1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



411 



fill with extracted honey until the 

 net weight is made up. 



Extracted honey used must be 

 white and of the same flavor as con- 

 tained in the comb. 



The extracted honey must he free 

 from all foreign matter. 



The extracted honey must have 

 been heated to a temperature of not 

 less than 120 degrees F. and not 

 more than 14r) degrees F., and care- 

 fully strained. 



.Ml cans must have the lids prop- 

 erly placed and must be clean. 



All bulk comb honey sold through 

 the Association must have the Asso- 

 ciation label affixed by the producer. 



All bulk comb honey returned to 

 the Association by the jobbers, or 

 that should not have been correctly 

 packed, will be prepared for sale as 

 extracted honey by the Association, 

 at a charge of 2 cents per pound, and 

 the cost of the new containers:. 



r 



THE EDITOR'S ANSWERS 



=^ 



J 



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. 



Tobacco Smoke 



I always use a veil, but once left it at my 

 apiary in East Texas; so I put a cigarette in 

 my mouth and smoked it till 1 got through 

 with them. I took the frames out one by 

 one to see how they were, and not a bee 

 came around my face. I think if one has no 

 veil and has a cigarette in his pocket he may 

 use it as a veil. What do you think about it? 

 1 do not smoke much, but I tried it on my 

 bees and it seemed to work all right. 



TEXAS. 



Answer. — That is the Swiss and German 

 way. They sell pipes for beekeepers. A cigar- 

 ette will do. but it would take a great many 

 for a day's work. It would be rather expen- 

 sive. Then it is not exactly proof against 

 stings, for some bees may get angry. In ad- 

 dition to this, not everybody is fond of to- 

 bacco. However, we do not wish to be exclu- 

 sive and are quite willing that those who like 

 tobacco should use it. 



Prior Rights 



Could you please tell me if there is a law 

 in the State of Wisconsin 'orbidding people 

 keeping all the bees they like? We bought 

 our farm in the year 1919, with the intention 

 of keeping bees, but before we got our apiary 

 started there was another beekeeper bought 30 

 rods south of us and moved up here with 1.30 

 colonies, the same fall. He was telling me 

 that seeing he was here first I had no right 

 to keep more than 25 or 30 colonies, in the 

 same neighborhood WISCONSIN. 



Answer. — There is no law that we know of 

 to keep people from having as many colonies 

 as they see fit on the same piece of ground. 

 But there is no doubt that there is a moral 

 right for the first man who keeps bees, to the 

 spot which he occupies. 



Moreover, it will be profitable for neither 

 the one nor the other to have too many colo- 

 nies in the one spot. 



So our advice to you would be to keep 

 your bees a couple of miles away, or even 

 farther. It is certainly unfortunate that you 

 should not have started first with bees in 

 that spot. 



We have a great many of our bees in out- 

 apiaries and we often find it more profitable 

 to keep them away from home than right at 

 home, as our home location is not very good. 

 It does not take very much time tu get to 

 the oulapiarlcs, and we have a free field for 

 the bees. 



Inbreeding 



I started with one colony of bees, headed by 

 a select tested queen. Now have two daugh- 

 ters and two granddaughters from this queen 

 and no new stock has been introduced. One 

 of these granddaughters is a large, fine-looking 

 queen, while the other is only an average 



size These (jueens have just commenced to 

 lay. If they fill the combs with brood would 

 there be any advantage in requeening witii 

 stock from a reliable queen breeder? I have 

 read that inbreeding tends to produce smaller 

 and less hardy bees. Is this correct? 



WEST VIRGINIA. 



Answer. — With this small number of colo- 

 nies you need not be afraid of in-and-in breed- 

 ing, for there must certainly be other bees in 

 the vicinity. The only thing you need to 

 bother with is to make sure that your queens 

 are purely mated. This is probably doubtful, 

 unless the bees in the neighborhood are Ital- 

 ian. If your queens are purely mated, you 

 run but little risk of inbreeding. But if they 

 are ill-mated, then you had best get addi- 

 tional slock from some breeder. 



Inbreeding for a long term of years dots 

 produce less hardy oees, though we have never 

 noticed them getting any smaller. 



Cross Bees 



I have bees in a bee house and they are very 

 cross. A neighbor tells me that bees are al- 

 ways cross when kept in a bee house. vv^hnt 

 can you say about it? 



Answer. — There can be but one cause to 

 make bees angry which are kept ir a bee 

 house; that is if they are on a floor or the hives 

 are all in one wall fastened to each other. 

 When you go in the house, the least jar of 

 the floor will disturb the bees and they will 

 be on the alert. Similarly, if they are in a 

 wall all fastened together, when you disturb 

 one hive, the other colonies will all feel the 

 disturbance and will be apt to resent it. It 

 is well to have each colony on its own stand, 

 entirely separate from all others. Then when 

 you disturb that colony the others do not know 

 anything about it. Always smoke the hives at 

 the entrance before disturbing them, for the 

 first thing that happens when you touch a 

 beehive is for the guards to rush out and dis- 

 cover the cause of the disturbance. Woe to 

 the enemy then ! But if they have been 

 frightened with smoke, you can open the hive 

 and continue with a slight amount of smoke 

 without difficulty. Many of our most practi- 

 cal apiarists do not take the trouble of smok- 

 ing at the entrance before opening the hive, 

 but if you talk to them, they will acknowledge 

 that they often have angry bees and that this 

 is one of the reasons. We all make that mis- 

 lake more or less and pay for it in stings. 



Transferring — Packages — Nuclei, 

 Etc. 



I have fouf colonics in 10-frame hives, but 

 the comb is crossways. I want to transfer 

 these four colonies of bees into new hives 



with frames of full sheets of foundation and 

 give them new queens, als<j. The combs arc 

 about three years old, and the frames have 

 never been taken out of them during the three 

 years. 



1. When do you think I ought to make ihis 

 transfer? Could I do it this month yet, or wait 

 till spring? 



2. Is it simple to requeen bees? 



.T. When I make this transfer, would it be 

 all right to feed this honey back to them, from 

 the obi frames? 



4. 1 want to buy 25 3-lb packages of bees 

 with queens next spring. Are 3 pounds of bees 

 enough? 



r>. When would be the best time to have 

 these bees shipped? 



0. My neighbor was telling me bees from the 

 South are not prolific in Wisconsin; they don't 

 do well. Is that possible? 



7. I am going to give them frames with full 

 sheets of foundation. It that the prope- way? 



8. I noticed in the Journal ^-omc queens are 

 as high as $12 for breeders. What is the dif- 

 ference between these breeders and queens 

 they charge $2 for? 



9. What does "nuclei" mean? I noticed 

 ads. in the Journal, from 1 to 5-frame nuclei 

 for sale. Is that a colony ot bees with combs 

 full of brood or honey? I am a beginner, and 

 am anxious to learn bee culture. 



WISCONSIN. 

 Answers. — 1. Transfer your bees in spring. 

 It is the best time, because they are not so 

 heavy in either brood or honey as they are 

 at other times. Get a text book and follow 

 instructions; it will pay you. 



2. Requeening consists in finding the old 

 queen and killing her; then introducing a 

 young queen. It is not difficult and you can 

 ■even do it with immovable combs or box hives, 

 by driving the bees out, finding the queen 

 among them and killing her. 



3. Yes, it is all right to feed back wnai 

 honey the colonies have at the time of trans- 

 fer. They may need it. 



4. Three pound packages make very good 

 colonies if they are secured at the right lime. 



5. Have them shipped so they will reach 

 you at the time of fruit bloom 



6. I don't believe your neighbor has had 

 much experience with package bees. If they 

 reach you in good order and you look after 

 them and see that tli>ey do not suffer for want 

 of something to eat, they will do well. 



7. Yes, give them foundation and sufl^cient 

 food, in case of bad weather or shortage of 

 flowers. 



8. The queens which are advertised as 

 "breeders" at $10 or $12, are queens that have 

 been tested as to the honey producing qualities 

 of their bees and their own prolificness, and 

 are among the very best in the apiary. They 

 a:e worth considerably more than ordinary 

 tested queen:. But if you buy 15 or 20 un- 

 tested queens from a breeder you may find 

 one or two "breeders" among them, for they 

 are usually young queens and have not yet 

 shown what they can achieve. 



9. Nucleus, nucki, means one or more small 

 colonies of bees; say two, three, or four combs 

 with bees, brood, queen and some honey and 

 pollen. 



Be sure to get some book and read it. You 

 will get several times the value of your money 

 in information from it. 



Keeping Honey — Why Bees Root 



1. Will extracted honey keep best in fruit 

 jars, air tight, or is it all right to keep it in 

 5-gallon crocks, just covered? 



2. Why do bees gather in front of the hive 

 and step back and forth, rubbing their noses 

 on the uoard? When I lift up the cover I 

 find them doing the same thing inside. They' 

 look like a bunch of hogs, all rooting. 



NEBRASKA. 

 Answers. — 1. Well ripened extracted honey 

 will keep well in sealed jars. But it will 

 also keep well in crocks or tanks, if these are 



