646 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 14, 



CONDUCTED BY 



OR. O. O. AIILZ.ER. MAREUGO, ILL, 



[QueBtions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Ur. Miller direct.l 



Keeping Frames of Honey Over Winter. 



I have some extracting-frames filled and mostly capt. 



1. Would it granulate if put one or two supers high under 

 the brood-chamber '? 



2. Would it be better to leave it on top ? I want them in 

 the spring for dividing, for increase, or for feeding in case of 

 a-honey failure, which comes here as regular as a crop. 



Reader. 



Answer. — Put under a colony would be little different 

 from having the honey entirely away from the hive, and you 

 may count on granulation when the weather is cold enough, 

 altho granulation will not come as promptly as if the honey 

 was extracted. Placed over, the rising heat from the bees 

 would retard granulation still more, and if the colony is suffi- 

 ciently strong the bees might partly cover the frames. 



Queen Questions— Slimuiative Feeding -Drones. 



1. I have a selected queen (dipt) for the purpose of re- 

 queening. In examination one day I found (in the same hive) 

 a laying queen of the same looks which was not dipt; I caged 

 her, and continued looking for my dipt queen, which was 

 also found on another comb. How Is this? Is it an usual 

 thing for two laying queens to be In one hive without any 

 division ? 



2. Does a laying queen ever leave the hive on any other 

 occasion save that of swarming or absconding? If so, on 

 what reason else ? 



3. Does clipping injure queens in any way ? 



4. Is Doolittle's "Scientific Queen-Rearing" the best 

 method of rearing best queens ? 



5. What mouth is best to rear good queens in the United 

 States? or what time is best to import a queen ? 



6. Do bees discharge any feces? If so, where do they 

 deposit it? 



7. Will sugar syrup feeding sti-nulate breeding? If so, 

 is it as good as honey? 



8. How long do drones live ? Jamaica. 



Answer.9. — 1. Every now and then some one finds two 

 queens in a hive. Generally, however, it is a case of mother 

 and daughter, the mother being old and soon failing entirely, 

 I had one cas'e, however, in which two queens, not related, 

 both apparently vigorous, dwelt together amicably a number 

 of weeks, both laying In the same colony. 



2. As a rule no, but there have been exceptions reported. 

 It is just possible, however, that those who reported the ex- 

 ceptions were mistaken in their observations. 



3. I think not. Some say that bees are more likely to 

 supersede a dipt queen, but this may be because the super- 

 sedure of a dipt queer can be readily detected, while a queen 

 with whole wings may be superseded and the change not be 

 noticed, because the new queen looks so much like the old. 



4. Every one Is likely to think his own method best, but 

 you may feel safe In general In following Doollttle. He's a 

 very close and careful observer, and a conscientious adviser. 



4. (lood queens are reared throughout all the hot months, 

 and perhaps there would be no trouble in your getting them 

 any time from tluno to the last of September. 



'i. Yes, when on the wing away from the hivo, except 

 when through long confinement they become practically dis- 



eased, and then pollute the hive and combs with their excre- 

 ment. 



7. Any feeding will tend to stimulate breeding, but sugar 

 syrup is not so good as honey. 



7. No specific length of time. They generally live till 

 the workers decide they are no longer wanted, there being a 

 failure, more or less, of the yield of honey. 



Honey-Plants to be IVamed. 



I send samples of two kinds of flowers. No. 1 and No. 2, 

 on which my bees are working vigorously. I would like to 

 know what they are worth as honey-plants. Penn. 



Answer. —As I have said more than once, I am not much 

 of a botanist, and I cannot name the plants you send beyond 

 saying they belong to the compo>itse But any plant upon 

 which bees work vigorously is of value, and that, even the 

 they never store a drop of surplus therefrom. For there's a 

 good deal that's relative in the value of honey-plants. Sup- 

 pose you have a plant that yields one-fourth as much honey 

 as clover. If clover is plenty, and the plant in question 

 blooms at the same time, the bees will not touch it ; it is 

 worthless. But if it comes at a time when no nectar can be 

 had from any other source, the bees will work busily upon it, 

 and it is of real value. Even if they get very little honey 

 from it, the fact that they work vigorously upon it shows that 

 it yields more than perhaps anything else at that particular 

 time, and it keeps the bees from robbing and other mischief, 

 and helps to keep the queen laying. 



Moving Bees — Queen I.o»t in AVintcr — Transfer- 

 ring — Wiring Frames — Shading and Ven- 

 tilating New Colonics. 



1. How and when can I move my apiary about 30 yards ? 

 Last winter, during a cold spell of weather, I moved my bees, 

 and in about 10 days the weather turned warm and the bees 

 came out and went back to the old stand, and clustered on a 

 trunk of a tree. 



2. In ease a queen dies during winter, do the bees rear 

 them another ? If so, does she have to wait until spring to 

 be fertilized ? 



3. In transferring, how Would it do to drive the bees from 

 the old hive into a new one with foundation, and not transfer 

 any of the old comb ?— a satisfactory job which I have 

 never been able to do. 



4. Should the wire, in wiring foundation in frames, be 

 drawn tight or left slack ? 



5. How much smaller than the inside of a frame should 

 the foundation be? 



6. Why is there so much more stress (In the papers) laid 

 on shading and ventilating a colony of bees just hived or 

 transferred, than there is on an old colony ? 



Tennessee. 



Answers. — 1. The time to move them is when they will 

 not fly again for some considerable time, and so mark their 

 location upon their next flight. Perhaps that's the very thing 

 you tried to do, but it turned out that they had a flight sooner 

 than you expected. It might perhaps bo better to wait till 

 later in the winter — that's guessing that you moved them 

 early in the winter — but the probability is that in Tennessee 

 warm spells come almost any time in the winter. It will help 

 matters somewhat if at the time of moving you set up boards 

 In front of the hive, so that the bees cannot fly directly out of 

 the hives. Another thing might help : When the first warm 

 day comes, and tho boos begin to fly out, shut them into the 

 hives so thoy can't fly — look out you don't smother them — and 

 after thoy have struggled to make an exit for some time, open 

 the entrance, having the board In front as before-mentioned, 

 and they will do bettor at marking tho entrance. If you can- 

 not keep them from going back to the old spot, set there one 

 or more hives with combs In them, and after they stop flying 



