698 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 30, 1902. 



Questions and Answers. \ 



CONDDCTKD BY 



DR. O. O. MILLER, Marengo, HZ, 



(The Questions 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 



Sulphuric Acid for Cleansing Beeswax. 



How much acid should be used for 25 pounds of wax ? 

 Is it put in water or wax for cleansing' ? Michigan. 



Answer. — Sulphuric acid is the acid used in cleansing 

 wax. Ordinarily about one part of acid is used to every 

 hundred parts of water. If little cleansing is needed half as 

 much acid will do, and twice as much may be needed if the 

 wax is very dirty. Put the wax in the acid solution and 

 heat all to about 180 degrees, Fahr., and keep it hot half an 

 hour; but look out it doesn't boil over. 



Honey-Plant for Railroad or Wagon-Road. 



What plant would you name for a deep cut on a railroad, 

 and also on highway wagon-road? I sowed sweet clover, 

 but the bees do not seem to work on that freely for a long 

 time. Michigan. 



Answer. — Most emphatically I should say sweet clover 

 is the right thing either for a wagon-road or a deep cut on a 

 railroad. With enough of it I should have little fear as to 

 the bees working on it. Not many plants will grow well in 

 the subsoil of a deep cut, but sweet clover will grow there 

 luxuriantly. It is not at all likely that j'ou can secure a 

 good growth of catnip on a roadside or in a deep cut, but, if 

 you have hedges, sow catnip directly in the shade of the 

 hedge and it will flourish. 



Getting Bees Out of a Chimney-Feeding for Winter. 



1. I have a colony of bees that are in a chimney, that is 

 not in use during the summer, only in winter ; they are not 

 very far down from the top, about 4 feet. How can I get 

 them out? I would like to save the bees, and keep the honey 

 to feed the rest of the bees. 



2. I have quite a few unfinished sections, and would 

 like to know whether I could feed it back to the bees. 

 Would they clean them out, so I could save them for another 

 season for bait-sections ? About what time could I feed 

 them back before very cold weather ? 



3. How much honey should a colony of bees have, to 

 last them from October until the following May, without 

 feeding them ? I am going to winter my bees out-of-doors 

 in light chaff hives. How can I fix them over the brood- 

 frames ? And what shall I use for packing. 



New York. 



Answers.— 1. Without being on the spot it is a difficult 

 thing to say what is the best plan, and even when on the 

 spot it is not easy, as each case is a separate problem. The 

 best way would be to tear away the chimney sufficiently to 

 reach the bees, but most likely that plan can not be consid- 

 ered. Possibly something like this might be tried : 



Make enough fire below to smoke the bees so they will 

 fill themselves with honey and be perfectly subdued, but of 

 course there should not be so much fire and smoke as to 

 make the bees fall down into the fire. Then with some 

 kind of a tool such as is used in tile-ditching, reach down 

 from the top of the chimney and take up what you can lift, 

 combs, bees and all. Continue this till you have got all out. 

 It will not be a nice or satisfactory mess ; the honey will be 

 mashed, the bees will bedaubed, and some of them killed; 

 but the honey will at least be good for feeding, and very 

 likely the qeeen will be safe. 



If any one can suggest a better plan, he can havtf the 

 floor. 



2. Any day when bees are flying you can get the bees 

 to etnpty out your partly filled sections. Put the supers of 

 sections in a pile of five or six supers each, closely cover up, 

 only allowing a place for one or two bees to enter at a time. 

 Let the bees still have them for a day or two after they have 



emptied them, so that they will make a thorough job of get- 

 ting them cleaned. 



3. They ought to have had 30 pounds or more of honey. 

 Lay a piece of burlap or other open cloth over the top-bars, 

 and then put your packing on top. If you can get cork-dust, 

 nothing is better for packing. Dry leaves, planer-shavings, 

 chaff, etc., are also good. 



% The Afterthought. ^ | 



The '*Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By B. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural. Toledo, O. 



TWO QUEENS IN A HIVE— SHAKEN SWARMS. 



Two queens in a hive, a la page 601, are indeed exceed- 

 ingly handy for dividing. 



Twelve years is quite a long lesson ; but doubtless 

 there are still some in-plain-sight lessons unlearned when a 

 man has kept bees for more than 12 years. Mr. Housel is 

 very likely sound on black hybrids for fine comb honey — if 

 he thiyiks so — no bee is worth a cent if his boss thinks ill of 

 her. Page 602. 



It's a phrase to conjure with, " shaken swarms," or 

 would be were it not for that dreadful " sometimes." Some- 

 times look a little out for infuriated bees and a grist of 

 queenless colonies. Page 605. 



WHAT CAUSED THE POOR HONEY CROP ? 



" Nothing but the bad weather has prevented an un- 

 precedented honey crop." Page 604. When Mr. Knowles 

 has conned his book 12 j'ears over that lesson he will have 

 an inkling that there is a mysterious something back of the 

 weather. 



But I'll admit we have had some fantastic weather this 

 year of grace 1902, and plenty of " something," too. As 

 per page 607, it's famine to the extent of stopping brood- 

 rearing, then rush of nectar filling the empty brood-nest 

 full, then dearth again to keep a normal-sized brood-nest 

 from ever getting started. Three such items constitute a 

 queer situation. 



THAT SWEET CAPITOI^ AND MAST-HEAD INDEX. 



The Capitol as a bee-palace, eh ? Would that all Capi- 

 tols might be as sweet-savored internally, and furnished 

 with as ready weapons against impudent wrong. 



And say, that new plan of having a mast-head index 

 of special things to be found inside is not a bad plan. 

 Page 609. 



WHEN THE HEAT OF THE DRONE IS HEI,PFUI<. 



It is true that the poor drone makes heat and wastes 

 most of it on the summer air, and that what he makes in 

 the hive is mostly when there is too much heat there 

 already. Just once, however, his heat may come in proper- 

 good play, and that's the first night or so after swarming, 

 in which performance the workers mostly depart and the 

 drones mostly stand by the old home. Pag'e 611. 



CREMATING KOUL BROOD. 



Not so sure that Ernest Root's cremation, on page 611, 

 is entirely absolute. What's to hinder some individual bees 

 from alighting on the damp leaves of adjoining brush, 

 sticking there till morning, and then for want of a home 

 wandering off and carrying that many drops of infected 

 honey into the nearest hive ? Still, the disposition of most 

 insects to dash at a light may save the situation. 



WIRING FOUNDATION IN FRAMES. 



As to the frame shown on page 615, I suppose the droop 

 of the wires was drawn much exaggerated lest the reader 

 might not notice any droop. The impression first made on 

 my mind was : Here's somebody who thinks drooping 

 wires will hold up foundation better than straight ones. 

 Guess that's not the idea. Rather, wire with a moderate 

 pull, not hard enough to spring the ends, and tighten mod- 

 erately by pulling down the wire while imbedding. If 

 that's not it, Mr. Greiner can get back at me. Very droop- 

 ing wires would hardly resist swaying bodily over to one 

 side as well as tight ones. 



