154 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 10, 



CONDUCTED BY 



Z»H. O. O. MILLER, MARENGO, ILL. 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Br. Miller direct.] 



Bee-Cave loo Close and Cold. 



I have nine colonies wintering in a cave. On entering the bees 

 are quiet but soon raise quite a hum. The cave is moldy ; what is 

 the cause, and what is best to do about it I There is nothing in the 

 cave but the bees. The thermometer stands between 30 and 40 

 degrees. Nebraska, 



Answer. — Probably the cave is a little tooclose, and very likely 

 a little too cold. When you open the door you let in fresh air, and 

 the bees make a stir to get their share of it. The thing to do is to 

 let them have more air and more heat. Much easier said tliau done. 

 If you could have a stove it would be good, but don't use a stove of 

 any kind that will allow smoke or gas to escape in the cave. 

 Making the cave warmer will of itself help change the air without 

 doing anything else, but it that doesn't seem sufficient, you can 

 leave a crack somewhere for more ventilation. The great trouble 

 is to get enough ventilation without making the cave too cold. If 

 your thermometer is correct, it ought to stand at about 45 degrees. 

 If you can't have a stove, hot stones, jugs of hot water, or some- 

 thing of the kind might be used. Even a temporary warming up 

 will help. But don't use hot water unless corkt tight. 



. ^ I m — 



IJjiiiig Hives in Wliicli Bees Died — Foul Brood. 



1. During a long spell of very cold weather this winter, three 

 or four of mj- colonies of bees in dovetailed hives died, leaving con- 

 siderable honey in the brood-frames. Will it be all right to hive 

 new swarms in those hives after cleaning out all dead bees, or 

 would it be better to take out the comb and make the new swarm 

 commence new ! 



'3. What is " foul brood ?" What causes it, and how could I 

 detect it in my bees ? California. 



Answer. — 1. Those combs will probably be a great help to a 

 new colony, and will be all right to use. 



2. Foul brood is a disease caused by a microbe or bacillus 

 (bacillus alvei), the disease affecting the larvse. The most promi- 

 nent feature depended on, perhaps, in detecting the disease, is the 

 ropy character of the rotten larva when a tooth-pick is thrust into 

 it and withdrawn. The first intimation you are likely to have is 

 the bad smell, holes in the center of the capping of the brood, and 

 the coffee-color of the dead larv;B lying not at the bottom of the 

 cell, but at the bottom-side of the cell. It may be worth your while 

 to get Dr. Howard's book on foul brood. 



[We mail this book for '25 cents. — Editor.] 



Cleaning Hives — Covins Bees — Taking Bees Out 

 of llie Cellar — !niec and Bees. 



1. Would you advise transferring bees, in the spring, from one 

 hive to another, and so on until all are i-hanged, in order to clean 

 the hives ? My hives have the fast bottom-boards. 



2. I had my bees on the north side of a slope facing the south 

 in the sun. I am thinking of moving them a few rods north in a 

 small orchard, and face them to the east. What do you think 

 about it ; 



3. Do you think it best to take bees out of the cellar quite early, 

 or wait until it warms up well f 



4. Do mice bother bees in the cellar enough to hurt them much ? 

 There are a few mice in my cellar. I have a trap set for them. 



Iowa. 

 Answers. — 1. An excellent plan. 



2. Probably it will be better, but you can't always tell till you 

 try, and sometimes it's hard to tell after you try. 



3. I think I wouldn't take them out till soft maples are in bloom, 

 and not then if it didn't promise good weather. Some; however, 

 favor taking out early as possible, and I wouldn't like to be too 

 positive about it. 



4. When you open your hives in the spring and find great holes 

 gnawed in the nice brood-combs, you'll think mice are a good deal 

 worse than you supposed. Next winter have the entrances closed 

 with wire-cloth, three meshes to the inch. 



Melting Comb Honey by Steam —Crushing 

 Comb Honey. 



1. Would it be practical, without injury to quality of honey, to 

 melt honey-combs in a large tank by a steam-pipe f Bee-keepers 

 here have frequently a large amount of candied honey in the spring 

 from colonies that died the previous winter, that they wish to melt 

 up, and fiequently use the sun extractor, which injures the color 



of the honey for selling. Steam would reduce it quickly without 

 doubt, but whether the honey would be discolored or otherwise in- 

 jured, is what I wish to know. 



2. Mr. Aikin writes about the feasibility of crushing honey by 

 running it through wooden rollers. Now, could honey be run 

 through rollers successfully, and has it ever been tried ? A party ' 

 here has some 50 box-hives for transferring, and after the brood is 

 disposed of, he wishes to crush the comi>s in the easiest manner 

 possible in order to save the honey, and not be i-o long as it would 

 take him in using sun-extractors ; and at the same time he does not 

 wish to discolor the honey. '■ Out West." 



Answers. — 1. I'll resign the floor to any one who has tried it, 

 giving my guess that great care must be taken or the honey would 

 be spoiled by overheating. 



2. So far as I know, Mr. Aikin's plan is yet in the theoretical 

 stage. But I think he contemplates using only virgin combs, and 

 old brood-combs might be a very different thing. Pollen and the 

 old combs would likely discolor and flavor the honey. 



Amount Consumed by Drones. 



B. 



Are drones large consumers of honey ? 



Answer. — It takes a good deal of honey to rear them in the 

 first place, for a drone is a good bit larger than a worker. I should 

 hardly suppose the mature drone will consume as much in propor- 

 tion to its size as a worker, for it is not so active, still it must take 

 no small allowance to support it. 



Lessening llie <tuanlily oT Drones. 



Is it profitable to use a drone-trap to lessen the quantity of 

 drones, or can the trap be used for queens to mate with drones 

 from select colonies ? B. 



Answer. — If there are many drones in a colony it will take a 

 good deal to support them, and" it will pay to trap them out. As 

 prevention is better than cure, it will be still better to avoid the 

 expense of rearing them by removing nearly all the drone-comb. 

 You can do a good deal toward improvingyour stock by encourag- 

 ing drones from your best colonies and repressing the rest. But if 

 bad drones surround you on all sides in your neighbors' colonies, 

 the problem becomes much more difficult. 



Transferring Bees — Swarming management. 



1. As I have 12 colonies that I wish to transfer from a cheap 

 frame to a Hoffman frame of the same size, what would be my best 

 way of doing it '. 



2. My plan for swarming next season is as follows: I must 

 have one empty hive to begin with. Now suppose No. I swarms 

 June 3, 1 will hive the swarm in the empty hive and put it on a new 

 stand. Now June 6 No. 2 swarms, or within one week of No. 1. I 

 will take No. 2's svparm into No. 1, and so on through the whole 

 apiary. Do you think my plan will work to good advantage ? 



New York. 



Answers. — That's easy, the frames being the same size. Wait 

 till fruit-hloom, then with a thin-bladed knife cut out the comb 

 from a frame (it will help if the knife is hot.) Have the frame 

 lying on a board a little larger than the frame. Lift the frame off 

 the cjmb and put over it the new frame. Have four or five strings 

 of common wrapping-twine long enough to go around and tie. 

 Place these strings at intervals across the frame and comb. Have 

 another board like the flrst, and place it over frame and all. Now 

 with one hand under and one on top. turn the whole business up- 

 side down. Take off what is now the top-board, tie the strings, 

 lift up the board with the frame to an upright position, take away 

 the board and hang the frame in the hive. 



2. I think I've read of the same thing years ago. Very pretty 

 in theory, and sometimes successful in practice. iJut won't you do 

 a good deal better to set the swarm always on the old stand, 

 putting the mother colony on a new stand ? 



Some Wintering Questions. 



1. What will be the result of wire-screen in front of winter 

 hives ? Bees fly out when too cold and drop on the ground and die. 



2. My 5(5 colonies of bees are all in winter hives, about 2-inch 

 space all around filled out with dry sawdust, and cover sealed. 1 

 find them moist, and it appears that there is mold inside. What 

 will be the outcome ? 



3. I opened one hive, found half of the bees dead and honey 

 very moldy. I took out four frames, put them into a new hive, 

 and one frame with honey and pollen that I had from the past 

 summer. I put in the follower, sealed up the cover, and put the 

 hive in a dark room. The temperature runs from 42 to .50 degrees; 

 the room is 6x9x9 feet high, ventilated. Will the bees come out all 

 right ? 



4. I have to feed them. Will it be right to set partly-filled sec- 

 tions in front of the hive ? How much will I have to give them ? 



Michigan. 



Answers.— I suppose your idea is to put wire-cloth before the 

 entrance, so the bees would have all the air they want without 

 being able to leave the hive. You could hardly do a worse thing. 



