1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAl, 



711 



stantly pure, the latter being perhaps the more Important of 

 the two. 



2. No, the desirable thing is to get them into the cellar 

 with the least disturbance possible. Smoking them, or jarring 

 the hives, would have about the same effect as a longer con- 

 finement. The best thing is to get them into the cellar at a 

 time when they are not easily stirred up, and so quietly that 

 they will not notice that they are being carried. A good time 

 for this is the next day after they have had flight. If they 

 are very troublesome about flying out, take a big cloth, make 

 it pretty wet, then lay it against the entrance so no bees can 

 get out. 



^ ■ ^ 



Growing Sweet Clover in Texas. 



I would like to keep a few colonies of bees for my own 

 use, but will have to plant something for them. 



1. Will sweet clover grow here ? 



2. Does it come from the root, or is it planted every year ? 



3. How much would I need for five or six colonies ? 



4. What time should it be sown? Texas. 



Answers. — 1. Mrs. Harrison reports that it will not grow 

 in the part of Florida where she has been. I don't remember 

 that any other place has been reported where it would 

 not grow. 



2. It comes from the seed this year, but doesn't blossom 

 this year. It lives over winter, grows big next year and blos- 

 soms, then dies root and branch, having lived only through 

 the one winter. 



3. I don't know. At a rough guess I should say two acres 

 would keep them busy when at its best, and perhaps half as 

 much. But mind you, it doesn't yield honey throughout the 

 entire season, commencing not till after white clover begins, 

 but after it does begin it continues till frost to yield more 

 or less. 



4. It may be sown in the spring, but perhaps it will be 

 better to sow in the fall. It seems to catch best if sown on 

 tolerably hard ground where cattle or other stock may tramp 

 the seed in. 



Transferrin: 



and Italianizing — Packing Bee§ for 

 Winter, Etc. 



1. Next spring I want to transfer my bees from box-hives 

 Into 8-frame dovetailed hives, and I would like to transfer 

 and Italianize at the same time, as it is such trouble to find 

 the black queens on the combs. Would it work all right to 

 place entrance-guards on the dovetailed hives at the time of 

 transferring, thereby keeping out all black drones and queens, 

 and giving each colony an Italian queen in a cage, using a 

 little peppermint to give all one scent? Or, could I transfer 

 one colony when they are working well on ash-leaved and hard 

 maple, give them an Italian queen, then transfer the others, 

 giving each colony a frame of eggs from the Italian queen and 

 let them rear their own queens ? 



2. How long should I wait after transferring the first 

 colony and introducing the queen, before I transfer the others 

 in order that the young queens may meet Italian drones ? 



3. I would like to follow the last-named plan if it would 

 work all right. Would I be apt to get any surplus honey, or 

 increase by swarms, by so doing ? 



4. What constitutes " No. 1 " and " fancy honey ?" 



5. Can you name a good, reliable firm to ship honey to ? 



6. In packing my bees for winter, I put on a super, then 

 on the frames I place a Hill's device, on which I put cloth that 

 is partly woolen, the thickness of an old quilt, on which I 

 place a chaff cushion, then another thickness of quilt. Should 

 I then put on the regular hive-cover before putting on the 

 winter-case roof ? 



7. I had an experience with one colony the past summer 

 that I do not understand. I introduced an Italian queen in a 

 rather weak colony which had been queenless some time, and 

 about three weeks after, one evening just at dusk, I taw bees 

 coming out of the hive ; some climbed up the hive as when a 

 swarm is issuing, then they would fly away. It was so dark I 

 could not see-them after they left the hive. Afterward, when 

 I opened the hive, I found the combs full of moth-worms, but 

 no bees. Da you think the bees went to the woods so late ? 



8. I put unfinisht sections on a strong colony to clean out, 

 but they did not do it. What was the reason? They were 

 on nearly two weeks. New York. 



Answers. — 1. I very much doubt whether you will find it 

 a satisfactory thing to Italianize at the time of transferring. 

 The bees will have enough on hand to repair damages and 

 keep things straight at time of transferring, without the extra 



strain of changing queens. When you get your bees in hives 

 with movable frames, you will probably not have as much 

 trouble as you anticipate in finding the queens. And if you 

 depend on the use of perforated zinc to strain out the queens, 

 you can do that more easily after the bees are settled In the 

 frame hives than at time of transferring. 



2. If the colony that receives the Italian queen is strong, 

 and if the season is favorable, so that she lays some eggs in 

 drone-cells almost as soon as introduced, you will be pretty 

 safe to start queen-ceils about two weeks after the introduc- 

 tion of the Italian queen. But if you are not fond of disap- 

 pointment, don't count too strongly on having ail your young 

 queens mated with drones from the Italian colony. If honey 

 is your main object, you will probably get as much by having 

 the young q-jeens of Italian stock meet drones not related, 

 even if they are black. 



3. You might get both surplus and swarms by the plan 

 outlined, but very likely your performance would hinder some- 

 what. Better study up from the text-books the matter o( rear- 

 ing queens, perhaps obtaining Doolittle's book on queen- 

 rearing ; get one of your colonies Italianized as early as con- 

 venient, let the bees in the box-hives swarm, hiving the 

 swarms in frame hives, and transferring from the old hives 

 three weeks after swarming. Then having queens ready in 

 nuclei, you can Italianize at your leisure. [Doolittle's "Scien- 

 tific Queen-Rearing " book, bound in cloth, we mail for .^1.00. 

 — Editor J 



4. According to the rules of grading adopted at the Wash- 

 ington meeting of the North American Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, the two grades were as follows : 



Fancy. — All sections to be well filled ; combs straight, of 

 even thickness, and firmly attacht to all four sides ; both wood 

 and comb unsoiled by travel-stain or otherwise. 



No. 1. — All sections well filled, but combs uneven or 

 crooked, detacht at the bottom, or with but few cells unsealed ; 

 both wood and combs unsoiled by travel-stain or otherwise. 



In addition to this the honey is to be classified according 

 to color, using the terras white, amber and dark. That is, 

 there will be " fancy white," " No. 1 dark," etc. 



5. [All the firms named in the column of " Honey and 

 Beeswax Market Quotations " in this journal are supposed to 

 be reliable. If any of them treat any reader of the American 

 Bee Journal unfairly, we would be thankful to know it. — 

 Editor.] 



6. If there is room for It you may as well put it on. 



7. The bees that you saw flying away from the hive late 

 in the evening were probably robbers, the colony having been 

 overcome before that time by the robbers. 



8. I don't know. My bees act exactly the same way, and 

 I don't know any satisfactory way to get sections emptied out 

 by any particular colony. 



-^ 



Questions on Cellar-Wintering. 



I have 23 colonies and will-winter them in the cellar under 

 my house. The cellar Is 18x29 feet, and 8}ii feet deep. 



1. How should I ventilate this cellar ? 



2. How many colonies is it advisable to put into such a 

 cellar ? 



3. How high should I keep the hives from the ground ? 



Wisconsin. 

 Answers. — 1. Any way that will get fresh air Into the 

 cellar without cooling it off too much. And that's pretty much 

 the same as saying, any way that will get the foul air out of 

 the cellar without cooling it off too much. If there's a chim- 

 ney running dowu into the cellar, a stove-pipe run from the 

 cellar into that will be, in most cases, all that's necessary. 

 For the cracks In the cellar wall will be enough to let In fresh 

 air to supply the place of that drawn out by the draft of the 

 chimney. Where the chimney does not run down into the 

 cellar, connection may bo made with it by means of a two-inch 

 pipe running up through the floor and running into the pipe 

 of a stove in. the room above. If the number of colonies is not 

 more than 23, it is possible that your cellar may winter all 

 right without any special attention. At least you could try it. 

 As long as the bees are tolerably quiet, and the air in the cel- 

 lar smells sweet, there Is not likely to be much danger as to 

 the ventilation. 



2. 100 colonies or more ought to be comfortable In It. 



3. Some think a foot high, altho some of mine are only 

 raised three or four inches, and winter well. 



Every Present Subscriber of the Bee Journal 

 should be an agent for it, and get all other bee-keepers possi- 

 ble to subscribe for it. See G big offers on page 715. 



