282 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 



the blossoms. Those farmers were 

 not only wicked, but foolish, disre- 

 garding their own interests, under a 

 mistaken" idea that spraying during 

 bloom would be useful. 



Now would be a good time to get a 

 law passed in Minnesota, especially if 



you could bring foi-ward two or three 

 similar cases. We would advise you 

 to consult the State Apiarist at the 

 Minnesota Agricultui-al College. 

 Something should be done, and can 

 be done, to prevent such another 

 silly action in future. — Ed.) 



t 



THE EDITOR'S ANSWERS 



^ 



When stamp is enclosed, the editor will answer questions by mail. Since 

 we have far more questions than we can print in the space available, several 

 months sometimes elapse before answers appear. 



Number of Supers Per Hive 



How many supers with the six and a quarter 

 inch frames for extracting is it necessary to 

 have for the modified Dadant hives, with good 

 strong colonies in them? I am changing from 

 the 8-frame to the modified. IOWA. 



Answer.' — We figure on the necessity of 

 having an average of two supers per colony. 

 But we have bad as many as 5 ^-upers filled by 

 very strong colonies. In fact, we would hesi- 

 tate to tell how much honey we have secured 

 in this way from some good colonies, for fear 

 of being disbelieved 



You will understand, of course, that much 

 depends upon the locality and the season. But 

 we know that you will secure tremendous 

 crops, by the method we recommend. 



We usually extract the spring crop (clover 

 crop) before the summer crop comes. Some- 

 times we have been compelled to extract in the 

 middle of the clover crop, because we disliked 

 the idea of using more than 2 or 3 supers per 

 colony. 



Poor Queeu 



I have a colony with an extra large leather 

 queen whose brood does not seem to hatch 

 good. This morning I found 2 and 3 eggs in 

 a cell. What shall I do? WISCONSIN. 



Answer. — I am of the opinion that your 

 queen is deficient and had better be replaced. 

 It is an unusual thing. But such things hap- 

 pen. It might even be that she does not lay 

 at all and that those 2 or 3 eggs in a cell have 

 been laid by laying workers. 



A good experiment would be to place that 

 queen in an observing hive — a hive with only 

 one comb, and glass on both sides — and watch 

 her. An observing hive is a delight, if you 

 have any spare time at all. You can learn 

 more in two weeks with one of them than you 

 can learn in a whole year by reading bee books 

 or magazines. 



Increase 



1. Please advise which you find to be the 

 best, natural swarming or artificial swarming? 

 What is the best plan of artificial swarming? 



3. What do you think of the "Demarce 

 Plan" given in the May number of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, on page 183? If this plan is 

 used, how long is it necessary to leave the up- 

 per hive on above the other hive and the super, 

 and what time is the best to remove the top 

 hive? IOWA. 



Answers. — 1. I prefer artificial swarming be- 

 cause we can make just as many or as few as 

 convenience indicates. It is not always possi- 

 ble to prevent natural swarming, but with the 

 proper management there is very little of it. 



2. The Dcmaree jilan is good. It has been 

 thoroughly tried, and although we do not use 

 it with our deep-frame hives, yet we would 

 recommend at for those who use Langstroth 

 10-frame or 8-frame hives, if you wish to di- 

 vide with this plan, a good time to divide is 

 when the young queen is about to hatch, or 

 has just batched, in the upper story. Then 



remove the lower story with the old queen and 

 put this in a new spot, or place the two hives 

 side by side on the old spot. In fact, you may 

 do different ways, provided you see to it thaf 

 both hives have enough bees and brood. 



Ventilation 



I have made a practice of using a screen on 

 top of my hives, in extremely warm weather, 

 made of ordinary screen wire, and raising one 

 end of the hive top on this screen to insure 

 good ventilation. I am told that thiis is bad 

 practice and that it is much better to merely 

 raise the bottom of hives on blocks of 1 inch 

 thickness. My hives have no shade except ex- 

 tra covering of boards that I put on when days 

 are very hot. OKLAHOMA. 



Answer. — That is probably a matter of local- 

 ity. Ais a rule, however, we would not recom- 

 mend the practice, because it requires your 

 attention, should the weather turn cool. In 

 some countries it would not be possible to do 

 that at all. Even here, when we practiced giv- 

 ing upper ventilation, we found that the bees 

 soon used their utmost endeavors to close it 

 up, by bringing propolis. 



In extremely hot days, we found this prac- 

 tice beneficial, as it enabled the bees to enter 

 the hive instead of clustering outside. But I 

 doubt that there be many nights when the bees 

 would not prefer to have only bottom openings. 



Using straw mats, as we do, laid over an 

 oil cloth at the top of the hive, we find that, 

 when the oil cloth has been cut by the bees, 

 the light amount of ventilation whiich is al- 

 lowed to pass through the mat causes the bees 

 to avoid placing any honey next to that spot 

 There may be some other cause for that than 

 undesired ventilation, but it indicates a faulty 

 condition. Upon the whole, if we can make 

 the bees comfortable by a large amount of 

 bottom ventilation, we much prefer it. 



Barrels, Virgins, Vinegar, Etc. 



1. What has been your experience in using 

 barrels for honey? What kind are the handi- 

 est and best? I am able to get good barrels 

 that have had molasses in them. Are they 

 safe for honey? How can they be cleaned? 

 How can a barrel be treated and know for sure 

 it is safe for h ney? 1 expect to use them for 

 storing honey, as I do not take time to bottle 

 it during extracting. 



2. I expect to rear what queens I will need 

 this season, but I am puzzled how to manage 

 virgin queens that have emerge^ in nursery 

 cages and get them successfully introduced and 

 laying. 



3. Please suggest a good name for a siiie 

 line apiary. I live in the corn belt region 

 where mixed farming is generally carried on 



4. In the February American Bee Journal, 

 page r»l, "The Honey Regions of Indiana" was 

 very interesting. Can we not get a map 

 worked out showing the most important honey 

 regions in Illinois? I would like to get one 

 if possible. Does not our State lag in bee- 

 keeping? 



5. In a back number of the American Bee 

 Journal a very good direction was given for 

 making honey vinegar. I am unable to find it. 

 Please tell me where to look, or give me the 

 directions how to proceed. ILLINOIS. 



answers. — 1- Molasses and syrup barrels 

 have never given us satisfaction. They are us- 

 ually 6-hooii barrels and made of soft wood. 

 They shrink and swell too readily with the 

 changes of atmospheric moisture, it is possible, 

 however, that some of them might be used if 

 very dry when emptied of the syrup and kept 

 dry afterwards. Dtrain them out thoroughly, 

 in hot weather, and avoid using much water 

 in cleaning them out. We use alcohol bar- 

 rels. 



2. The virgin queens are much more diffi- 

 cult to introduce than laying queens. For this 

 reason we always hatch our young queens in 

 nuclei and have them fertilized before using 

 them. If you must introduce them, give them 

 to small colonies containing mainly young bees, 

 and do the introducing as early as possible af- 

 ter the queen emerges from the cell. 



3. We call our outapiarits by the name of 

 the farm or the farmer at whose farm they 

 are located. If you want a tancy name, better 

 have the ladies select it. They are better at 

 it than we are. 



4. Yes, our State is rather lagging behind in 

 beekeeping. Yet we have everything that could 

 make it a leader. We may be able to make 

 out such a map as you suggest within a year or 

 so. 



5. The method for making honey vinegar 

 was given in September, 1915, page 314; Oc- 

 tober, 1917, page 345; and a method to make 

 over insufficiently fermented vinegar, in Au- 

 gust, 1918, page 277. 



Unusual Conditions 



Looking through a few colonies of bees be- 

 longing to a lady friend, one colony was found 

 in which there was no brood, eggs or any evi- 

 dence that there had been queen-cells. I went 

 carefully over the combs twice, but could find 

 nothing resembling a queen. 



A frame of eggs and larvse was taken from 

 another colony and inserted in the middle of 

 the brood nest. Making a visit a week later, I 

 expected to find cells built. Not a one; brood 

 nearly all sealed. The frames were given the 

 double go-over again. No eggs. No queen to 

 be found. 



Again a frame of eggs and larvse of all ages 

 was given, and upon my next visit, about a 

 week later, the same conditions were found as 

 upon the previous visit. A search was made 

 again. No eggs or queen. 



A few days later a wild swarm of hybrids 

 was caught and was run into this hive with no 

 preliminaries whatever. They were welcomed, 

 black queen and all. Was this bunch trying to 

 commit suicide? NEW YORK- 



Answer. — Likely the colony in question was 

 discouraged, and for that reason inactive. It 

 is a rare case of neglect, on the part of the 

 workers. It tends to indicate that there were 

 no young workers among them and that they 

 were at a loss to produce pap or jelly. Yet, 

 after two introductions of brood there should 

 have been enough young bees hatched to take 

 an interest in queen-rearing. 



Bee Trees, Size of Hives 



1. Could you tell me what shares are cus- 

 tomary for cutting bee trees, where you do all 

 the work yourself (wanting the bees yourself) ? 



2. Does white clover bloom the first year 

 after planting? 



3. Which is the best for comb honey, 8 or 

 10-frame hives? KANSAS. 



Answers. — 1. I have never seen this matter 

 settled in practice. 1 have cut only two or 

 three bee trees in my young days, and in each 

 case the owner of the land simply asked that 

 I cut up the tree onto useful lengths, as his 

 pay. After all, we arc not allowed to cut a 

 tree on another man's land without his coTisent. 



A little book entitled "Bee Hunting." which 

 we think is now out of print, says this about 

 the rights of a bee hunter: 



"Merely finding a hce on the land of an- 



