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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



7. It depends upon the height at which the 

 colony is located. If it is very high, you may 

 break the tree in cutting it. Then the bees 

 will have to be transferred at once. If the log 

 can be cut so i»s to haul it home, follow the 

 directions given in the text books for trans- 

 ferring. 



8. The new Bingham bee smoker, about 3>S- 

 inch barrel. But they are all good. After 

 lighting a fire in the smoker, any kind of dry 

 wood will do, except pine. Dead limbs from 

 shade trees in the apiary are as good as any- 

 thing. 



Wintering — Aluminum Combs 



1. 1 have a stand of bees that has only about 

 10 pounds of honey in it now; would like to 

 know if that will winter them till the 1st of 

 April, or do you think I will have to feed 

 them before the. first of April? 



2. Would also like to know how many pounds 

 of bees in a 3-frame nucleus, and if they will 

 build up enough so as to make any surplus 

 honey in one season? 



3. Would like to know if you have any bees 

 to sell, and the price you ask for them? 



4. I am thinking of getting some aluminum 

 honey combs and would like to have your opin- 

 ion as to whether you think they are all right 

 for using them as brood combs, and if you 

 think the bees will winter over in them all 

 right. INDIANA. 



Answers. — 1. It may last through all right. 

 So long as you can see sealed honey along the 

 top bars there is no immediate cause for alarm. 

 But bees will not do so well when there seems 

 to be any approach to shortage. 



2. Two pounds will do very well. In a 

 good season they may yield a nice surplus. In 

 a poor season they may need feeding. 



3. I've nothing to sell. 



4. Some speak very highly of these combs, 

 but we will know more about them when they 

 have been fully tried. You could easily try 

 them on a small scale. 



Swarming — Queens 



1. I have about as many swarms as I care 

 for, and am interested in measures preventing 

 swarming. I have a Hoffman hive. The 

 brood chamber holds 10 frames. I want to re- 

 move one frame to give more room for bees, 

 keep it out all summer and return it when fall 

 flow begins. Would you advise me doing so? 



2. Root, in his book on bees, says that intro- 

 ducing young queens at the beginning of the 

 harvest would have a tendency to prevent 

 swarming. Our main honey flow is white 

 clover in June. Would I be right to intro- 

 duce young queens for above purpose from 

 May 1 to 15. 



3. Is it advisable to buy select untested 

 queens? IOWA. 



Answers. — 1. It is not practical to remove 

 one frame to give greater spacing and return 

 it in the fall, because the bees will build out 

 the cells at the top of the combs and fill them 

 with honey and seal them at the end of the 

 breeding season. So you will find it difficult to 

 replace that comb. Better leave it out. 



2. Introducing queens from May 1 to 15 is 

 all right. The only trouble is in securing the 

 queens. They are more in demand at that 

 time and a little harder to secure. 



3. It is always best to buy select queens if 

 you can afford to pay the price. But a select 

 untested is comparatively less valuable than a 

 select tested, because the breeder has had no 

 time to test her, and judges her only by her 

 looks and a few days of laying. 



ing a new swarm. Please remember, I have 

 no drawn comb or anything except what I 

 buy. 



2. If I should buy some 2 or 3-frame nuclei 

 with queens in them, enough bees on same to 

 go ahead and do all right, would you advise 

 buying nuclei or bees by the pound to start 

 with. MONTANA. 



Answers. — 1. It will be all right to give 

 some full sheets of foundation to a new 

 swarm if you give it also some already built 

 combs. You say you have none. But you must 

 have some in the hive that swarms, or perhaps 

 in some hive which does not swarm. So you 

 can readily exchange a few combs for sheets 

 of foundation. The reason why M. G. Da- 

 dant advises not to give full sheets to a new 

 swarm is that the bees usually load down the 

 sheets under their weight in such a way as to 

 break them almost at once. But if they are 

 given combs already built, they will hang to 

 those in preference and will not overload the 

 foundation. If you cannot give the swarm 

 some built combs, better hive it on narrow 

 starters. Sometimes, when the weather is not 

 hot, full sheets, well wired, will stand the 

 weight of bees till they are built out. But it 

 is not advisable to give beginners the advice to 

 use them. When you transfer a colony in 

 spring, it is all right to alternate full sheets of 

 foundation with the transferred combs. In 

 that case there is no danger of overloading 

 them. 



2. Three or four-frame nuclei are better 

 than bees by the pound, because they have 

 bees, queen, brood and combs, with probably a 

 little honey. But when buying from far away 

 bees by the pound are more economical. 



Full Sheets — Buying Nuclei 



1. I have a colony of bees in a box which 1 

 cxin.-ct to change to modern hives in the spring. 

 I had thought it best to use full sheets of 

 foundation in the new hive, also to use full 

 sheets for any new swarms I might catch; but 

 on i)age 44 of the February American Bee 

 Journal, and by M. G. Dadanl, it says: "Never 

 give full sheets of foundation to a new swarm." 

 Now will some of you please tell me how 

 much, if any, foundation I should use in hiv- 



Ventilation 



In order to get the extra ventilation claimed 

 for the brood chambers with the l^a-inch spac- 

 ing would not the bees be compelled to build 

 their brood combs of the same thickness as 

 they do in the 1^-^ spacing? Is it a tact that 

 when you give them the wider spacing they 

 make the cells deeper? In that case they would 

 have no extra ventilation, 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



Answer. — The cells must be of just the 

 proper depth for brood rearing. So wherever 

 they rear brood, there is a wider spacing. But 

 when the brood rearing is over and they use 

 the cells for honey, they fill them so as to 

 leave only a sufficient traveling space. So the 

 cells are shallow when brood is reared and deep 

 when full of honey. This is even the case, but 

 to a less extent, with the narrow spacing. The 

 advantage of the wider spacing is that it gives 

 more room for ventilation during brood-rearing 

 time and more honey over the cluster in win- 

 ter. If you look at your brood combs during 

 breeding time, you will see that all cells that 

 have brood have been pared down to the 

 proper depth for the queen to lay and for the 

 brood to be capped over. 



Granulated Honey — European Foul- 

 brood 



1. I sold some honey to a grocery store and 

 it granulated in a short time. Do beekeepers 

 and bottlers ever put anything in honey to 

 keep it from granulating so soon? 



2. I strained my honey through a flour sack. 

 Do you think that will take out all the wax, 

 or is there any better way to strain it? 



3. I was bothered with European foulbrood 

 last year. I treated them with the Dr. C. C. 

 Miller plan. At about what lime in spring is 

 the best time to start treating them, if there 

 are any with the disease? 



4. \Vould it be safe to use extracting supers 

 from diseased colonies on those that do not 

 have the disease, if the combs are free from 

 honey? And how about combs that were not 

 cleaned and contain a little honey? If honey 

 contains disease it seems as if those that arc 

 treated by the Miller plan would get the dis- 

 ease again from the honey in the hive. What 

 do you think about it? 



C. Where do you suppose I could get a hy- 



drometer for treating honey as explained on 

 page 160 of the May, 1919. American Bee 

 Journal? ILLINOIS. 



Answers. — 1. No, there is nothing that you 

 can put into honey and keep it pure, to pre- 

 vent granulation. The most practical way is 

 to heat the honey slightly and evaporate some 

 of the water it contains. It would seem that 

 this would make it granulate sooner, but it has 

 just the opposite effect. Be sure not to over- 

 heat it or you will spoil its flavor. We prefer 

 to educate the people in regard to granulation, 

 though it is slow work. 



2. No need of straining honey to get the wax 

 out. Let it rest awhile and the wax particles 

 will come to the top, when you can skim them 

 off. We never strain our honey. But a flour 

 sack strainer will take out the wax, though it 

 is an endless job unless the honey is warm. 



3. Look for disease just as soon as you can 

 open the hives safely in the spring. Treat 

 them when there are blossoms in the fields. 

 Keep on looking for disease all summer long 

 and treat when needed. 



4. It is not at all probable that honey trans- 

 mits European foulbrood as it does American. 

 We are more or less at sea yet in this matter, 

 and even our scientists acknowledge that they 

 have much to learn. At any rate, there seems 

 to be much less danger in combs and honey 

 with European foulbrood than with American. 



5. Any druggist can get a hydrometer for 

 you. It will probably not be of the same 

 make as those used in New Zealand, but you 

 can easily post yourself by tests of very thick 

 and very watery honey to begin with. After 

 you find the high and the low points you are 

 ready to test any honey that is produced. 



Honey Tree — Requeening 



1. Will you kindly tell me the kind of tree 

 you would advise me to get for a grove for a 

 bee-yard? 1 want a fast-growing tree. Could 

 you tell me where I could get them? 



2. I am going to requeen six colonies of 

 black bees with the Italians. Could you tell 

 me where I could get the queens? 



MICHIGAN. 



Answers. — 1. For Michigan I would recom- 

 mend basswood. It is a good honey yielder 

 and a fast growing tree, with fine foliage. You 

 should find the young trees readily in the 

 woods of your locality. Or perhaps your local 

 nurseryman can supply you. 



2. You should be safe in buying from any 

 queen breeder who advertises in the magazines. 

 But the old established ones are best, because 

 they have already proven their fair dealings 

 and the quality of their queens. Fakes gener- 

 ally disappear promptly. 



Bees on Shares 



1. How is a bee-yard run on shares?. If I 

 start this year with 100 2-pound packagts, un- 

 der a contract to run three years, what would 

 be a fair division of the crop? Owner will 

 furnish bees and all supplies for the yard. I 

 will do all work in management, harvesting 

 the crop, packing for winter, etc; bees to be 

 wintered outside in individual packing cases? 

 If yard is run for increase as well as for 

 honey should 1 share in the increase, as well 

 as the honey, provided that it was run for 

 honey only, on the last year of the contract? 



ONTARIO. 



Answers. — 1. We used to take bees on 

 shares, long ago, at different times. The con- 

 ditions were that the owner was to furnish 

 everything and we were to do all the work. 

 The crop was divided into halves. But if 

 sections or other supplies were furnished, we 

 paid for the share of them that wc got. 



3. We received half of the swarms, but paid 

 for the hives which wc got with them. When 

 the swarms were Hived by the owner, instead 

 of by ourselves, he was i)aid for hiving them. 

 Of course, we also got half of the artificial in- 



