Oct. 23, 1902. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



6S3 



kind catches instantly from a match, and smokes splen- 

 didly, but burns out rather too fast. Second kind lasts 

 pretty well, but is sometimes a little hard to start with a 

 match alone. Keep a sujjply of both kinds, well dried, and 

 mix them accordin;;^ to wind and weather — and thereby for- 

 ffet that the smoker is the plag'ue of one's life. Of course, 

 you can stay in the wilderness if you want to. Saltpeter 

 can save you (in the form of saltpctered rajifs), but where- 

 fore ? A zinc oiler full of kerosene will start you olT ; but 

 is it the best one can do '! Throw the saltpeter and the ker- 

 osene where some literary worthy was K'0'"K' to throw 

 physic — to the dogs. Page S*)S. 



COLLECTING BEK-I..\\VS. 



~~: To have all the laws relative to bees collected together 

 apart from the beivildering mass of the laws in general is a 

 good idea. Page .S99. 



Questions and Answers. | 



CONDUCTED BY 



OH, O. O. MILLER. Mareafgo, Ul. 



(The Q lestlons may be mailed to the Bee Journal 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 



Making an Observation Hive. 



Please describe the best observation hive to one who 

 wishes to study scientifically the workings of the bees. I 

 have built a glass hive, and then removed the brood-frames 

 with bees from a regulation hive ; but then I can only ob- 

 serve the comb formition on the outside frames. 



Iowa. 



In some respects the ordinary hive is the best observa- 

 tion hive, for in that the bees are not prevented from carry- 

 ing on their regular work in the ordinary way. What you 

 desire, however, is a hive that will allow you to see what 

 the bees are doing without being obliged to lift the frames 

 out of the hive. The hive you have made allows you to see 

 only one side of each outside comb, so the thing to do is to 

 have none but one outside comb : in other words, make your 

 hive for one comb only. 



Keeping Robbed-Out Combs Dnring Winter. 



Will the bees winter just as well if I seta hive with combs 

 that have been robbed out, under their hive, taking the bot- 

 tom-board from between ? I wish to do this to keep the 

 combs from the moths ; and then I am planning to keep 

 them there until they have enough brood in the lower hive 

 to make a colony, then set them off. It is all because I feel 

 so badly because tny bees robbed out 12 colonies out of 32 

 that a neighbor brought to me to take care of (on shares), as 

 circumstances prevented her caring for them herself. The 

 combs are in such shape that they cannot be lifted without 

 more trouble and expense than I can give them. 



Colorado. 



Answer. — Your plan will work, but you need not feel 

 obliged to keep the combs in the care of the bees all winter 

 in order to protect them from the moth. It will soon be so 

 cold that there will be no danger from moths laying eggs, 

 and even if larva? of the moth should be present they will 

 do little or no harm in cool weather. As soon as freezing 

 weather comes, the freezing will destroy both larva' and 

 eggs, and there will be no more danger until it is warm 

 enough next summer for fresh eggs to be laid by moths. 



Black Honey Gatliered by Bees. 



" Massachusetts " says his bees stored a liquid nearly 

 black, after August 1. and asked if it might not be gathered 

 from huckleberries or blackberries, and you reply perhaps 

 his guess is as good as any. If " Massachusetts " had 

 noticed his bees closely in the morning, while the dew was 

 on the flowers, and the goldenrod was so wet that the bees 

 were not working on the flowers at all, he would have found 

 them hustling about as if they were robbing'. That was the 



way mine were lio'inff, and I started out to discover the 

 source of their supply. When I neared the oak-trees I could 

 hear their bus)' hum and see them alighting on the leaves, 

 which were covered in places with a sticky, shiny Hubstance 

 that the bees were gathering. One colony that I had stand- 

 ing on .scales, gathered 12'- pounds in one day — not all 

 from the oaks but part from goldenrod ; and now as I open 

 the hives I find nearly all the hive with a mixture of the 

 two kinds of sweets, tasting strongly of goldenrod, but not 

 salable, it is so dark and inky. 



Several years ago I had one colony gather some 60 

 pounds almost black and very inferior to the honey this fall. 

 The colony I had on the .scales has gained about .50 pounds 

 during the goldenrod (low ; never but one year since 1H56 

 have I had a colony store more during the fall flow. 



New Hampshire. 



Answer. — Whether the chief yield was from the golden- 

 rod or honey-dew from the oak, is left a iittle in the dark. 

 Goldenrod seems to be one of the most variable honey-yield- 

 ers. It is very abundant in this region, tut bees never seem 

 to work upon it. 



.*■♦-# 



Transferring andlDividing -Finding the Queen. 



1. I have 3 colonies of bees, one being in a square hive, 

 and they are always building crooked combs. The bees are 

 numerous, for one swarm returned after a short while. 

 When would it be best to transfer them ? 



2. Could they be divided into two colonies ? 



3. How can I catch thf; queen for requeening ? I am a 

 beginner and have read about re-queening but nowhere have 

 I read about how to find the queen. The frames in my hive 

 are firmly glued in. Minnesota. 



1. Better wait until next spring or summer. 



2. Yes. Perhaps the best way to do that, and likely the 

 best way anyhow, is to wait till the bees swarm next sum- 

 mer, hiving the swarm in a hive with movable frames, and 

 then transferring the remainder about three weeks after 

 the issuing of the swarm. In the meantime read up well in 

 your text-book, so as to be well informed on general prin- 

 ciples. 



3. Most of the catching of queens is done by simply 

 putting the thumb and finger down over the queen, pressing 

 her lightly on the comb, then letting the thumb and finger 

 slide together over the back of thequeen, andholding firmly 

 the wings. A vrire cage may also be placed over her, re- 

 moving the cage when she runs up into it. If your object 

 is to clip the queen, you might like the Monette clipping 



device. 



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Learning Bee-Keeping— Florida vs. Pennsylvania. 



1. To a woman contemplating bee-keeping would it be 

 to her interest to help a bee-keeper, for the experience she 

 would receive ? 



2. Are there bee-keepers who would want help of that 

 kind, if she were willing to give her time for the experi- 

 ence? 



3. Is it more profitable to keep bees in Florida than in 

 Pennsylvania ? • Florida. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, it would be to her interest so to do ; 

 spending a short time at it if she expects to keep bees on a 

 small scale, and a longer time proportionately if she ex- 

 pected to do more at the business. 



2. Yes, some beekeepers employ such help ever)- year. 

 Watch for their advertisements, or else put in a short ad- 

 vertisement yourself. 



3. I don't know. Some bee-keepers in Pennslyvania do 

 better than some bee-keepers in Florida, and vice versa. In 

 general terms, it probably might be said that the opportuni- 

 ties for successful bee-keeping on a large scale were better 

 in Florida than in Pennsylvania. 



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 them 

 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. 



■ -» • »■ 



The Premiums offered this week are well worth working 

 for. Look at them. 



