March, 1909. 



lOI 



American IBiec Journal j 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or to 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Marengro. 111. 



Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Transferring Bees. 



What is the best way to transfer bees? 



New York. 



Answer. — Probably the best way is to let the 

 bees swarm, hiving the swarm in a movable- 

 frame hive, and 21 days later to add the rest 

 uf the bees to the swarm and melt up the combs. 

 If you prefer, you can transfer during fruit- 

 bloom, and your bee-book will give you in- 

 structions for that. 



Bees Fighting and Killing Each Other. 



My bees are fighting, and seem to be kill- 

 ing a good many. What is the cause, and 

 w hat can I do to stop them? I thought it 

 might be the young bees they were killing 

 out. Oklahoma. 



Answer. — It may be that there is fighting 

 because there is attempt at robbing. Young 

 bees are not likely to be attacked. 



Nucleus Method of Increase. 



Would you a<ivise me to make increase by 

 The plan C. W. Barr gives on page 73? 



Subscriber. 



Answer. — You might use his plan, except 

 as to rearing queens. He lets a nucleus start 

 its queen from its own brood. If you want 

 queens, don't think of having a queen-cell 

 started in anything but a strong colony. 



Wired Comb Foundation. 



Can a sheet of fiiu-ly wnven wire be rolled 

 between 2 sheets of wax in making the 

 foundation for brood-combs, to take the place 

 of splints or wiring frames, as now practised? 

 Thf sheets could be made the size needed, or 

 the wire screen could be woven oiicinch mesh 

 and could readily be cut with the scissors. 



Colorado. 



Answer. — Yes, such" a thing has been ad- 

 vertised and in use for years; the Van Deusen 

 flat-bottom, wired foundation, upon which there 

 is a patent. 



Tapping Sugar-Maples for Bees. 



Can I tap sugar-maples the first of April 

 to stimulate the bees, and would it be good for 

 them? They fly freely here after the first of 

 April, and I have fine trees. Virginia. 



Answer. — I don't know. To tap sugar-trees 

 the first of April would seem to give the bees 

 something to do when forage is scarce, and in 

 good weather it ought to be all right. In 

 bad weather it might entice them out when 

 they would be better off at home. Of course 

 care should be taken not to have them drown 

 in the sap-pails. 



Pure Food Law in Arizona. 



I write for information as to the pure food 

 law as to honey. Several here have bees. 

 Some feed sugar to their bees and then extract 

 it and sell it as pure honey. One this eve- 

 ning told me that whatever the bees put into 

 • the hive was classed as honey. As I under- 

 stand it, honey is the nectar from the flowers, 

 and has a diff^crcnt analysis from sugar-fed 

 linncy. They also say that when one sells it 

 without a label on the bottles the law will not 

 reach them, no matter if they say it is pure 

 honey. 



I am selling my last yrar'j* crop of pure 

 honey. 1 put a label on it and back it up, and 

 whoever cats it says it is all right. Well, 

 these other parties selling sugar-fed honey are 

 hurting the honey-markets badly, as the people 

 say they "got bit" once and arc afraid to buy 

 more for rear it is the same class uf sugar. 



We have no pure food inspector in this part 

 of the world. I would like to send them a 

 sample of this sugar-fed Arizona honey. 



I believe in giving the people something for 

 their money. I am trying to build up a honey- 

 trade, and am willing to go the route to punish 

 this class of impostors which prey upon the 

 laboring class as a wolf upon a lamb. If they 

 are right I wish to know it; and if I am right, 

 I wish to learn where I can send some of 

 this arid honey to an inspector to be examined. 



Honey here ir. S4ild at too high a price. Cali- 

 fornia "wild rose" sells at 40 cents per pint: 

 7^ cents per quart; and $1.75 per gallon. I 

 sell some to the grocers so that they can sell 

 pint;} at 25 cents, quarts at 50 cents, and gal- 

 lons at $1.25. Comb sells here at 25 cents. 



The coming season I expect to have between 

 150 to 200 colonies, and I expect to retail 

 comb honey at 15 cents. The people will buy 

 more and create a larger market for honey, 

 so in the long run I will gain. 



Arizona. 



Answer. — If sugar is fed to bees and stored 

 by them, selling such a product as honey is 

 certainly iii violation of the pure food law. 

 But the V. S. pure-food law applies only to 

 matter"-, going from one State to another, and 

 I don't know whether you have any Arizona 

 law* to touch the case. Wm. Rohrig, Tempe, 

 Ariz., probably can tell you all about it. Any 

 man who feeds sugar to be sold as honey is 

 standing in his own light, and will be the 

 loser in the long run by it, to say nothing of 

 the harm he is doing to other bee-keepers. 



Number of Colonies to Clear $60 

 Best Hive — Missouri for Bees — 

 Alfalfa and Red Clover. 



1. How ni;niy colonics of beos will i have 

 to keep to clear $600 per year ? 



2. What is the best kind of hive for money- 

 makers ? 



3. Is ^Missouri, in the central or southern 

 part. ?. good place for bees? , 



4. Are alfalfa and red clover good for bees 

 to store honey for the market. Wisconsin. 



Answers. — i. I don't know. A good bee- 

 keeper in a good locality ought to do it with 

 ion colonies or less. 



2. A lo-frame dovetailed is certainly one 

 of the best. 



.3. Yes. 



4. .Mfajfa is excellent in most places west 

 of the Mississiiipi. Red clover is not generally 

 counted on n't! y where. 



Distance Bees Go for Nectar — Home- 

 Made Wax-Extractor. 



1. How far will Italian bees go for nectar 

 in a fairly good clover location, with 100 

 colonies in the apiary and about 100 acres of 

 aUike within 2 miles of the apiary? 



2. Do you consider a double glass cover 

 prefer:ible to single in a solar wax-extractor? 



3. Give a plan for making a home-made 

 solar wax-extractor. Canadian Boy. 



Answers. — i. Italian bees, or any other bees, 

 work perhaps to good advantage a distance of 

 i'/$ to 2 miles — perhaps farther. In the cases 

 you mention they would probably go that 

 distance. 



2. Yes, 



3. See reply to "Iowa," page 69. 



Painting Hives — Winter Packing — 

 Uniting Colonies. 



I. In your answer t(^> the nucstion as to 

 whether hives are better painted or unpainted, 

 you say: "Mr. Doolittlc's idea in that moisture 

 will pass through unpainted walls better than 



through painted ones." If unpainted hives 

 will let dampness and moisture pass out, will 

 it not also let dampness and cold pass in? 



2. Will not packing hives in tar-paper and 

 other packing material prevent moisture from 

 passing out the same as a painted hive? 



3. I united some bees last fall by the follow- 

 ing plan: I moved the hives of the colonies 

 to be united toward each other a foot or so 

 a day so that they could mark their location, 

 until I had them close together. I then raised 

 one hive gradually, still allowing the bees to 

 mark their location, until I had it on a level 

 with the top of the other hive. Then I set 

 the hive on top of the other with wire-cloth 

 between. I left the hives this way 4 days and 

 removed the wire-cloth. All of the colrnies 

 united this way did splendidly, except two, 

 which fought until they killed each other. Did 

 I remove the wire-cloth too soon, or what was 

 the matter with the ones that would not unite? 



4. When uniting bees what are the essential 

 points to be considered? 



Virginia. 

 Answers. — i. Y^s, moisture will pass in- 

 ward through the wall of a hive just as well 

 as outward, provided conditions are reversed. 

 Do you find that commonly happen? That is, 

 do you find the outside air reeking with mois- 

 ture and the air inside dry? Instead of that 

 the outside air^ — especially in winter, the time 

 we are most anxious about — is dry, while we 

 have moisture and mold inside the hive. 



2. No, a good coat of paint is entirely im- 

 pervious to water: the packing is not. Even 

 if it were, the moisture inside the packing and 

 outside the hive-wall can not do the harm it 

 can inside the hive-wall. 



3. After being over the wire-cloth 4 days 

 I would hardly have expected any trouble. It 

 may have made a little diflference if, on re- 

 moving the wire-cloth, you did the work less 

 quietly than you did with the others. 



4. Perhaps the one essential point is that 

 the bees shall have the same hive-smell. They 

 will unite better if filled with honey, and also 

 ii discouraged or frightened. They will unite 

 better if one colony is queenless. Lately it 

 has been advanced that they will unite peace- 

 ably if both colonies are made queenless only 

 a few hours. Of course, one of the queens 

 will be afterward returned. 



Artificial Increase. 



I have been reading in "A B C and X Y 

 Z of Bee- Culture," an article on page 310, 

 by W. W. Somerford, on artificial increase. 

 I do not fully understand, and am at a loss 

 to know how a new queen can be hatched in the 

 nucleus, as the old queen is caged in the 

 parent hive 10 days previous to the division. 

 Do the worker-bees put a worker-larva in the 

 queen-cell and feed it the royal jelly? 



A Subscriber. 



Answer. — No, the bees don't put a larvse 

 into a queen-cell, but they give extra feed to a 

 larva in a worker-cell, and they enlarge its 

 cell into a queen-cell. Such cells are called 

 I>ost-constructed cells, or emergency cells, in 

 contradistinction to pre-constructed, swarming- 

 cells, or supersedure cells. 



Royal Jelly for Queen-Cells — Chang- 

 ing Queens — Uniting Weak 

 Colonies — Musty Combs, Etc. 



1. After you have made artificial queen-cells, 

 where do you get the royal jelly to daub the 

 inside of the queen-cells before you transfer 

 the larvse to the cells? 



2. I have a colony of black bees in my barn, 

 and want to change the queen the coming 

 spring. Suppose that after I get the new 

 n.ueen. I can not find the old one the first 

 time I look the frames over, for I think there 

 arc 15 of them. What will I do with the new 

 queen until I do find the old one? How long 

 will she live in the cage that she will be 

 mailed in ? 



3. What strain of bees would you advise 

 for thi:i section of country? I am at about 

 43 degrees latitude, and 1300 feet elevation, 

 and at some seasons we have 90 days' sleigh- 

 ing. 



4. When you double up light colonies in the 

 spring, do you remove the queen from one and 

 put the one that has the (jueen with the one 

 that does not have any queen, or do you add 

 the one that has the queen to the queenless 

 colony ? 



5. What will take the musty sincU from old 

 combs? If I put them in an old colony will 

 the bees clean them up and use them? 



, 6. Will it do to slip a full sheet of founda* 

 lion in between the brood- frames in April or 

 May? 



7. What season of the year will bees first 

 start to make cotnb? 



