70 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Fci. 3, 



Unless you have a large family of children of tender years for 

 which to provide catnip tea, I doubt whether it will be advis- 

 able for you to use anything for waste land for its occupation. 

 5. Probably you could have them safely shipt from the 

 south as early as you would be likely to want them, say in 

 April. 



m I ^ 



Droiie§ — Transferring Bees. 



1. If I use full sheets of foundation in every frame in 

 each hive will there be drones enough to supply the apiary ? 

 If not, what ought I to do ? 



2. The colony I wrote you about feeding are doing all 

 right so far. They are in a log 20 inches long, just as I 

 brought them from the woods. If they get through all right, 

 I want to transfer them to a hive. What time would be best, 

 before or after the first swarm comes out ? 



3. I have one colony in a log that had plenty of honey of 

 their own gathering when I put them into winter quarters. 

 At what time would it be best to transfer them ? I want to 

 increase as fast as it is profitable. 



4. How late in the fall would it be safe to transfer from a 

 log to a hive with eight frames filled with full sheets of foun- 

 dation, and properly packt and left on the summer stand ? 



5. What is the proper width for the alighting-board ? 

 Why? 



6. How would you transfer a colony from a log to a hive? 



Michigan. 

 Answees. — 1. Don't worry. You may do your best to 

 keep down drones and the bees will probably rear a good 

 many more than are needed. If you feel the least anxiety, 

 just break out an inch square from one of the combs and the 

 bees will fill the gap with drone-comb. 



2. You can transfer them in time of fruit-bloom, and per- 

 haps with more satisfaction three weeks after swarming. 



3. Either in fruit-bloom or three weeks after swarming. 



4. If you mean to feed them, it might be done early in 

 September. If you expect them to lay up their own stores, it 

 depends altogether on the pasturage. If nothing but white 

 clover, it might not be safe some years after the middle of 

 June, while other years it might do a month later. If they 

 have plenty of fall flowers, they might fill up after the first of 

 September. Your safe plan will be to take them early. 



5. That's a matter about which there is no fixt law; 15 

 inches is a good width, because it gives the bees plenty of 

 room for a front porch, and keeps weeds from growing up in 

 the way. Two inches is a good width, because it is not in the 

 way so as to split off. Perhaps a still better way is to have 

 the bottom project about three inches for an alighting-board, 

 and then have a loose board lying in front. 



6. Follow the directions given in your bee-book for trans- 

 ferring from a box-hive, using your judgment for what varia- 

 tion must take place to fit the particular log in hand. Per- 

 haps you'll do well to saw up as close as pos&ible to the combs 

 at each end, then drum out the bees, and split the log in two 

 at that part which you think will break the fewest combs. 



Complete 'Volumes ot 1897.— We have on hand 

 about 40 complete volumes of the American Bee Journal for 

 1897, which we will mail to any one upon receipt of 60 cents. 

 We also have about the same number of the first sis months' 

 copies of 1SU7, which we will mail for 30 cents. As there 

 were 832 pages of the Bee Journal last year, here is a chance 

 for our new subscribers to get a good deal of valuable reading- 

 matter for a very little money. Better order at tince, before 

 they are all gone. 



♦-.-^^ 



A PJevr Binder for holding a year's numbers of the 

 American Bee Journal, we propose to mail, postpaid, to every 

 subscriber who sends us 20 cents. It is called "The Wood 

 Binder," is patented, and is an entirely new and very simple 

 arrangement. Full printed directions accompany each Binder. 

 Every reader should get it, and preserve the copies of the Bee 

 Journal as fast as they are received. They are invaluable for 

 reference, and at the low price of the Binder you can afford to 

 get It yearly. 



*-.-»- 



Lang:strotIi on ttie Honey-Bee, revised by 

 The Dadants, is a standard, reliable and thoroughly complete 

 work on bee-culture. It contains 520 pages, and is bound 

 elegantly. Every reader of the American Bee Journal should 

 have a copy of this book, as It answers hundreds of questions 

 that arise about bees. We mail it for $1.25, or club it with 

 the Bee Journal for a year — both together for only §2.00. 



Uniting Colonies. — The Bee-Master says instead of grad- 

 ually moving together weak colonies to be united, unqueen 

 the colonies to be moved, 11 days later destroy queen-cells, 

 and 2 days later they'll stay where put. Or, remove queen 

 and all brood, and unite two days later. 



Brood-Rearing in Winter. — Doolittle says in Progres- 

 sive that Quinby was correct in saying that brood-rearing 

 would commence in all good colonies about Christmas, but that 

 meant in colonies wintered outside. In the cellar, with per- 

 fect wintering, there is rarely any brood when set out in April. 



The Pettit Comb Honey System. — The A. I. Root Co., 

 in connection with the fence separators, propose to make use 

 of the Pettit plan, by having a fence between the outside rows 

 of sections and the sides of the super. S. T. Pettit thinks this 

 will not be so good as his "dividers" with % holes, for with 

 sufficient space between the slats the sections will be made 

 ridgy. 



Honey in Kongo. — W. Housiaux says in Progres Apicole 

 that in Kongo honey is used as fresh as possible, as it sours in 

 a little more than a week. As Kongo lies under the equator 

 the continuous hot weather favors souring, but it must be 

 pretty thin stuff. It is used under different forms, in cakes 

 made of bananas and rice, but usually in place of sugar with 

 rice. 



To Hasten Laying of Hens. — The Bulletin Horticole de 

 Liege gives as a condiment to hasten the laying of hens the 

 following : 6 parts honey, 3 parts flour, 1 part wood ashes. 

 Warm the honey and stir in the flour. When cold beat well. 

 Spread the ashes thinly on a molding-board, and roll on it the 

 paste till the ashes are absorbed. The ashes may be replaced 

 by ground pepper or ginger, and lime may be added. 



Average Yield Per Colony. — Doolittle says that in the 

 last seven years of the 70's his average yield was 106 pounds, 

 nearly all comb honey, in one year 134 pound* ; and in 1877, 

 166'-i; ; one colony giving 30tt pounds comb, and one of the 

 two workt for extracted giving 566 pounds. But the wood- 

 man's ax and the farmer's plow have brought down the aver- 

 age of the past five years to 70 pounds. — Progressive Bee- 

 Keeper. 



Keeping Honey. — Not only is it necessary, says Doolittle 

 in Gleanings, to keep honey in a warm, dry room, but it must 

 have sufficient ventilation to carry off the moisture from evap- 

 oration. Soured honey may thicken in such a room, but it 

 will never be as good as new, especially in sections. Sections 

 of honey placed near the floor will not have so good a chance 

 as those higher up, so it is well to have a platform a foot 

 above the floor. 



Strap-Iron Frame-Spacers. — These are pieces of strap- 

 iron 2}.j inches long, let in perpendicularly Into saw-kerfs in 

 the end-bars. They are meant to be an improvement on the 

 Hoffman frame, and the editor of Gleanings calls attention to 

 them as used by W. F. Marks, to avoid the propolis of the 

 regular Hoffman. The same thing has been in use for some 

 time with others, and it is likely that it has been originated in 

 more than one place. 



Th.e California Foul Brood Law. — This law has been 

 chased down by the Pacific Bee Journal after a long hunt, 

 and it seems it has been in existence about 15 years. It 

 authorizes the Board ot Supervisors of any county to appoint 

 an apiary inspector and fix his pay. If any one complains to 

 the inspector that foul brood exists in a certain apiary, the in- 

 spector must visit such apiary as soon as practicable, "and 

 direct the person in charge thereof to destroy all hives ascer- 

 tained to be so affected, together with the combs and bees 

 therein, by burning or burying; the same to be done the fol- 

 lowing night." A section that the editor thinks is known to 

 but few, directs that any one owning or having charge of an 

 apiary who finds out in any way that he has a case of foul 



