often 

 when combs are partly filled, they are daubed on the edges of 

 the cells with propolis, and cutting back, or rather melting 

 down, removes the glue-stained part. Also, there is danger 

 that the part of the comb most fully drawn out, when put in 

 a new position, will be so close to a separator or another sec- 

 tion that it will be built to the adjoining surface. 



2. Probably the source from which the honey was ob- 

 tained, but I couldn't give a guess as to that. Possibly from 

 aphides; possibly from something else. 



Questioj^'Box^ 



In the multitude of counsellors there is 

 safety. — Prov. 11-14. 



The Best Kind of Frames. 



Query 41.— 1. What kind of frames do you 

 think are best, considering merely the con- 

 venience of the bee-keeper? 



2. Considering the welfare of the bees?— 

 Nebk. 



P. H. Elwood — 1 and 2. Quinby closed- 

 end. 



R. L.Taylor— 1 and 2. The New Hed- 

 don. 



Jas. A. Stone— 1 and 2. The Lang- 

 stroth. 



E. France— 1 and 2. The Langstroth 

 frame. 



Dr. J. P. n. Brown — 1 and 2. Lang- 

 stroth size. 



Prof. A. J. Cook— 1 and 2. Regular 

 Langstroth. 



G. M. Doolittle— 1 and 2. Gallup and 

 Langstroth. 



Rev. M. Mahin-1. 12x10 inches. 2. 

 14x12 inches. 



Mrs. L. Harrison — 1. Langstroth. 2. 

 A deeper frame. 



G. W. Demaree— 1 and 2. The stan- 

 dard Langstroth, O^hXlT^e inches. 



Eugene Secor— 1 and 2. The Lang- 

 stroth, for comb honey and cellar-winter- 

 ing. 



Mrs. J. N. Heater— 1 and 2. The 

 standard Langstroth frame, VX'/^i.'d^ 

 inches. 



Emerson T. Abbott— 1. A modifica- 

 tion of the Langstroth. 2. A frame not 

 less than 12 inches deep. 



J. E. Pind— I and 2. I have experi- 

 mented with about all the frames of any 

 note, and consider the Langstroth frame, 

 that A. I. Root has made for years for 

 the Novice hive, as good as the best, 



both for convenience and welfare of the 

 bees. It makes but little if any differ- 

 ence what kind of frame is used for the 

 bees. Convenience of the master is the 

 matter to consider. 



J. A. Green— 1 and 2. All things con- 

 sidered, I thiuk a frame 6 inches deep, 

 held at fixed distances, the best for both 

 bees and bee-keeper. 



H. D. Cutting— 1 and 2. The LanR- 

 stroth frame is the cheapest, but I pre- 

 fer a deeper frame, but the hives cost 

 more than a Langstroth hive. 



W. G. Larrabee— 1 and 2. I have 

 never used any but Langstroth frames, 

 and they suit me well enough, and it is 

 my opinion that the bees are satisfied. 



C. H. Dibbern— 1 and 2. I use a stand- 

 ing frame 6x21 '4> outside measure, and 

 like it well. For general purposes, I 

 think the regular Langstroth frame Is 

 hard to beat. 



A. F. Brown — 1. The standard Sim- 

 plicity, y:'„xl r %. inches, for the average 

 bee-keeper. For myself, in the produc- 



