1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



59 



(T 



DR. MILLER'S ANSWERS 



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Prevent Swarming 



I was just reading an article by E. R. Root. 

 "Swarming via Clipped Queens." He states 

 that when the swarra is put in a new hive on 

 the old location (or stand), to move the 

 old hive to a new location, cutting out all 

 queen cells but one. But what I want to 

 know is, could I not set the old hive close up 

 beside the swarm, both facing the same way, 

 and on the seventh or eighth day move it to 

 a new location ten feet or more away? (The 

 same as l>octor Miller advocates so much). 

 Would that not work better than bothering 

 with the queen cells. In cutting out the queen 

 cells, one would always be in danger of miss- 

 ing one or more, besides the extra manipula- 

 tion. MICHIGAN. 



Answer. — Either way will work. Much of 

 the success depends upon the taste, the man- 

 agement of the beekeeper, the strength of the 

 colony, the warmth of the season, etc. You 

 need to use discretion to decide which is 

 best under the circumstances. 



Bees on Shares 



If one started in the bee business without 

 any capital, what share is customary for him, 

 if he does all the work and everything fur- 

 nished? OREGON. 



Answer.— Once only, I undertook to man- 

 age bees that belonged to another party, fur- 

 nishing labor only. The agreement was that 

 the proceeds would be divided half and half, 

 each party furnishing hives for his share of 

 the swarms. It does not seem to me that this 

 can be improved upon. 



Shipping Bees 



Can bees be sent safely from Texas to the 

 State of Washington? I am thinking of buy- 

 ing packages of bees in the Southern States. 

 WASHINGTON. 



Answer. — We have often received queens 

 from Europe in good shape. As to bees by 

 the pound, many lots have been shipped from 

 the South to Canada safely. There is no 

 doubt that they may be transported, if prop- 

 erly packed and sufficiently fed, from Texas 

 to Washington. 



Gathering Pollen 



What time of the season do queenless colo- 

 nies gather an over supply of pollen, as stated 

 in the December Journal? In my experience, 

 when a colony becomes queenless during the 

 winter or early spring, they are inactive and 

 gather very little pollen. 



.'iNSWER.— During the winter and early spring 

 ihcre is little or no pollen to gather. But when 

 there are plenty of blossoms, if the colony is 

 -nil strong in bees, it gathers a great deal of 

 I ollen, though much less than a queenright 

 colony. As this pollen cannot be consumed, 

 its quantity is in excess of that of a queenright 

 colony. 



Size of Frame in Modified Dadant 

 Hive — Wintering — Vetch 



1. Is the frame used in the moditied Dadant 

 hive of the same dimensions as the Jumbo, ex- 

 cept being spaced differently? 



2. In wintering bees m the Demuth cases, is 

 it necessary to keep the entrance clear, or will 

 it be all right to let snow drift over them? 



3. Do any of the vetches which are grown 

 r hay produe honey? MINNESOTA. 

 Answers. — 1. Yes. 



2. Snow is not injurious unless it thaws and 

 freezes so as to make a coat impervious to 

 air, stopping ventilation. It should be re- 

 moved when there is chance for f.ight. 



3. According to Bonnier, who shows cuts of 

 27 different kinds of vetch iyicia), in his *'Com 



plete Flora of France, Belgium and Switzer- 



land," 1S3 different kinds of vetch have been 

 described in different countries. He writes; 



"Many of them are visited by bees, which 

 often gather in them an abundant nectar." 



It is unimportant, as far as we know. The 

 Vicia sat Ufa is cultivated, according to both 

 Gray and Bonnier. 



Increase — Wintering 



1. I have two swarms of bees purchased last 

 fall. I introduced an Italian queen to one 

 swarm in September, and the other, which was 

 purchased later, has a black queen. I would 

 like to get as large a crop of honey as possible, 

 and at the same time increase to six or eight 

 swarms. Will you please tell me the plan you 

 consider best to do this? 1 plan on requeening 

 my black bees early in the spring and keeping 

 a drone trap on the hive to keep my bees pure 

 Italian. I have the only bees for 4 miles 

 around, and think conditions favorable for me 

 to do this, if I use the proper care myself. 



2. I have my bees in the cellar, where the 

 temperature stays between 38 and 42, but is at 

 40 most of the time. One swarm is a little 

 weak. Would you recommend putting in a 

 division-board at this time, or would they -e 

 better left alone? 



3. To keep my wife from being nervous 

 about going into the cellar, I built a shelf out 8 

 inches on the front of each hive and screwed 

 the whole front in and covered the whole thing 

 with a burlap sack, as my cellar is too light. 

 Will this do any damage if I clean this shelf off 

 once or twice during the winter? 



4. One colony is a little short of stores, al- 

 though it has a plenty for the winter. I planned 

 on making a plate of hard candy and putting 

 over the frames just before taking out of the 

 cellar in the spring. Do you think it would 

 be better to take a frame of honey from the 

 other hive, which has a large supply of stores, 

 and giving to the weaker? I am forced to do 

 my bee work before 9 a. m. or after 5 p. m., 

 so it is necessary that 1 do ray swarming arti- 

 ficially, and do not allow any natural swarms 

 to come out. MINNESOTA. 



Answer. — 1. Don't keep a drone trap on 

 your hive, even if you run the risk of mismat- 

 ings. A drone trap is a hindrance to success. 

 When you Italianize your colony, remove all 

 the drone brood. That is much better than 

 keeping a drone trap. 



2. Don't disturb the bees that are in the cel- 

 lar, unless they are in danger of starvation. 

 In that case just put a cake of feeding candy 

 right over the brood combs. 



3. The burlap sack is all right if the temper- 

 ature is not so low or so high as to make your 

 bees restless. About 45 degrees is right. Do not 

 disturb them by cleaning a shelf so as to jar 

 them. 



4. Hard candy or honey will do for feed. 

 But in spring honey is a little better, if the 

 other colony has it to spare. Do not attend 

 to this till they are on the summer stani, un- 

 less they are entirely short. 



Keeping a Record of Queens 



We are taught by the colleges and through 

 apicultural books that we should keep a careful 

 record of each colony of bees in the apiary as 

 to fecundity o( the queen and honey production 

 by the daughters of each queen. 



In attempting to do this I find considerable 

 difficulty and have frequently wondered if the 

 large commercial beekeepers in my country 

 and yours do really keep sue' records. 



To better illustrate what I mean, take the 

 following actual example: X have a record 

 book with ruled columns as follows: 



Date, Spring, Clipped, Brood Queen. Honey, 

 Fall, Meanings, Spring condition, Frames Brood 

 at opening of season, Origin of queen (from 

 whom bought). Honey Production, etc. 



Now take colony No. 45, appearing in above 

 record; originally a package from the South in 

 early May of 1919. Record shows that on 

 June 6 building up nicely, gave frame of brood 



from No. 6; June 26 brood mostly hatched, 

 queen O. K., but few recent eggs and three 

 queen-cells, queen evidently failing. Cut out 

 two cells and left colony to take care of itself; 

 later found colony queenless and gave queen- 

 cell from No. 24, which queen came through 

 queen cell from No. 3, which came from queen 

 cell No 5. Now how is it possible to follow 

 the record of this queen family as to previous 

 honey production and purity of origin ? Or 

 what advanntage is there in doing so? I see 

 clearly enough that one doesn't want to breed 

 from poor stock, and that the motto "the best 

 is none too good" applies with much force to 

 beekeeping, and with particular force to com- 

 mercial honey production, where quantity of 

 crop made in a few short weeks of summer 

 makes (or mars) the whole season's business, 

 and it is equally clear that the crop is de- 

 pendent upon the productiveness of the queen 

 (again provided the weather is favorable for se- 

 cretion of nectar). 



I confess that I get puzzled in that theory of 

 "breed only from your best queen" — not theo- 

 retically, but practically, as I find it is so hard 

 to follow up, one season not giving the neces- 

 sary record of what a queen will do and the 

 following season may be like the year just 

 closed, a general failure in my district, and 

 after two seasons, the queen has passed her 

 age of usefulness. 



I have been turning over in my head a 

 remark made to me in Eaton's store in 

 Toronto a few weeks ago, when I happened 

 to run into one of our best-known and most 

 successful beekeepers, a man who has been 

 in the business for many years. In discuss- 

 ing some of the problems I had been trying 

 to solve, this man said to me: "Did yon ever 

 notice that the most (and I was going to say 

 the only) successful men in commercial honey 

 production, the men who are making their 

 living by beekeeping, have been at the busi- 

 ness around a period of twenty years?. Take 

 any of our best men, say Byers, Pettit, Hol- 

 terman, they have all been at it for a long 

 time — they are able to size up the probabilities 

 of the season at an early date and make their 

 shifts accordingly, where a man new to bee- 

 keeping hasn't learned what his trouble is 

 until it's too late to rectify it that season; 

 consequently the season has passed before he 

 really wakes up. That's the trouble with all 

 beginners. I tell you, it take about twenty 

 years to make a successful beekeeper." 



ONTARIO. 



Answer. — There is no doubt that, ii. bee- 

 keeping as in every pursuit, long experience 

 makes for success. So the remarks of your 

 friend in Toronto are very appropriate and 

 show that he has experience. 



As to keeping record of good queens, I do 

 not find it difficult. In any one season, se- 

 lect the colonies that have given you the best 

 crop, and breed from those. Then keep a 

 record of queens bred from these and select 

 among those queens the one or two that have 

 given pure, gentle bees and excellent honey 

 producers. Do the same for drones. 



There are bad seasons, it is true. But when 

 you have made a selection you should have 

 no trouble in following your good queens 

 from year to year. A good queen, with a 

 record, should not be discarded because of a 

 bad season. 



The best and most satisfactory queen breed- 

 ers are those who select 3 or 4 excellent 

 queens and breed from them almost exclu- 

 sively. But it takes persistence, attention and 

 carefulness of all the details. 



Winlerinr 



1. I have some bees; they were doing fine 

 until winter. I don't understand how to keep 

 them. I put them in the cellar; they won't 

 stay in the hive. I put screens on the 

 doors, and still they fly against the screen 

 and try to get out. The cellar is dark and 

 still. i took them outside and put about 4 

 inches of rye straw around them. On soft 

 days they come out and fall in the snow and 

 freeze. I put screens on the entrance of the 

 hives. If 1 keep them in the cellar or up- 

 stairs what temperature should the rooms be? 



2. Next year I intend to build a bee house 

 Do you think a building with about 8 inches 

 of sawdust between the walls would be warm 

 enough for winter without any other protec- 

 tion? 



