822 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



December 29, 



CONDUCTED BY 



OR. O. O. SJILLEJt. MASMNGO, ILL. 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller dlrect.l 



Keeping: Bees Kear a Railroad. 



I have moved to this place, and I will bring here about 06 

 colonies of my bees. I have plenty of room to put them, altho 

 the most out-of-the-way place would be right along a pale 

 fence, and right back of this fence is a cut about 12 feet deep 

 — -a railroad where a heavy freight train is pusht through 

 from six to eight times a day (except Sunday). Would there 

 be any harm to the bees or railroad men ? The back of the 

 hives are toward the railroad. Penn. 



Answer — Reports from those who have had bees close to 

 trains seem to agree that the bees are not hurt by them. No 

 anxiety need be felt about the bees disturbing the railroad 

 men, for the cut being 12 feet deep would make the bees fly 

 over the trains, and the pale fence would practically make the 

 cut as much deeper as the height of the fence. Of course, the 

 bees could fly through between the pales, but you'll find they 

 will not do so. 



mi§inatcd and Cross Bee§. 



1 divided a colony of Italian bees, and the young queen 

 they reared looks like her mother, but her bees are different 

 altogether. They look browner, and the yellow stripes look 

 whiter. What would you call them ? They are good honey- 

 gatherers, and like to rob whenever they get a chance. Would 

 It be wise to breed from such stock ? Nebr. 



Answer — The bees are hybrids. The queen has mis- 

 jnated, and the bees are a cross. ' It may do to breed from 

 them, but you will probably do better to breed from the pure 

 stock from which they came. That will secure you more of 

 the same kind very likely. As you say, they are good workers, 

 tho likely to be cross, and if you breed from them the next 

 generation may not be so good. 



Feed for Bees in Spring. 



Would not any sugar, or syrup, that we know to be made 

 from the pure juice of the cane, be good for feeding bees in 

 the spring, for increase, whether it is granulated, clarified, or 

 not ? I can get some that granulated after being made into 

 molasses, if it will do to feed. Ala. 



Answer — Yes, any molasses, sugar, or anything of the 

 sort may be fed to the bees when they are flying daily, pro- 

 viding it be not stored for winter. In the fall it would not do. 



Doolitlle's ]Metiiod of ((ueen-Rearin;;. 



1. I do not fully understand the Doolittle method of rear- 

 ing queens. Are the cells that contain the young larviB to be 

 cut down so as to more easily transfer to the artificial queen- 

 cups ? How is the stick or tool made to transfer with ? 



2. How Is the nursery made, and how is It placed in the 

 iive ? How soon after the bees finish the cells should they 

 be placed in the nursery ? Colorado. 



Answers. — 1. Mr. Doolittle shaves down with a sharp 

 knife the cells containing the larvtB to within 'g-inch of the 

 septum. The tool used for transferring the larva Is " a goose- 

 quill tooth-pick, having its point broad and curved." 



2. In " Doolittle on Queen-Rearing " you will find on page 

 76 the following: " I make the queen-nursery as follows: 

 Sixteen bJocks are gotten out, 2%i2%xX of an inch, which 

 exactly fill one of my frames. A IJ^-inch hole is bored in the 

 center of each of these blocks, over which is tackt a piece of 

 wire-cloth having 12 to 16 meshes to the inch, and being two 

 inches square. Before tacking on the wire-cloth, 1 bore in the 

 edge of the block, (which Is designated for the top after the 

 block is put in the frame) a ?.,'-inch hole, boring down to with- 

 in ?s of an inch of the IJI-lnch hole. I now finish boring the 

 hole with a J^-inch bit. This hole is for the queen-cell to be 



placed in, and the reason for the two sizes of holes is to give a 

 shoulder, so that the queen-cell can hang in the block, the 

 same as it does ou the comb, and still be in no danger of slip- 

 ping through into the block. This hole is bored a little to one 

 side of the center, so as to allow room for a Ja-inch hole on 

 the other side, which is to receive the candy ; the latter hole ■ 

 is so bored that it comes nut near one side of the IK-inch 

 hole, and when it is deep enough, so that a hole large enough 

 for the queen to enter, is made, I stop boring, for a shoulder 

 at the bottom is needed to keep the candy in place. Now fill 

 the hole with candy, packing it In with a plunger made to fit 

 the hole loosely, and tack on the wire-cloth. The blocks can 

 be made so that a given number will fit any frame in use. I 

 only give this description as the right size to use in the Gallup 

 frame." 



These blocks are put in a brood-frame and hung in the 

 hive like any frame. The cells are put in the nursery when 

 nearly ready to hatch. 



Having answered these questions thus far directly from 

 Mr. Doolittle's book, I confess to a very unsatisfied feeling, 

 for there are so many more things that ought to be told to any 

 one who thinlvs of rearing queens by Mr. Doolittle's method. 

 But it will hardly do to go on and occupy page after page with 

 quotations from the book, and I can hardly urge too strongly 

 any one who thinks of rearing queens according to the teach- 

 ings of the book to get the book for himself. I think I am 

 about eight years older than Mr. Doolittle as a bee-keeper, 

 and have had no little personal experience in rearing queens, 

 but you couldn't get his book from me for a five-dollar bill if I 

 couldn't get another one. When I got it I was so fascinated 

 with it that I couldn't stop reading aty more than the invet- 

 erate novel-reader. He has had au iai-nense experience in 

 queen-rearing, and has thrown his whole soul Into It, and he 

 has the rare knack of telling clearly and explicitly just what 

 is desirable to be known, with many a little kink that others 

 might not think of giving, but which are essential to com- 

 plete success. It you have any idea of taking into your own 

 hands any part of the rearing of queens, by all means get 

 Doolittle's "Scientific Queen-Reariug." You'll like it, and 

 you'll like the man that wrote It. [We mail the book, bound 

 in cloth, for Sl.OO ; or for .SL. 75 the Bee Journal one year 

 and the book. — Editor.] 



^ ^ 



Bee§ ^Vinterins: in a Bcer-Ca§e. 



Last May I captured a swarm of bees and put them into a 

 beer-case, not having a hive handy. They began to gather 

 honey, and so I was told not to change them until spring. I 

 took a box four feet square, put a root on it, covered the in- 

 side with building-paper, and the outside with felt tar-paper, 

 then put a pipe in through the roof to the bottom of the box, 

 and set the hive in the middle on a shelf. Then I put some 

 straw between the hive and box, and covered the outside box 

 with snow. Do you think they will live through the winter? 

 I took no honey away, and I should judge the whole thing 

 weighed 40 pounds or more. Minn. 



Answer. — It isn't entirely clear from your description 

 just what provision there is for the bees to get air and to fly 

 out on warm days. If that part Is all right, your bees ought 

 to stand a fair chance to winter through. If that pipe through 

 the roof down to the bottom is the only entrance to the hive 

 It will hardly do. There ought to be provision made for 

 entrance and exit at the regular place where the entrance was 

 before they were packt, and It Is better for the entrance to be 

 such as to allow the bees to enter horizontally. 



Remorins 



Winter-Cases— Stimulallve Feeding 

 Transferring, Etc. 



I am wintering 66 colonies of bees — 47 in dovetailed sin- 

 gle-walled hives, with winter-cases, 13 in the old-fashioned 

 10-frame Root chaff hives, and one in a single-walled hive 

 packt in straw in a dry-goods box. Now then : 



1. When should I remove the winter-cases in the spring 

 — about what time ? 



2. I desire to transfer the others into single-walled dove- 

 tailed hives ; what time in the spring should it be done ? 



3. I desire to feed them in the spring to stimulate brood- 

 rearing. Should this be done before transferring ? 



4. In this locality we have no Alsike clover, and but very 

 little basswood. Ten miles from here there are hundreds of 

 acres of Alsike, and 1200 or 1500 basswood trees within a 

 range of a mile. I desire to remove about 25 of my colonies 

 there In the spring, the ground costing me little or nothing. 



