Jan. 17, IW 



American Hee Journal 



thoso bees? They ari) wintering out-doors. 

 I tliou;;hl,, perhaps, it would be necessary to 

 give another culte some time this month, pro- 

 vided the liees were still alive. 



I have lieen reading the American Bee .Jour- 

 nal for some time, and notice that you occa- 

 sionally answer a few ciuestions, and maybe 

 you might help me out of my uncertainty, 

 and at the same time save those 2 colonies of 

 bees. One of the colonies contains a Cau- 

 casian iiueen that I am very anxious to have 

 some fun with next summer. I understand 

 that Caucasian bees can sting if they want to, 

 but seldom seem to have the desire. I think 

 that l<ind of i)ees would suit me exactly, for I 

 never did enjoy being stung, any more than 

 some people "enjoy poor health.'' 



It I am successful in getting the informa- 

 tion I am asking for, 1 may come again some 

 time. 



Your answers to questions in the American 

 Bee .lournal I consider the best thing for be- 

 ginners. Northern Illinois. 



Answer. — For some time after Thanks- 

 giving Day the bees are likely to consume less 

 thaa at any other time; yet the amount they 

 ■consume varies greatly. Two colonies, side 

 by side, apparently alike, will consume dif- 

 ferent quantities. Five pounds of sugar made 

 into syrup (equivalent to about 7 pounds of 

 honey) may last a colony in the cellar clear 

 through till time to betaken out in spring, 

 and it may not last till February. At any 

 rate, you will be on quite safe ground if you 

 renew the supply before Feb. 1. Outdoors, 

 better see to it a week or two sooner. You 

 will understand, of course, that no harm can 

 come from being a little too early, while a 

 little too late may do a good deal of harm. 



Please report how the colonies come out. I 

 •should not expect the brown sugar to do as 

 well as the granulated. 



Treatment for Bee Paralysis 



What is the best way to cure bee-paralysis 

 without spreading it, and without burning 

 the hives? Will washing the hives with 

 strong salt water help it, when the bees and 

 honey are out of them, and the hives have 

 not been used for a month or two, or all win- 

 ter? I have used sulphur on the alighting- 

 board for some time, but it did not help it. 



Iowa. 



Answer.— I didn't suppose that bee-paraly- 

 sis would be very bad so far north as Iowa. 1 

 don't believe salt water would do any good, 

 and probably there would be no danger in 

 using the hives over again. Many cures have 

 been offered, but it seems none have stood the 

 test unless it be sulphur, and some have no 

 faith in that. Possibly you did not have the 

 snlphur as deep at the entrance as those who 

 have had success in that way. But Mr. O. O. 

 Poppleton, who is the most prominent advo- 

 cate of the sulphur cure, does not use it at 

 the entrance, but powders it on the bees and 

 combs. If the disease acts with you as it has 

 with me, it will disappear of itself without 

 any worry on your part ; but down South it is 

 a terrible scourge. 



Preventing Honey-Granulation by 

 Heating 



1. What is the best way to heat white 

 honey that is to be sold in glass jars* and to 

 what degree must it be heated so that it will 

 not granulate? 



2. How should I heat buckwheat honey be- 

 fore it granulates so that it will look clear, 

 and not granulate when put in glass jars? I 

 tried to heat buckwheat honey before it 

 granulated last fall, and I could not do any- 

 thing with it. If I got it a little too hot, it 

 would look cloudy or muddy; and if I did 

 not get it hot enough it would granulate 

 ■after being put into the glass jars. 



New York. 

 Answer. — Whether the honey be light or 

 dark, it should not be heated to more than 

 il60 degrees, and it will be better not to go 



above ISO, allowing It a long time to melt the 

 grains. Those who melt it on a large scale 

 have special appuratus for that purpose. If 

 you do not care to melt more than .'Vl or 100 

 pounds at a tjim'. you can do that with uten- 

 sils you areliki'U to have on hand, using a 

 kitchen range ur cook-stove. Don't set the 

 vessel containing the honey directly on the 

 stove, but set it in another vessel containing 

 water, having a thin board or something else 

 for the honey-vessel to rest on, so the inner 

 vessel will not come directly in contact with 

 the bottom of the outer vessel. If the water 

 in this outside vessel is never allowed to come 

 to the boil, there is not much danger that the 

 honey will be heated too much, but it is well 

 to have it on the back part of the stove to 

 make the melting slower. No matter how 

 you melt it, it will granulate again unless it 

 is sealed up. I have never tried it, but it is 

 said that if it Ije sealed at 160 degrees it will 

 not granulate again. 



Painting Hives 



1. Can I paint my hives containing bees at 

 any time of the year? And if so, at what 

 time? I thought maybe I could paint the 

 hives during winter, but having chaff-packed 

 hives I would not have any chance, for dur- 

 ing winter it would be impossible for paint to 

 dry outdoors. 



2. What paint is best for chaff-packed 

 hives? Michigan. 



Answers. — 1. You can paint your hives 

 any time of the year when it would do to 

 paint a house. Of course, as you suggest, it 

 will not do to paint in freezing cold weather, 

 but as soon as thawing weather comes it will 

 be all right. Your chief desire, no doubt, is 

 to know whether you can paint the hives at a 

 time when bees are active. Yes, you can do 

 it even when they are in their busiest season. 

 The only thing to look out for is that the bees 

 don't stick in the paint before it dries. If it 

 is made rather thin there is little danger. If 

 you paint a hive in the evening, as soon as 

 the bees stop flying, using a little drier in the 

 paint, by morning no bee will stick in it. Of 

 course, it will be well to be rather gentle in 

 painting, for if you should pound on the hive 

 too hard with the brush, it would rouse the 

 curiosity of the bees to investigate. 



3. Any good outdoor paint, white lead 

 probably being as good as any. 



Northern Indian Territory for Bee- 

 keeping 



1. Is the northern part of Indian Territory 

 a good place for bees? 



2. Would you advise me to go there to 

 keep bees, and make it pay? Illinois. 



Answer. — Although I have an impression 

 that it is a fairly good bee-region, yet I have 

 no positive knowledge about it, and wouldn't 

 dare to advise in the case. Possibly some one 

 else may tell us about it. 



Why Did the Bees Die? 



Sometime in March, during a warm spell, I 

 noticed a colony of my bees acting as if they 

 were short of supplies. On examination, I 

 found them entirely out, fed them rather thin 

 syrup warm, and about a week after feeding 

 them there came a very cold spell, about 4 de- 

 grees above zero. After it became warm 

 again I found a number of dead bees on the 

 alighting-board. On looking into the hive I 

 found them all dead. The syrup was in the 

 cells of 3 frames. During this warm spell I 

 thought I would try stimulative feeding, so 

 began with 3 colonies, 2 rather weak ones and 

 one good, strong one. In a few days after 

 feeding thin warm syrup, another cold spell 

 came not so cold as the other (about 20 de- 

 grees above), and the bees did not come out 

 for a week. When it warmed up again I 

 found the strong colony nearly all dead, and 



the 2 weak ones doing nicely, and they did aa 

 well as any I had during thcsummer. I would 

 like to know the cause of the dying. They 

 were all in dovetailed hives. MissotKl. 



Answer, — Your letter partly answers itself, 

 and If I read correctly between the lines, your 

 question is rather to contirm your own opin- 

 ion than to seek light upon a question on 

 which you are entirely ignorant. The bees 

 being tilled with a lot of water (of course in 

 the syrup), were in no condition to withstand 

 the cold, and succumbed. Granted that It 

 was fed warm, it wouldn't stay warm, and 

 the evaporation was of course a cooling 

 process. " But why was it that the 2 weak 

 colonies throve under the same treatment that 

 killed the strong one?" Now, look here, 

 don't try to get me in a corner and expose my 

 ignorance. Your experience in dealing with 

 human ailments has told you that what will 

 kill one man doesn't kill another, and no one 

 can tell just why. But seeing it's you, I'll 

 make at least a guess in the case. The strong 

 colony was thoroughly active, and thoroughly 

 loaded up; and the weak ones were more in- 

 clined to be sluggish, and a smaller proportion 

 of their bees worked on the syrup, and when 

 those that carried down the syrup shared 

 their loads with the others, none were dis- 

 commoded. 



The moral is, that whilestimulative feeding 

 may do good, it may do harm ; and after 

 many years' experience I feel that it is a 

 pretty safe thing to let alone. Of course, it's 

 the right thing to feed rather than to let a 

 colony starve; and the thing to learn is to 

 have plenty of stores in the hive to last 

 through. It takes a long time to learn that, 

 especially with small hives. 



Wintering Bees Outdoors, But En- 

 closed With Wire Frame Work 



I winter my bees on the south side of a 

 building in a place built on for that purpose, 

 packed in straw, and they trouble me by fly- 

 ing out on warm days and alight on the snow 

 and^die. Of late I have made a frame-work 

 of wire-netting which gives them a chance to 

 come out, but they can not fly away now. Is 

 it as well to have them so, or would it be bet- 

 ter to let them fly? Maine. 



Answer.— Whatever you do, don't try to 

 keep the bees in by force. The only kind of 

 wire-cloth that should close the winter en- 

 trance of a hive is the coarse kind having 

 about 3 meshes to the inch. That will bar the 

 mice, but will allow the bees a free passage. 

 The trouble is that it you use wire-cloth that 

 will fasten the bees in, then any bee that 

 wants to get out will stir up others and get 

 the whole hive in such commotion as to do 

 quite a bit of harm. You can darken the en- 

 trance to keep out the light. But after they 

 have been in for some time there may come a 

 warm day when you want them to fly, but 

 don't want them to drop down into the soft 

 snow to die. You can tramp down the snow 

 so it will be hard for some distance in front 

 of the entrance. You might also throw hay, 

 straw, old carpet, etc., on the ground. It is 

 only fair to say that you are not to count as a 

 total loss all the bees that come out and drop 

 down. More or less of the bees are getting 

 old through the winter and dying off, and it 

 is just as well, or better, that they come out 

 to die. If you should put into winter quar- 

 ters a colony of 50,000 bees, and 35,000 of 

 them should live through to begin work next 

 spring, you may feel well satisfied. In other 

 words, you needn't worry yourself sick it 

 halt the bees die between now and fruit- 

 bloom. 



The Chicago-Northwestern Conven- 

 tion Photograph was taken Dee. 6, 1906. 

 which was very good indeed. Price, post- 

 paid, in mailing tube, 60 cents. Send orders 

 to the office of the American Bee Journal 

 and we will see that the pictures are mailed. 



