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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Tn this deoartment will be answered those 

 nnestions needing immediate attention, and 

 K as are not of sufficient special interest to 

 rponirl renUes from the 20 or more apiarists 

 X help CmakV* Queries a"d Rephes^' so 

 iniprestlnff on another page. In the main, it 

 will contafn questions and answers upon mat- 

 Ters that particularly interest beginners.-ED. 



Winter and Spring Management. 



1 I am abeginner,andhave8 colonies 

 of Italian bees. They are very well 

 supplied with honey, and I have fed 

 them about 125 pounds of granulated 

 sugar syrup. Now I want to winter 

 them on the summer stands-how shall 

 I prepare them for winter here in the 

 northern part of West Virginia ? 



2 Will a queen rear worker-bees in 

 drone-comb, provided there is no 

 worker-comb in the hive ? 



3 How ought I to feed, and what 

 kind of food should I give the bees to 

 induce them to increase fast in the early 

 snring '> Wm. N. Hakter. 



St.Leo, W.Va.,0ct.30, 1893. 



Answers.— 1. If any bee-keeper liv- 

 ing near you has been successful in win- 

 tering bees, it would be well for you to 

 acquaint yourself with his method and 

 follow his example. We should hardly 

 suppose, however, that much prepara- 

 tion would now be necessary, if your 

 colonies are strong in bees, and well 

 stocked with winter stores. They should 

 be protected in some way from the full 

 force of winter winds unless so situated 

 as to need no such protection. As to 

 what further is needed, something de- 

 pends upon the kind of hive you use. If 

 possible, it would be a good plan to have 

 beneath the combs an air-space of two 

 inches or more. Then there will be no 

 danger that dead bees will clog the en- 

 trance, and this space seems to have 

 good effect. 



Perhaps the most important part ol 

 the hive for you to protect is the top. If 

 it is so arranged that there is a space 

 inside the cover to be filled with chaff or 

 something of the kind, well and good. 

 If there is merely a board cover over the 

 brood-nest, then you will do will to have 

 some covering over that. It doesn't 

 matter so much what it is, so that it 

 keeps the top of the hive warm and dry. 

 The idea is to keep the top so warm that 

 the moisture from the bees will not con- 

 dense in drops over the brood-nest and 

 drip down on the bees. If there is no 



provision for the air to find a slow es- 

 cape upward, see to it that the bees 

 have a large entrance, and in no case 

 should the entrance be too much con- 

 tracted. But, as said in the first place, 

 you will do well to find out how others 

 have achieved success in your locality. 



2. She will, if she rears any. If the 

 bees have room to build worker-comb, 

 supposing a full colony is present, they 

 will promptly do so if it is in the work- 

 ing season, and she will then have a 

 chance to lay. If, on the other hand, 

 she is put into a hive already entirely 

 filled with drone-comb, she may lay 

 worker-eggs in the drone-cells, the 

 workers perhaps contracting with wax 

 the mouths of the cells, or she may re- 

 fuse to commence business under such 

 circumstances, and the bees may swarm 

 out. 



3. If they have plenty of honey in the 

 hive, it is likely they will do their best 

 without any assistance from you. If 

 they are not well supplied with stores, 

 furnish them a supply of honey if you 

 have it, or give them sugar syrup. The 

 latter is not so good to induce laying, as 

 it lacks the floating pollen that is in the 

 honey. If there is not a sufficient 

 amount of natural pollen for them to 

 gather, give them a substitute. This 

 may be weat, rye, oat or corn meal. 

 Almost any kind of ground feed that is 

 fed to cattle or horses will do, and the 

 coarse parts left by the bees will be still 

 good to feed to the larger stock. 



Prevention of Honey-Granulation. 



We have a quantity of honey put in 

 this market almost every year in quart 

 fruit-cans, that will stand all winter 

 without getting solid or candied. I think 

 it is claimed that it is put up hot, and 

 kept tight from air. Will this prevent 

 honey from thickening when exposed to 

 the cold ? If so, to what degree must it 

 be heated when put up ? Inquirer. 



Answer.— Yes, if you heat honey to 

 the boiling point and then seal it up, the 

 same as canned fruit, it will not granu- 

 late. But the boiling utterly ruins the 

 flavor. We can give you no better in- 

 formation than that contained in Root's 

 " A B C of Bee-Culture," Mr. Root says: 



"By following out the plan of the 

 bees, we can keep honey in a clear, 

 limpid, liquid state, the year round. 

 The readiest means of doing this is to 

 seal it up in ordinary self-sealing fruit- 

 jars, precisely as we do fruit. We should 

 fill the jar full, and have the contents 



