April 17, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



249 



which would furnish a sunicicnt sliatic llrsl? On rich (jrouiid, 



and for sm;ill hivos set low, I siispi'i't rhubarh could Ix' luiido 

 to l)i'at (utiii'r orm^hul tliiil. would die down and leave u> Just 

 when wii wanli'd it most. On tin' wlu)l(', artichokes looif very 

 proniisiuK for an apiary lluit is In b(i moved every year. As 

 to a settled location, 1 nii^lit go huntin;; for a weak pnint 

 and say that prehaps spreading around in the ground mi/lit 

 bother some in years aflin- tins tirst. I'age 1 54. 



THK .lOUNCKR TH.\T RAMIII^KK DOTH .JOUNCE. 



I nice patient persistence, and Rambler seems to have it 

 whiMi his jouncer is involved. I guoss we will have to corjfcss 

 that some people find it useful, and succeed In using it without 

 doing serious mischief. The pointing of the corner-posts is a 

 good idea. They penerate the soil a little and favorably re- 

 duce the all-fracturing emphasis of the jouncer. Honest in 

 him to conf(!SS that thin honey gets badly jounced out some- 

 times. Page 158. 



SKTTINfl THE I'UICK OF IIONEV. 



I fear, Comrade Akin, that the price of honey is some- 

 times set not by " the best and up-to-date methods," as you 

 p\it it, but by th(^ cheapest — and also decidedly reprehensible 

 methods — which ought not to be allowed at all. Some time 

 we'll set the pure-food commissioners after the offenders — so 

 we will. I'age 158. 



Questions and Answers. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. C. MILLER, Marengo, ni, 



(The Qnestlons may be mailed to the Bee Jonmal office, or to Dr. Miller 



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



Doctor to send answers by mail. — Editor. 1 



Swarming with No Increase. 



I am desirous of having my colonies swarm without in- 

 creasing their number, and want to know a good way to 

 unite the swarm and old colony. Last year I placed the old 

 colony over the swarm, a few days after the swarming, but 

 the plan was not satisfactory. My honey-flow is light and 

 continuous during the summer, the only sumlus coming after 

 the middle of August. Xew Jersey. 



Answer. — I'm not sure I can tell you any way that will 

 be entirely satisfactory. Here is one way you might try, 

 which would have the advantage of leaving you a young and 

 vigorous queen : When the colony swarms, kill or remove the 

 old queen — an easy thing to do if your queens are clpped. A 

 week later destroy all queen-cells but one. Or, wait till you 

 hear the young queen piping, then destroy all queen-cells re- 

 maining. 



Flavoring Bogus Honey— Bee-Bread Flavor- Drones. 



1. What is the name of the stuff the manufacturers of 

 bogus honey use to flavor the product ? I think I knew the 

 name when I was a child, and saw my father put a few drops 

 of it on a tray of rye-flour which he placed in the open air in 

 early spring, to encourage the bees to begin brood-rearing, I 

 suppose. 



2. Is there anything used to put in extracted honey to 

 imitate the flavor of bee-bread? I bought a small jar of 

 honey in a Chicago store last September, and there was no 

 particles in it to indicate bee-bread, but there was such a de- 

 cided flavor of bee-bread that the honey was quite spoiled for 

 ■nie. And I wondered if it could be imitated, and was as a 

 supposed guarantee of genuineness, for I never knew that the 

 flavor would so permeate the honey that it would remain when 

 not a particle \Vas visible in the jar. I thought to take it to 

 Mr. York and ask him about it but I never got to go. The 

 flavors of different kinds of honey interest me very much, -and 

 when I taste a new kind of honey I wonder from what it was 

 gathered. The most finely and deliciously flavored honey I ever 

 tasted was a box of comb honey I bought in Chicago, last fall, 

 and I imagined it came from apple or peach blossoms. 



3. My other question was about drones. I may be dis- 

 playing unpardonable ignorance, but I want to know your 

 idea. I have understood that drones are always hatched from 

 unfertilized eggs. Lately I was reading a manuscript in 



which the writer — an old, experienced bee-keeper whom I had 

 known, personally, from I'hildhood -said that he had watchi'd 

 the quei-n laying eggs In drone-icllfi, worker-i'ells and queen- 

 cells, on the sannr comb, while he held the comb In his hand:), 

 and thos(^ eggs hatched out drones, workers and querMis, ac- 

 cording to the cells. Ii.li.noih. 



A.NswKHH. — 1. I do not know that anything but honey Is 

 used as a flavor. I have had no personal experience In that 

 line, but I havi' sampled honey that was adulterated, and the 

 only flavor I could detect was that of honey and glucose. Still, 

 it may be that other flavors are used. I suspect that the 

 flavor you have in mind that your father used Is anise, for that 

 is used somr'times. I believe, to bait bees. 



2. I never Inward of anything being used to Imitate the 

 flavor of be(!-bread. There are so many different flavors in 

 pure honey that it is possible there may have been nothing 

 wrong except that the hees got the honi'y from flowery that 

 yielded the disagreeable flavor. It may also be that the honey 

 was adulterated. I doubt that the honey you liked so well 

 was from apple or peach bloom. At the time of fruit-bloom 

 bees are not generally in suHicient force to store surplus, and 

 all the honey then gathered is used in brood-rearing. 



3. There is no conflict between your understanding and 

 the statement of your friend. All the eggs of the queen are 

 unimpregnated as they leavi^ the ovaries. In its outward pass- 

 age the egg is impregnated as it passes the seminal sac or 

 sperniatheca zy'the egg isdestined for a worker-cell or aqueen- 

 cell. liut if the egg is destined for a drone-crdl it is not im- 

 pregnated. In the absence of a queen, workers sometimes 

 undertake the business of egg-laying, but their eggs, being un- 

 impregnated. produce only drones, even if laid in worker- 

 cells. 



Now it would be justlike you to ask whether the queen 

 voluntarily decides what eggs shall or shall not be im- 

 pregnated, or whether there be something in the nature of the 

 case by which she is mechanically compelled to lay the right 

 sort of egg in the cell. To that question I refuse to give any 

 answer. I must draw the line somewhere. Hut if in place 

 of that question you will ask one to which I know the answer, 

 I will cheerfully make reply. 



Management for the Most Honey. 



By which of the following plans do you think the most 

 honey can be obtained in a case where bees in an S-frame hive 

 swarm about May 30, and the surplus honey commences to 

 come in about June 15, and lasts until about July lo, and 

 then a fall flow from buckwheat commencing about Aug. 1 ? 



1. By allowing them to swarm May 30 and getting a lit- 

 tle of the white surplus from both parent colony and the 

 swarm, and building them both up for the fall flow? 



2. Or, by not allowing them to swarm, by giving them 

 more room, until June 15, and then practice the Heddon 

 method to get most of the bees with the swarm ? With this 

 plan the parent colony does not get strong enough to do much 

 surplus «ork on the fall flow. New York. 



Answer. — The answer to your question depends upon the 

 proportion the buckwheat harvest bears to your early harvest, 

 and also upon the number of colonies you have. If you have 

 enough colonies to stock the field, then your better plan is lo 

 keep down increase as much as possible. If there is no dan- 

 ger of overstocking, your flrst will be better if the buckwheat 

 crop is large compared with the earlier crop. The second 

 plan will be better if you expect only half as much from buck- 

 wheat as from the early flow. This is only a guess and I will 

 be glad if those who have had experience will set me right if 



I am wrong. 



*-."» 



Getting Increase and Honey- 



1. What method would you advise in making nuclei ? I 

 want to increase, and I also want honey. 



2. Or, would you divide and give an untested queen? 



3. Would you divide the strongest colonies or the weakest 

 ones ? Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. The question is just a little like asking how 

 to build a house. Much depends upon circumstances as to 

 the kind of house, etc. So it is with nuclei. It is an easy 

 thing to tell how to start a nucleus, but just the best way de- 

 pends on circumstances. You say you want to increase and 

 also have honey, which is more of a help than many question- 

 ers give. In the first place, you should inform yourself thor- 

 oughly by the study of your text- book as to general principles, 

 and then you are less likely to make mistakes. Making the 



