Jan. 26, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



53 



stand to make it level, and in any case the stand should be 

 blockt up so it does not rest upon the ground at any part. 

 This is merely as a matter of economy to keep the stand 

 from rotting-. The long boards of the stand will be upper- 

 most. If your rows run north and south, one pair of hives 

 in the group of four will face east, and the other pair will 

 face west, the two pairs standing back to back, with per- 

 haps four inches between them. 



2. If I understand you correctly, it wouldn't be advisa- 

 ble. Your idea seems to be to hive the swarm wherever it 

 happens to cluster, put supers on. and let it stand there till 

 evening. During that time some of the bees will have 

 markt their location and commenced work in the fields, and 

 when you move them there will be some trouble next day 

 about their finding their home. But if circumstances are 

 such that you must leave them till evening-, don't change 

 the super to the swarm till 3'ou move it to the new place. 



3. They don't get out. They stay, and in course of time 

 die there if not let out. But it doesn't seem to trouble the 

 bees a great deal to have their dead brothers Iving around. 



4. If you want to make sure of having sections built 

 down to the bottom, put in a bottom-starter ', or |^-inch 

 deep, and let the top starter come down within '4 or Vs-inch 

 of the lower one. 's is probably better than '+ . I have used 

 these bottom-starters for years, and with great satisfaction. 



5. I have found snakes under hives a good manj- times, 

 and sometimes in them, but I never thought they did 

 any harm. 



6. Probably nothing would suit the bees as well as to be 

 fed with combs of sealed honey. But as you say you want 

 to feed over the brood-nest, it is likely you h'a-v'en't the 

 combs of honey. To suit your desire, it isn't likely any- 

 thing would do better than "the Miller feeder. As furnisht 

 by supply dealers, it is usually made to fit 8-frame hives, 

 but it could be made of any size. All you would have to do 

 would be to put the feeder on the hive, put in some sugar, 

 pour on some water, either cold or hot, then put on your 

 board cover. If you don't want to be to the expense of a 

 feeder, and are willing to take a little more trouble, use the 

 crock-and-plate plan so many times described in past num- 

 bers. If you can't find it easily, ask for it about a month 

 before you want to use it and it will be described again. 



7. Hunt carefully. Don't get the bees stirred up to run. 

 and if they start to run give it up till another time. You 

 can strain out the queen with a queen-excluder. Put the 

 excluder, or queen-trap, at the entrance of a hive contain- 

 ing one or more frames of brood. Shake or brush the bees 

 down in front of the entrance. The workers will go in, but 

 the queen will be outside with whatever drones are there. 

 Another way is to put an empty hive over another, having 

 an excluder between. Have one or more frames of brood in 

 the lower story. Brush the bees into the upper storv. The 

 workers will go down to the brood. If thev don't go fast 

 enough to suit you, poke them up a little. " The queen will 

 be left above. 



Question About fietting Apis Dorsata. 



How can I have the giant bees sent from India ? How 

 should they be sent— bv mail or express ? Would they have 

 to be fed on the way ? Will they live in this climate ? I be- 

 long in Bombay, and can get tlie bees sent to me if I give 

 directions about sending them. Connecticut. 



Answer.— It is so difficult to get them to this country 

 that no one has yet succeeded in getting them Here. Per- 

 haps the only way you could succeed would be to have them 

 sent with sorqe one coming this wav who would see to prop- 

 ei-ly supplying their wants on the wav. 



Keeping Young ttueens. 



If one rears queen-cells like Doolittle does, would it do 

 to put one cell in a cage and three or four cages and cells in 

 a nucleus, let them hatch and confine them in cage until 

 the first queen has mated, and release one at a time as fast 

 as the mated queen is removed ? Would bees feed caged 

 queens if the plan would work ? A great many cells could 

 be saved in a season. New York. 



Answer. — You can keep a number of cells in cages in a 

 hive, and the bees will take care of the young queens g-en- 

 erally as they emerge, but you must have each young queen 

 in a separate place to be fertilized and commence laying. 

 You may,;^however, have two queens or more taken care of 



by one colon3', if the queens are barred from each other and 

 far enough apart. If a laying queen is in the lower storj', 

 you may have a young- queen in the third or fourth story, 

 with an entrance there, and she may go out and become fer- 

 tilized, and then begin laying all right in that upper story. 



Feeding Bees in Winter. 



I have one colony to feed. Tell me how to feed them at 

 this time of the year, and what is best to feed. 



Kentucky. 



Answer. — It's a bad thing to need to feed this time of 

 the year. Be sure to look out for that next August or Sep- 

 tember, and see that every colony has more than enough to 

 keep it through the winter. The best thing to be done now 

 is to give the needy colony a frame of sealed honey, putting- 

 it close to the cluster of bees. Like enough you have no 

 such frame of honey, and must resort to candy. Use best 

 granulated sugar with enough water to dissolve it (it will 

 take nearly half as much water by measure as sugar), boil 

 till threads of it break like pipe-stems when dropt in cold 

 water, pour in a greast dish so as to make cakes half an inch 

 to an inch thick, lay the.se on top of the frames and cover 

 up warm. Be sure not to burn the candv. 



Proceedings of the Colorado State Bee-Keepers" 

 Convention. 



(CONTRIBUTED BY THE SECKET.\RV.) 

 [Continued from page 38.] 



SINGLE-TIER VS. DOUBLE-TIER SHiePING-C.^SES. 



J. N. Pease — Is a one-storj' shipping-case better than a 

 two-story ? 



F. Rauchfuss — I have had no experience in shipping the 

 one-story cases. When we ship by the carload, we want 

 them all of one kind. 



Mr. Pease— Don't the Chicago people want the single- 

 tier cases ? 



F. Rauchfu.ss — Altho the Chicago market may prefer 

 the single-tier, we liave so far found no objection to our 

 double-tier case. It is not so much a question of conven- 

 ience to the buyer as of convenience to some other people. 

 In the East, thin honey may do more damage in double-tier 

 cases than in single-tier. But here, that is not very much 

 of an objection. The honey is heavier. If a double-tier 

 case is used, alwaj's put a sheet of paper between the two 

 tiers ; then if there is a little leakage it will not injure the 

 lower tier. 



Mr. Adams — Orders to us in northern Colorado have re- 

 quired double-tier cases this year. No reason was given. 



Mr. Pease — It is easier to examine the honey in single- 

 tier cases. 



Mr. Honnett — A firm in Chicago said they preferred 12- 

 pound cases, which of course are sing-le-tier. 



WISCONSIN VS. OHIO BEE-SUPPLIES. 



Question — Would it not be to our interest to insist that 

 our supply dealers keep more Wisconsin than Ohio goods ? 



This question was mainly discust with reference to sec- 

 tions and shipping-cases, tho hives were also toucht 

 upon. The preference of those who exprest themselves was 

 for Wisconsin goods. It was also said that it was simply a 

 business question, as there was no difference in prices : but 

 there seemed to be more demand for Ohio goods, because 

 the Wisconsin factories dealt in wood alone, while other 

 articles as well could be ordered from Ohio. 



FL.^T COVERS .^ND SUPERS IN WINTER. 



Mrs. Booth — If we want anything good, we want good 

 hives. I don't like the flat cover for wintering. I will have 

 to put supers on mine in order to get air above. 



Prof. Gillette — I use supers in winter, filled with leaves. 



