1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



199 



probably become still more moldy. Better take the hive out 

 of the cellar, and if you haven't a good dry place for It in- 

 doors, you can put the hive full of combs under one of thein. 

 The bees will do a good deal toward cleaning up the combs, 

 and it can be kept in no better place till the honey harvest 

 begins. 



4. If soft maples grow in your region, watch for their 

 blooming, and then take the bees out of the cellar if the 

 weather appears settled. If you have no soft maples, you'll 

 have to depend on other general signs of settled spring 

 weather. Take them out when you feel pretty sure there will 

 not be a week or two of continuous cool weather so they can't 

 fly. You'll have to do morejor less guessing about it at best. 

 Try to strike on a good day for putting them out, when the 

 sun is shining, the thermometer oO^ or more in the shade, and 

 no wind. 



Separators— Dovelailins— Faslcnins Full Sheets 

 or Foiiiidalion — Hive Rabbets. 



1. Can there be either one — tin or wood — separators used 

 with follower-board in supers on the 10-frame dove-tailed 

 hive ? 



2. Is there any machinery now in use for dove-tailing, to 

 make hive-bodies deeper than '-■i'^i inches ? 



3. Can there be full sheets of foundation put into the sec- 

 tions with the McCartney foundation fastener and section 

 press, or with any of the foundation fasteners ? 



4. Which is best, or most used by bee-keepers, the tin rab- 

 bets, or the wood, such as are cut in the hive, for brood-frames 

 to rest on '? R. L. H. 



Answeks. — 1. Yes, the same separators and the same fol- 

 lower can be used in a super on a lO-frame hive as belongs to 

 an 8-frame hive super, provided that in each case the sections 

 run parallel with the brood-frames, and that's the way they 

 run almost universally. 



2. I don't know. But I suppose it would be an easy thing 

 to have deeper if there was a call for it. 



3. Yes, with any or all of them. 



4. Probably the wood are very largely in the majority, be- 

 cause a large part of the hives were formerly made in that 

 way. For some time I think the only tin rests used were those 

 that accompanied brood-frames with metal corners as used in 

 the Simplicity hive. Those were made of a single thickness 

 of tin, and were not adapted to have wood resting upon them. 

 Since the introduction of the rests or rabbets of folded tin, 

 they seem to be more popular, and at the present time proba- 

 bly most hives are furnisht in that way. They are liked bet- 

 ter than the wood rabbets because the frames can be moved 

 upon them more easily, and there is less chance for the bees 

 to fasten the ends of the top-bars with bee-glue. 



Wintering— Sliulling Bees Up— Laying Woriiei 



1. My bees are too close together in their winter quar- 

 ters. When will be about the right time to move some of 

 them out on the summer stands, and the cushions off? 



2. Last fall I united several of my weak colonies in the 

 dovetailed hives, by setting one hive-body on top of the other. 

 I find all the bees dead in one of the hives in the upper story 

 — starved, with plenty of honey in the lower story. What was 

 the cause of their dying ■? They were clustered right below 

 the cushion. I put strips across the top of the frames for a 

 Hill's device. 



3. Will it be of any value to shut bees up in the hives in 

 the winter, to keep them from flying out when they are 

 warmed up by the sun, when the air is too cold for them'? I 

 don't think noise will disturb bees if the hive isn't jarred. 



4. Would bees better be shut up in the hives when first 

 put out of the cellar'? I always let them have their own way. 



5. What is best to do with a colony of bees when they 

 have a laying worker ? N. English, Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. They might stay for some time yet, only 

 the longer they stand after they get to flying the more they 

 will have their present locations fully markt, and the more 

 trouble there may be about their getting back to their own 

 hives. So you may do well to get them on the summer stands 

 somewhere about the first of April, and even earlier if it 

 should promise weather when they can fly every few days. 



It may not be necessary to take off the cushions till about 

 the time you want to put supers on. 



2. The cause of their dying was just what you say — they 

 starved. There was plenty of honey in the hive to keep them 

 from starving, but if it was out of their reach it might as well 



have been a thousand miles away. And in freezing weather 

 all honey is out of the reach of bees except that which is right 

 In the cluster. The probability is that you put one hive on 

 the other when it was pretty late in the season. The bees 

 would not go down to where the honey was unless there came 

 a very warm spell, and before that time came they used up 

 all the food they had and then starved. You may still ask 

 why it was the bees of the lower story left it and went into 

 the upper story. Bees are inclined to move upward because 

 heat rises and it is warmer above. When they moved up, the 

 cold weather caught them before they had time enough to 

 carry up enough stores to last them till the next warm spell. 



3. No, one of the worst things you can do is to fasten 

 bees in the hive. They'll want to get out twice as bad when- 

 ever they find they're fastened in, and the uneasy ones will 

 stir up the others. 



4. They should certainly not be left shut up after they 

 are on the stand. If troublesome about flying out and 

 stinging while being carried to their stand, the entrance may 

 be shut up with a very wet rag. You may also give them a 

 little smoke just as you get them out of the cellar. Generally 

 they will stay in their hives without anything of the kind it 

 carefully handled. 



5. If the colony is pretty strong, give it a young queen 

 just out of its cell, or a queen-cell just ready to hatch. Per- 

 haps, however, the very best thing to do with a colony that 

 has a laying worker, is to break it up, and give the combs 

 and bees to other colonies. 



Drones After Sivarniing — Cutting Sweet Clover. 



1. What part, if any, do drones act in the economy of the 

 hive after the swarm has come out and the young queen has 

 been fertilized? Is it not as well, or better, to kill them off, 

 and save feeding them ? 



2. Would it do to cut sweet clover the first year for hay ? 

 In this country sweet clover gets IS or 20 inches high the 

 first summer, and if it could be cut for hay then, and again 

 when in bud the next year, and still make fall pasture for the 

 bees, it would be quite profitable from a hay point of view. 

 What I am trying to do is to lengthen the honey-flow in the 

 fall, as we have from four to six weeks after the middle of 

 August that there is nothing coming in. Oregon. 



Answers. — 1. The only use that has ever been suggested 

 is that they help to keep the brood warm. This, however, 

 will be as well or better done by the same weight of workers. 

 By the time the young queen is fertilized after a swarm has 

 issued, there will be only sealed brood in the hive, and this 

 requires very little care on the part of the bees. Indeed, in 

 ordinary weather at the time of swarming, the sealed brood 

 that is well along will not only hatch out if it is left out of 

 the hive, but will produce heat enough to help keep warm the 

 younger brood. As a rule, you may be the gainer to kill off 

 the drones, but it would be much better economy never to 

 have allowed them to be reared. The best you can do at re- 

 pressing the rearing of drones, there will probably still be 

 more than enough for all needs. Remember that when left 

 to themselves, each colony will rear as many drones as though 

 no other colony were within a thousand miles, and in an api- 

 ary of 120 colonies each colony will rear enough drones for 

 itself and all the other colonies. 



2. Sweet clover is one of the late growers, and if cut the 

 first year at any time when the weather is hot enough to cure 

 the hay, it will have plenty of time to recruit sutficlently to 

 pass the wiuter, and that's all you want. If you can get a 

 growth of IS or 20 inches the first year (it sometimes grows 

 twice that), by all means take from it a crop of hay. If you 

 have white clover or some other bee-forage that yields during 

 the first blooming of sweet clover, it will pay to cut the sweet 

 clover at or before the time of its budding for bloom, even if 

 the hay should be worthless for stock. For the later bloom- 

 ing may be worth more to you than a crop of hay would be. 

 Of course, it will be still better if the cutting gives you a crop 

 of usable hay. 



Couldn't you tell us something about the value of sweet 

 clover for pasturage or hay in Oregon ? 



The BIcEvoy Foul Brood Xreatnient is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet on " Foul Brood ; Its Natural 

 History and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price. 25 cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 

 —both for SI. 10. 



