46 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



ANSWERS BY JOHN H. MARIIX. 



1. I use the Stanley Automatic honey 

 extractor; it takes four frames and as 

 far as our experience goes it does ail 

 the Messrs. Stanley claim for it. 



2. I am in favor -of feeding sugar 

 moist. 



3. I use racks ; wide frames get stuck 

 up with propolis and many times in re- 

 moving sections they become cramped 

 or broken. 1 use no separators. Honey 

 built upon full sheets of foundation 

 made on the Given press is uniform 

 in thickness and has no fishbone in 

 the centre. Separators are only neces- 

 sary, where you wish to glass the sec- 

 tions, and there are but few markets 

 that do not prefer them without glass. 



My system for both comb and ex- 

 tracted honey is tiering up. Y m can 

 give the bees room as fast as they are 

 ready to occupy it. 



I have never used the queen exclud- 

 ing honey board, but am favorably im- 

 pressed with it and shall give it a trial 

 during the coming season. When run- 

 ning for extracted honey, many times 

 the queen will till both lower aud upper 

 story with brood and finally locate all 

 of the brood up stairs for winter. I 

 have queens in my apiary that will fill 

 fifteen frames with brood ; this gives us 

 a host of bees, and the necessity of tier- 

 ing up. Still further I think as much 

 honey could be obtained in the long run 

 by confining the queen to the lower 

 story. 



4. I think packing beneath the bot- 

 tom board beneficial. It helps to retain 

 heat; bottom boards are liable to check 

 or shrink and leave openings where 

 you do not want them. Packing keeps 

 all of these points snug. 



5. I never discard nice straight 

 combs. I have combs from which I 

 have extracted honey for twelve years, 

 and I think they will not deteri- 

 orate in twelve years more. Many 

 claim that brood hatched in old combs 

 is smaller than when hatched in new 

 comb. I shall claim that young bees 

 are as small from new comb :is they are 

 from old. A bee develops to full size 

 after it is liatched. I shall further- 

 more claim that the bees use (or re- 

 move) the cocoons after combs get to 

 be of a certain age. Proof: the micro- 

 scope shows shreds and refuse that can 

 be accounted for in no other way. 



ANSWICKS BY lUA B.VRBICR. 



1. I use the G. W. Stanley Extractor 

 three frames at a time. 



2. All the experience that I ever had 

 in feeding dry sugar was many years 



ago, when I had a yard of bees several 

 miles from home, and some of the 

 stocks were not able to take care of 

 liquid food. To all such I gave a cake of 

 maple suuar weighing about four lbs., 

 placing it on top of the frames, and 

 under the quilt. The robbers could 

 not carry it off any faster than they 

 could liquefy it, and it worked like a 

 charm, for so long as the lump remained 

 the colony was safe from starvation. 

 This was in the spring, and befare bees 

 could get a living. 



3. I use a honey rack that takes 30 

 one lb. sections, tier up as the col- 

 ony requires, and prefer short separa- 

 tors, and I want them as rough on both 

 sides as the saw will leave tiiein ; then 

 there is little danger that the bees will 

 build braces from the comb to the sep- 

 arators ; with smooth separators it is 

 quite common. I do not use any honey 

 board or queen excluders, but set the 

 honey rack top of the frames. 



4. Winter bees in cellar, tiered one 

 top of the other, four deep, and the bot- 

 tom ones warm those on top. 



5. Never see a brood comb too old 

 to be useful if kept bright and clean, 

 and I have those that have been in use 

 more than twenty years. 



ANSWERS BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



1. I have used and now have Muth, 

 U. S. Standard, Excelsior, A. I. Root, 

 and Staidey's, all but the Muth take 

 four frames, and all are excellent. 



2. I have never practised it, and see 

 no reason why I should, except that I 

 neglected my bees in fall and suffered 

 them to go into winter quarters with 

 too litle food, which I never propose 

 to do. 



3. I use racks, and like them much 

 better than wide frames. I have used 

 wooden and tin separators, and am now 

 trying to learn to do without any, but 

 find I learn rather slowly. I have best 

 success with crates or racks and tin 

 separators as yet. I like best the Hed- 

 don rack and hive, and like the tiering 

 up plan with the intervening bee space 

 ver;/ much. 



I use the honey board, with double 

 bfee space. As the queen has not trou- 

 bled me by entering section, I have not 

 used excluding honey board, except on 

 a few hives. 



4. I should think it well, as it pro- 

 tects against cold. But Idouotfavor 

 out-door wintering in our state. 



5. I have those which are fifteen 

 years old, and they are still good. I 

 have seen comb, however, with cells 

 too small for brood comb. 



