794 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 16, 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. O. O. MZLLBR. MAItBViao, ILL, 



[QuestlonB may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.! 



Preparing Bee^i for Safe Cellar-Winleringr. 



How can I prepare my bees so they will pull through the 

 winter? I have 10 colonies in fairly good condition so far. 

 They occupy the common Langstroth 8-frame hives, are packt 

 in winter-cases with chaff, the bottom-board under, the full 

 entrance open, passage-way free secured, and the top cover 

 sealed on. They are already put into a dry ventilated cellar, 

 where I think I can keep the temperature from 403 to 50^ 

 Fahr. Do you think it advisable to keep the cover on, or 

 shall I break it loose and put cushions on top, under the cover 

 of the winter-case ? Is there ventilation enough from the 

 entrance? The " A B C of Bee Culture " advises leaving the 

 bottom-board off to give under ventilation, and keep the cover 

 sealed air-tight in the cellar. Minnesota, Nov. 22. 



Answer. — Probably it doesn't make a great deal of differ- 

 ence whether the covers are on tight or not. If the hives are 

 open enough below, perhaps it is better to have the covers 

 sealed just as the bees left them. Just as you have them now, 

 the probability is that the ventilation is hardly free enough. 

 You can make it all right by raising the cover enough to lay 

 a tenpenny nail under it. I should prefer, however, to leave 

 the covers as they are, and to give more air below. I'm tak- 

 ing it for granted that the entrances of the hives are only 

 about half an inch deep. Two inches will be much better. 

 Perhaps it will not be convenient for you to make so deep an 

 entrance, but you can probably raise the hives enough to put 

 blocks under the four corners. An inch block under each 

 corner will be good, or it may be still better to put IK inch 

 blocks under the two front corners, and not raise the hive at 

 all at the back end. 



Laic Droiici — Late Swarm Gelling; Weak. 



1. One colony of my bees seems to have a large amount 

 of drones. We have some warm days that the bees fly quite 

 strong, ana the other hives have no drones flying, but this 

 one has a large per cent, of drones. Is this not uncommon ? 



2. I had one swarm issue Sept. 1, and they filled their 

 hive in good shape. It was an uncommonly large swarm, but 

 seems to be getting weaker all the time. If they had no 

 queen would they have gone to work and done so well ? And 

 would they not all have been dead before now? Nkbr. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, It is uncommon to find many drones 

 left in a colony so late in the season. In such a case there is 

 always room for suspicion that the colony is queenless, but 

 bees are freaky, and it sometimes happens that a strong col- 

 ony may save its drones even when it has a good queen. 



2. It is not likely they wore queenless at time of hiving, 

 for in that case they would hardly have staid and done such 

 good work. Something may have happened to the queen, 

 however, after the boes had been at work some little time, or 

 she may have failed from old age. It is quite likely, however, 

 that the queen is there all right. If the swarm was a strong 

 one. a goodly portion of the bees were pretty old and would 

 die off rapidly. No young bees would come to take their 

 places till the latter part of September, and as the swarm was 

 a big oiie it Is likely that the queen was laying 2,000 eggs a 

 day In July. That means that 2,OO0 bees would bo dying 

 dally In September, enough to make a good-sized swarm in 

 the three weeks before any young boos could emerge. 



Boitt Manascmcut Tor Most Honey. 



How can I best manage my bees to get the best results in 

 comb and extracted honey ? They are In 8-framo dovotalloi 

 hives. The main honey-flow here Is from sweet clover, com- 

 mencing about July 10th or 15th. There Is enough honey 



coming in before that time to keep them building up, and a 

 little surplus. They begin to swarm about the first of May. 

 I do not care for the increase, but would like to have them at 

 their best just when the harvest is commencing. Would not a 

 10-frame hive be better, using both stories so as to give the 

 queen plenty of room ? Washington. 



Answer. — It's a hard matter to say just what is best. If 

 your bees swarm as early as May 1, and your chief harvest 

 does not come till July 10 or 15, there may be a possibility 

 that you will be better off to have them swarm. From May 1 

 to July 10 is just ten weeks. In that ten weeks wouldn't the 

 old colony have plenty of time to build up as strong as ever, 

 thus giving you two colonies instead of one for the harvest ? 



Undoubtedly, however, May 1 is only the beginning of 

 swarming, and not many colonies swarm thus early, the 

 swarms being strung out all along the following ten weeks. 

 For most of these it would be an advantage if the whole force 

 could be held together. Much will be accomplisht by giving 

 the queen plenty of room, as you have already intimated in 

 your suggestion to give the bees two stories of 10 frames 

 each. Why not give them two stories of 8 frames each, so 

 long as you already have 8-frame hives? Possibly lOframe 

 hives would be better. Give abundance of ventilation. Raise 

 the lower story an inch above the bottom-board by putting a 

 block an inch thick under each one of the four corners. If 

 the hives are close-fitting, don't set the second story square on 

 the first, but move it forward until there shall be a space at 

 the back end of half an inch. That will allow a passage of 

 air directly through the lower story, and will be very agree- 

 able to the bees during hot days. Eirly in the season the 

 colony will perhaps be batter in the upper story, as they will 

 be warmer there, but as it becomes strong if it does not begin 

 to occupy the combs in the lower story you may insist upon it 

 by moving some of them down. Managed in this way yoii will 

 probably be able to hold most of your forces together till the 

 time of harvest. But it may be worth while to do what you 

 can to crowd some of the strongest into swarming the first of 

 May, and see how they compare with the others. 



Queen's Bridal Trip — Iloncj' to produce a Pound 

 of Bees, Elc. 



1. Can a queen on her bridal trip fail to meet drones ? If 

 so, will she return to the hive? or what will she do? Will 

 she take any more trips? 



2. What causes bee-paralysis? 



3. Since it takes from 13 to 20 pounds of honey to pro- 

 duce one pound of wax how much (houey) will it take to pro- 

 duce one pound of bees ? 



4. Is honey ready-made in flowers and gathered by bees, 

 or is it a substance obtained therefrom, and manufactured in- 

 to honey by the bees ? Jamaica. 



Answers, — 1. It frequently happens that a queen makes 

 more than one trip to be fertilized, if indeed it is not the gen- 

 eral rule. If unsuccessful, the trip will be repeated. . 



2. The cause of paralysis is said to be a bacillus called by I 

 Cheshire " bacillus Gaytoni," because Miss Gaytou llrst called ' 

 attention to it. 



3. I am not sure whether the cost in honey of a pound of 

 bees has ever been definitely settled. I have seen some esti- 

 mates in that direction, but do not know now where to refer 

 to them. If any one has reliable information as to how much 

 honey a pound of bi>es costs, I'll gladly yield the floor. 



-t. Some say bees gather honey, some say bees make 

 honey. All probably agree that they gather nectar, a very 

 watery sweet, containing more cane-sugar than the finisht 

 product, and the assertion that bees produce changes in the 

 noctar that might fall under the line of manufacturing iwould 

 hardly be assailed so bitterly or so generally to-day as it would 

 have been a few years earlier. 



Colony Moving fJp<>lair§ — Comb -Honey Produc- 

 tion and Winleriiiff -Iloncy-V'inegnr. 



1. Near the beginning of October I gave three colonies of 

 boes each a hive of combs that had been extracted, to clean 

 up, placing the hives of empty combs on top. A few days 

 after, on attempting to remove the hives of empty combs I 

 found that two or three colonies were clustered compactly OD 

 the empty combs ; their hives of houey underneath being ab- 

 solutely deserted. Is not this unusual ? and will it be safe to 

 leave them like that during the winter ?■ n 



2. I have understood that In producing comb honey you 

 use two 8-frame hives tiered up. Is this true? aud If so, do 



