February, 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



blossoms "get drunk with tlie delight." That 

 may be a figurative statement, meaning merely 

 that the bees become very much excited at 

 their work. It may also mean that the bees 

 appear stupid as if intoxicated. I have never 

 heard of anything of that kind with regard 

 to oranges, and if it is at all common it is 

 strange that no one has ever mentioned it 

 before. Yet I have seen the same thing when 

 bees were working on Echinops spherocephalus, 

 called also Chapman's honey-plant. Often sev- 

 eral bees would be seen on one of the globular 

 heads of flowers, looking very much as if they 

 had become stupefied by what they had been 

 gathering, just sitting in a dumpish condition, 

 scarcely moving when touched by the finger. 



I don't know about bees working on lindens 

 all night. I think it has been reported that 

 on very bright moonlight nights bees kept at 

 work on the lindens, but I don't know how 

 much honey has been gathered in that way. 



I never heard of pine honey in this coun- 

 try, but in Europe, near the ^reat pine for- 

 ests, pine honey is quite an item. I have 

 seen bees at york busily on my evergreens 

 gathering pollen, but could not say whether 

 they got any honey. 



In the South flowers bloom and bees 

 gather at the time bees are in winter quarters 

 at the North, and I have an indistinct recol- 

 lection of bees being moved back and forth, 

 but not lately, so I doubt if it is a very 

 paying performance. 



Wintering on Diseased Honey. 



I am a young bee-keeper, 17 years of age, 

 and own 2 strong lo-frame colonies, and one 

 weak colony. I am wintering them out of 

 doors. 



June 16, I got a weak colony of gray 

 bees, but they somehow succumbed to foul 

 brood or bee-moths. I was not, at the time, 

 in a position to look after them in the proper 

 manner and they became weaker day by day 

 until they could not resist the thieving bees 

 of the stronger colonies, which robbed them 

 of all their surplus honey. A few days after, 

 upon inspection, I was surprised to find my 

 weak colony deserted. I forgot to say that 

 I had looked several times for their queen, 

 but was unsuccessful in finding her royal high- 

 ness. I think she died. 



Today my surviving colonies* floors arc sat- 

 urated with honey, but they seem to be win- 

 tering well. Do you think they will winter 

 all right with that diseased honey stored in 

 their brood-chamber, for I think it was dis- 

 eased. What ought I to do? Illinois. 



ANSWERS.^It may be that it is only the 

 moisture from the bees that is running on 

 the floor of the hive. In that case there is 

 nothing to do unless to give the bees a little 

 larger entrance. But if there is any foul 

 brood in the case, the rajatter is very serious, 

 whether anything is running out of the hive 

 or not. There is nothing to be done at this 

 time of year with the bees, but there is some- 

 thing to be done with the bee-keeper, and that 

 is to get him thoroughly informed about foul 

 brood, so he can tell whether his bees have 

 it, and what to do if they have. If you 

 have the back numbers of the American Bee 

 Journal, you will find much about foul brood. 

 Also in the bee-books. Then if it turns out 

 that your bees have the disease you will be 

 able to act intelligently, and if not you will 

 have some information that may be of great 

 value to you at another time. 



have been flying every day for 4 days. The 

 thei-mometer is above 60 degrees. 



2. Do bees get anything to eat or build up 

 on this kind of weather and time of year, or 

 do they require more stores than they would 

 with a regular cold winter, or in the cellar? 

 I have a large cellar, and could put them in, 

 but did not think it necessary this far South. 



Kentucky. 



Answers. — i. Merely wetting the sugar 

 without thoroughly dissolving it is not good. 

 The bees will use out the liquid part, car- 

 rying out the granules, thus causing waste of 

 sugar and extra work for the bees. To be 

 sure, in England they sometimes feed dry 

 sugar, but their climate is not so dry. Be- 

 sides, the sugar is over the bees, and the 

 moisture from the bees arises and settles on 

 the sugar. 



2. I don't know. There may be some- 

 thing in bloom in pretty cold weather, but 

 certainly very little even so far south as 

 southern Kentucky for bees to work on in 

 January. They probably use all the more 

 "stores for flying so much. Yet bees would 

 probably not do so well in the cellar so far 

 south. 



Best Hive for Extracted — Winter 

 Protection, Etc. 



1. Which is the best hive for extracted 

 honey and artificial swarming? If a lo-frame 

 is better than an S-franie, would not a 12- 

 frame be better than a lo-frame, to prevent 

 natural swarming and to receive the greatest 

 amount of surplus ? 



2. If a hive is protected from 3 sides by 

 nailing heavy galvanized tin to i^ so as to be 

 waterproof, and allow about 3 inches of straw 

 to be packed between the body of the hive 

 and the tin, would it protect a colony of bees 

 over winter, and induce early brood-rearing 

 in the spring, in Kansas? 



3. How many colonies of bees can be kept 

 on 40 acres of alfalfa without overstocking it? 



ICansas. 

 Answers. — i. A lo-frame hive is better than 

 an 8-frame, and most of those who produce 

 extracted honey use lo-frame hives. Yet some 

 think a lo-frame hive is too small. Instead, 

 however, of using 12 Langstroth frames, these 

 generally use frames of larger size. The Da- 

 danls, who are in the lead as successful pro- 

 ducers of extracted honey, and who have an 

 astonishingly small number of swarms, use 

 the Quinby size of frame, i8j4xiij4. The 

 hive takes 1 1 of these frames but by the 

 use of division-boards the number is generally 

 reduced to g or 10. 



2. That ought to provide good protection. 

 I don't know whether it would induce earlier 

 brood*-rearing. 



3. I think I've seen it estimated by some 

 one in the alfalfa regions that 2 or 3 acres 

 might be counted on for a colony of bees. 

 But in some places alfalfa yields more than 

 in others, and it is very evident that the 

 treatment of the alfalfa must make a great 

 difference. If 40 acres are allowed to stand 

 for seed, allowing the bees the fullest benefit, 

 or if the alfalfa is allowed to be well on in 

 bloom before each cutting, it might not be 

 such a wild guess to say that there might 

 be several colonies for each acre. If it should 

 be cut each time just as it begins to bloom, 

 10 colonies might be too many for 40 acres. 

 So there you arc. 



Feeding Sugar for Winter Stores — 

 Open Winter. 



I am near the Kentucky and Tennessee 

 line. I have g colonies of bees in hives i8j4 

 by I4i4 by 1 i^i deep, inside measure. I 

 started last spring, made my own hives, and 

 bought and transferred bees from log-gums. 

 I did not get this work done until after fruit- 

 bloom, on account of ordering my supplies 

 late, and then having them lose 30 days in 

 freight transportation. I used full sheets of 

 foundation. I bought Italian queens and re- 

 queened nearly all of them, although most of 

 them were Italian stock. I got very little sur- 

 plus. I think it was because I was not ready 

 for the harvest. Some of them went into 

 winter quarters with plenty of stores, I think, 

 and some had very litUc. 



I. On November 25, I made a mixture of 

 granulated sugar and water, just enough 

 water to wet the sugar. I then took out 

 •ome frames of comb from 3 hives, and poured 

 this into the comb. Is this a good way to 

 feed? We have had a very cold winter. Bees 

 have been flying every week or ten days, and 



tant thing in all bee-culture, if you consider 

 one of any more importance than the rest? 



Missouri. 

 Answers. — i. As a general rule a queen is 

 never mated after she is 10 days old — per- 

 haps not after she is a wek old. But there 

 are exceptions, and how far those exceptions 

 extend I don't know. Some say that a queen 

 born in the fall may not be fertilized till the 

 next spring. If your queen did not lay till 

 2 months old, she may have been fertilized 

 only 3 days before she began to lay, and 

 she may have been fertilized sooner, but likely 

 she was at least a month old when fertilized. 



2. I don't know, but I suspect that in gen- 

 eral a bee dies with an empty sac. It would 

 otherwise be a waste, and Dame Nature is a 

 pretty economical old lady. 



3. For that or any other climate a hive 

 having a dead-air space. It is warmer in win- 

 ter and cooler in summer. 



4. Hard to say. Perhaps, convenience and 

 all things considered, the paper wrapping. 



5. A thorough knowledge of everything con- 

 nected with the business. Perhaps you want 

 to know which is more important, the bees, 

 pasturage, hive, or some other thing. Hard 

 to say. Bees are no good without pasturage, 

 and pasturage is no good without bees. You 

 can't very well get along witliout a hive. But 

 if you insist that I must pick out some one 

 thing to which the bee-keeper must give the 

 greatest attention, I think I would say the 

 queen. For whatever the queen is, that de- 

 cides what the bees are. By breeding for the 

 best ail the time, a man is more likely to get 

 ahead than by giving liis attention to some- 

 thing else, such as hives or pasturage. 



Late Mating of Queen — Hive - Covers 

 — Winter Protection Most Impor- 

 tant Thing. 



1. Do you agree that a queen is never mated 

 a fter she is 2 or 3 weeks old ? Last March 

 I had a colony of bees supersede its queen, 

 and this colony contained just a small patch 

 of drone-brood which did not hatch till the 

 queen was about 10 days old, and there was 

 no other drone-brood in the yard. The queen 

 commenced to lay when she was about 2 months 

 old, and now she is the mother of one of the 

 strongest colonics. I give this simply for 

 what it is worth. I examined this colony 

 once every 2 days, til! the queen started to 

 lay, and so these figures are accurate. 



2. Do bees, when they die a natural death, 

 without being molested, have their honey- 

 sacs filled with honey? If I am correct, they 

 always do unless they are starved. 



3. What kind of a hive-cover do you pre- 

 fer for a climate like. Central Missouri? 



4. What do you consider the best^ protection 

 for bees in single- walled hives, wintered on 

 the summer stands? Which do you like best, 

 wooden cases, or paper wr.npping, or do you 

 prefer something else to cither? 



5. What do you consider the most impor- 



Transferring from Store-Box. 



I have a chance to buy a colony of bees 

 which are in an ordinary store-box. Can 

 they be transferred to a good bee-hive, and 

 if so, how is it done? Illinois. 



Answer. — Formerly it was thought the cor- 

 rect thing to transfer during fruit-bloom. 

 Nowadays you wait till the colony swarms, 

 hiving the swarm in a movable-frame hive, then 

 21 days later cut up the old hive, adding 

 the bees to the swarm and melting up the 

 old combs. If the store-box that contains the 

 colony is very large, the bees may be slow 

 about swarming. In that case it is well to 

 reduce its capacity to a cubic foot or less. 

 You may do this by cutting away the lower 

 part of the box, even cutting away unoccupied 

 combs. Of course, you will do this early in 

 the season, before the bees begin to fill up. 

 Possibly the box is not very deep, but long. 

 tn that case you may fill something, as hay, 

 into the unoccupied end. If you prefer, how- 

 ever, to transfer during fruit-bloom, you will 

 find instructions for transferring in your bee- 

 book. 



Do Nurse-Bees Affect Queen— Un- 

 finished Sections. 



1. Is the nature, quality, color, etc., of 

 queens affected by the bees that rear them 

 from the egg? That is, if I give a cross 

 colony eggs from a queen whose workers 

 are gentle, to rear a queen, will the workers 

 of the queen reared be gentle if she is fer- 

 tilized by a drone from a gentle colony? 



2. What causes one side of a section of 

 honey to have a portion about one inch from 

 the bottom not finished and the other side per- 

 fect? With the same foundation on other 

 colonies, every box was filled full, and fapped. 

 I don't mean the outside sections. 



New York. 



Answers. — i. It is held by some that the 

 character of a queen is materially aflfected by 

 the nature of the nurse-bees that rear her. 

 It is certain that a young queen poorly fed 

 will not be so gooa as one that has a boun- 

 tiful supply of best food. That is perhaps 

 the chief reason why the attempt to rear 

 queens very early in the season is generally 

 a failure. But take two royal larvae, one fed 

 by nurse-bees of the most vicious temper, the 

 other by the gentlest of all bees, each being 

 alike lavishly fed, and it is hard to under- 

 stand that there should be any great difference 

 in temper of the young queens, if both 

 had the same mother. 



2. I'm not certain I fully understand the 

 case. As nearly as I can make out, the sec 

 tions an through the super are only partly 

 filled toward the bottom at the outside of each 

 section. That would be the case in a poor 

 season, or at the close of any season when the 

 bees did not get enough to fill and finish 

 all the sections. In a case of this kind it is 

 always the outer side of the section that lags 



