394 



AMERICAN BEE JOUENAl- 



June 19, 1901. 



^ Questions and Answers, j; 



CONDUCTED BY 



DH. O. O. JUILLER. Afarengxi, HI. 



(The Qnestions may be mailed to the Bee Joarnal office, or to Dr. Miller 



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



Doctor to send answers bv mail. — Editor. 1 



Apt to Make the Cross Crosser. 



I see that some one is trying to cross bumble-bees 

 ■with honey-bees, to increase the size I I have been trying- 

 to cross my bees with lightning-bugs, to enable them to 

 work nights 1 



We crossed our strawberries with milkweed last year, 

 and this year we have a fine crop of strawberries and cream 

 on the same vine 1 



I have been unable to arrive at any good results with 

 crossing the bees ; if j'ou can give any information on the 

 subject, I would be greatly obliged. Nebraska. 



Answer. — I advise you not to make any further effort 

 in that line, for crossing bees makes them cross, and if you 

 cross a cross cross with another cross cross, the resulting 

 cross will be a still crosser cross. 



Honey-Dew— Cockroaches— Swarming. 



1. Explain honej'-dew. 



2. What harm to the hive do cockroaches do ? and how 

 can one get rid of them ? 



3. When bees swarm does the queen come from the hive 

 first, or last ? North Carolina. 



Answers— 1. It would be going beyond the limits of this 

 department to say all that can be said about honey-dew, but 

 it is likely that you desire to know its source. In some cases 

 it is a secretion of plant-lice, in others it seems to be se- 

 creted directly on parts of the leaves or stems of plants. 



2. I never could see that they did any harm, although I 

 don't like to have them about the hives ; perhaps more for 

 their looks than anything else. I suspect that like ants 

 thej- make their stay in and about hives for the warmth. I 

 think they might be destroyed by -poison, providing the bees 

 did not also have access to the poison. 



3. Neither. She may come along in the crowd at almost 

 any time, but I think I have oftener seen her issue after 

 than before half the swarm was out. 



How a Beginner Should Begin. 



As I am somewhat interested in bee-keeping, I would 

 like to ask a question or two in regard to learning bee- 

 keeping. 



My grandfather and father have had bees for about 20 

 years, but I will confess that neither they nor I know 

 scarcel}' anything about them, in fact nothing in regard to 

 handling them for profit in the honej'-line ; as we have kept 

 them simply as agents for distributing pollen for fertilizing 

 small fruit, and they have done their work well. 



My father has been a subscriber to the " Old Reliable " 

 for some time, and I have read each copy with a great deal 

 of interest, but with not as much as I would if I knew more 

 about bees so I could understand it better. 



What would be the best way for a beginner to learn 

 something of beekeeping ? What, and where, could I pro- 

 cure, and what would be the cost of, a good book of instruc- 

 tion in bee-keeping for a beginner ? Kansas. 



Answer. — You have done two important things toward 

 becoming an up-to-date bee-keeper. You have become in- 

 terested in the bees themselves, and all the more because 

 intelligent enough to recognize that their most important 

 work is that of fertilizing the flowers; and, second, you 

 have been reading the American Bee Journal. A third item 

 you have omitted, and that ought to have been done before 

 reading bee-papers — but you are on the track of it — and that 

 is the study of a good text-book Send to the office of this 

 journal, and get " Root's ABC of Bee-Culture," for $1.20 ; 

 Cook's "Bee-Keeper's Guide," for 51.20, or Dadant's L,ang- 

 stroth for SI. 25. Any of these is clubbed with the American 



Bee Journal a year for 51.75 for the two. Become familiar 

 with your test-book, let your study go hand in hand with 

 your practice with the bees, and when you run across sotiie- 

 thing that neither your practice nor your text-book helps 

 you out with, as you surely will, send the conundrum to me, 

 and I'll do my best to help j'ou out — if I can. 

 Success to YOU. 



Making Honey-Vinegar. 



How can I make good vinegar from the waste honey 

 around an apiary ? Can it be made so that one can detect 

 the honey-flavor? Is such vinegar good for pickles ? 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — From honey you can make vinegar of best 

 quality, good for pickles or for any other purpose for which 

 good vinegar is used. Minute instructions are given in 

 some of the bee-books, and there is not room in this depart- 

 ment to go into the matter fully, but it may be said that 

 you can make vinegar from diluted honey just the same as 

 you would make it from cider. Indeed, if you dilute honey 

 and let it stand in a warm place it will make vinegar proba- 

 bly in spite of you. Add to the honey a sufficient quantity 

 of water so that when a fresh egg is put into it there will 

 be a spot of the egg about the size of a dime above the sur- 

 face. It should be understood, however, that honey of ob- 

 jectionable flavor will not make as good vinegar as will 

 honey of good quality. 



When To Put On Supers. 



Dr. Miller says, " Put on supers when you see first the 

 white clover bloom." Here's the bloom, but we will wait 2 

 or 3 weeks before following his advice. This is fully 2 weeks 

 earlier than I ever saw the bloom in Northern Iowa. All 

 well here, and waiting patiently for the bloom. Iowa. 



Answer. — Probably it may be all right not to put on 

 supers until 2 or 3 weeks after the appearance of the first 

 clover bloom, but in a good many cases it might do a good 

 deal toward forcing bees to swarm. Unless I have been 

 mistaken in my observation, bees begin working in earnest 

 on clover about 10 days after the first blossoms are seen, 

 and with any considerable number of colonies I always feel 

 safer to have supers on about 10 days before they will be 

 needed, so the bees will be sure to commence promptly in 

 them when they are needed. Weak colonies, or those with 

 scanty stores, may not need supers so soon, but a strong 

 colony, with plenty of stores, so that there are no vacant 

 cells in the brood-chamber — well, my friend, if you have a 

 number of colonies of that kind, please report how much 

 more than 10 days after the first clover bloom they are ready 

 to work in supers, and I'll make my teachings to fit the case 

 in the future. If swarming is desired, then it is all right to 

 put on supers not till 2 weeks after first clover bloom is seen. 



Sowing Sweet Clover— Preventing Increase— Hive for 

 Comb Honey. 



1. When and how should sweet clover seed be sowed? 

 and which kind is the better for honey, yellow or white ? 

 How much per acre is best to sow ? 



2. You recently said in answer to a question of mine 

 that one way to prevent increase would be to take all the 

 brood from the bees just before they were ready to swarm. 

 Now, what would I do with about 500 frames of brood, if I 

 did not want increase? 



3. I use Hoft'man frames and our flow here is from white 

 and red clover, and lasts from four to eight weeks. Which 

 hive do you think would be best for the production of comb 

 honey, the eight or the ten frame? Give reasons. 



Indiana. 



Answers. — 1. You can sow the same as farmers in your 

 neighbornood sow red clover, using half the amount of 

 seed. If the ground is very mellow, however, there is dan- 

 ger that in the following winter the frost may heave the 

 sweet clover out of the ground. If you can have the ground 

 beaten or tramped down as hard as the roadside, your chance 

 for a crop will be better. 



2. I'm afraid I made rather careless work in answering 

 that question. Prevention of swarming is one thing, pre- 

 vention of increase another. Some want to prevent swarm- 

 ing but do not want to prevent increase. Some want to 



