Jan 31, 1907 



American lee Journal 



hive 3^ inch, wouldn't it be easier to tack a 

 piece I4 inch thick on one of the ioside walls 

 than to cut down the hive? But I wouldn't 

 bother about reducing that 34 inch. It will 

 be only 1-40 of an inch for each frame, and 

 you'll find that space taken up by bee-glue in 

 a little while. If you want to use 9 frames, a 

 thin dummy at each side would be all right. 

 A super '4 inch narrower than the hive would 

 work all right. 



Don't worry about my being tired answer- 

 ing questions about the T-super. 



Storing Pollen in Sections 



The bees stored a great deal of pollen in the 

 sections last summer, which spoiled quite a 

 few pounds of honey that would have been 

 salable otherwise. What can I do to prevent 

 them from storing pollen in the sections? 



Michigan. 



Answeb. — I know of three things that will 

 encourage pollen and brood in sections. One 

 is to have the brood-chamber too small and 

 crowded. In that case the queen is likely to 

 go up and occupy the sections, pollen follow- 

 ing. A second is to have very little or no 

 drone-comb in the brood-chamber and small 

 starters in the sections. In that case the 

 bees will build more or less drone-comb in the 

 sections, the queen will go up for the sake of 

 laying in drone-cells, and pollen will follow 

 the brood. A third is to have shallow combs 

 in the brood-chamber. In that case there is 

 danger of pollen in sections even without any 

 brood in them. Evidently, to avoid pollen in 

 sections, we must avoid the three conditions 

 mentioned. I rarely have any trouble in that 

 way, and I use S-frame hives with frames 9'„ 

 inches deep, and have the sections filled full 

 ■with worker-foundation. 



Size of Hives-Transferring— Long 

 Tongued Italians-Italianizing 



Last spring I made a lOframe hive, and 

 June 16 I bought a swarm of hybrid bees for 

 $1.00 from an apiarist in this neighborhood. 

 The bees did nicely until Aug. 30, then they 

 cast a big swarm. I hived them back on the 

 old stand. I then extracted 3 gallons of 

 honey to give them more room, and they 

 went on with their work as if nothing had 

 happened. When I put them into the cellar, 

 Nov. 21, the wbole weight was 70 pounds, so 

 I think they have plenty of stores to carry 

 them through the winter. 



Late last fall I bought from the same api- 

 arist 3 colonies in 8-frame hives at $3.00 per 

 colony. They were strong, and had plenty of 

 stores, so there is no reason why they should 

 not winter all right, and as I have a good 

 cellar. As the hives of those I bought are 

 poor, I will make new ones. 1 have been 

 thinking of making 12-frame hives, and run- 

 ning them for extracted honey only. 



1. Would you advisemaking them 12-frame1 

 The apiarist here claims that the 12-frame is 

 the best. 



2. When would it be best to transfer the bees 

 from the old hives into the new ones? Will 

 it be all right to do it in the spring when 1 

 take them out of the cellar, or should I wait 

 till later, when the weather is getting 

 warmer? 



3. Will the so-called long-tongued Italian 

 bees gather honey from red clover? 



4. As I would like to get some Italian bees, 

 how would you idvise me to do it? Should 

 I send for queens and introduce them? If so, 

 when would be the best time to do this? Or, 

 should I buy some nuclei and rear them that 

 way? Wisconsin. 



Answers.— 1. Yes, if run for extracted 

 honey only, 12 Langstroth frames will be none 

 too large. The Dadants are among the most 

 successful producers of extracted honey, and 

 their hives are fully as large in capacity as 12 

 Langstroth frames. 



2. It depends a little upon circumstances. 

 It you transfer from a frame of one size to a 

 frame of another size, so that there will be 



little to do on the part of the bees in che way 

 of building or mending, you can do the work 

 early, on any day when it is warm enough for 

 bees to be flying briskly all day. If there is 

 much building or jiaiching to do, better wait 

 till fruit-bloom. Perhaps you may do still 

 better to wait till the bees swarm, hiving the 

 swarm in the kind of hive desired, and then 

 transferring 3 weeks later, when all the 

 worker-brood will have emerged. 



3. I'm afraid not all of them. There are 

 strains that will be better than others on red 

 clover, and there are also times when red 

 clover is in such con»Ution, either by having 

 its corollas unusually full or by having them 

 shorter than usual, when even black bees 

 will work on it. So you see it's a little hard 

 to be very exact and definite about the matter. 



4. Probably it will be as well for you to 

 get one or more queens. It will cost less. 



lepoffs and 

 ^ICKpei^ience$ 



Weathep Mild and Rainy 



The weather has been very mild and 

 rainy here since the last days of De- 

 cember. I doubled my 133 colonies of 

 bees up (or down) to 108 for winter, fed 

 until all hives were rather hard to lift, 

 and believe that all will come through 

 to the next harvest in STOod condition. 

 Edwin Bevins. 



Leon, Iowa, Jan. 7. 



Sweet Clover Honey Called Alfalfa 



I saw an advertisement in a paper 

 the other day of alfalfa honey. That 

 honey came from Emery County, and 

 it was sweet clover honey. There is a 

 great difference in sweet clover honey 

 in Utah, just the same as with fruit. 

 The flavor depends upon the kind of 

 soil the article grows on. It seems the 

 best and clearest honey comes from 

 clover that is grown on heavy and 

 mineral clay or sand land, gravelly or 

 black soil not being so good. 



I have 81 colonies of bees, and last 

 year was my first experience with 

 them. I like the study better than any 

 thing else I ever worked at, and I have 

 worked for myself 24 years. I expect 

 to increase my bees to 150 colonies next 

 season. I have one of the best pastures 

 in the State, with willows, sweet clo- 

 ver, alfalfa, and wild flowers in early 

 spring ; alfalfa and sweet clover from 

 July 1. My bees have at least 300 acres 

 of clover and alfalfa within 2 miles. 

 If you want any more information 

 about this country, I will be at your 

 service. C. N. Shiner. 



Emery Co., Utah, Jan. 1. 



Very Poor Crop in 1906 



We have had a poor season here in 

 the northeastern part of Wisconsin. 

 The crop turned out very poor for 1906. 

 I started out with 65 colonies, but got 

 only 1500 pounds of honey. Bees in 

 the spring didn't seem to build up so 

 fast as they ought to. It looked as if 

 they had brood enough, but the old bees 

 died off too fast till in June, and when 

 we were looking for honey from clover, 

 which is our main flow for surplus 



honey, drouth set in, and it got so dry 

 and the result was — no honey. Sep- 

 tember 12 I went to the Manitowoc 

 County Fair, where some of the mem- 

 bers of our Association had some ex- 

 hibits. On Oct. 3, 1906, the Northeast 

 Wisconsin Bee-Keepers' Association 

 held its annual convention in Mishi- 

 cott. Wis., and members there reported 

 the crop very small. After coming 

 home from the convention, we took all 

 the supers off the hives which were 

 mostly empty, so no fall honey to 

 bother with. Then we got our bees 

 ready for another winter. We passed 

 the summer and fall living in hopes 

 for 1907 to prov.e a better year for 

 honey. Our winter so far is mild. Only 

 two mornings it has shown two de- 

 grees below zero, but no snow, which 

 may cause the clover to be winter- 

 killed. We will wait for next summer 

 to furnish proof. C. H. VoiGT. 



Tisch Mills, Wis., Jan. 17. 



Many Colonies Needed Feeding 



The bee-business has been a failure 

 in this county. A good many colonies 

 of bees were starved out before fall. 

 There will be a good many empty hives 

 by spring, unless there was a good deal 

 of feeding last fall. I had to feed most 

 of my bees. A few of my best Italian 

 bees had a little surplus honey 



Anderson York. 



Bloomfield, Iowa, Jan. 4. 



What is Leading Factor In Cause of 

 Swarming ? 



Is it zinc excluder or extra room that 

 is the leading factor in the so-called 

 methods of non-swarming :> 



If I rightly understand, the success 

 in non-swarming is invariably con- 

 spicuous when the excluder is used in 

 connection with excess or abundant 

 empty combs or foundation. 



It would be pleasant, if not profita- 

 ble, to know which of the two is re- 

 sponsible — the zinc or the combs. 



I would like to learn if any one has 

 made a success of non-swarming in lO- 

 frame Langstroth hives without zinc, 

 or even with zinc. All the experiments, 

 that have come to me in definite form 

 have been made with S-frame hives, 

 and colonies in such hives have been 

 regarded as more likely to swarm than 

 larger sized. I wonder if a great many 

 things are not taken for granted. 



T. F. Bingham. 



Farwell, Mich., Jan. 3. 



FavoFS 2-Pound Sections 



On page 48, R. E. Merrill writes on 

 the subject of the size of sections, and 

 it just suits me. I had thought of it a 

 good deal before. I think it would be 

 much better for the bee-keeper, and 

 much cheaper, with a 2-pound section. 

 I would be willing to try 1000 this year 

 if I could get them. I know I could 

 produce comb honey cheaper in a 2- 

 pound section. It would take less 

 comb foundation, and we could put it 

 in a 2-pound section as quickly as in a 

 one-pound. I sell a great deal of honey 

 at home at 15 cents a section, or 2 for 

 25 cents, and they will take the 2 al- 

 most every time. I have always used 

 the 4)4x4'4XlJs bee-way section. L 

 have kept bees for over 20 years. I hadi 



