Feb. 14, 1907 



American Hefi Journal 



splintB. However, I have a little dilTerent ob- 

 ject ID view than you have I want the combs 

 stiffened so as to make tliem stand extracting 

 at a higher speed. Also, I use only starters 

 of foundation in the most of my frames. 1 

 want the wires to go into top and bottom 

 bars. Would it work as well that way with 

 foundation? 



H. Which do you think would be the 

 cheaper? 



■4. How is it it your splints touch neither 

 top nor bottom bar, that they keep the sag 

 out of the foundation so well) It looks to 

 me as If the foundation would stretch along 

 the top-bar. 



5. My honey is mostly honey-dew. It is 

 gathered from the oak-trees. It oozes out at 

 the juncture of a small excrescence and the 

 twig. The excrescence has a small larva in- 

 side. But whether it is a true excrescence 

 formed by the larva, or a blighted and unde- 

 veloped acorn, I have not found out yet. My 

 honey has (luite a wide reputation for fine 

 llavor, although I have had only one big crop. 

 Some of the honey is too thick to extract. I 

 think it is the first of the honeydew. All the 

 honey is amber, or light amber. But the 

 flavor is the best I have ever tasted. 



California has just bad her (about) decen- 

 nial snow-storm, although in the mountains, 

 where I am, we get a little every year. 1 guess 

 it is a good thing to be reminded of what we 

 escape. 



I enjoy your department more than I used 

 to when younger, and, therefore, wiser 1 



California. 

 Answers. — 1. It isdoubtful that you would 

 gain your purpose by change of bees. Neither 

 is it advisable to divide early. It's the strong 

 colonies that count. Give them more room, 

 if necessary, by giving another story as an 

 additional brood-chamber, have on hand ex- 

 tra combs of sealed honey to supply any lack 

 of stores, or else feed sugar syrup,, and then 

 when harvest-time arrives you can reduce to 

 one story if you like. 



3. 1 don't know for certain just how your 

 plan would work, but if you were going to 

 use wire at all, I think I should use the usual 

 light wire, either fastened the usual way or 

 with nails driven through and the ends bent 

 into hooks. 



3. I'm not sure which would cost less, 

 likely the wire; but the cost of either is very 

 little. 



4. You will understand that the splints are 

 fastened to the foundation, so there is only I4 

 inch at the most at the bottom of the founda- 

 tion to buckle, and so little as '4 inch will not 

 buckle, and without buckling at the bottom 

 it can not stretch at the top. At any rate, I 

 never saw any stretching at the top. 



5. You will probably find that there is an 

 excrescence or gall that is started in the oak 

 by the insect, and that there is no acorn in the 

 case. 



I 



Early Bee-Keeping-Swarming Man- 

 agement-Uncellaring Bees 



1. I have received your "Forty Years 

 Among the Bees," and have read it through, 

 and am well on the way in the second reading. 

 You and I commenced bee keeping about the 

 same time. I bought my first colony in the 

 spring of 1861. It was in a basswood gum. 

 and the first honey I got I took the top off 

 and cut it out. The next hives I made were 

 a foot square, and about 8 inches deep, with 

 slats on top, one on top of the other. In 1865 

 I bought a Langstroth hive with a right to 

 use it. Not liking the Spound boxes, I made 

 supers with a division-board in the middle, 

 and put in short frames that I made of plas- 

 tering lath, and, latterly, the 1-pound sections. 



3. In your topic of putting down the queen, 

 you are not very definite. When the colony 

 swarmed you caged the queen and slipped her 

 under the frames on the bottom-board. Then, 

 after taking off the super, you take all the 

 frames and put them into a new hive. Then 

 put 2 frames from some other colony and 

 shake part of the bees from this colony with 

 the frames, and put in 2 or 3 dummies. Put 

 the supers on this, then put the cover on, and 



the original hlvi- .in this. Now, when is the 

 (lueen liberated' Vou call this putting the 

 queen down. It would seem below. Then 

 when you put ui> 1 he queen you must lake 

 this queen and pin her in the other hive, as 

 this hive you say will be a good place to rear 

 good c|ueens. Vuu probably see my under- 

 standing. Please lie a little more definite. 



3. In putting Iwes into the cellar and tak- 

 ing them out, I always stop up the hives be- 

 fore moving them. I always supposed a 

 good many of them would come out and get 

 lost. I keep them in a dark room in the cellar. 

 I go in in the moraing when it appears like 

 being a day lit, and stop them in. When I 

 gel the hives all cut I unstop them. I sup- 

 pose if I could lift the hives up and go in with 

 but little jarring it might do, but I am not 

 strong enough tor that. I have two hooks 

 that my daughter and I get under them, and 

 she lakes one side and 1 the other. Some- 

 limes we have to lift them to get our hooks 

 under them, and sometimes we hit the hive 

 against something on the way, and this irri- 

 tates the bees. This is the second winter I 

 have had a furnace. Before, it was too cold ; 

 now it is too warm. Last winter some bees 

 starved to death, and most of the colonies 

 were weak. This year they went in heavier 

 than last. I have 3 holes cut in the stone 

 wall on opposite sides. One the cats go in, 

 and out of the other, not quite so large. I 

 expect the bees to come out in fair condition. 



Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. It is pleasant to have this 

 bit of history from a comrade of the olden 

 time. 



2. I am quite chagrined to find an omission 

 on page 164 of the book mentioned, and much 

 obliged to you for calling attention to it. A 

 sentence in the middle of the page reads, 

 " The supers are now put on the hive with 

 its 2 or 3 frames of brood, the cover is put 

 over the supers, and the ' put-up' hive filled 

 with brood is placed over all;'' and then 

 should have been added, " and the queen lib- 

 erated into it." You see this is putting up the 

 queen, and not putting her down, as you 

 seem to understand. She is put down 10 days 

 after the time the swarm issued. The idea is 

 that the queen can go ri ht on laying in this 

 story above, but although the story is filled 

 with brood, it is weak in bees, and no fielders 

 are bringing anything into it from the out- 

 side, so the bees will give up the idea of 

 swarming and will tear down all cells already 

 begun. That's cheaper than for me to go 

 through and destroy cells, and, besides, I 

 might miss some cells, and the bees never 

 miss any. You are right in understanding 

 that the lower hive is a good place in which 

 to rear queens, as it is a strong colony with 

 only a part of its younger bees taken away. 

 And the queen is never put down into this 

 lower story, and only comes down with the 

 upper story when the upper story is put down 

 in place of the lower one. 



3 I question the need of fastening the bees 

 in the hives, even with the disturbance you 

 mention. I have disturbed them as much 

 without fastening them in the hi%es. I count 

 it a very important thing to open windows 

 and doors of the cellar the night before car- 

 rying out. If I didn't do that I might want 

 to fasten them in. But the thorough airing 

 out of the cellar all night leaves them so 

 quiet in the hives that they will stand a good 

 bit of jogging before they will come out of 

 ' the hives. If a hive occasionally gets a tunk 

 that rouses the bees too much, the smoker is 

 always on hand to quiet them, and that's a 

 good deal easier than to fasten all in. When 

 carrying in, of course I wouldn't want to use 

 smoke, but if one gets stirred up it is allowed 

 to sit awhile to quiet down. I have, however, 

 sometimes fastened in a colony, and for this 

 purpose the best thing I know of is a rag 

 wringing wet to throw down at the entrance. 

 When a bee comes against this chilly thing, 

 it seems to think the weather is not favorable 

 for leaving the hive, and it doesn't stir up the 

 colony as it would to fasten them in with a 

 dry cloth. I am not sure whether I fully un- 

 derstand the closing part of your letter, but 

 it sounds as it you thought it would be an 

 improvement to put the Eections directly into 



the super when the foundation is put Into 

 them. Well, that Is exactly the thine we do, 

 as you will nee by turning to page 140 of my 

 book, .lust as fast as the foundation is put 

 into each section, the section is set directly 

 In the supi^r where It is to slay, and you are 

 c|uite right lu thinking that such a course is 

 a saving of time over any other way. 



Uniting Colonies in Spring 

 Brood-Prames 



Warped 



Un page 74, you say that one can unite a 

 comb full of bees without any precaution 

 whatever with any colony. I have some weak 

 colonies to unite in the spring, and I think I 

 will try distributing comics of bees this way. 



1. What lime should I do this; 



2. Say I wanted to put 2 or 3 combs of beee 

 in one hive, how long apart should I dosof 



3. What do you think about brood-frames 

 that are warped out of shape* I have some 

 new ones thai are warped very badly; that is, 

 the bottom-bar is away out of line with the 

 top bar. They have never been wet. 



Minnesota. 

 Answers. — 1. In the case to which you re- 

 fer, page r4, a queenless colony was to be 

 broken up, and in that case the sooner it is 

 done the better; and, in general, when you 

 intend to give bees, or bees and brood for the 

 sake of strengthening, 'the earlier the better, 

 only it must not be done until there comes a 

 day when it is so warm that bees are flying 

 freely, for there is danger of chilling the 

 brood by opening hives when it is too cool. 



2. It depends a little upon circumstances. 

 Suppose you have a colony that you want to 

 help, and it has bees covering 3 frames. It 

 would probably be safe to give it 3 more 

 frames of bees all at once if the bees were 

 queeidenii. Hut if you should give it 3 frames 

 of bees from a colony having a laying queen, 

 there might not only be danger of fighting, 

 but the queen might be killed in the colony 

 that is being helped. The safe way would be 

 to give a frame at a time a day or two apart. 

 But you would be safe to give 2 frames at a 

 time if you should take them from 2 different 

 hives. Possibly it might be safe to give it 3 

 frames from 3 different colonies. In general, 

 it may be said that the stronger a colony is, 

 the more bees can be given it at a lime. 



3. I think I wouldn't like such frames, and 

 the more out of true they are the less I would 

 like them. The case is worse, too, with 

 loose-hanging frames than with self-spacing 

 ones, for the constant tendency of the latter 

 is to be made slraighter by being crowded to- 

 gether. The self-spacers can not be crowded 

 too close together, while crooked loose-hang- 

 ers may be crowded so close together that the 

 bees glue them fast. 



Bees Wintering Well 



Bees are all right, and wintering well so 

 tar. I set the hives close together and banked 

 them on the north with corn-fodder, and tin 

 on top, with the south side open. The hive- 

 entrances are open 3 inches, with corrugated 

 tin over them. N. B. EwiNG. 



Piano, 111., Feb. 1. 



Season of 1906 All Right 



My honey season last year was all right, the 

 average being about 103 pounds to the col- 

 ony, which is not bad. I have had bad luck 

 for the last 2 years. My bees kept dying, and 

 I haven't found out the cause of it. There 

 was no foul brood. I am sure it was the 

 queen's fault. Some couldn't Sy, and others 



