:iiui;iry, 1909. 



^^ ^[Am^rican ^ae Journal 



put ofT feeding till bees go into cellar, I'll 

 lell you what to do now. Carefully open a 

 hive in the cellar, take out one or more of 

 the empty combs, and replace with sealed 

 combs of botiev. Hut like enough you haven't 

 such combs. Well, feed candy. Make cakes 

 of c;uu ly as described in your bee-book, in- 

 deed aliiiost any kind of candy that you can 

 make frnni K'anulated sugar, only so it isn't 

 bars, and tlien cover up. A still better way. 

 if ynu ha\e Iiottoin-boards 2 inches deep and 

 a colony is strong enough to have the bees 

 hanging below the bottom-bars, is to put the 

 can<ly under the frame. Vou can also fill a 

 comb with syrup and put it over the top- 

 bars or under bottom-bars, or hang it in the 

 hive. 



Moving Bees a Short Distance. 



I shall move my bees about 100 yards 

 this winter, and while I know what the bee 

 books and journals say about it, I would take 

 it as a personal favor if you would kindly 

 tell how you would manage in moving them. 

 South Carolina. 



Answkr. — Although you do not say so, I 

 suppose you have in mind the question of 

 moving so as to have the least possible loss 

 from bees, returning to the old location. If 

 I wanted to move my bees 100 yards, I 

 should wait till winter was nearly over, mov- 

 ing them, as nearly as I could guess, just 

 after they had had their longest imprison- 

 ment during the winter, and I would have 

 little fear that any considerable number would 

 return to the old place. The same thing 

 might not work so well with you, as in 

 South Carolina I should expect shorter pe- 

 riods of confinement and more frequent op- 

 portunities for flight. I should still work 

 on the same general principle, adding some 

 precaution. Clear up things at the old place, 

 so that if any bee should try to return it 

 would find nothing to look like home. Move 

 the bees in the evening, when all are at 

 home, and fasten them in so none can fly 

 out, but not so as to smother them. Next 

 (lay, or the first day it is warm enough for 

 them to fly, pound on the hives so as to 

 stir them up thoroughly and set them to 

 roaring. Keep them in suspense for some 

 time, leaving them thus till perhaps noon if 

 you think there is no danger of smothering, 

 then let them out, and you can expect them 

 to mark their location. 



Feeding Bees in Winter. 



I would like to know how to take care of 

 bees in the winter when they have nothing 

 to live on. I have been raising the lid and 

 setting a saucer of brown sugar syrup in for 

 them, but in the December number I notice 

 that some one thinks the lid should not be 

 disturbed, as it is sealed by the bees and 

 should remain as they have it. It seems 

 that the bees will not come on the outside in 

 cold weather enough to get syrup sufficient 

 to keep them alive, and I am very anxious 

 to keep them through until they can live. 



Kansas. 



Answer. — Use granulated sugar, not brown, 

 to feed bees. You might get the bees to 

 take syrup if you would move them into the 

 cellar, although September is a better time to 

 feed syrup. Vou can put into the hive combs 

 of sealed honey if you can get them, or lay 

 over the top-bars cakes of section honey that 

 you can buy at the groceries. You can also 

 lay cakes of candy over the top-bars. Your 

 bee-book will tell you how to make the candy, 

 although almost any woman knows how to 

 make it. Vou might, also, make special bee- 

 candy. Take a little extracted honey, or 

 melt some comb honey, warm it. and mix it 

 into pulverized (not granulated) sugar. Add 

 all the sugar it will stand, so as to make a 

 very stifli dough. Then lay a cake of this 

 an inch or so thick over the frames and cover 

 u]) close. 



Shipping Comb Honey — Comb Honey 

 Super as a Queen-Excluder. 



1. I write for a little information in re- 

 gard to shipping honey to Chicago, or other 

 large cities. Is it necessary to enclose the 

 shipping cases in extra strong boxes, or will 

 they stand the rough handling without extra 

 casing? 



2. Who is a good commission man, and what 

 are his fees? 



3. Do you think honey will bring as much 

 in January or February as it does now? 



4. In producing extracted honey, will it 

 be all right to leave a super of sections be- 



tween the brood-chamber and the extracting 

 super, as a queen-excluder? Or would it be 

 necessary to put on an excluder? Illinois. 



Answers. — i. If section honey is sent _ in 

 shipping-cases without any outside protection 

 there is danger that it may not go safely. No 

 need to put the cases in heavy boxes that are 

 close. Crates, or carriers, as they are called, 

 should be used, which are more or less open, 

 only close enough so they will hold the cases, 

 the object being not so much to cover the 

 cases as to prevent rougli handling. If cases 

 arc shipped without being in carriers, rail- 

 road hands are likely to throw them as so many 

 bricks, putting them in the car in any sort 

 of position. Years ago I shipped some cases 

 loose in a car, to go a pretty long distance, 

 and when they were transferred to another 

 car some of the cases were on their sides, 

 and of course badly smashed sections of honey 

 was the result. A carrier is generally made 

 to contain eight 24-section crises, or sixteen 

 ij-section cases, and provided with handles. 

 Being so heavy they are necessarily handled 

 with less roughness than would be the loose 

 cases. Load in car so sections run parallel 

 with the rails. 



2. So far as I know, you are safe to ship 

 to any you will find named in the honey col- 

 umn or advertisements of this paper. 



3. No man can tell. Likely there will not 

 be much difference. 



4. The section-super might act more or less 

 as an excluder, but the total result would per- 

 haps not be satisfactory. If you want to pro- 

 duce extracted honey without the use of ex- 

 cluders, there are two things you might try. 

 One is to have large brood-chambers and shal- 

 low extracting-combs, and the other is to add 

 your empty combs always on top. 



Early Spring Feeding — Sugar-Cane 

 for Honey — Selling Bees — Extra- 

 Thin Foundation. 



1. What is the best way to feed in early 

 spring? 



2. Do bees get any honey from sugar- 

 cane? 



3. When is the best time to sell bees, to 

 get the highest prices? 



4. Is extra-thin foundation best for supers? 



5. Which is the best to use in the frames, 

 full sheets or starters ? 



6. How much is a colony of bees worth in a 

 grocery-box ? A Subscriber. 



Answers. — i. Give them combs of sealed 

 honey. 



2. I don't know whether they get anything 

 else from it except the juice of the bruised 

 cane. 



3. In the spring. 



4. Some prefer it. but some prefer the thin 

 because bees are inclined to gnaw out the ex- 

 tra thin. 



5. Full sheets. If you use only starters 

 yoii will have entirely too much drone-comb. 



6. The price varies. Generally speaking, 

 perhaps it is worth 2 or 3 dollars less than it 

 would be in a good hive. 



Wintering Bees in a Barn-Cellar — 

 Feeding Bees to Hasten In- 

 crease, Etc. 



1. We have a small room in our barn, back 

 of the stable — I might call it a "barn cellar." 

 I took the temperature of it yesterday, and 

 the thermometer quoted 46 and 48 degrees 

 above zero. How would that do to winter 

 bees? 



2. Can T hasten the rearing of bees by 

 nlacing them in a cellar and feeding granu- 

 lated sugar water? 



3. How will "Franklin's" granvilated sugar 

 do to feed bees? 



4. How can I winter our bees the best, 

 and cheapest? 



5. Will they eat more, or less, if they can 

 move freely in the hive? 



6. In cellar- wintering, must it be dark in 

 the cellar? 



7. What preventive have you for dampness 

 in the hive? 



We have 19 colonies of bees at present. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answers. — i. That's just the right tempera- 

 ttu-e. 



2. Hardly. You couldn't do anything worse 

 than to get bees to rearing brood in winter, 

 and when taken out in spring they'll start 

 all right of their own accord. 



3. I don't know as to that particular brand, 

 but any pure granulated sugar is all right. 



4. In your locality almost certainly in the 

 cellar. 



5. I don't know what you mean, tor cer- 

 tainly there should be no restriction put upon 

 bees to prevent their moving in the hive. 

 I'ossibly you mean their being warm t--nough 

 to make them move about in the hive. That 

 would make them eat more. 



ft. Ves. unless the bees will keep perfectly 

 quiet in the light. When first put in the cel- 

 lar they don't seem to mind the light much, 

 but a great deal toward spring. 



7. No special prevention is necessary. Only 

 the cellar should not be damp, and the en- 

 trance to the hive as large as possible. Each 

 of my hives in the cellar has an entrance 

 2x12 inches, but not many hives arc made 

 to allow that. 



"Old Boy" Bee-Keeper— Dividing vs. 

 Natural Swarming. 



I am an "old boy" like yourself, born in 

 1833, and a "Sucker," raised in Stark Co., 

 111. 1 landed off a steamboat above Peoria, 

 in 18 U'. I started to school in the first log 

 schoof-house built in the county. So I have 

 only a log school-house education. I am an 

 old soldier, and the son of an old soldier. I 

 am rather new in the bee-business. I have 

 handled some bees in box-hives, and ray 

 father had some bees in log-gums. But too 

 old to learn, I want to do something to keep 

 me out of mischief, and I come to you for 

 help. I have "Forty Years Among the Bees 

 and the American Bee Journal. Does divid- 

 ing bees give satisfaction as well as natural 

 swarming? ivnd will it do to get some queens 

 and put in the new colony and divide them 

 when I get the queens, whether they are ready 

 or not? Missouri. 



Answer.— Whether natural or artificial in- 

 crease is better depends upon how the arti- 

 ficial increase is made. The beginner, find- 

 ing it so easy to increase artificially is apt 

 to overdo the ' matter. He starts a big lot 

 of new colonies, which go into winter quarters 

 so weak that most of them die before spring. 

 Natural swarming is better than that. It 

 good judgment is used, making the new colo- 

 nies strong, or at least starting them in time 

 to have them strong before the close of the 

 season, better results can be had with artificial 

 increase. 



It is not necessary to make any preparation 

 before the arrival of a new queen. If, for 

 instance, as soon as the queen arrives, you 

 put on a new stand 3 or more frames of brood 

 with adhering bees (which may all be taken 

 from one colony, and still better if taken 

 from 2 or more different colonies), and give 

 the caged queen to this newly formed colony, 

 you ought to have the best kind of success. 



Moving Bees— Getting Increase— In- 

 troducing Queens. 



I mu^t move mv apiary of 10 colonies nearly 

 200 feet across the pike, to a new location, 

 and knowing the disposition of bees to go 

 back to their old location, I thought you 

 could give me some plan, and suggest the 

 best time to do it. I don't want to take 

 them away from home over these hills and 

 rocky roads, and then have no safe place to 

 leave them, and later return them. I shall 

 avoid the above plan if there is any other 

 safe way to follow. Could I set one or 2 

 hives with comb and honey near the center 

 of each row of hives, to catch the bees that 

 <T0 back? Would thev stay in these hives, 

 and if I would have a new queen to give 

 them could I make increase that way, and 

 save the bees? Would the loss of these bees 

 from the parent colonies ruin them? Now. 

 if this would work, why couldn't increase be 

 made in that wav by moving a strong col- 

 ony, setting a prepared hive in its place, and 

 give the new colonv a good queen? I speak 

 of this because I failed to get 6 purchased 

 queens introduced this season. I lost every 

 one, and one colony besides. After finding 

 that they killed the queen I gave them brood 

 and eggs from other colonies to try to save 

 them, but they would not start queen-cells, 

 and dwindled down to about a pint of bees, 

 and died with plenty of honey in the hive. 

 I would like to know some certain plan to 

 introduce a queen. WEST Virginia. 



Answer. — If you leave your bees where they 

 are until winter is over, and then move them 

 before they fly out in the spring, there will 

 be very few bees return to the old place. 

 What few do go back will finally settle in 

 the new place if you take away all stands 

 and make the old place look as dftT'"-e-.t as 



