318 



April 11, 1907 



American B«« Journal 





Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, or to 

 Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 

 ' Dr. Miller does twt answer Questions by mail. 



Growing White Sweet Clover 



Have you any white sweet clover seed for 

 salei If not, where can I find some. Also at 

 what time of the year should it be planted! 



Michigan. 



Answer. — I have none; but you should 

 generally find it advertised in the bee-papers 

 about this time of year. It may be sown 

 spring or fall, or any time when red clover 

 may be sown in your locality. The principal 

 point to look out for is to have the ground 

 rolled or tramped down hard after it is sown. 

 If the ground is soft the sweet clover is likely 

 to be heaved out the first winter. It seems to 

 do best on a hard roadside, and the nearer to 

 that you get your ground the better. 



Testing the Purity of Italian Queens 



Please turn to page 259 and tell us whether 

 your views as to the purity of Italians agree 

 with Mr. Doolittle or " Subscriber." 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — When a man as prominent in 

 apicultural literature as Mr. Doolittle comes 

 out In a positive manner on any particular 

 point, especially when he controverts what 

 some one else has said, he must expect to re- 

 ceive some whacks in return unless he has 

 somewhat reliable facts to back him up. More 

 than once he and I have crossed swords, and 

 there are few men I'd rather have a spat with 

 than the same G. M. Doolittle, for when the 

 smoke of battle clears away we're always as 

 good friends as ever; so I have no need to 

 hesitate to give my opinion in the present 

 case. And that opinion is that you can swal- 

 low every word that Mr. Doolittle has said in 

 his article, page 2.59, and he has done good 

 service in writing just as he has written. I'll 

 call attention to only one point. " Sub- 

 scriber " says, " Every drone must have 4 



yellow bands Every drone is marked 



alike." I've seen a good many drones in my 

 time, have reared them from a number of 

 queens imported from Italy, and I don't re- 

 call that I ever saw one that could be fairly 

 said to have one yellow band, if indeed a band 

 of any kind, to say nothing of 4 yellow bands. 

 Yes, indeed, Doolittle in all right in that 

 article. 



Keeping Bees in a Back Yard 



1. I live in town and have ordered 2 strong 

 colonies of bees to be delivered in May. I ex- 

 pect to put them in my back yard, which is 

 30x40 feet, with a good building on the alley 

 6>^x9 feet and 9 feet high ; or would you ad- 

 vise me to put them in this building? The 

 building has house-siding and floor laid with 

 flooring and a shingle roof. There is a door 

 in one end and a good window in the other. 



2. There is a dwelling house on the next lot, 

 about 10 feet from the fence, which is 6 feet 

 high. There is a 6foot tight board fence all 

 around my yard except the side which my 

 house is on. Is this fence high enough to 

 protect people driving along this alley, and 



ihe people who live in the house close to the 

 fence? ^ , .,,. 



3. In case I put these bees in the building 

 it will be necessary to connect the hives to the 

 outside of the building with a 2-inch tube. 

 Will they do as well in the building as outside' 



4. Will not rats or mice crawl into this 

 tube in the summer at night and damage the 

 combs in the brood-chamber? 



5 If I should nail coarse wire-cloth over 

 this hole would that interfere with the bees 

 while working? . . 



6. Do you think I have made a mistake in 

 attempting to keep bees in town? 



1 do not know anything about bees except 

 what 1 have read in text-books. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answers— 1. Very likely it will not be as 

 well as to put them outside. 



2 Very likely it will protect successfully. 

 The mere tact of being in a building would 

 be no protection to outsiders against the bees, 

 provided the bees arose from the same height 

 in each case, and the likelihood is that they 

 would be higher in the building than on the 

 ground. A bee rising from the ground to 

 cross that 6-foot fence would not be as likely 

 to interfere with a passer-by as one starting 

 from a point higher up. 



3. I'm afraid not quite so well. 



4. No; the bees are thoroughly competent 

 to protect their combs night or day in summer. 



5. No; 3 meshes to the inch would allow 

 free passage to the bees, while barring mice. 

 But as already intimated, it would be useless 

 to do anything of the kind in warm weather; 

 the bees ask no help from you. 



6. Likely not; yet you can tell better after 

 trying. Much depends upon the character of 

 your bees. There are bees so cross that they 

 would be sure to make trouble for you. 

 Something also depends upon your manage- 

 ment. You can stir up even gentle bees by 

 untimely handling so they will sting every- 

 thing within reach. Be careful about open- 

 ing hives when bees are not gathering much. 

 There may be an advantage in working rather 

 late in the day, for if you make bees cross in 

 the morning they have the whole day to 

 trouble the neighborhood. If you find your 

 bees are not gentle you ought to introduce 

 queens of gentle stock, pure Italians, or pos- 

 sibly Caucasians. 



Bee-Keeping in North Dakota- 

 Trouble With Queens 



1 Do bees do well in North Dakota? 

 started last spring with one colony and in-, 

 creased to 4. Each hive was full in the fallj 

 besides 30 pounds of surplus honey which 

 took away. The hives are 10-frame, each 

 frame about 17x6K inches. One frame of 

 honey weighed 9 pounds. The honey is as 

 clear as water and of fine flavor. It is ob- 

 tained mostly from a flower that looks like 

 sage which grows in the wheat-field. My bees 

 are in the cellar and are doing well so far. 



2 I had bad luck with one colony. Their 

 first queen was lost in mating. I gave them 

 brood, and their second queen was lost. Ihen 

 I sent for 2 queens. I placed one in on top 

 of the frames in the cage and let the bees eat 

 her out. In a few days I examined and she 

 was missing. Then I gave them the other. 

 She went also. Then I gave them more 

 brood. Thev reared a queen, but it was so 

 late she failed to be fertilized. What should 

 I do with that colony in the spring? 



North Dakota. 



Answers.— 1. It seems to be a very good 

 place; at least your bees did well last year. If 

 you can have such success every year you will 

 have no occasion to complain. 



2 The best thing is to unite with other 

 colonies, unless you want to send off for a 

 laying queen. Very likely you'll not be will- 

 ing to take such advice, but will give the 

 queenless bees a frame of brood to have them 

 rear a queen. That looks on the face of it a 

 wise thing to do; but it you're wise you'll 

 not do it. In the long run, you'll be the 

 gainer to unite now, and not try to rear any 

 queens till later on. 



Bees Died in Winter-Swarming Out 



—Spring Management— RoDber- 



Bees 



lake Superior District for Bees 



Please give me any information you can 

 concerning the State of Wisconsin near Lake 

 Superior for bee-keeping. I am thinking of 

 going there about April 1. Kestdckt. 



Answer.— There are many fine locations in 

 Wisconsin, especially where basswoods are 

 plenty The chief trouble is that in general 

 such locations are fully occupied. It would 

 not, of course, be wise toward yourself nor 

 right toward others, to locate where the 

 ground is already occupied, so the thing to do 

 is to look over the ground personally to hnd 

 the proper opening before settling. Of course, 

 as to individual locations, I can give you no 

 information. 



1. I put 6 colonies into my cellar last fall; 

 3 strong in bees and stores and 3 that were 

 rather weak in both. The weak ones came 

 out all right and the strong ones died. My 

 cellar is rather warm, and those large colonies 

 were very uneasy all the fore part of the 

 winter; the bees died very fast, and they were 

 all dead 6 weeks ago. What was the cause of 



ttisir dviot?^ 



2 I set the bees out of the cellar March 33, 

 the thermometer being 60 above zero in the 

 shade They had been out but 3 hours when 

 a swarm came out of one of the hives aad set- 

 tled on a bush and was there about an hour 

 Then I put it into another hive with some old 

 combs that I took from the hives where my 

 other bees had died. Was that all right? By 

 the way, the old combs had plenty of stores. 



3 Isn't it a rare thing to have a swarm so 

 early in the spring and so quickly after set- 

 ting out, especially in this northern locality? 

 What was the cause? t. . t . i 



4 I have about 25 old combs that 1 took 

 from the 3 hives where the bees died the past 

 winter. About U of tbe lot of conibs are 

 filled with good honey and considerable pol- 

 len that is very sour, and the bottom part of 

 the comb is rather moldy. Will the bees 

 clean them up, or will they do to give to a 

 newly-hived swarm later on? 



5 Will they do to put into my other hives 

 this spring for stimulative feeding? 



6 Do you contract the entrance in the 

 spring during cool nights? If so, how much? 

 Is it not a good plan to contract the entrance 

 on account of robber-bees in spring? 



7. What is a good sign of bees being robbed, 

 and what will stop them? Iowa. 



Answers.- 1. The warmth of the cellar 

 may have had something to do with it, but 

 probably still more the closeness, and lack of 

 pure air. The stronger the colony the more 

 this would cause uneasiness, and the more 

 rapid the deaths. If there was light in the 

 cellar, that would make it worse. 



3 Yes, that was all right, although it prob- 

 ably would have been as well to have given 



