242 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 



same page as used by a Massachusetts bee- 

 keeper. GEORGIA. 



Answers. — 1. Simmons' bureau hive is evi- 

 dently a hive of British Columbia, for our 

 knowledge of it is as short as yours. We have 

 no idea of its being anything valuable. 



2. House apiaries are usually constructed as 

 houses, with single walls and rows of hives 

 on both sides. They are mostly used in 

 crowded quarters, although some beekeepers, 

 such as Mr. F. J. Strittmatter, of Ebensburg, 

 Fa., use them on the farm. In Switzerland 

 there are more apiaries in houses than in the 

 yards. Hives are placed in one, two, and even 

 three tiers. It is probably rather unhandy to 

 have more than two tiers, as one has to use a 

 step-ladder to examine the upper tier. The 

 question of house apiaries was discussed at 

 length in the March, 1917, number of the 

 American Bee Journal. Their main advan- 

 tage is in sheltering bees well for winter, while 

 leaving them free to fly on warm days. 



instances, there is no valid reason why we 

 should not help to pay the taxes. 



2. Side-line beekeepers of Detroit who read 

 this may answer you themselves if they see 

 fit to do so. 



Good Crop — Moths 



1. I started in last spring with 28 hives; 

 got 2,100 pounds surplus chunk honey. How 

 does this do for a short season, as it rained 

 all the spring and was too dry in the fall? 



2. When i began to put my crop on the mar- 

 ket I would take off say 12 or 10 supers at a 

 time, and stack them up in the dining-room 

 for a few days, while I sold it out. I kept it 

 covered up, but moths would get in the honey. 

 How would you keep them out? 



TENNESSEE. 



Answers.— 1. That is a very fair showing, I 

 am told that Tennessee is not a very good 

 State for beekeeping. But it is likely that 

 some parts are good and some bad. just as in 

 every other State in the Union. 



2. There must have been some eggs laid by 

 the moths on the edges of those supers be- 

 fore you took them in. It is not likely that 

 moths would get into your dining-room to lay 

 eggs, unless you do not have fly screens. 

 When moths are plentiful, as they usually are 

 in the late summer, they lay eggs about every 

 crack, wherever they can smell the odor of 

 combs. To destroy them, you may use either 

 sulphur fumes or bi-sulphide of carbon The 

 former may be burned in the room in a dish. 

 There must be enough to kill the flies in the 

 room. The room is closed during the opera- 

 tion and opened afterwards. *vith the latter 

 you must not have any fire in the room, as it 

 is an explosive. Read what W. S. Pangburn 

 says on page 90 of the March number. It 

 cannot be improved upon. 



Aluminum Combs 



Would it be necessary to have at least one 

 wax comb in a brood-chamber of aluminum 

 comb so as to raise some drones? 



CALIFORNIA. 



Answer — If you wish to rear drones espe- 

 cially from this one colony, it may oe neces- 

 'sary to have one wax comb with some drone 

 comb in it. Ordinarily, your other colonies will 

 furnish sufficient drones for the extra colony 

 on aluminum combs which you have 



Beekeepers Taxed 



1. Explain why beekeepers or their bee sup- 

 plies and bees cannot ue assessed or taxed. I 

 have had this explained but have forgotten it. 



2. Do you know of any bid • line beekeepers 

 in Detroit who produce any honey for sale? 

 I would like to get next to them. I am work- 

 ing in the city here and if I could, would like 

 to keep my bees here until I get a better start. 



Ernest C. Keenmon. 

 1023 Vermont Ave, Detroit, Mich. 

 Answers. — 1. If you know of any way to 

 avoid taxation of bees or bee supplies, you 

 know more than we do. Some assessors do 

 not tax bees or their products. But since we 

 expect to get State help, and get it in many 



Wintering — Swarm Prevention 



1. Last November I banked all my bees in 

 straw, 12 colonies in one row, 7 colonies in 

 another, facing south. I first set them either 

 on bricks or short pieces of 2x4's placing the 

 hives about 4 or 5 inches apart and filling up 

 this space with straw and then piling the straw 

 on the north side and the east and west ends of 

 the rows, about 2 feet thick, and on top 

 about 1 foot thick, and weighting the straw 

 to keep the wind from blowing it away, with 

 short pieces of board and poultry netting, or 

 anything I could get. I wintered 7 colonies 

 successfully this way last winter. On March 

 2, 1920 bees were tlying from every hive and 

 throwing out dead -ees that died during the 

 winter. There is only a wood cover on any 

 of the hives, made of seven-eighths pine 

 board with a 1 inch rim on all four sides that 

 fits snugly on the hive. Do you consider this 

 a very good method of outdoor wintering? I 

 make all my own hives, supers, bottom -boards 

 and covers and use the Hoffman frames; 

 hives all 10-frame size. Last year I tried 

 mostly for comb honey, but this year I intend 

 to do a little extracting. I am thinking of 

 taking one frame out of the brood-chamber of 

 each hive and spacing the other nine equally, 

 so as to give oetter ventilation; then placing 

 a full depth super on without anv excluder, put 

 the one frame taken from the lower chamber 

 in about the center of the upper chamber or 

 super with 8 frames containing full sheets of 

 brood foundation wired in. 2. Will this meth- 

 od to any degree prevent swarming? IOWA. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, when bees have good 

 stores and plenty of them and are placed where 

 they can have a flight when the weather is 

 warm, they should winter well with the shel- 

 ter you made. The danger lies in uad food 

 with too long winter confinement. 



2. Your method will certainly help to pre- 

 vent swarming, though it will not be an abso- 

 lute swarm prevention. 



Poisoned Bees — Opening in Hive Body 



1. Would you kindly describe the looks of a 

 colony of bees that are poisoned by fruit spray? 



2. Also, where the augur hole should be in 

 the hive-body above the old queen, so the young 

 queen may take her flight, as advised by Mr. F. 

 C. Pellett in a former issue of the American 

 Bee Journal? COLORADO. 



Answers. — We are unable to describe the 

 looks of a colony poisoned by spray, because 

 we never had such a happening. But if 

 bees die on the way home, or about the hive, 

 without apparent signs of swollen bodies or 

 diarrhea or dysentery, it may be poison. In all 

 spring diseases of bees, such as May disease, 

 paralysis, dysentery, etc., there is a swollen 

 condition of the abdomen and ill-smelling dis- 

 charges are noticed. However, sometimes the 

 May disease brings about a constipation in 

 which the offensive matter cannot be dis- 

 charged. I judge that in a case of poison 

 there would be no distention of the abaomen 

 and no unhealthy discharges. 



2. The opening for a young queen to pass 

 through for her wedding flight should be in 

 the upper compartment, above a queen ex- 

 cluder and with its entrance on another side 

 than the flight opening of the lower hive. 

 Otherwise the young (lueen might enter the 

 lower opening and find In rself in the same 

 hive with the old queen. 



Bees Dying 



I am having some bad luck with my bees. 

 Lost 2 nice swarms last winter; they had honey 

 to live on. I find they all, or nearly all, are 

 dead in their cells. I think they froze to 

 death, for it was a hard, cold and windy 

 winter, with lots of snow. For the last 4 or 5 

 winters I have not lost any, until this winter; 

 they were well packed. I am troubled with 

 mice. I caught 3 in one hive. I set the 

 small house traps for them. Any suggestions 



you can give me will be thankfully received. 

 NEW YORK. 

 Answer. — The bees that died in the cells 

 have undoubtedly starved to death, although 

 they *nay have been close to some honey. V.hen 

 the weather is very cold for several months 

 they are unable to move sideways on their 

 combs. They keep crawi...g up towards the 

 top of the frames and finally die of starvation. 

 During the past winter the bees in New York 

 State, which had buckwheat honey and were 

 confined a long time, suffered from diarrhoea, 

 soiling their hives, and many of them died. In 

 your part of the State bees winter better in the 

 cellar than out-of-doors. Even colonies in 

 large packing boxes died for want of an op- 

 portunity to take flight. Mice are, of course, 

 injurious. But if the entrances are shallow 

 enough, the mice cannot enter the hives and 

 annoy the bees. 



10 Frames Vs. 9 Frames 



Having a born appetite for honey and none 

 to be bought in my locality, I decided to try 

 the bees for it. After thinking the matter 

 over I decided to purchase nuclei from good 

 beekeepers. In the spring of 1911 1 bougbt 

 five 3-frame nuclei with queens. I got one 

 nucleus of Golden Italians on May 21 that 

 gave me 3 supers of section honey. 1 got 2 

 nuclei of three-banded Italians on May 22. 

 One gave me a swarm about the first of Au- 

 gust, which was lost on account of my being 

 away from home, and two supers of section 

 honey ; the other gave no surplus honey at 

 all, but gave a swarm, August 20, which was 

 saved. They filled their hive and gave ten 

 p unds of surplus in two weeks. I received 

 two nuclei on July 4. one gave two supers of 

 section honey, the other one dia not fill their 

 ten frames. The last mentioned were Golden 

 Italians. I have the six colonies of bees stored 

 in the large basement under ray dwelling 

 house and they seem to be wintering nicely. I 

 am thinking of using extracting frames and 

 running for chunk honey instead of sections 

 for home use and neighbor trade. 



Would it be better for me to keep my hives 

 full with 10-frames, or to use nine frames, giv- 

 ing wider spacing? 



I have several trees of black locust and 

 plenty of catnip and ho rebound which is 

 ready for the bees June 1st, and all other 

 plants adapted to northeast Missouri. 



MISSOURI. 



Answer. — The wider spacing is useful mainly 

 in preventing swarming, as it gives better ven- 

 tilation. But if you use 10-frame hives, the 

 breeding space is none too large. If you use 

 extracting frames in upper stories, and give 

 your bees plenty of room, they may do well 

 and not swarm too much with the l^ spacing. 



Feeding Bees — Honey Plants, Etc. 



1. Can I feed my bees with a sorghum syrup 

 in winter or with sugar cane, or Karo syrup? 

 Which will be best? Bees fly almost every day 

 in winter. 



2. When pine trees bloom do they yield 

 honey? They have abundant pollen. 



3. Are peanuts good honey plants? 



4. How many pounds of honey do bees need 

 in winter here? 



5. What time does the heavy honey-flow come 

 in this State? LOUISANA. 



Answers. — Sorghum is death to bees in 

 countries where there is any cold weather at 

 all. It may do in Louisiana, but I doubt it. 

 Karo is still worse, and in most instances the 

 report is that the bees won't take it. They 

 might take it if starving. Sugar cane syrup 

 might be a little better. 



2. We have never heard of honey from pines 

 except as honeydew. 



3. None of the works on bees and honey 

 plants list peanuts as good honey plants. 



4. Almost as much honey is needed for bees 

 in the South as in the North, as they breed 

 almost uninterruptedly. But your State is 

 one of the least known as to honey re- 

 sources. 



5. We understand that willow blossom is 

 an early source of nectar in Louisiana, and 



