582 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Septemier 15, 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. O. O. aULLER. AtAKEKGO. ILL, 



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



Cross Bees — Feeding for Winter. 



1. I have a colony of bees which is very cross. If I take 

 a frame out of the hive they vpill eomeout aad sting iilje angry 

 hornets. What is the matter with them? and what am I to 

 do with them ? 



2. What is the best to feed for winter '? How would you 

 feed it, and where ? 



3. What is the best to do, to feed the bees in winter, or 

 feed them now for winter? Wisconsin. 



Answers. — 1. There's no little difference in the tempers 

 of bees, just as there is among people. When a colony shows 

 such a vindictive disposition, it's a good plan to give them a 

 queen of better blood. Very likely the flow of honey has stopt, 

 and that makes matters a good deal worse. If robbers have 

 been auuoying them, they may take out their spite on you. 

 Be careful not to do anything to excite robbing. Do your 

 work in the forenoon, if you must handle them, for generally 

 there will be a little gathering In the forenoon. Don't leave 

 combs of honey or brood exposed to robbers, but keep every- 

 thing covered up. 



2. There's nothing better than sealed combs of honey. 

 Get in the way of looking out for this, and always have some 

 on hand. If you have nothing of the kind, feed granulated 

 sugar, best quality. If you have no feeders, you can use the 

 crock-and-plate plan lately described in these columns. 



3. By all means don't think of waiting till winter. Don't 

 wait a day. Go at it right straight. If you have no fall flow, 

 August Is a good time to feed, or as early in September as jou 

 can accomplish it. 



Robbing — Bees Drawing Out Conib- 

 Weil-Fcedcr. 



Rapid 



1. I rather injudiciously opened a number of hives late 

 one afternoon, two or three weeks after a flow had ceast, in 

 order to remove some dark honey from strong colonies, where- 

 with to feed weak ones. This resulted in wholesale robbing, 

 and at 8 a.m. the next morning I found a battle royal going 

 on at every one of the hives which I had opened. My first 

 thought was to try a remedy I have more than once success- 

 fully used, viz : painting about the flight-holes ; but it is messy 

 and troublesome, and I concluded I would give each and every 

 hive attacht a good shower-bath, and which I have found to 

 answer sometimes. 



It was a very close, sultry morning, with not a breath of 

 air stirring, but before I got back to the bee-yard with the 

 garden watering-pot, a deliclously cool breeze from the sea 

 had suddenly sprung up. I doubt If I was away 15 minutes, 

 but during my short absence robbing had greatly dimlnlsht, 

 the invading forces being quite withdrawn from some of the 

 hives ; and I put it down to the sudden change of atmosphere ; 

 for I have often observed that when a cool, fresh breeze is 

 blowing, hives may be handled with impunity, where other- 

 wise it would be dangerous to even lift a cover. 



But I must also tell you that just before going to the yard 

 that morning I had uncovered some cases of sections in my 

 workshop, which I had taken off the previous evening, and 

 which, containing a mere sprinkling of honey (too little to ex- 

 tract), I wanted the bees to clean up, leaving the window open 

 to give the bees access to them. On returning from the yard 

 I found my workshop full of bees, going for these partially- 

 filled sections in grand style. I then began to reason that this 

 counter attraction was the cause of the siege being raised at 

 the hives, and that atmospheric conditions had nothing what- 

 ever to do with it. If this conclusion is correct, then how 

 would It answer, in your opinion, should robbing and fighting 

 be, through carelessness or accident, set up on a large scale, 

 to at once place a shallow tray or two of diluted honey outside 

 the apiary, but within easy smell and reach of the robbers — 

 as a counter-attraction ? If the remedy Is as good and as cer- 

 tain as I have reason to believe It to be — and It was permanent 

 — it is worth knowing, and as one of those things which every 

 — even the most careful — apiarist would do well to make a 

 note of. What may be your opinion of the matter? Have 



you ever had alike experience? It seems to offer a very 

 simple means of curing an occasionally (in the best regulated 

 apiaries) very troublesome disorder. 



Could not, on the same principle, the horrors of war be 

 in a measure averted ? Just when a battle begins, have a 

 special corps hovering about the flanks and rear of the com- 

 batants, with wagon-loads of delicious honey-jumbles — coun- 

 ter-attraction ! 



2. As freight, etc., on the new Weed " drawn foundation " 

 would come too costly for me, I have to set my own little 

 workmen to make it, feeding strong colonies " during the re- 

 cess," and making them draw out super foundation. In fill- 

 ing frames for that purpose with the ordinary super founda- 

 tion, I came across a couple of sheets of " extra thin." I had 

 had it by me two or three years, but I think the other was 

 just as old. Anyhow, tho I put this "extra thin" right in the 

 center of the super, the bees, while drawing out the other to 

 my greatest satisfaction, would have none of it ; they wouldn't 

 look at it. I have had it on now 14 days, but ne'er a draw — 

 it remains just as when I put it on. Why is this ? Have you 

 ever noticed this with sections, viz: that the bees will neglect 

 the " extra thin " in favor of the ordinary super foundation, 

 or be more dilatory in getting to work on it? 



3. I have a big roll of queen-excluder zinc, and no use for 

 it. How would it be to use it for separators ? Would it an- 

 swer, think you? If free passage is of any advantage, that 

 ought to give It. Mr. Pettit's suggestion of ventilating with 

 wedges, and followers jabbed full of holes on either side of the 

 sections, with '-4 inch space between such perforated followers 

 and the super's walls, is, I should say, excellent. But instead 

 of taking the pains to bore countless holes in these wooden 

 side-separators, dont you think he might preferably make 

 them of excluder- zinc? 



4. I forwarded Editor York a description and a sketch of 

 my rapid well or "climax " feeder. May I ask you to be so 

 good as to give your opinion of it? I began very cautiously 

 with its use, first trying it on only two hives, for I thought it 

 was too simple and too convenient and easy not to have some 

 great objection lurking about It somewhere, but everything 

 having workt smoothly and nicely so far, and no objections 

 having revealed themselves, I set to work and made more, and 

 am now using them on several of my hives, and that with the 

 most intense satisfaction. I can feed half a dozen of the colo- 

 nies having this feeder while my mate is feeding one with a 

 " Boardman," and with less trouble, too ! There must surely 

 be some objection to it which I have not yet discovered, or 

 how is it possible that so simple, safe, rapid and really pleas- 

 ant a method of feeding has not been long since generally 

 adopted. In preference to all and every oue of the numerous 

 other messy, irritating (both to bee-keeper and bees) and 

 troublesome contrivances whose praises are so loudly sounded 

 in the papers and bee- books. 



With these simple "Drawer " or " Well " feeders, a mere 

 child could be trusted to feed a large apiary ; and I will chal- 

 lenge anybody to produce a better or more satisfactory feeder, 

 better in any way ! If you can see any fault to find with it 

 will you please say ? Personally I am so delighted with it thai 

 I consider no floor-board complete without one; and would 

 have, had I my way, no floor-board (unless specially ordered 

 otherwise) sent out from the factory without this attachment, 

 as essentially part and parcel of a hive. South Africa. 



Answers. — 1. If robbing commences, and you set out 

 some feed at a short distance from the hives, the bees will be 

 very likely to go right on with their robbing if they have never 

 before had feed in the same place. But if some days before, 

 they have had feed given them at a certain place, and it Is set 

 out again at the same plase as soon as the attempt to rob be- 

 gins, the attention of the robbers would very likely be diverted 

 providing some weak or queenless colony had not been attackt 

 and partly overcome. Of course there's a big difference be- 

 tween a genuine case of successful robbing and the attempt to 

 rob from strong colonies able to protect themselves. Not long 

 ago, in a European journal a kindred idea was presented, the 

 advice being that in case one wanted to work at hives in a 

 time of scarcity, it could be made safe by first getting the bees 

 to work on some feed at a little distance from the hives. 



2. Your question is rather too much for me. If the foun- 

 dation was as fresh as the thicker, and both kinds put on at 

 the same time, I see no reason why they ought not to work 

 one as well as the other. If the foundation had previously 

 been on the hive and not drawn out, or if it was left on the 

 hive for some time whether partly drawn out or not, so as to 

 have a very slight coating of propolis, then the bees might be 

 expected to leave it uutoucht, or at least to be very slow about 

 commencing upon it. I have used extra thin so little that I 

 hardly know how it does compare with thin. I know that 

 when it is left on the hives and not used, the bees seem more 



