October, 1907. 



American ^ee Journal 



It also helps to give a frame of brood 

 from some other colony. If nothing but 

 starters are present, the bees may eas- 

 ily desert if everything is not entirely 

 to their liking. 



3. Hard to say; there might be 

 something in the disposition of the bees, 

 in the state of the weather, or in your 

 handling. 



4. For ordinary cases the usual plan 

 with a provisional introducing-cage is 

 pretty reliable. Somewhat safer is the 

 Abbott plan of caging the new queen 

 in the hive for 2 days without disturb- 

 ing the old queen, and at the end of 

 the 2 days removing the old queen and 

 allowing the bees to liberate the new 

 queen by eating out the candy. If you 

 want to be entirely safe, put 2 or more 

 frames of sealed brood over an excluder 

 on a strong colony, leave it till all the 

 brood is sealed, then take this brood, 

 -cvithout any bees, put it in an empty 

 hive, put the queen in, close it up bee- 

 tight, and set it where the brood will 

 not chill. In S days it may be set 

 on the stand where it is to remain and 

 a small entrance be opened. Of course, 

 the brood should be old enough so that 

 bees will be hatching out when the 

 queen is put in. These very young bees 

 know no _ other mother, and will be 

 entirely kind to the queen. One way 

 to keep the brood warm during the 

 S days' confinement is to set it over a 

 strong colony with 2 sheets of wire- 

 cloth to prevent communication be- 

 tween the 2 hives. 



Breeding Dp for Winter- Drones 



from Mismated ttueen- Honey 



Deteriorating on Hive 



1. I have 2 colonies that have had 

 drone-laying queens for at least 6 weeks. 

 Both queens were reared this year. I 

 sent for 2 tested queens and introduced 

 them to-day (Sept. 25), first removing 

 the drone-layers. Both colonies are still 

 strong in bees. By stimulative feeding 

 will the queens breed up to be in shape 

 for winter? 



2. .\re the drones from a mismated 

 Italian queen still pure Italian, or are 

 they hybrids? 



3. A claims that by taking the combs 

 off a hive immediately after thev are 

 sealed he can extract more and better 

 honey out of the combs than he can by 

 leaving them on a few weeks longer. 

 B claims that honey does not deteriorate 

 nor grow less in bulk or weight after it 

 is sealed when left on the hive a few 

 weeks longer, or until the end of the 

 honey-flow. Ontario. 



Answ'ers. — I. Maybe, and maybe not. 

 Something depends upon the length of 

 time since any worker-eggs were laid 

 in the hive. You say drone-laying 

 queens have been present "for at least 

 six weeks." Of course it may have been 

 much longer than that, and all the work- 

 ers present rnay be getting pretty old 

 to go into winter quarters. It is also 

 difficult, even with feeding, to get 

 queens to lay at this time of year as • 

 they would in the early part of the 

 season. Even so, as the colony is still 

 strong in bees, if they are not too old, 

 the wintering may be successful. 



2. It is generally considered that the 



drone progeny is not affected by the 

 mating of the queen, although some 

 maintain that the blood of the queen 

 may be so affected as to affect the char- 

 acter of the drone progeny but slightly 

 in the direction of the drone which the 

 queen met. 



3. Better compromise, and say that 

 the honey will improve in quality by 

 being left longer on the hive, part of 

 the improvement being that the honey 

 becomes thicker, and thus less in weight. 

 Some of the best bee-keepers leave the 

 honey on till the close of the season, 

 believing that the little loss in weight 

 will be more than overbalanced by the 

 gain in quality. Some bee-keepers have 

 done themselves lasting harm by throw- 

 ing on the market honey not fully 

 ripened. 



Kind of Hive, Frames, Honey, Bees, 

 Etc. 



1. What kind of a bee-hive would 

 you advise me to use in Norther Min- 

 nesota, 8 or ID-frame dovetailed? 



2. Are Hoffman self-spacing brood- 

 frames all right for extracted honey? 



3. What kind of cover and bottom 

 would you advise me to use? Is the 

 double air-spaced cover all right for the 

 North? 



4. What kind of honey would you 

 work for, comb or extracted? 



5. Which is the cheaper to produce? 



6. Is it necessary to wire frames for 

 extracted honey? 



7. What race of bees is best for all- 

 around purposes? 



8. What bee-book do you think best 

 for a beginner ? 



9. How do you increase bees arti- 

 ficially? Minnesota. 



Answers. — i. Whether an 8-frame or 

 a lo-frame hive is best depends upon 

 circumstances. If you work for ex- 

 tracted honey, take the lo-frame. If 

 you work for comb-honey, the 8-frame 

 may be best. But its small size makes 

 toward great danger of loss in winter- 

 ing unless it have closer attention than 

 would be given by those who do not 

 make bee-keeping a good deal of a 

 specialty. So it will be the safe thing 

 for you to adopt the lo-frame hive for 

 either comb or extracted honey, unless 

 you expect to give the business very 

 close attention. 



2. It is used by many for that pur- 

 pose, although some object that the 

 shoulders of the end-bars are in the 

 way of the uncapping knife. 



3. A double cover with an air-space 

 between the 2 parts is all right for 

 North or South, summer or winter. 

 In winter it is warm, and in summer 

 the dead-air space helps to ward off 

 the heat of the sun. For a bottom- 

 board it is getting more and more to 

 be the thing to have a deep 'pace un- 

 der the bottom-bars in winter. But if 

 there be a deep space under the frames 

 in summer the bees will build combs 

 down under the bottom-bars. To meet 

 this a reversible bottom-board is much 

 used, one side allowing Yz-lnch or less 

 in summer, the other side allowing 

 .34-inch or more of space in winter. Al- 

 though the reversible bottom-board is 



my own invention, I no longer use it. 

 preferring a deep space both summer 

 and winter. My bottom-boards are 2 

 inches in depth, and in summer I fill 

 the space partly with a sort of open- 

 work rack, which prevents the bees from 

 building down, while at the same time 

 allowing them more air. 



4. If it were so that comb honey is 

 the best to work for under all circum- 

 stances, then all bee-keepers would be 

 producing comb honey, and the same 

 might be said of extracted. The fact 

 that some produce one kind and some 

 the other shows that comb is best for 

 some and extracted for others. I don't 

 know which would be best for you. 

 Possibly you can find out by trying 

 both on a small scale. 



5. The outlay for comb is much more 

 than for extracted ; but of course comb 

 brings the higher price of the two. 



6. It may not be absolutely neces- 

 sary, but while combs are still new, if 

 you attempt to use them for extracting 

 without having in them wires or some 

 other sort of support, you are likely to 

 break enough combs to pay a big price 

 for wiring. 



7. Italians are generally considered 

 best in this country. 



8. You cannot go amiss if you have 

 either or all of "A B C ot Bee Culture," 

 "Bee-Keepers' Guide," or "Langstroth 

 on the Honey-Bee." If you want still 

 another, you might get ".\dvanced Bee- 

 Culture," or "Forty Years Among the 

 Bees." 



9. Yes, but it's a long story, and 

 there are many ways. After you have 

 got your book and studied up the sub- 

 ject in that, if there are any special 

 questions you have on the subject they 

 will be gladly answered in this depart- 

 ment. You will find several pages de- 

 voted to the subject in "Forty Years 

 Among the Bees." 



IRiworts 



Fair Honey Crop. 



We have a fair honey crop in this district. 

 The Ideal Hive Tool is light and effective. 



John' S. Semme.vs. 

 Prowers, Colo., Aug. 30. 



No Honey or Half a Crop. 



I got no honey from our California apiaries 

 this year, and about half a crop from the 

 apiaries here in Utah. Tiios. Chantry. 



Ferron, Utah, Aug. 30. 



About Half a Honey-Yield. 



I have had only ahmit half a yield of honey 

 so far this season. liut there is a fine pros- 

 pect for a fall honey -yield from asters and 

 golden-rod. W. S. Feeback. 



Carlisle, Ky., Sept. 2. 



May be a Fair Fall Flow. 



Bees are still brinpinc; in some alfalfa honey. 

 If the weather favors us we may have quite a 

 fair flow from the last of heartsease and al- 

 falfa bloom. G. CoHRER, M. D. 



Lyons, Kans., Sept. 2. 



Gasoline for Foul-Broody Combs. 



Take some combs whtre the bees have foul 

 brood; uncap them and soak them in gasoline; 



