18<j8. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAl.. 



39 



suppose the average for two or three months should be not 

 more than 10- above zero, then the bees would stay at that 

 mark or a little above it, without any benefit from a chance 

 day with the theremometer up to 50-, which a colony has that 

 stands outdoors. The larger number of colonies in the build- 

 ing the warmer they will be, but there again comes the dan- 

 ger that the air will not be so pure as with a smaller number. 

 You will be doing a service to others if you report next spring 

 how the bees come through. If you find the temperature 

 stands below 40^ or 45^, perhaps you could put in a little 

 stove with a fire of hard coal. 



Queen Laying in December in Indiana. 



Is it a common thing for a queen to lay at this time 

 of the year? I have one that is laying, or at least she 

 was Dec. 20. Along in October I introduced a yellow 

 queen to a black colony of bees, but did not expect any in- 

 crease so late ; but late in November, one fine day, the bees 

 were flying, and I thought I saw a yellow bee go into the hive, 

 so I opened it, and to my surprise there were young bees from 

 eggs up to flying bees. So Dec. 20 the sun came out nice and 

 warm, and I had to fcave another peep. I lifted out three 

 frames, and they had patches of brood as large as a man's 

 hand, with eggs and larvas. I thought perhaps it was not a 

 common thing, in a Middle State like this, for bees to breed so 

 late in the season. Indiana. 



Answer. — Bees often have eggs in the hive in winter 

 weather, say in February, when the queen begins leaving for 

 the coming season, but your case Is very unusual, in Decem- 

 ber. One reason for it is that there had probably been, a ces- 

 sation of laying before the introduction of the new queen, but 

 even then it was a very unusual occurrence. 



Queen that Stopt Laying in Augu»>t. 



I had a young queen in a nucleus, and after she mated 

 and began laying I dipt her wing, using the Monette device. 

 After two weeks I lookt over the hive and found that she stopt 

 laying, as there were no eggs nor brood of any kind. 



1. What was the trouble with that queen, that she stopt 

 laying the middle of August ? 



2. Could the clipping have frightened her so as to stop her 

 laying ? 



3. Do you think she would lay next season if she is suc- 

 cessfully wintered ? 



4. What would be the best to do with a queen like that? 



Wl-SCONSIN. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. It is just possible that she 

 was all right, but there's hardly one chance in a million that 

 she was, if I am right in supposing that you dipt her within a 

 few days after she began laying, and then two weeks later no 

 eggs nor brood were present. It almost seems, however, that 

 there must be a mistake somewhere, for if there were brood 

 and eggs, or even eggs only in the hive, what became of them 

 in two weeks ? 



2. I don't think it could. 



3. I doubt it. 



4. As a matter of curiosity it might be a good thing to 

 keep her for a time to see what she would do, but a queen that 

 would stop laying in the middle of August when she hadn't 

 laid two weeks in her whole life ought not to be encouraged to 

 live. 



■ I ^ — • 



Wintering Bees in a Barn, and on Candied Honey. 



1. I have bees in a barn, with the entrance on the side of 

 the barn, the hives covered with blankets and hay. They have 

 been in the barn all summer, the same I suppose as the bees 

 of your questioner on page S03 (1897), as he says " if bees 

 are in a barn," implying that they were not put there for the 

 purpose of wintering. Now are not these bees in nearly the 

 same condition for wintering that bees are when well packt in 

 chaff hives outside ? It not, why not ? 



1. In September I had some bees short of stores, and I fed 

 them some extracted clover honey. The honey was all right, 

 but now seems to have candied nearly solid. Will the bees be 

 likely to winter on this kind of stores ? Conn. 



Answers. — 1. I am exceedingly obliged to you for calling 

 my attention to that reply on page 803. Those questions on 

 page 803 were answered just after returning from Buffalo 

 (where they should have been answered), and it isevident that 



in my hurry I lost sight of the fact that there were entrances 

 in the side of the barn. That's not sufficient excuse for such 

 carlessness in answering, I'm only explaining how It happened. 



The 40 colonies referred to in the answer were put into 

 the barn and packt there without any entrance at all. With 

 the entrance it's an entirely different thing, and you are right 

 in thinking that they are much the same as being in a chaff 

 hive, the main difference being that more padding is around 

 them. 



2. I don't know for sure just how it will be, but perhaps 

 they'll come through all right if they have a sufficient quanti- 

 ty of stores. You will probably find that they will waste a 

 good deal, throwing out the solid graifis of candied honey. 



Exhibiting Bees in a Store. 



There is a store here called " The Bee-Hive," and it is 

 doing a bee-hive business. This summer I let them have my 

 observatory hive to put in their show window. They were 

 well pleased with it, as it attracted a great deal of attention, 

 and secured free advertising in the papers. Now they want 

 to know whether I could put a full hive in the window, and 

 let the bees fly out. I told them I didn't know as such a thing 

 could be done. For I was afraid the bees would buzz them- 

 selves to death on the window. I told them the bee-keepers 

 have a Solomon out West that would answer all such ques- 

 tions. If it can be done, please say in what way. 



New Y'ork. 



ANiswEE.— Solomon hardly lives in this region, but any 

 bee-keeper who has tried it will tell you that you are right in 

 suspecting that the bees will buzz themselves to death against 

 the windows if they are allowed to come out of the hive in the 

 store. Besides that, they would be very annoying by flyiug 

 about the store. The best you can do, it will be rather hard 

 on a colony of bees to have one or more sides of the hive cov- 

 ered with glass, but you may be able to have one last through 

 the season by giving it an outside entrance, and by keeping 

 the hive darkened when no one is inspecting the bees. A 

 heavy black curtain might hang over the glass, to be held up 

 while the bees were on view, then dropt down when no one 

 was looking at them. The passage from the hive out through 

 a hole in the wall would have to be boarded up in such way 

 that no bee could get out of the hiveiuto the store, altho having 

 free passage to the open air. It might be easy to aocomplish 

 this, and it might not be easy. If the entrance of the hive 

 opened out on the sidewalk it wouldn't do at all. It would 

 have to open out at some part of the building where the bees 

 going out and in would not disturb any passers-by. 



Bee§ Clustering rp Against the Cushion— Mark, 

 ings of Drones. 



1. I put my bees into winter quarters Nov. 17, if I re- 

 member rightly, and they are all right, but what puzzles me 

 is that they have clustered up against the cushion. They are 

 in one room of the barn, where they were last winter. The 

 cushion is of ground cork in burlap sacks in empty supers. 

 They all cluster the same. Four of the hives are dovetail, one 

 is 15x15, and 18 inches high. The other one is the same ex- 

 cept 12 inches high. All have plenty to winter on. What I 

 am afraid of is that it might get cold and remain so, and they 

 starve. Or can they work down to food, as well as up, 

 with breaking cluster? It gets pretty cold in there. I 

 have small slicks to let them pass over the frames. 



2. I sent to a queen-dealer in this State for two tested 

 queens. They were of the 3-banded strain. Those queens 

 hatcht nice workers and young queens, but the drones were 

 what I called hybrids. Some of them were almost as black as 

 the old stock, but not as small. Iowa. 



Answers, — 1. It isn't so very easy to understand just 

 what the situation is. But from what you say I rather under- 

 stand that there is an open space in some way between the 

 brood-frames and the cushions, and that the bees are cluster- 

 ing ill the empty space. Part of the cluster no doubt extends 

 down to the combs and the bees will keep up connection with 

 the base of supplies. But it is not a good thing to have very 

 much space over the brood-combs, and the first day it is warm 

 enough it might be a good plan to crowd the cushions down 

 into the space. 



2. If the worker and queen progeny are all right you 

 needn't pay much attention to the drones. They vary very 

 much, and I have yet to see anyone give the marks whereby a 

 a pure Italian drone can be determined. 



