December, 1909. 



417 



American ?ee Journal 



in the comb for 8 and q cents per section! 

 Naturally this has a tendency to depress the 

 market for a better grade of comb honey. 

 But the stuff they market— in Savannah, at 

 least— is little short of a disgrace to the in- 

 dustry. Dozens of times I have seen honey 

 exposed for sale which I would actually be 

 ashamed to admit, if I had produced it. In 

 * most cases the boxes are the only redeem- 

 ing feature, for they, at least, are clean, but 

 the two or three rows of cells next the wood 

 are empty, or only partly filled, and in many 

 cases I have stopped at the stores where this 

 miserable stuff was exposed in a glass case 

 for sale to look at the combs broken from 

 the wood entirely— caps broken and tbe 

 honey messing up things generally. 



But while this stuff is miserable and 

 actually unfit to offer for sale, and hurts the 

 business generally, the store-keepers would 

 rather take it at 8 or p cents than to pay 10 or 

 II cents for a fancy grade of comb honey. 

 It's money in their pockets; the consumer 

 may not know any better, but all the same it 

 makes sore a careful bee-keeper, who takes 

 pride in producing a fancy, nice looking sec- 

 tion. 



The only way to head off the proposition is 

 to sell direct to the consumer. It takes more 

 time, but repays one tor the trouble. That 

 is the reason why I am dealing direct with 

 the consumers, as I have always done, with 

 one exception. L. W. Crov.^tt. 



Savannah. Ga., July i. 



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



DR. C. C. MILLER, Marengo. 111. 



Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Long-Tongue Bees — Spacing Frames 



I Which race of bees has the longest 

 tongues— the Italians, Carniolans, or Cau- 

 casians? 



;, How close can frames be together where 

 there are no foundation sheets used? Can 

 they be iVo inches apart? I have them 

 iH-inches. and the bees build more combs in 

 a hive than there are frames. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— I. lam not entirely sure, but I 

 think the Cyprians. But there is a variation 

 in bees of the same race. 



2. You cannot have combs built true with- 

 out having ,t least starters, and i^ is close 

 enough. If you try iVi you will find the bees 

 will do still worse than with iH. 



Keeping Honey in an Ice-Box — Joining the Na- 

 tional 



1. Why is it not advisable 10 let honey 

 stand in an ice-box? 



2. I am desirous of becoming a member of 

 your " League." Kindly let me know what 

 are the requirements. E. St. Louis. 



Answers— I. If you mean by "ice-box" 

 merely a close box with ice in it. I've had no 

 experience. But I have had experience with 

 a refrigerator. Things put in that become 

 dry instead of becoming moist, so honey 

 keeps all right in it. At least it does "in 

 this locality," although Editor Koot thinks 

 it will not keep there. 



2. I suppose you refer to the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Association. Send your name and 

 a dollar to the General Manager and Treas- 

 urer. N. E. Krance. Platteville. Wis., and 

 you will be enrolled as a member. Or you 

 can send the same to Editor York, of the 

 American Bee Journal. 146 W. Superior St., 

 Chicago. III., and the dollar will make you a 

 member of both the Chicago-Northwestern 

 Bee-Keepers' Association and the National. 

 Or. if you prefer, it will make you a member 

 of the Illinois State and the National Asso- 

 ciations. You may also, if you prefer, send 

 the dollar to R. A. Holekamp. 4263 Virginia 

 Ave.. St. Louis. Mo., and become a member 

 of the Missouri Bee-Keepers' Association 

 and the National. 



What Was Wrong With the Bees ? 



I have a colony of bees in an 8-frame dove- 

 tailed hive with plenty of honey, and on the 

 5th and 6th days of this month (on Friday), 

 about 2 o'clock p.m., I noticed the queen and 

 about 20 bees on the outside of the hive, and 

 the other bees running all over the hive. I 

 put her back in the hive, and the next day 

 she was out the same way. and I tried to nut 

 her back at the entrance, and she wouldn't 

 go, so i took the top off and put her in there, 

 and she has not come out any more. I ex- 

 amined the hive well' and it is pretty and 



nice, no weevils nor anything of the kind, 

 and there is plenty of honey. I would like 

 to know what is wrong with her. She was 

 pretty and active, and nothing seemed to be 

 wrong with her. Kentucky. 



Answer.— I am at a loss to tell what was 

 the trouble in your case. Possibly, in spite 

 of the fresh looks of the queen, the bees had 

 superseded her. and a young queen was in 

 the hive. Even in that case the occurrence 

 was very unusual, for it often happens that 

 an old queen stays some time in the hive 

 after her daughter begins laying The like- 

 lihood is that n^yi\. spring you will find the 

 old queen missing. But you cannot tell 

 about that unless she is clipped, for other- 

 wise you will not be able to tell a new queen 

 from the old one. 



If any one can tell any better what was the 

 matter. Ill be glad to yield the floor. 



I am sitting down to answer your letter 

 less than an hour after receiving it. but it is 

 impossible for the reply to be in the No- 

 vember Bee Journal as you desire. That 

 number. I suppose, is already on the press. 

 It takes time to do the printing and mailing. 

 It takes time to write the answer, and I can- 

 not always answer a letter the same day I 

 receive it. and then it takes time for me to 

 mail the answer to Chicago. So in order to 

 have an answer in any number, the letter 

 should reach me before the first day of the 

 month, making due allowance for the time it 

 takes for your letter to reach me. 



Cellar Hive-Ventilatnon — Early Reared Queens 



1. My bees are mostly in the form of 4 and 

 i frame nuclei — one 4-frame and one 5- 

 frame in each lo-frame dovetailed hive, with 

 the fi-inch entrance up. and a bee-tight 

 division-board between. As the entrance is 

 closed up for about 2 inches in the center 

 where the division-board is. this will not 

 provide enough ventilation when in the cel- 

 lar. If I raise the hive from the bottom- 

 board, there will be danger of the bees or 

 queens fighting, so how can 1 secure enough 

 ventilation? How would it do to remove the 

 cover and place one or two thicknesses of 

 burlap on top? 



2. In the last issue you answered my ques- 

 tion in regard to early queens by saying that 

 such queens would not be good. Now. I 

 have prepared my breeding-queens, one for 

 queens, and one for drones, by adding 2 col- 

 onies to each and feeding plenty. By stimu- 

 lative feeding next spring these colonies ran 

 easily be made to rear drones, and swarm 3 

 weeks befoge the rest of the colonics, or 

 about May 20 to 25. Why should these queens 

 not be as good as those reared about June 15? 



Minnesota. 



Answers.— I. I'm not so sure there would 

 be any fighting if the bees were allowed to 

 come together by the raising of the hive. 

 Probably there would be none, although 



there is a possibility that by spring one of 

 the queens would be gone. However, if you 

 raise the hive so as to allow a passage from 

 one side to the other, you can put in a strip 

 of wood that will close up the passage. 'The 

 other plan you suggest — providing for up- 

 ward ventilation— will be all right, too. It 

 matters little where the ventilation is. so 

 there is enough of it. When I first wintered 

 in box-hives in the cellar, I turned the hives 

 upside down. That gave no ventilation be- 

 low, but oceans of it above. 



2. I'm not sure I know just why early- 

 reared queens are poor. It's not merely a 

 question of strength of colony. And 1 don't 

 believe you can make feeding entirely as 

 good as gathering from the flowers. I know 

 this: that I have had quite a number of 

 queens reared early, first and last, and they 

 didn't begin to average up with queens 

 reared later, there being no difference in 

 the strength of the colonies. Let me give 

 you another point. There's G. M. Doolittle. 

 You probably are aware that he knows as 

 much about queen-rearing as you and I put 

 together, and then some more. Well. I 

 think he says he can't rear good queens 

 much before June. Perhaps I haven't the 

 date right; but at any rate I think he is no 

 more in favor of early queens than I am. If 

 he can't succed at it. you and I may as well 

 not try it. After saying all this, it still re- 

 mains true that much depends upon the 

 vield of nectar, and it is just as possible that 

 where dandelion is very abundant, good 

 Liueens might be reared quite a bit earlier 

 than where it does not prevail. 



Uniting Colonies With Paper Between 



I have just read al.xuit your way of uniting 

 2 colonies by putting paper between them. 

 Did you ever try putting a queen-excluding 

 honey-board between them? I think it does 

 as well. Illinois. 



Answer.— Yes. I have united with an ex- 

 cluder between the 2 colonies. It is much 

 the same as having nothing between the 2 

 stories. In some cases— perhaps in most 

 cases— bees will unite peaceably when one 

 hive is set directly over the other, with no 

 excluder between. In such cases of course 

 they would unite all right with an excluder. 

 But too often it happens that if one hive is 

 set over the other without any precaution, 

 there will be a severe fight. In that case I 

 doubt that the excluder would do any good. 

 But the paper will. There is no possibility, 

 with the paper, that one set of bees can fall 

 upon the others en masse. It will take a bit 

 of time for a hole to be made in the paper 

 that shall let a bee through, and for some 

 time there will be passage for only one bee 

 at a time. In the meantime the 2 lots of bees 

 are getting the same scent, ready to unite 

 peaceably. At any rate. I've had one lot of 

 bees killed when there was no paper be- 

 tween, and I'm not sure 1 ever had fighting 

 when the paper was used. 



A Variety of Questions 



1. Can out- be assured that no swarm has 

 issued from a hive by the presence of their 

 old clipped queen? 



2. For several years, if I leave any partly- 

 filled sections on the hive to be finished, 

 after the middle of July the bees clean them 

 out. Why do they do it? Stopping of the 

 How? 



3. Has Italy two kinds of Italian bees, the 

 leather-colored and the golden, or are the 

 goldens bred in this country by select 

 leather-colored stock? 



4. For several years, in September and 

 October I have caughtseveral stray swarms. 

 What causes these swarms at this time of 

 the year? I have no trouble with my bees 

 swarming after July, at the latest. 



5. Is there anything that could be fed to 

 the bees to prevent foul brood? 



6. Will bees store more honey in shallow 

 frames than in sections? 



7. Can one tell the difference between a 

 colony that is superseding their queen and 

 one going to swarm? 



8. In case a colony wants to swarm with a 

 clipped queen, and they fail to get away on 

 account of bad weather or some other cause 

 before the young queen hatches, what will 

 happen? 



t). In case they are superseding their queen 

 is there any danger of a swarm? Ohio. 



Answers.— I, Yes, with certain excep- 

 tions. There have been reports to the effect 

 that a colony with a clipiied queen has 

 swarmed, and the queen not being able to 

 go with the swarm, she has been allowed to 



