May : 



1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



329 



THK POST CHECK. 



Ill other words, the Post check is a tloUar bill (or other 

 detiominatioii) with room and lines to write on it. When it 

 is once written on it is no jjood until redeemed, and there- 

 fore not desirable to steal in transit. But and if the thieves 

 in making a haul take it along, and finally destroy it — well, 

 I haven't found out yet where the remedy comes in. Never- 

 theless, let's have the Fost check. Say, have a coupon on 

 one end to be cut oil', or not to be cut otT, as the sender 

 chooses, and to be payable after six months if the body of 

 the note is not presented. Page 237. 



WINTERING IlEES IN A FUKNACE-ROOM. 



Seemingly preposterous experiments with bees are ijuite 

 apt to turn out all right. C. B. Howard contributes one by 

 wintering bees in the furnace-room of his cellar. That ex- 

 periment should be repeated ; it may contain the germ of 

 something valuable. I'll venture the guess that it will 

 usually turn out well, so far as the bees are concerned, but 

 that sometimes (lying bees vpill be a nuisance to the one 

 who tends the furnace. Page 238. 



WAX-WORMS ON BASSWOOD. 



And now comes a man who sees wax-worms prey on 

 the basswood and let the pine alone — just the opposite of 

 the report sent in a bit ago. The man is Mr. A. Ziegler. 

 So merrily we swing around the circles, and get more facts 

 than we can tind pigeon-holes for. Page 238. 



PERHAPS A JOKING MINISTER. 



A. E. Taylor may not be such a bad minister, after all. 

 He was joking ; and presumably said what he did with the 

 verdancy of a child. Didn't think (or never heard I what 

 immense mischief has been done bj' just such jokes, and the 

 statements not jokes which they give rise to. Neither did 

 he realize how sore bee-folks are on that spot — nor what a-lot 

 of them feel ready to trade a kick for a joke. Page 243. 



SWEET CLOVER HAY. 



I was decidely surprised that the call for a man who had 

 a whole load of sweet clover hay in his barn should so 

 nearly fail of response — after all these years of agitation 

 and publication in the matter. What shall we do about it ? 

 Vociferate a little louder, and tear the strips of our raiments 

 a little longer, or give the whole thing up ? Mr. Baldridge 

 was able to certify some extensive use of it for hay in the 

 South. They can cure it there — and are also in most dis- 

 tressing need of something to make hay of. I suspect the 

 great hindrance in the North is that suitable hay-.weather 

 mostly does not come so soon as sweet clover needs cutting. 

 Page 228. 



MR. AIKIN'S WAX SEPARATOR. 



In the cut of Aikin's wax-separator, on page 234, there 

 is a funny source of error. We think we see two galvanized 

 iron pails. Mentally estimating them at ten inches high, or 

 such a matter, we see the device standing up as tall as a 

 man's shoulders, and big in proportion. When we read it 

 is seven inches high and two inches wide on the bottom, we 

 are rather taken back. 



Good style of straining. Mclntyre, of California, %vas 

 one early practitioner of the gravity method of straining, if 

 I remember rightly. 



EXTRACTING WHEN THE WEATHER IS COLD. 



To extract honey successfully 20 degrees below freezing 

 would be quite a triumph, surely ; but he didn't mean ex- 

 actly that. He meant when the wea//ier v!a.s that many de- 

 grees to the bad. The process of warming up can be helped 

 along materially by bringing the combs into an ordinary 

 room, which stands at 40 or 50, a day or two beforehand. 

 Page 236. 



RIPENING CUBAN HONEY. 



Rambler told us Cuban comb honey was ripe, but he did 

 not tell us why Cuban extracted honey could not be well 

 ripened, too. One would think that with an honest sun 

 overhead, and an honest son beneath, the feat would be 

 possible. Page 236. 



Please send us Names of Bee-Keepers who do not now 



get the American Bee Journal, and we will send them sam- 

 ple copies. Then you can very likely afterward get their 

 subscriptions, for which work we offer valuable premiums 

 in nearly every number of this journal. You can aid much 

 by sending in the names and addresses when writing us on 

 other matters. 



I Questions and Answers, l 



CONDUCTRD BY 



DR. O. O. Mlhl.KH. Marongf), III. 



[The Qnestlons may be mailed to tbe Bee Journal office, or to Dr. Mllln 



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



Doctor to send answers bT mail. — Editor. 1 



Increasing by Dividing. 



I wish to increase my bees when the time comes, and I 

 want to do it artificially. If I put a new hive on an old 

 stand with starters, and (jueeii clipped, with almost the en- 

 tire swarm, and then put the old hive on top of the new one 

 with the rear end in front, entrance closed, and put a tube 

 at the rear end for the hatching bees to escape, how long 

 must I leave the tube on ? Should I put moisture or water 

 in the old hive? How long should 1 wait before I give the 

 old colony a ripe queen-cell ? Colokado. 



Answer. — I have had no experience with the plan you 

 mention, and I doubt the advisability of trying it. If, 

 however, there are those who have tried the plan and ap- 

 prove it, I will gladly give them the lloor to answer you. In 

 late numbers you will find some plans for artificial increase 

 that may suit vou. 



Early Drone-KlllIng and No Swarmins;. 



Why do some colonies make such cleaning out of the 

 drones, and so early in the spring ? I have 2 hives now that 

 have a large quantity of dead and some live drones ejected. 

 I had 10 colonies last year ; the spring was late and cold, 

 like this spring, and quite a number of colonies emptied 

 their hives of drones, and I had but one new swarm. I got 

 from the 9 colonies a little over 250 pounds of surplus honey 

 last year, and it looks as if the bees have started to do the 

 same thing this year. All the colonies are working well on 

 fruit-blossoms now. Let me know the cause of early drone- 

 killing, and no swarming. Washington, 



Answer. — Bees may vote down drones at any timd 

 when stores appear to be getting scarce. They may also 

 vote that they have no immediate use for drones when the 

 old queen has been superseded and a new one has com- 

 menced laying, even if the superseding comes early. 



Honey, Not .Increase, Wanted— Italianizing Managing 

 Swarms. 



1. I have several colonies of bees in 2-story 8-frame dove- 

 tailed hives. I wish to manage them for comb honey and 

 no increase. Our main honey-flow is white clover, begin- 

 ning about June 10. What plan would you advise ? 



2. My bees are blacks and hybrids. I wish to introduce 

 pure Italians. At what time of the year would you intro- 

 duce them ? And would you get laying or untested queens ? 



3. Would it be better to buy queens reared in this lati- 

 tude ? And is there a liability of introducing " foul brood " 

 with a queen ? 



4. Under all conditions would you give full sheets of 

 comb foundation in frames and in sections, to a swarm ? If 

 not, what would be the exception ? When would you add 

 the super ? Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. It is just possible that by allowing them 

 to continue in the two stories (if by that you mean that 

 there are two stories in the brood-chamber), there may be 

 no swarming. One way is to have the queen clipped, de- 

 stroy the queen when a swarm issues, and when the young 

 queen pipes, a week or more later, destroy all queen-cells. 



2. You can introduce queens almost any time, but the 

 introduction is less risky when bees are gathering, and it 

 is easier to get queens after the June flow begins. Untested 

 queens are always supposed to be laying queens, only they 

 have been laying so short a time that their worker progeny 

 have not yet hatched out. If you want to be entirely sure 

 of what you get, it will be well to get tested queens ; but it 

 will cost less to take some risk and get untested ones. 



3. I don't know as it makes much difference about the 

 latitude. No honest man would send you foul brood, but to 



