1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAl.. 



631 



world, and the mention of any new theory is by no means an 

 endorsement thereof. I doubt whether Gerstung's theory wili 

 get any very serious following in this country. 



3. Your question is not very easily answered, and one can 

 only make a guess. It is possible you are correct in your sur- 

 mise. Usually, however, when a young queen is about to su- 

 persede an old one, the young one does not seem to lieep in an 

 out-of-the-way place, but is more inclined to drive the old 

 queen. If the old queen has a dipt wing, you can easily tell 

 whether she has been superseded. But I think it quite prob- 

 able that your old queen is still present. Young queens have 

 a way of appearing in almost all sorts of places, even to flee- 

 ing into a neighboring hive to get away from persecution. 



Comb Honey Sliipt at "Owner's Risk.' 



Are shippers of comb honey re(;uired by the railroad com- 

 panies to ship entirely at their own risk ? Our station agent 

 stamps upon the face of the bill of lading, " Owner's risk," 

 etc., claiming that is the rule of the railroad companies in re- 

 gard to honey. I crate my honey with convenient handles for 

 carrying, and use every precaution for safety in shipping, and 

 it seems as if I should be entitled to the same protection as 

 shippers of other produce. Pexnsylvania. 



Answer. — I think you will find it the general rule that 

 comb honey is shipt at owner's risk. If you think you are not 

 rightly informed as to the matter, you could get some friend 

 at a neighboring station to inquire of his station agent. 



A Number or Questions. 



1. Why Is it that a division-board Is needed In 8-frame 

 hives and not in the 10-frame ? 



2. To increase and improve stock I formed 10 small nuclei 

 in July and August, and gave them Italian queens. If I keep 

 them up by feeding will they be as good as new swarms next 

 spring ? and do you think it will pay ? 



3. Will four frames of comb be enough to winter them on 

 if fed through the winter? 



4. Bees get a flight once a week through the winter in 

 this State. Is there anything cheaper to feed than granula- 

 ted sugar ? If so, what is it ? 



5. If bees are fed with candy, will the flavors do any 

 harm ? 



6. How do queen-excluders prevent burr-comb ? 



7. Suppose I make hives with 10 frames 5x12 inches, 

 and use as many stories as needed, don't you think it will be a 

 good hive to run for extracted honey ? also for a non-swarmer, 

 If the bottom and top stories are exchanged ? Virginia. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. If the frames are of the 

 same kind, the probability is that they are needed just as much 

 in one as the other. If fixt frames are used, certainly division- 

 boards should be used in either. If loose-hanging frames are 

 used, then division-boards may or may not be used In either 

 kind, depending on the room at the side of the hive when the 

 frames are properly spaced. 



2. Doubtful. Better double them up to make fair colo- 

 nies. You can, however, keep strong nuclei or weak colonies 

 over by having two or more In the same hive, using thin 

 wooden division-boards to separate them. 



3. Four Langstroth frames will do very well, and a colony 

 that will cover them in winter is by no means a small nucleus. 

 If the four combs are filled with honey the bees will hardly 

 need feeding. 



4. Perhaps not. The darker ^?radBs cost less a pound, but 

 it is claimed that the granulated Is enough stronger to make 

 up for the difference. It might not be a bad Idea for you to 

 try one colony with cheaper sugar, and if you do please report 

 the result. 



5. I think not. 



6. I don't know. Possibly by making the sections farther 

 from the brood-combs. 



7. Some like a hive of that kind. You can only tell by 

 trying how it will suit you. As a non-swarmer It might not 

 be better than a hive with a deeper frame ? 



LansfStrotli on tlie 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 .lournal 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 vear — bothjtogether for only $2.00. 



Drawn Foundation. — At the Texas Convention, L. Stach- 

 elhausen showed a sample of comb honey built on drawn foun- 

 dation, and all who sampled it said they could tell no differ- 

 ence between it and the natural product. — Southland Queen. 



Queen-Rearing. — In the Southland Queen, Willie Atchley 

 reports that he prefers for queen-rearing larv» not more than 

 two days old. When he used larva? three and four days old 

 many of the queens were drone-layers. G. F. Davidson pre- 

 fers larvae 18 to 24 hours old. 



Purifying Wax.— F. L. Thompson reports in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review the plan of Rauchfuss Bros., with solar ex- 

 tractors. The pan receiving the wax below is divided into 

 compartments with flaring sides, holding a pound each. When 

 one compartment is full it overflows into the next. No im- 

 purities are found in any but the first. 



Keeping a Record. — J. E. Crane keeps a record of 70 

 colonies of bees on a board 20x4x'4 inch. It has the advan- 

 tage over a book that the wind doesn't blow the leaves when 

 you are writing, and the leaves are not stuck together with 

 bee-glue. Space is economized by using arbitrary characters 

 to express a whole sentence by a single character. For ex- 

 ample, a single dash means " Eggs in queen-cells." 



One or More Supers for Extracting. — At the South 

 Texas Convention, W. A. McPhail said he used only one super 

 on extracting-colonies, as the bees filled and sealed the honey 

 sooner. F. L. Aten uses from two to five extractlng-supers, 

 finds it keeps down swarming, and he gets more honey. Some 

 honey will do to extract sooner than others. Cotton honey 

 may be extracted as soon as it is gathered. In hot, dry 

 weather, while horsemint must be half sealed.— Southland 

 Queen. 



Length of Time Larvae are Fed.— G. M. Doollttle thinks 

 not less than about six days, and challenges Dr. Miller, in 

 Gleanings, to prove that five days (the time given by T. W. 

 Cowan and some others) Is correct. In moderately cool 

 weather he found larvaj hatch from the egg in about two hours 

 less than three days, and sealed over In six days and three 

 hours, then emerging from the cell at 21 days from the laying 

 of the egg. In extremely hot weather, it was nearly three 

 days in the egg, 5% days in the larval, and 11% days in the 

 pupa state. 



Feeding Syrup. — Vernon Burt and others are reported in 

 Gleanings as filling the brood-nest with sugar syrup, so that 

 when the harvest came the new honey was at once carried into 

 the super. E. E. Hasty, in Bee-Keepers' Review, thinks this 

 practically the same thing as the thing that made him and 

 others so bitterly assailed a few years ago. He thinks that 

 Instead of thinning the honey In the brood-combs and feeding 

 it to the brood, the bees will take the cheaper plan of carrying 

 up the thick " honey " from the brood-combs into the super, 

 and use the thinner nectar for feeding brood. 



Bulging of Honey in Sections. — Some difference of opin- 

 ion is shown in Gleanings as to whether bees will bulge out 

 the upper part of the comb in sections if the separator does 

 not come clear to the top of the section. The editor is of the 

 belief that in some places and seasons, at least, there will be 

 bulging, so the fence separators are made in all cases to come 

 to the top of the section. Dr. Miller insists that he has no 

 trouble, having used the old-style section with top-bar the 

 same as the plain section, and having no trouble about bulg- 

 ing. He uses little sticks H^H to go between the ends of sec- 

 tions at the top, and that doesu't allow the fence to come any 

 nearer than H-inch from the top of the section. The editor 

 cites a lot of honey with edge of separator li-inch below the 

 top of the section, with resultant bulging. G. M. Doollttle 

 has for 25 years used separators coming % inch below the 

 inside of the topbar of the section, and finds it satisfactory. 

 E. W. Brown reports no bulging with plain sections, and the 

 fence coming '4 inch below the top of the section. 



