182 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 24. 



COHBnCTED BT 

 r>K. O. O. SULLER. HIARENGO, ILL, 



[QuestloDi may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.! 



Fastening Foundation in Brood-Frames — 

 Ciianging Location of Hives. 



1. I am just a beginner at beekeeping, and would like to know 

 what is the best way to fasten foundation in brood-frames '. 



3. Would it be all right if I moved my bees about 100 feet away 

 from the place where the hives stood last summer ? I am keeping 

 them in a cellar this winter. Iowa. 



Answers.— I have never found anything that suited me so well 

 as to have a saw-kerf in the underside of the top-bar, said kerf 

 being I4 inch deep and 5-32 inch wide. Slip the edge of the foun- 

 dation into the kerf, then a drop of melted beeswax here and there 

 will bold it till the bees fasten it. An easy way to drop the melted 

 wax, is to make a wax-candle by roughly squeezing pieces of wax 

 or scraps of foundation about a string hardly as coarse as common 

 wrapping-twine, then when the "candle" is lighted, you can hold 

 it to one side and let the drip fall where you want it. 



3. When you put them out of the cellar you can put them in an 

 entirely new place without any risk whatever. 



A Supposed Curious Experience. 



A curious thing happened to one of my colonies this winter. 

 Some time in November I examined thi.^i particular colony as I was 

 suspicious something was the matter, because there was so little 

 life about the hive compared with the rest, and I found a very 

 small handful of bees in a 9-frame chaflf-hive /((?/ of honey. The 

 first of December the weather grew cold and there was quite a 

 snow-storm, so my husband helpt me move that hive with others 

 to a more sheltered locality, he lifting one side and I the other 

 (and it was all I could possibly lift). Stepping backward my foot 

 slipt, and down I went, hive and all ! My first thought was that 

 the colony was ruined. 



With my husband's help I was extricated from the unpleasant 

 situation, and the hive placed on the stand. I found, on examina- 

 tion, that no combs had fallen down, but the weather was cold and 

 I feared the scattered bees would die, so I heated a large soap-stone, 

 wrapt it in several thicknesses of flannel, and put it among the 

 chaff cushions just over the brood-frames. 



From that time until Feb. 11 there seemed but little stir. That 

 was a warm day and the bees all had a fine flight, but I wish you 

 could have seen that hive! There weVe thousands and thousands 

 of the bees, and the alighting-board, front and top of the hive, was 

 first covered with bees and the air full of them. They lookt like 

 young bees out for the first time. Do you suppose that putting 

 that soap-stone among the cushions caused brood-rearing in mid- 

 winter ? It certainly looks as if it might be so. 



My 14 colonies seem in good condition at present. N. Y. 



Answer.— I'm sorry to offer any words of discouragement, but 

 I'm very much afraid it you look into that hive again you'll find 

 the colony not so very strong. Indeed, you will probably risk 

 nothing by looking into the hive any day. for it is very doubtful if 

 there is a living bee in it. Those bees that were having such a 

 lively time about it on that warm day, were most likely robbers 

 from the other hives. 



Clipping Uiicensi' Wings— Candied Colorado 

 Comb Honey. 



1. Js it well to cut the wings off of what queens you can in an 

 apiary where at least a third of the hives have their brood-frames 

 so crost with the honey and brood that you cannot raise them ' I 

 have bought a good many of my 2.50 colonies is the reason why 

 they are in such a condition. I lost a good many queens last year 

 from the old hive. I wondered if turning them so many times, and 

 then carrying them to a way-off stand might not confuse them so 

 that they would take the young queen to the wrong hive ? 



2. Don't you think it mean for Eastern honey-men to say Col- 

 orado honey is not as good as their home honey ? We have all 

 kinds of honey just as they do back East— white clover as well as 

 alfalfa, etc. Pure alfalfa honey does not candy. Last season, very 

 early, the mesas here were covered with a blue flower that I think 

 was argeratum, but it made such fragrant honey that the people 

 here called it wild heliotrope. And by the middle of June we were 

 taking off this lovely white honey, but alas, it candied in a very 

 short time. I melted mine up and sold it in tin cans. But I might 

 just as well have saved the trouble, for the Chicago commission 

 men I, with a few others, sent a carload of honey to, got me only 

 five cents per pound for the whole lot of mine, and four cents for 

 one mans .550 cases of beautiful comb honey. He said it arrived 

 in only fair condition, most of the cases leaking, but when honey 

 is not broken down, don't you think the cases can be cleaned and 



all be made right ? The most of the carload of honey was white as 

 sHoie. I said when I packt it that it lookt like angelcake — the 

 most delicate honey I ever had. Colorauo. 



Answers— 1. Decidedly, if I could get at only part of the 

 queens I would clip them. 



2. It seems to be the common thing for bee-keepers to think 

 that the product of their locality excels. If you will note the men- 

 tion made at different times in bee-papers, you will find that every 

 little while some one speaks of the honey from his region being the 

 finest in the world. I am quite inclined to the opinion that good 

 honey can be found in very many parts of the world, and that peo- 

 ple are likely to like better the honey with which they are best ac- 

 quainted. There are inherent differences in honey, however, and 

 there are differences in taste. The alfalfa honey I have eaten from 

 Colorado I should rate very high indeed. 



You don't say whether the honey you sent to Chicago was 

 comb or extracted, but from your speaking of its not being broken 

 down, I suppose it was comb. If cases of honey are leaking, that 

 must affect the value a little, and the worse the leaking the more 

 the price is affected, but it does seem that it ought to have brought 

 more than five cents a pound, if combs were not broken down. 

 Not knowing exactly the condition of the honey, of course no one 

 could say exactly what it should have brought, but I would want 

 to know pretty surely a commission man was all right before ship- 

 ping, as be has matters all in his own hands. 



[We are quite sure that this same honey was sold as the ques- 

 tioner states, at a low price, and was retailed at one of the city meat 

 markets here at two sections for 15 cents. We bought 10 cases of 

 this same lot of honey from the commission man who had it in 

 stock, and when we came to open it we found it candied solid. 

 This was in December. We returned eight of the 10 cases, selling 

 the other two at cost, 10 cents per pound. — Editor.] 



Preventing Swarming — Drone-Comb. 



1. Would this be a good way to prevent swarming ? At swarm- 

 ing-time take all the combs with brood, honey and adhering bees, 

 except the one with the queen on should be hung in the upper 

 story, and the brood-chamber filled up with frames, starters and a 

 queen-excluder on top. 



2. Or, at swarming-time, take a swarmingbox and shake all 

 the bees and queen from the brood-chamber into the swarming- 

 box and carry them into the cellar till the next day, then hive them 

 as a natural swarm, and let the old colony rear a young queen. 



3. I have a good deal of drone-comb in my brood-frames. Can 

 I. in the spring, remove the drone-comb and place the rest of the 

 frames on one side of the hive and a division-board next to tbem, 

 then when honey is coming in, put empty frames in the middle? 



Ml.NN. 



Answers. — 1. If I understand you correctly, you mean to have 

 one frame of brood with the queen and adhering bees in the lower 

 story, filling up the story with frames and starters, and putting 

 the balance of the combs in a second story, a queen-excluder being 

 between the two stories. This is the plan recommended by G. W. 

 Demaree, and has been successful with him. only you will be likely 

 to have a good deal of drone-comb if you use only starters. Full 

 sheets of foundation will be safer. 



2. If you mean literally to take all the bees, the likelihood 

 would be that you would lose a lot of brood by cold and starvation. 

 If you leave enough bees in the hive to take care of the brood the 

 plan may be all right. 



3. That's a good plan if you're anxious for more drone-comb. 

 For those empty frames will probably have more drone-comb built 

 in them than the ones you remove. You can make a sure thing 

 of it, however, by giving full sheets of foundation. Of course, 

 when you take away the combs with dronei-comb you must look 

 out that the queen shall not be crampt for room. 



Darii Combs — Worms in Hives. 



What makes honey-comb black, or nearly so ? We took about 

 20 pounds of honey from the long frames in the lower part Qf three 

 or four hives, last fall, it being our first year with bees in this part 

 of the country, and the comb was dark — some of it almost black — 

 thick and heavy. The honey was also darker and richer and of 

 stronger flavor than I had ever known honey to be. They had 

 plenty of white and red clover within a mile, and in some respects 

 did well; the exception was that we had to burn one hive, as it 

 contained nothing but a mass of comb aud white worms. large, 

 thick and soft. I shall be glad to be informed of the cause of those 

 worms and their prevention and cure. Mass. 



Answer.— Before I forget it, let me advise you to get a good 

 text-book on bee-culture, and if you do I feel sure you'll thank me 

 for the advice- That will inform you fully about wax-worms and 

 a great many other things. If next summer you should kill a hen 

 and leave her lying somewhere where dogs and cats would not get 

 her, you would probably find her some days later filled with worms 

 or maggots. It would not be right to conclude that the worms had 

 killed her. Neither did the worms ruin your colony. Bee-moths 

 haunt all apiaries, trying to get in the hives to lay their eggs, and 

 succeed to some extent in doing so. but the bees are alert to clean 

 out the young worms that hatch out of the moths' eggs, especially 

 if the colony is strong, aud still more especially if the bees are 

 Italian. But if a colony becomes weak and queenless then the 

 moths take possession, and in course of time the combs will be 

 filled with wax-worms. 



