742 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



J^ovembtT 2A, 



workers have decided they don't care any more for the com- 

 pany of the drones. 



4. If there is a place where the ants can get, and the bees 

 cannot reach, as for instance when quilts are used, ants may 

 stay all winter, the heat from the bees being agreeable to them. 

 Nowadays very many use plain board covers, and these fur- 

 nish no hiding-place for ants, either summer or winter. 



5. It's hardly so much for winter that they're carrying it 

 In as for daily use. They'll winter without any pollen, but 

 they'll not rear brood without it. 



6. If an 8-frame hive weighs 50 pounds, including plain 

 cover and bottom-board, it is likely to have enough stores for 

 winter, but it will not be a bad thing to have it heavier. Per- 

 haps a lO-frame hive ought to weigh Jiearly 10 pounds more. 



Dividins for Increase 



Did I do right last spring in dividing my bees ? There was 

 a heavy colony from which I took three brood-frames that had 

 eggs. I didn't know whether there was any queen-cells or not. 



I have 22 colonies, and they have done very well this 

 summer. I sell my honey at home for 8 and 10 cents a pound. 



Michigan. 



Answer. — From the testimony you give in the case there 

 Is no evidence you did anything wrong. At the same time 

 while one might take three frames with eggs and manage to 

 perfection, one might also take three frames with eggs and 

 manage pretty badly. One of the best investments you could 

 possibly make would be to get a text-book on bee-keeping and 

 study it thoroughly. Then, knowing fundamental principles, 

 you might manage many different ways in making increase 

 and be right in all of them. 



Inlrodueing Queens — Wintering. 



1. When is the best time to introduce Italian queens ? 



2. Where the chaff hive is not in use, what is the best 

 method for wintering bees ? Kentucky. 



Answers. — 1. That's a matter that depends a good deal 

 on one's own convenience. If it Is a colony run for honey that 

 is to have the stranger introduced, it will interfere less with 

 the honey crop to introduce toward the middle or end of the 

 honey harvest. But if you wish to rear other queens from the 

 new stock, it will be better to Introduce at or before the be- 

 ginning of the harvest. The advantage of being able to rear 

 queens from the new stock will more than counterbalance the 

 disadvantage to the honey crop. 



2. For some places cellar-wintering is best, and for some 

 it is better to winter out-doors. As far south as Kentucky you 

 will probably do better out-doors, providing some shelter 

 against wintry blasts, unless the bees are in a location natur- 

 ally sheltered from prevailing winds. 



One or Two Stories in Winter- 

 TS. May Queens. 



-September 



1. I have my bees in dovetail S-frame hives. Is it prefer- 

 able, in wintering on the summer stand, to use one or two 

 stories ? 



2. Will queens reared in September be as prolific as queens 

 reared in May, drones being present ? N. C. 



Answers. — 1. If you have the hives on hand, you may as 

 well use the two stories. I should rather have the two. 



2. That depends on weather and pasturage. If the 

 weather is cool in May, and there is little or no pasturage, 

 queens will not be as good as those reared in good weather 

 with good pasturage in September. If the weather is warm 

 in May, and there is good pasturage, queens will be better 

 than those reared in bad weather with poor pasturage in Sep- 

 tember. Take the average May and the average September, 

 and in some places one will be better and in others the other. 

 Because in one place the weather and pasturage will be better 

 in May, and in others in September. 



Wbat Ailed the Bees i 



I bought four colonies of Italian bees In the spring, and 

 sold two o( them to my neighbor, thinking two was enough 

 for me to begin with. One of them did very well. I have four 

 new colonies and the old one. I got about 200 pounds, of 

 honey from them. The other one didn't do much. It stored 

 some honey, but did not put any in the super. It seemed to 



have young bees and brood nearly all the time, but they were 

 all the time dying. They would get weak and stupid, and die; 

 hang around in the hive and drop do\wn on the bottom dead in 

 handfuls a day. They would drag out what they could, and 

 finally they all died, leaving in the hive about 80 pounds of 

 honey. 



1. I would like to know what was the cause of their dying. 



2. Is it safe to eat or feed the honey to bees ? 



3. Is it safe to give the frames with the honey and comb 

 to new swarms in the spring ? Kansas. 



Answers. — 1. It's hard to say what the trouble was. It 

 might be paralysis, it might be pickled brood, and there's a 

 bare possibility it might be foul brood. If paralysis, a leading 

 feature will be the trembling of the bees and the shiny black 

 appearance. It will be worth your while to look up the matter 

 of pickled brood in back numbers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, and to get Dr. Wm. E. Howard's little book on foul brood. 

 Then you will be able to judge the case better than one who is 

 not present. 



2. It will be safe for you to eat the honey, but until you 

 are sure there is no foul brood in the case, don't feed it to 

 the bees. 



3. Not unless you're sure there's no foul brood in the 



case. 



■ — • — ■ 



Smoker-Fuel — Sowing for Bees^-Propolizing. 



1. What is the best thing to use to smoke bees? I have 

 been using little pieces of wood such as I could pick up around 

 ihe yard, but it just seems to set the bees to fighting, and they 

 rome right to the top as quick as I start to smoke them. 



2. What do you think is the best thing to sow for the 

 bees? Will buckwheat stand the frost? And what is the 

 right time to sow it ? 



3. Is there any way to prevent the bees from sticking the 

 sections in so tight that one cannot get them out ? There are 

 lots of balm or coltonwood trees here, and it seems to be the 

 gum from the buds of these trees that they slick them with. 

 There is also a great deal of It in the honey. Idaho. 



Answers. — 1. Almost anything will do for smoker wood. 

 Perhaps nothing is better than sound hard wood cut up into 

 proper size to burn well, say pieces ^4-inch square, and as long 

 as the smoker will take. But it's a good deal of work to pre- 

 pare such fuel, and chips from the chip-yard, such as you are 

 using, will answer just about as well. Something else besides 

 the character of the fuel is at fault that makes your bees cross. 



2. Buckwheat will not stand frost at all. Sweet clover 

 will do as well in that way as perhaps anything else you can 

 try. Buckwheat may be sown about the first of July. 



3. Probably you'll never find any way to prevent the bees 

 from bringing in propolis and filling up all cracks with it. It 

 will do some good to have the sections so close together that 

 there will be little in the way of cracks to fill. But where bees 

 glue badly they will plaster the glue over the plain surface of 

 the wood if there are no cracks to fill. Take off sections as 

 soon as sealed. In that way you'll save some gluing. 



Bee-Keeplug for Beginners is the title of a 

 110-page book just out, from the pen of that expert bee- 

 keeper of the South, Dr. J. P. H. Brown, of Georgia. It 

 claims to be " a practical and condenst treatise on the honey- 

 bee, giving the best modes of management in order to secure 

 the most profit." Price of the book, postpaid, 50 cents. Or, 

 we will club it with the Bee Journal for one year — both to- 

 gether for $1.40; or, we will mail it as a premium to any of 

 our present subscribers for sending us one new subscriber to 

 the Bee Journal for a year (at $1.00), and 10 cents extra. 



Lang-strotli on ttie 0oney-Bee, revised by 

 The Dadauts, 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 Journal 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 — both together for only .'ji2.00. 



The Karnes and Addresses of all your bee- 

 friends, who are not now taking the Bee Journal, are wanted 

 at this office. Send them in, please, when sample copies will 

 be mailed to them. Then you can secure their subscriptions, 

 and earn some of the premiums we are offering. The 

 next few months will be just the time to easily get new sub- 

 scribers. Try it earnestly, at least. 



