Feb. 20, l'J()2 



AMERICAN BEE lOUPNAL 



123 



Questions and Answers, i 



CONDDCTKD RY 



UK, C O. A1IKJ.HH, Afnronu-o, 111, 



[The Questions may be mailed to tbe Bee Journal ofGce, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail. — Euitor.1 



Do Bees Build Cells Full Depth Before Puttins; Honey 

 into Them. 



Ou page 44, Sarali .1. flrillith says of her 1)(>(!S ; "Tlicy 

 made a lot of comb in llic sc'ctions in the fall, but coulil not 

 get honi'y to fill them, so I will have nearly a hMn(lr(Hl to c'oni- 

 menee with in the s]iririf,'. the must of theni full of comb." Is 

 it a conimon thing for bees to lill sections with comb ljef<ire 

 putting any honev in them ? SunscRiBKK. 



Answkk. — I do ndt believe that bees ever (iUed a section 

 with empty comb. Thi'y bnild comb no faster than it is needed, 

 and the probability is that if tlm sections in question had been 

 taken off earlier they would have had honey in them. Heing 

 left on the hive after the harvest was over, the bees carried the 

 honey down into the brood-chamber. 



Sowing Sweet Clover. 



1. With the idea of sowing sweet clover for be(^-pastiire 

 I had plowed up last fall about three acres of land. The soil 

 is sandy and poor, being run out and too impoverished to farm 

 profitably. There was no sod to speak of, the land having 

 grown up in weeds. Now, woulil it be wise to sow the seed 

 on the roufrh-plowed land, and harrow over, covering' deepiv ? 

 or would it be a lietter plan to level the land by harrowiUu- 

 first, and then sow the se(>d and cover by a second harrowing '? 

 2. What is the difference, if any. between the white and 

 yellow varieties of sweet clover in the matter of honey-produc- 

 tion and time of bloom '.' New Urunswick. 



Answers. — 1. I believe I would sow pretty heavily with- 

 out first harrowing. That will give seeds at ditTerent depths, 

 some of it pretty deep, whereas if you harrow first none of it 

 will be very deep, and if you should have the experience I once 

 had it might all heave the first winter. Very hard ground 

 seems to be best, and if not hard it is probably best to sow 

 deep. 



2. I don"t know the difference in honey-production, but if 

 I remember rightly, there is aliout two to four weeks' difference 

 in the time of bloom, the yellow being the earlier. 



Moving Bees on the Cars. 



I have accepted the pastorate of a church here and have 

 rented my berry farm in Iowa. 1 intend to ship my bees here 

 in the spring when I move my family. The time of moving 

 will depend somewhat on how soon it will be safe to move the 

 bees. 



1. Will it be safe to take them from the cellar and ship 

 them 200 miles by cars before they have had a flight in the 

 spring? 1 put 22 colonies into the cellar and they seem to be 

 in good condition when I examined them the first of .lanuary. 



2. If they are prepared for shipment with a wire-cloth 

 screen on top of the hive in place of a cover, and the entrance 

 securely fastened up, will they be all right ? 



3. Would it be safe to ship them in a car with a horse, 

 cow, and household goods? 



This is a town on the Mississippi 40 miles northwest of 

 Minneapolis. There are but few bees kept here. There is 

 considerable basswood along the river, and I think it will he a 

 good location for bees. Minnesota. 



Answers. — 1. They may stand the journey a great, deal 

 better after having a spring Might. 



2. Yes, wire-cloth covering the whole top will give them 

 all the air needed, even if the entrance be hermeticallv sealed. 

 But it will be all right, too, to have the entrance closed with 

 wire-cloth. 



3. Yes, animals and other goods in the car will do no hurt, 

 so that everything is so firmly in place that there is no danger 



of collision betwf!en tlie bee> and anything ehe. There inii-l 

 lie no possibility of anything bi'ing Hhovfd against the hive-, 

 and Die lilves must be fastened In place hii they can not iiiovi 

 li will be a simple matter to pack the hives If there Is i-nouKh 

 iDum so that each hive cari be placed on the floor of the car. 

 All you need ti> do Is to nail eh-ats of Inch stufT on the door so 

 thcr hivi^s (iiniiDt move, having ilie hives plaeicl so the frami"* 

 run paralled with I he rails. Mtist likely, liowiver, there will 

 he so little room that the hives will havi- to be piled on top of 

 one another. Ii] that ease, of course, It will not do to set one 

 liivi' directly on anotlier so as to cover up the wire-cloth. Oii' 

 way 1() do is to fasten two strips a<rro8» the hives, on which to 

 sit the next hivi'S. Unless the weather Is quite cool It will bi- 

 :\ good thing to have In each hive a gponRe or rag lllled with 

 water. 



^ • » 



The "Golden 



Comb-Honey System 

 Frame Hives. 



10-Frame vs. 8- 



1. What is the "(iolden '' plan or system, mentioned on 

 page 57, for production of comb honey ? 



2. Can a 10-frame hive be used as successfully as an 8- 

 frame hive for comb honi'y ? and under wliat circumstances? 



.Ierseyman. 



Answers. — 1. It would take up too much room to answer 

 here your question in full, Imt it may be found in the Ameri- 

 can ISee .lournal for 18".l'.). pages ;j4. dH, and li". On page 

 57 (this year) to which you refer, Mr. Uartzell inquires why 

 the live men named did not accept his jiroiiosition, and then 

 says it was prejudice, although when he made the proposition 

 he declared that he believed them all to be honorable and un- 

 biased. His proposition was that they should each buy a hive 

 from Mr. Golden, and test it. and if it proved unsatisfactory 

 Mr. Hart/.ell would buy the hive from them. That would give 

 them no pay for their time and trouble except what they 

 might get from the gain in the system. Evidently they 

 had not enough faitli in that gain to be willing to make the 

 test, even if it cost tliem nothing to make that test. 



2. Yes, I am sure that good crops of comb honey can be 

 obtained from lO-frame hives, for I have obtained them ray- 

 self. I used 10-frame hives for years, and I am not sure but 

 I got just as good crops as with S-frame hives. I!ut the work 

 in handling hives and supers was very much heavier. I don't 

 know that any great difference in circumstances would call for 

 one more than another, unless it be that 10-frame hives re- 

 quire stronger colonies to start storing than are absolutely 

 necessary in S-frame hives. 



Moving Bees on a Bobsled Preventing Swarming— 

 Facing Hives. 



1. In moving bees about the first of March, that are 

 packed with four inches of chaff all around and on top, would 

 you smoke them before loading them on the bobsled, or handle 

 them as quietly as possible without smoke '.' Would smoking 

 do more harm than the excitement of jarring, etc., without, 

 in case they did not have a flight within a couple of weeks ? 

 I wish to move them about three miles. 



2. I want to run part of the apiary for extracted honey 

 next season. If. on approach of the honey-flow, I take three 

 or four combs pretty well filled with sealed brood, and place 

 in an upper story, finisliing out with empty combs or frames filled 

 with foundation, and fill in the lower hive where brood was 

 taken from with empty combs, would it work all right, and be 

 likely to keep down swarming? I shall use queen-excluders 

 between the hives. 



3. Will bees do as well, and gather as much honey, with 

 hive entrances facing north as they will with entrances to the 

 south or southeast, especially if hives are under trees ? 



New York. 



Answers. — 1. By all means avoid the use of smoke as 

 much as possible. If you can fasten the bees in the hive with- 

 out smoke, there will certainly be no need of smoking them 

 afterward. The smoking and jarring will do more harm than 

 the jarring alone. 



2. It will work well, and there will be less likelihood of 

 swarming, but if you go the whole figure, as many bee-keep- 

 ers do. and put all the brood above, leavingonly empty frames 

 or combs below, you may like it still better, as in that case 

 you are practically free from swarming. 



3. That question has been discussed a good deal, and 

 opinions differ. It is 'doubtful that you will find a very 

 marked difference. 



