1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



823 



a, Will it pay? b, If so, should it be done before or after 

 feediuK ? o, Will it be necessary to move winter-cases and all ? 



5. How can I use a Boardmao feeder while the bees are 

 still packt in chaff? 



6. Would you advise starving bees upon warm days to 

 give them a flight ? Michigan. 



Answers. — 1. Unless there is danger of starvation, it is 

 not necessary to remove them till weather has fairly warmed 

 up and bees are at work on fruit-bloom, if indeed there is need 

 of it before time for putting on supers. 



2. The favorite time is during fruit-blo'om. 



3. Try not more than two or three before fruit-bloom, 

 some of them in the gap between fruit-bloom and clover, and 

 leave the rest without feeding. If you hurt instead of help 

 those fed before fruit-bloom, it won't matter much, because 

 the number is small. By feeding part and leaving part with- 

 out feeding after fruit-bloom, you will be able to judge some- 

 what whether it is wise for you to practice stimulative feeding 

 in the future. For it is well to remember that it is not agreed 

 that stimulative feeding is a universally good thing. 



4. a. It seems that it ought to pay big. b. Just in time to 

 catch the first clover, c. No. 



5. Probably you can't very conveniently. 



6. Some pooh-pooh the idea, but on a day when other col- 

 onies were having a good flight, if X saw one not flying, I'd 

 kick it. 



DUtauce Bees kept from a Street- 

 Colonies. 



-Qiieenless 



1. Is there any law in the city of Chicago, as to how far an 

 apiary has to be located from a highway or street, whether 

 it must be fenced in, etc.? 



2. At what time in thespring do queens commence to lay, 

 if the colony be in good condition ? 



3. What will be the result of a colony that loses its queen 

 during the winter months ? 



4. What is to be done with such a queenless colony in 

 spring ? Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know, but I doubt there being any 

 specific law on the subject. Any Chicago lawyer can tell you, 

 or you can find out for sure if you put your bees where they 

 will sting passers-by. Your wise course is to take it for 

 granted that the law does not allow you to endanger your 

 neighbors, for if you do you will probably find there is law 

 enough against you. This is one of the cases in which it pays 

 well to keep on the safe side. A little injudiciousness on the 

 part of one bee-keeper may make it warm for every bee- 

 keeper in the whole city. 



2. Wintered out-doors, you may find eggs In February. If 

 all goes well in a cellar, the queen is not likely to lay till the 

 bees are brought out. 



3. Death. 



4. Unite with a weak colony that has a queen, or distrib- 

 ute among several colonies that need help. Of course, you can 

 give it brood from another colony and let it rear another 

 queen, and that's almost certainly the thing you'll insist on 

 doing if you haven't had much experience, tint after a little 

 experience you'll find it doesn't pay. 



Building Combs in Wired Frames. 



Will bees hived or transferred on empty frames, pierced 

 and wired horizontally, with inch starters, draw out their 

 combs around the wires the same as if they had full sheets ? 



Michigan. 



Answer. — Not always, and probably not often. They 

 will build down the combs just as they would if no wires were 

 there, and wherever the wire happens to come it will be built 

 into the comb. One would be likely to think that if the wires 

 are stretcht true in the center of the frame, and the hive is 

 perfectly level from side to side, the comb being built down 

 perpendicularly will have its septum correspond exactly with 

 the wires. So it would if the combs were built entirely 

 straight from one end to the other. But bees, when left to 

 themselves, have a trick of building their combs corrugated or 

 waving, which would allow the horizontal wires to correspond 

 with the septum only a small part of the way. 



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 6 big offers on page SIO. 



Making: Bees Immune to Foul Brood. — In the British 

 Bee Journal J. H. S. suggests that altho it is highly optimis- 

 tic and theoretical, yet considering the Pasteur treatment for 

 hydrophobia and the antitoxin treatment for diphtheria, it is 

 not impossible that bees might be made immune to foul brood 

 by an artificially-produced foul-brood anti-toxin. He thinks 

 the treatment would resolve itself into the rendering of the 

 queen of each hive immune, a certain part of this immunity 

 would be transmitted to her stock, drones included, and after 

 some generations a race of immune bees might grow up. 



Comb Honey, in the opinion of the editor of the Canadian 

 Bee Journal, requires so much extra work in preparation, in 

 looking after bees run for that kind of honey, and costs so 

 much for sections, foundation and cases, that it raises the 

 question whether it does not pay better to produce extracted 

 honey. The skill, and the time required to apply the skill Id 

 producing comb honey for market, excludes, in his opinion, 

 beginners and those devoting a large part of their time to 

 other business. That last statement is a^partial answer to the 

 first. The limited field gives a better chance for remunera- 

 tion to those who are in the field. 



An Incomplete Experiment is what the Bee-Keepers' 

 Review Critic calls the one given on page 657 of the American 

 Bee Journal by Mr. Hartzell, in which the (Golden method beat 

 the common two to one. He thinks it is too good to be true, 

 and before making any conclusion, all the conditions and all 

 the results should be given with all the exactness that the 

 closest scrutiny with the aid of scales can give. Mr. Taylor 

 says : 



"There are too many high claims made for new discover- 

 ies, which after a little time are given up as valueless, to war- 

 rant one in accepting with confidence any new plan whose re- 

 sults are proclaimed only in general and indefinite terms, un- 

 less there are inherent reasons to indubitably recommend it." 



Boiling Fermenting Honey in Vacuo. — Mr. Hooker's 



experience in treating fermenting honey when in America, is 

 given thus in British Bee Journal : 



" He bought at a store a small quantity of honey ; it was 

 very thin, aud had just commenced to ferment. His son, a 

 chemist, employed in one of the sugar-reflneries, proposed to 

 thicken it without spoiling the aroma by boiling the honey in 

 vacuo. A vacuum was accordingly created, and as soon as 

 perfect a gas-stove was put underneath and the honey boiled. 

 There was a certain amount of 'distil ' as pure as water from 

 it, while the honey became thicker and had remained thick 

 ever since. The ferment was got rid of without damaging the 

 aroma, and the honey was of a beautiful quality. The boiling 

 was, of course, at a much lower temperature in vacuo than in 

 atmospheric air." 



Shall Bee-Keepers Make Their Own Hives and Fix- 

 tures ?— Editor Hutchinson says he has made all his hives and 

 fixtures, including sections when they were .$8.00 a thousand. 

 At present prices he can't afford to make sections. For the 

 past two years he could buy shipping-cases more cheaply than 

 he could make them. He still makes his hives, as he lives 

 where lumber is cheap, and near planing-mills with good ma- 

 chinery and competent workmen, so he can get the material 

 cut out and delivered at his door for much less than he can 

 buy it at a factory. His frames he buys away from home, be- 

 cause the bee-hive factories cut them more cheaply than he 

 can get them cut at home. He concludes by saying : 



"This is one of those questions that each man must solve 

 for himself. He alone knows all of the circumstances. Let 

 him figure it all out carefully, taking into consideration all 

 of the points that will have a bearing on the subject, and then 

 do what seems best."— Bee-Keepers' Review. 



Me. S. H. Stephens, Jr., of Ellis Co., Tex., reports that 

 from three ot his colonies he took 570 pounds of nice honey 

 the past season. Whether comb or extracted, that surely was 

 a good yield. 



