December, 1907. 



American lien Journal 



as the meddling of children, driving 

 you to the attic, where there is danger 

 of too great heat on the south side. 

 In some attics the north side would be 

 all right ; in others still too hot. To 

 decide just the place for you, conditions, 

 and also premises, must be carefully 

 considered. 



Roofing-Paper for Winter Cases — 



Wintering on Summer Stands — 



Do Bees Store Candy Feed? 



1. I have 4 colonies of bees. For 2 

 of them I have wooden cases for winter, 

 with a 3-inch space all around, which I 

 pack with excelsior. I also put excelsior 

 on top. Would 2-ply roofing paper 

 fastened around the hive and over it, 

 be as warm as the wooden case and 

 packing? If not, would cushions 3 

 inches thick, filled with excelsior or 

 corn-husks, and then covered with roof- 

 ing paper be as good as the wooden 

 case? 



2. How do you winter bees on the 

 summer stands? 



3. When bees are fed candy, am I 

 right in thinking that they consume it 

 only as they need it, and do not store 

 it in the combs? Chicago. 



Answers. — i. I doubt that the roof- 

 ing paper alone would be as good as 

 the wooden case and packing, but it is 

 likely the cushions and roofing paper 

 might be even better. Something, of 

 course, depends upon the closeness of 

 the two different coverings. It is prob- 

 ably easier to make the wood close 

 without cracks than the paper. But 

 granting equal closeness in each, the pa- 

 per might be the better, especially if 

 dark-colored. 



2. I don't winter my bees on the 

 summer stands, but in cellar. When 

 I wintered on the summer stands some 

 years ago, I was not as successful as 

 in the cellar. 



3. You are right in your view. 



Home-Made Comb Foundation. 



I keep a few colonies of bees for 

 my pleasure and have saved some wax. 

 Now, I don't like to sell wax for 20 

 cents a pound and buy foundation for 

 65 or 75 cents per pound. Can you 

 recommend the Rietsche press? If not, 

 say "No" to my second question; but 

 if you can, please give a few hints as 

 to how to make foundation. 



1. Are you making your own founda- 

 tion? 



2. Could I make foundation? I have 

 never seen it done. Oregon. 



Answers. — i. My time has always 

 been so fully occupied with other things 

 that I never tried making comb founda- 

 tion. Besides, I think I can buy it 

 cheaper than I can make it. I use 

 foundation mostly for sections, and it 

 would take a good deal of practise to 

 enable me to make anv-thing like as 

 nice foundation as those who make a 

 business of it. 



2. There are thousands of Rietsche 

 presses in use in Europe, and in the 

 foreign bee-papers one sees nothing but 

 praise for them. With the instructions 

 that you would receive with the press 

 without doubt vou could succeed, even 



without ever having seen foundation 

 made. It is claimed that with the press 

 the foundation is softer and more ac- 

 ceptable to the bees. Situated as you 

 are with regard to prices, I think I 

 would get a press to make my brood 

 foundation, and probably do some ex- 

 perimenting to see if I couldn't make 

 it thin enough for sections. 



Bees Deserting the Hive. 



I transferred a colony of bees from 

 a hollow tree to a Danzenbaker hive, 

 filling up 4 or 5 frames with the combs 

 from the tree. The balance of the 

 frames had starters in them. After a 

 few bees had gone into the hive I found 

 the queen, caught her, and put her 

 down among the frames. I left them 

 there until the next day, and when I 

 went back to get them, all of the bees 

 were gone. What made them leave? 

 I can't figure out any reason. There 

 were young bees, eggs, and brood in 

 the combs. Oklahoma. 



Answer. — At this distance of time and 

 place it isn't the 'easiest thing to make 

 a guess. One of the most common 

 causes of bees deserting a hive is high 

 temperature. When a freshly hived 

 swarm is set out in the broiling sun on 

 a hot day, you may count fairly well on 

 the bees deserting such an uncomfort- 

 able place. But it may be that your 

 bees were in cool shade. Nothing is 

 said about how far the hive was from 

 the tree, their old location. If you took 

 the bees a mile away from the tree, they 

 would be more likely to stay. But if 

 only a few rods from the tree, then 

 many of the field-bees, if not all, when 

 they returned from their first visit to 

 the fields, instead of going to the hive, 

 would return to the old location. Then 

 it would be nothing so very strange if 

 the balance of the bees would have a 

 lonesome, discouraged feeling, and 

 would take French leave. But as to 

 knowing anything for certain about it, 

 I suspect that as long as you live, every 

 time you think about it, you can only 

 say, "I wonder what made those bees 

 leave." 



Queen-Bee to Start a Colony. 



Will you kindly give me the address 

 of some reliable person from whom I 

 can order by mail a queen-bee? Will 

 this be sufficient to start a colony? How 

 are they to be fed in winter? 



Tennessee. 



Answer. — My good friend, this is not 

 the best time in the year to make a start 

 in the bee-business, and it isn't best to 

 start with a queen alone. I think at 

 this point that I hear some one say in 

 a superior nianner,"Why, any fool ought 

 to know that colony of bees was never 

 started with a queen alone." Now look 

 here, don't you be getting too smart. 

 I've heard of a colony being started 

 with nothing but a queen, and if you 

 never heard of it, it's time you did. 

 What's more than that, lots of colonies 

 have been started that way, lots and 

 lots of them every spring. Of course 

 they're bumble-bees, but one doesn't 

 know about such things till one learns. 



Hive-bees are social beings, and a 



queen will not make much headway 

 without a few thousand handmaids as 

 helpers in the form of worker-bees. So 

 you must start with a full colony or at 

 least a nucleus which means quite a 

 small colony. 



Before it is time to make a start in 

 spring you will find queens and bees 

 advertised in the American Bee Journal. 



Look at the answer to "Ijidiana," 

 as to feeding in winter ; but if you are 

 wise you will never need to feed in 

 winter. 



Best thing for you to do is to get 

 at once a book of instruction about bee- 

 keeping — you'll find them advertised in 

 this paper — and make a study of it this 

 winter. You'll save more than the price 

 of the book in the mistakes you are like- 

 ly to avoid next summer. 



Rearing Queens. 



Last spring I sent to Texas for a 

 queen-bee which I gave to a queenless 

 colony that I thought was strong enough 

 to be worth requeening. The queen 

 proved to be so good a one that I con- 

 cluded that I wanted some young queens 

 from her, and so gave her unlimited 

 space for laying. I used a few combs 

 containing eggs and larvae in hives of 

 queenless bees. At the end of the early 

 white honey-flow and, before the later 

 flow began, the queen had established 

 herself in the second story and had 

 several combs of brood there. The low- 

 er story had 3 or 4 combs of sealed 

 and hatching brood, but no larvae so i 

 young that queens could be reared from 

 it. I found the queen in the upper 

 story and took the comb she was on 

 and placed it in another hive with all 

 of the combs from this upper story 

 that contained any brood. Then I took 

 a comb from the lower story, contain- 

 ing only honey, and gave in its place 

 the comb from the upper story, on 

 which the queen had done her latest 

 laying. The bees of the lower story 

 went immediately to work and started 

 a lot of queen-cells on this comb. I 

 think I found one cell started on an- 

 other comb, but this I destroyed. All 

 the queens I reared on the comb given 

 did good work later. Is there any rea- 

 son why queens thus reared should not 

 be as good as those reared by any other 

 method? Iowa. 



Answer. — Let's see. You divided a 

 very strong colony into 2 parts. In 

 one part was the queen and frames of 

 the later brood, in the other part the 

 more mature brood and one frame of 

 the youngest brood. Of course, also, 

 plenty of nurse-bees in each part. One 

 part, supposedly, was put on a new 

 stand, and the other left on the old 

 stand. If the queen was left on the old 

 stand, and the queenless part put on the 

 new stand, the field-bees would all go 

 to the old stand, leaving the queenless 

 part practically in a dearth of honey, 

 and you are not likely to rear the best 

 queens when bees are feeling to any 

 degree the dread of starvation. 



I do not think, however, that was what 

 you did. I think you left the queenless 

 part on the old stand, and with plenty 

 of nurse-bees to take care of the queen- 

 cells, and abundance of honey coming 



