I02 



March, 1909. 



American IBee Journal 



8. How long will it require or take to draw 

 out 2 sheer of foundation so that the queen 

 will lay eggs in the cells? New York. 



Answers. — r. The only way is to get it 

 out of queen-cells that the bees have started. 

 For this purpose you must previously let the 

 bees start cells in a queenless colony. 



2. If the weather is warm — and you ought 

 not to order a queen till it is warm — the queen 

 will live a week or more in the mailing-cage 

 you receive her in. If necessary "you can re- 

 new the candy, or give a little honey. If you 

 can not conveniently keep the cage in a warm 

 place, you can put it over a strong colony, 

 covering up well. 



3. Perhaps nothing will do better than Ital- 

 ians or hybrids. The probability is that if 

 you get Italians you'll soon have mostly hy- 

 brids. 



4. Doesn't matter such a great deal which 

 way. Generally the weaker one is moved to 

 the stand of the stronger, as the weaker it 

 is the fewer bees can be lost by returning to 

 the old stand. If there is no great difference 

 in strength, unite on the stand of the colony 

 that has the queen, as queenless bees will stay 

 where they are put better than queen-right 

 ones. 



5. The bees will take away the musty smell 

 and clean them up all right. Only don't dis- 

 courage the bees by giving more than i or 2 

 musty combs at a time. 



6. Don't give foundation till the bees are 

 gathering. Certainly not before fruit-bloom or 

 dandelion, and perhaps better not till clover- 

 bloom. 



7- No; till they need it. That may be first 

 in fruit-bloom. 



8. I don't know. Less than 2ji hours in a 

 good flow. 



Best Comb-Honey Hive — Getting 

 Bees. 



1. What bee-hive is the best for comb 

 lioney? , 



2. Where can I get a good breed of bees 

 at a moderate price? Indiana. 



Answers. — i. I get good results with the 

 8-frame dovetailed, but if I were to begin 

 anew I would have hard work to decide 

 whether to use the 8-frame or 10-frame. Cer- 

 tainly for any one who does not pay the closest 

 attention to his bees the lo-frame is better. 



2. You will find in the advertising columns 

 of this Journal several who offer Italian 

 queens, and you can hardly have better stock. 

 If you send to more than one for an untested 

 queen from each, the expense will be light, 

 and you will stand a chance of getting an 

 excellent queen in the lot. 



Tar Paper for Wrapping Hives — Wax 

 Press or Extractor. 



1. Would it pay to wrap hives in tar paper 

 for spring protection? I see some favor it, 

 while others do not. Why is there this wide 

 dirterence? 



2. What is the best kind of wax-press or 

 extractor? Do you still use the Root-German' 

 Is the Hershiser press enough better than any 

 other to make it an economical press? 



Is Mr. Byer going to tell us hom he came 

 out with the Hershiser press? 



Iowa. 



Answers. — i. There is a wide difference in 

 climate. While it might not pay in the far 

 South, it might pay well in the far North. 

 Locations differ. Your apiary may be in an 

 exposed place, where the wrapping mentioned 

 may be of great service in warding off the 

 chilly blasts of spring, while another apiary 

 a mile away may be in such a warm corner 

 that the wrapping is not so much needed. 



2. I still have the Root-German, but as I 

 produce comb honey exclusively, I don't have 

 much use for a wax-extractor. From what 

 others say, and from the construction of the 

 Hershiser press, it ought to do excellent work. 



Mr. Byer doesn't seem to me a very se- 

 cretive sort of chap. I never knew him to 

 have but one secret, and that was his name, 

 when he hid behind a nom-de-phime. If he 

 doesn't tell exactly what you want to know, 

 there's no law against your sending him a 

 question about it. 



Improving Native Black Bees — People 

 Living Over Cellared Bees. 



I. Don't you think that if our native black 

 bees had been as carefully bred from the col- 

 onies that always gave the best results, we 

 would have had as good a race of bees as any 

 in the world? They build nice combs and cap 

 their honey whiter than the Italians. The only 

 trait the foreign races of bees excel in is that 



they stick to their combs better when looking 

 for the queen, which, in modern bee-keeping, 

 is a great item. Don't you think that if an 

 equal number of colonies of blacks and Italians 

 were put by themselves where there were no 

 other bee:i near them, and the only increase 

 would be by natural swarming, the blacks 

 would eventually run, the Italians out? Would 

 that no: show that they were the stronger of 

 the two? 



2. Suppose a cellar is full of bees. Is it 

 good or bad for the health of those who live 

 in the rooms above the bees? 



Illinois. 



Answers. — i. Why don't you ask me some- 

 thing easier? It certainly is not the easiest 

 thing in the world to keep Italians pure, black 

 blood is asserting itself in spite of all efforts 

 to the contrary, and that looks as if blacks 

 were the more vigorous. Then, too, in Swit- 

 zerland, where are to be found some of the 

 foremost bee-keepers in the world, they are 

 cultivating pure blacks and trying to drive 

 oui Italians. But you probably know that 

 another trait in which Italians excel is that 

 they are twice as active in keeping the bee- 

 moth at bay, and that looks as if Italians were 

 more vigorous. Besides, the older bee-keepers 

 who had blacks and Italians side by side found 

 that Italians stored more. If the Italians were 

 better at the start, it seems that they would 

 continue better, if there were careful breeding 

 on both sides. But those Swiss. Perhaps 

 they have a beter strain of blacks than we 

 have. 



2. That depends on the bee-keeper. If he's 

 a poor bee-keeper, he will likely have a cellar 

 with foul air and dead bees, and his cellar 

 will be bad to live over. If the bee-keeper 

 is all right, the cellar will be kept clean, with 

 pure air. The air in my cellar is as good as, 

 or better than, the air in the living-rooms, for 

 the cellar-door is more or less open nearly 

 all the time. , 



Leaning Boards Against Hives — 

 Weight of Combs. 



1. If. it right to lean boards in front of the 

 hives that face the south? The wind is mostly 

 from the west, northwest, and north. I did 

 this to keep out the wind when it blows from 

 the south, and to keep the bees from coming 

 out on sunshiny days. They are out in the 

 open. I also did this to keep out the snow 

 from the entrances. The entrances vary in 

 size from 5^x3 to 5^x2^, and a few -J^xaJ^, 

 all of dovetailed hives — 8 and 10 frame. 



2. How much will 10 frames of empty combs 

 weigh, new and old, size i75^xp',8Xi 1-16, top- 

 bar one inch ? New York. 



Answers. — i. Yes, it's a good thing to have 

 the board there. Better take it away, though, 

 w hen there comes a warm day in which you 

 want them to fly. 



2. They vary very much with age. A weigh- 

 ing just made shows 10 old ones weighing i^Vz 

 pounds. I have no new ones to weigh, but 

 they would be much lighter. 



Supers and Sudden Honey-Flow Stop 

 — Kind of Brood-Foundation — 

 Storing Comb Honey in Attic. 



The careful reading of your book, "Forty 

 Years Among the Bees," has called up the 

 following questions: 



1. In case the honey-flow stopped suddenly 

 when you had supers tiered up 3 or 4 high, 

 what would you do? 



2. Where you use foundation splints and 

 split "bottom-bars, what kind of foundation do 

 you use — medium or light brood? 



3. In storing comb honey in the attic, what 

 temperature would it stand without melting 

 down ? 



You will likely hear from California this 

 year, as it has been raining here almost every 

 day for the past month — warm rains. 



California. 



Answers. — i. If 4 supers had been on any 

 considerable time, it would be practically cer- 

 tain that at least 2 of them would have no 

 unfinished sections except some of the outer 

 ones. If the last 2 had just been given, one 

 above and one below, they would be taken 

 off as empties for the next year; some sections 

 might be finished in the other 2 supers, but 

 mostly they would be unfinished. In any 

 case I would do just as at the close of any sea- 

 son, sort out the finished for market, others 

 sufficiently filled but not finished would do 

 for home use or home market, and others with 

 honey in would be given to the bees to empty. 



2. I have used mostly heavy foundation, just 

 because I had a stock of it on hand. Medium 

 ought to give good results, but light brood 



might be iust as good with 2 or 3 more splints 

 to the sheet, 



3. Now you're getting beyond my depth. If 

 an Illinois man should ask me that, I could 

 say, "Don't you worry about that: it will never 

 get hot enough to melt in an attic." Cut I 

 don't know about your California attics. I 

 have done a little experimenting, and there 

 ought to be no trouble at any temperature 

 below 143 degrees, as that is the temperature 

 at which wax melts. 



Divisible Brood-Chamber Hives. 



Kindly give the manipulations of divisible 

 brood-chamber hives. Louis SchoU promised 

 long ago to tell how he handles his bees. Mr. 

 Miller, the Canadian, uses the same hive. 

 Does he ever tell anything? New Jersey. 



Answer. — Perhaps no two who use divisible 

 hives manage them exactly alike. I am not 

 sure whether Mr. Miller has given his plan of 

 management, but I think if Mr. SchoU happens 

 to see this he'll be pretty sure to give what 

 you want, for he's one of the best fellows in 

 the world and likes to help others. In a gen- 

 eral way I may say that advantage of divisible 

 hives is taken by reducing to a single story 

 at time of giving supers, although some make 

 the first and second stories exchange places. 

 This last, you will see, throws the honey that 

 was above the brood-nest right into the middle, 

 and the bees are supposed to get busy carry- 

 ing it up into the supers for the sake of get- 

 ting brood in its place. 



T-Tins — Feeding Sugar Syrup in 



Spring — Thickness of Lumber 



for T-Super. 



1. What is a T-tin? I see in the American 

 Bee Journal the way to make the T-super,but I 

 do not understand what is meant by the T-tin. 



2. Would it do any harm to feed sugar syrup 

 to the bees outside the hives in the spring, 

 after they commence to fly, until the flowers 

 bloom? Would it be likely to induce robbing? 



3. How thick should the lumber be for a 

 T-super? Maine. 



Answers. — i. A T-super has no bottom, 

 but to support the sections has 3 tin supports 

 running crosswise. Each of these is made of 

 a piece of tin so folded that a cross section 

 looks like a T upside down: J, You can buy 

 T-tins of supply-dealers for about a cent apiece, 

 probably much cheaper than you can get a 

 tinner to make them for. 



2. If you set the feed some distance from 

 the hives it will not be likely to start robbing. 

 But if the bees fly to it on bad days, it may 

 cause loss of bees. Your neighbor's bees will 

 help take care of it. In any case it will hardly 

 do enough good to pay. 



3. T-supers are made of the same lumber 

 as hives— 73 inch thick. 



Queen Flying in December. 



To-day (Dec. 29) the bees were flying, and 

 I thought I would go out and look at them. 

 At one hive I noticed a lot of smal drones, 

 such as are reared in worker-cells, and, of 

 course, I suspected right away that something 

 was wrong. I stooped over by that hive to 

 watch the drones, and caught a few of them, 

 when there came a nice queen and alighte<l on 

 the alighting-board, sat still awhile, and then 

 walked slowly into the hive. This queen was 

 too big to be a virgin, but must have laid these 

 drones, it seems to me, and must have gone 

 out to meet a drone. Is this not a most un- 

 usual thing for this time of year? I looked 

 over all my hives last fall and this colony had 

 a purchased queen not more than 18 months 

 old, but must have superseded too late for the 

 i[ueen to mate. What do you think I would 

 better do, get a queen as early in spring as 

 possible, or give a frame of brood along in 

 April from some other colony and kill the 

 drone-layer at the same time ? 



Indiana. 



Answer. — The whole affair is very unusual. 

 The bees will be pretty old by the time they 

 rear a queen, so it will be better to give them 

 a queen. A still better thing, unless the col- 

 ony is very strong, will be to unite it with 

 another. 



Fastening Foundation in Brood- 

 Frames. 



I am now overhauling my empty hives. I 

 want to use full sheets of foundation in the 

 frames. Just how do you fasten the full 

 sheets in the frames to best advantage. Do 

 you imbed the wire or use splints? Please 

 be plain and give such minute instructions 



