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American ^ac Journalj 



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ted; such queens are usually well fed 

 and have the normal vigor if the colony- 

 superseding is fairly well stocked with 

 bees and honey. If you can save such 

 queens and get a nucleus started with a 

 young laying queen in April or May. 

 they are almost certain to make good 

 colonies for the next season, and often 

 if there is an August or late flow they 

 will pay well in surplus that same season 

 and can usually 'be trusted to go through 

 the summer without swarming. 



In this country I would prefer to make 

 all my increase in April and May, if 

 we could get the necessary bees and pro- 

 duce good queens. As said above, we 

 can rarely rear good queens here before 

 the first main flow in June, then there 

 is usually abundance of queens and great 

 quantities to spare, but then is when we 

 cannot spare the bees to make the in- 

 crease — we must have the greatest num- 

 ber possible in our supers. 



And while speaking of swarming, and 

 of keeping all the workers at super- 

 work, if comb honey is produced, there 

 is but one successful way in this coun- 

 try to get good results in finish, and 

 that is in very populous colonies. There 

 must be a strong force of bees, for sev- 

 eral reasons. If the nights were hot 

 as well as the days, so that the apiarist 

 would feel like sleeping outdoors with 

 out covers, a comparatively strong col- 

 ony of bees might be e.xpected to keep 

 the super warm and be out at daylight 

 the ne,xt morning; but here the morn- 

 iiigs are quite cool following a cool eve- 

 ning and night, and many times the col- 

 ony does but little fielding before 8 or 

 9 o'clock. Strong colonies are neces- 

 sary to sufficient heat. 



You may say that protection, such as 

 an outer case over the super, would help 

 out, and so it would. There is a more 

 serious condition we have to contend 

 with, and that is slow honey-flows, often 

 intermittent besides. If your weaker col- 

 ony had a strong or rapid flow, so as 

 to keep them hard at work all night 

 ripening and storing what was brought 

 in during the day, so that the activity 

 would keep up a high degree of animal 

 heat, to be followed the next day with 

 a like flow, we could expect good super- 

 work from almost any fairly normal 

 colony. 



But somehow our flows are not regu- 

 lar; they are often slow, and what we 

 would call tedious, so tedious that 

 neither the bees nor the master knows 

 what to do next. There may be 2 or 3 

 days that encourage to super-work, only 

 to be followed by a lull of a day or two 

 that discourages super-storing, and of- 

 ten even starting at all in the super. 

 To get prompt starting in the super fol- 

 lowed by a continued work there, we 

 must have very strong colonies, so 

 strong that they keep up the necessary 

 heat day and night, so strong that there 

 are a host of fielders sufficient to find 

 some honey when it is to be had at 

 all, and so keep up business in the 

 super. To allow a colony to stop work 

 in the super discourages and brings 

 about lethargy, causes a crowded or 

 honey-logged brOod-nest, and not only 

 cuts off the brood that should be be- 

 ing prepared for later flows, but in- 

 duces swarming. That is why colonies 

 of only normal strength are more likely 

 to swarm than the very strong ones. 



'l)6cfor Miller^ 



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. 



Using Combs that Bees Died On. 



Are combs of honey that bees died on fit 

 to put bees on again? Indiana. 



Answer. — Yes. it's all right. Sometimes 

 the top-bars will be badly daubed with the 

 feces of the bees; if so, scrape them off. 



Eight- Frame or lo-Frame Hive? 



1. I am a beginner in bee-keeping, and 

 don't just know what size of hive to use, 

 whether an 8 or 10 frame. I expect to run 

 mostly for extracted honey. Which is best? 



2. Will a 10-frame hive prevent swarming 

 more than an S-frame? 



3. Do you think the bees will gather more 

 honey in a 10-frarae hive than they will in an 

 8-franie? Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. A 10-frame is probably better 

 for you; especially for extracted honey. 



2. Yes, the larger size is of some effect in 

 preventing swarming. 



3. Not necessarily. Of course a stronger 

 colony ought to get more honey, but just 

 as strong a colony can be in an 8-frarae 

 hive as in a 10-frame, for 2 stories of the 

 8-frame can be used if need be. 



Italianizing — Rearing Queens — 

 Loose vs. Nailed Bottoms. 



1. Would it be all right to send for an 

 Italian queen, and when she arrives look in 

 the hive, catch the black queen, and then put 

 the new queen in ? 



2. How long after the queen lays eggs, and 

 they are capped, will the bees build queen- 

 cells? 



3. Which 13 better, to have the bottoms 

 loose on the hives or have them nailed on? 



California. 

 Answers. — 1. Yes, many prefer that way. 



2. Not sure I understand. If you mean to 

 cage the queen in the hive, queen-cells may 

 be started by the bees in a day, or not for 

 several days. If you remove the queen, cells 

 will generally be started in 24 hours or less. 



3. The best way is to have the bottom 

 fnstcned to the hive by means of staples, so 

 that you can remove it at any time you like. 

 I wouldn't have a bottom that could not be 

 fastened on, and a bottom that couldn't be 

 taken off would be worse still. 



Wire Excluders and Honey- 

 Boards. 



Have you tried the new queen and drone 

 excluders, or honey-boards, made of wire? 

 Have they any claim to be classed as an im- 

 provement on tlie Tinker perforated zinc, or 

 i:i it only a scheme of the manufacturers? 



Thanks for the lift you gave the T-super. 

 I think it has no fault other than that it is 

 too simple for the manufacturer to charge 

 three prices for. Washington. 



Answers. — I do not use excluders under 

 supers, so I don't use many excluders, although 

 for some purposes they are indispensable. 

 Having quite a stock of the old kind of ex- 

 cluders on hand, I have never tried the wire 

 excluders. I don't suppose there is a great 

 deal of difference, but one would suppose 

 that the bees would like the smooth wires 

 better than the sharp edge left by the punch- 

 ing of the metal for the perforations. 



Don't be too hard on the manufacturers. 

 If there in very little call for an article, they 

 are hardly to blame for not pushing such an 

 article. One trouble, perhaps, is that intelli- 

 gent men have condemned the T-super because 

 they did not use it in the right way. If used 



correctly, I don't believe there is a better 

 section-super in existence. An unfortunate 

 thing is that one of the leading manufacturers 

 has represented the T-super in a catalog in 

 such a blundering way as utterly to misrepre- 

 sent it. I don't think there is any malicious- 

 ness in the case — merely ignorance. 



Foundation Fastening — Wiring 



Foundation — Compression for 



T-Super. 



1. Please give directions for using a Parker 

 Foundation-Fastener. 



2. Can it be used for fastening full sheets 

 of foundation? 



3. Is it necessary to wire foundation in 

 brood-frames where the hives will not be 

 moved very much? 



4. Do you use any kind of compression in 

 the Miller T-super? Minnesota. 



Answers. — 1. Didn't you get directions for 

 using with your fastener? Put the section 

 upside-down under the fastener, lay the foun- 

 dation edge upon the middle of the section 

 top-bar, raise the lever so as to press pretty 

 hard upon the foundation, draw back the 

 lever so as to slide the presser off the founda- 

 tion, at least partly, lower the lever and re- 

 move the section. 



2. I hardly think so. 



3. Yes, unless foundation-splints are used. 



4. There is no "Miller" T-sui>er. The 

 T-super is not my invention. I got it from 

 D. A. Jones, of Canada, and I never could 

 find out where he got it. I use a single 

 super-spring in each super. It is crowded 

 between the follower and the side of the 

 super, at the middle. 



Golden Italians. 



1. What is the difference in appearance 

 between the golden Italian and the Italian? 



2. Are they a larger bee than the Italian? 



3. Are they j ust as good honey-gatherers, 

 and are they just as good in every respect as 

 the regular Italians? 



4. I have 14 colonies of bees taken from 

 the cellar on April 3, and I never saw the 

 hives so full of dirt in front before, and now 

 where they fly out, close around the hives, 

 everything is covered with black-yellow spots. 

 Is this a disease in my bees? If so, what 

 is it, and what can I do for them ? Other- 

 wise they seem to be all right, and have plenty 

 of bees in the hives. I never fed them in 

 fall. They had plenty of their own gathered 

 honey — from 56 to 78 pounds in each hive. 



loWA. 

 Answers. — 1. Italians, as they come from 

 Italy, have 3 yellow bands, the first band 

 (toward the head) being not very conspicuous. 

 Goldens have 5 yellow bands. 



2. No. 



3. That question can not be answered by 

 yes or no. There are Goldens and Golden s. 

 Whether they are as good as the regular 

 Italians, taken as a whole, is a question. 



4. Don't worry. The bees are probably all 

 right. Those spots are merely the droppings 

 of the bees that have emptied themselves. 



What Ailed the Bees? 



The other day I found I had lost 3 more 

 colonies of bees, one old and one new. The 

 new one was full of honey and some dead 

 brood. The brood-cclls were all capped except 

 one. The dead brood appeared natural. The 

 old colony's hive was also full of honey, and 

 on one of the combs there were a few bees. 

 Half of them were dead, and the other half 

 were able to crawl some, but could not fiy. 

 On another comb were a few more dead bees, 



