AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



IB 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of sufficient special interest to 

 require replies from the ^5 or more apiarists 

 who help to make " Queries and Replies " so 

 interesting on another page. In the main, it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest heginners.— Ed. 



Getting Bees into the Sections . 



How can I force my bees to work in 

 the sections ? I have 7 colonies that 

 are bound to stuff the brood-chain?ber 

 full, until there is not an empty cell in 

 which the queen can lay an egg. They 

 are very strong colonies. I have frried 

 bait sections, and smoking them up into 

 the supers. 



We are having a good honey-flow, 10 

 colonies giving 240 pounds of section 

 honey so far ; but it is very hot and dry, 

 and I am afraid the flow will be short. 



Somerville, N. J., June 20, 1893. 



Answer. — We'd like the chance to 

 look in on your bees, to see a case where 

 they were cramming the brood-frames 

 and refusing to touch combs pat in 

 above as bait. There must be such 

 cases, as they are reported now and 

 then, but we have seen bees fill the bait 

 section with honey, when onl,y a little 

 honey was being stored, and there was 

 room left in the brood-frames. 



Without being on hand to see them, 

 Ifhe best thing we can suggest is to put a 

 piece of brood-comb in one of the sec- 

 tions as bait. If you have some brood 

 you can cut out and put in as bait, they 

 will not fail to take care of it if they can 

 get up to it ; and once there, they will 

 almost certainly do more work there 

 than merely to take care of that brood. 



Susie's Troubles at Swarming-Time. 



Dear Editor : — My papa takes the 

 Bee Journal, and thinks there is no 

 paper like it. But mamma says she is 

 going to stop it, because papa talks so 

 much about Jennie Atchley. But mamma 

 don't mean it. 



Papa has been in the bee-business for 

 three years. Papa went awa^, and his 

 bees swarmed for the first time. We 

 got them to settle. We hived them, then 

 they went away. Papa was sorry wheta 

 he came home and found his bees gone ; 

 and so was I, for I rang the dinner-bell. 



I rang it so hard that it sprained my 

 wrist. I am only 9 years old. 



Will you please tell us what to do to 

 keep the bees at home the next time 

 they swarm ? Sui^ Weed. 



Lanark, Ills. 



Answer. — Bfess your dear little heart, 

 Susie, that's a nice letter for a nine-year- 

 old, and if you keep on yoiu may get to 

 be a famous bee-keeper. It is doubtful 

 if it was of any use to sprain your wrist 

 ringing the dinner-bell. Now-a-days, 

 when bees swarm, bee-keepers generally 

 make no racket of any kind, and the 

 bees seem to settle just as well without 

 having any attention paid to them. 



Sometimes bees seem to swarm out 

 after being hived, ott of pure contrari- 

 ness, but it makes a great deal of differ- 

 ence how they are treated after they are 

 hived. If the hive stands out in the hot 

 sun, you may be pretty s«re they will 

 leave. A nice place to put the hive is 

 under the shade of a tree. If you can- 

 not have that, then shade the hive well 

 in some way. Boards plaoed over, 

 weighted down with stones, wfll do. If 

 you live in the country, get some one to 

 mow some long grass, put quite a lot sf 

 it on the hive, letting it project on all 

 sides, especially on the side toward the 

 sun, and lay two or three sticks of fire- 

 wood on it to keep the wind from blow- 

 ing it away. 



If you can do so, put your hive in a 

 place where the air can have free access 

 to it. Bees dislike a close corner on a 

 hot day, just as much as you do. 



Some bee-keepers practice giving a 

 frame of brood to a swarm. See that 

 your hive is nice and clean, and don't 

 put a swarm in some old, moldy affair, 

 without first cleansing it out. 



Let us hear from you again, Susie. 



Members of the North. American. 



At the last meeting of the North 

 American Bee-Keepers' A.ss©ciation m 

 Washington, D. C, how many of the 

 members present were honey-producers ? 

 How many bee-editors? supply manu- 

 facturers ? supply dealers ? commission 

 merchants? queen-breeders? editors 

 who are manufacturers ? 



Nhw York. 



AisflSWER. — We are not sure we cosld 

 answer this question if all the members 

 of the convention at Washington should 

 stand up in a row before us and allow 

 themselves to be catechized ; for the 

 different kinds of business are blended 

 together with all sorts of variations. 



