230 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



April 13, 1899. 



be time enough it I introduce her say about the beginning of 

 April ? And will this tested queen have tinae enough from the be- 

 gmning of April to rear drones for use by swarmingtime ? 



Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. You will find some difficulties, probably. Shut- 

 ting in drones will make little difference if others have dark bees 

 within a mile or less. If you succeed in having your queens mate 

 as you desire, it will be close in-breeding, which is not considered 

 very good. Something depends on the number of colonies to be 

 treated. If the number is small, it may work very well. If the 

 number is large, be prepared to meet some disappointments, and 

 to secure a smaller crop of honey this year. 



2. Very likely it will be as well not to introduce your Italian 

 queen before April or even later. She can have plenty of drones a 

 month later than the time she is introduced, providing the weather 

 is warm and honey yielding. If you have two Italian queens not 

 related, rearing queens from one and drones from the other, your 

 success will be better, but as before said, if neighboring bee- 

 keepers have hybrids your chances for purity are lessened. 



A duestion on Management. 



I have 30 colonies of bees in two-story eight-frame dovetail 

 hives. They were united last fall and wintered on the summer 

 stands without any loss so far. I intend to run them for comb 

 honey. I want to take away the under story and let them 

 swarm naturally, then hive them in it on the old stand, depending 

 upon the swarm for surplus; then unite in the fall. 



1. What do you think of the plan ' 



3. What percent of the lower stories do you think I will get ' 

 3. When must I take them ? Wis. 



Answers. — 1. It may work quite satisfactorily. 



2. I really don't understand what you mean. If you mean 

 what percent of the lower stories you will have swarms to put 

 into, that's a thing no one can tell anything about. If the season 

 is poor enough you might have no swarms. If that isn't the right 

 drift for your question, please ask more fully. 



3. You might take them away just before, or at the beginning 

 of, your honey harvest. In some cases there will be brood in 

 lower stories, which can be given to other colonies which haven't 

 brood in as many as eight frames. 



Getting Bees Out of a House. 



A neighbor wants me to take out several colonies of bees that 

 have taken up their abode between the studding of his house, enter- 

 ing thro a crack on top the veranda. The house is nearly new and 

 well painted. One colony stored a lot of honey in another house 

 here, that melted one hot day, spoiling the plaster. How can I get 

 them out without spoiling the house ? Nebraska. 



Answer. — Find out about where the swarm is located by listen- 

 ing carefully with your ear against the wall. Make a hole in the 

 wall in addition to the hole that the bees have been using so that 

 one hole shall be above the other. If one hole is already near the 

 bottom of the space occupied by the bees, make the other hole as 

 near as possible to the top of the space, and vice versa. Put some 

 rags very strongly saturated with carbolic acid in a smoker and 

 blow into one of the holes till the bees run out of the other. Of 

 course you can't get out any of the combs without cutting the wall. 

 If the only object is to be rid of the bees without caring to save 

 them, there may be no need to make a second hole. Just squirt a 

 lot of carbolic acid into the hole that is there. 



Closed-End vs. Loose-Hanging Frames. 



In your answer to a question on page 1.50, in regard to closed- 

 end frames v^. open-end frames, you say " the advantage is more 

 than counterbalanced by the inconvenience in handling, unless I 

 am mistaken," which it seems to me you are. I have handled bees 

 in frame hives in a small way for a good many years, procured 

 my first swarm in 18.50, and the larger part of the time in hanging 

 frames, but for the past 10 years I think I have had all. or nearly 

 all, closed-end frames, and I think them very much easier to han- 

 dle than the hanging frames; that they are warmer, and that bees 

 breed up faster in them in the spring than hanging frames no one 

 will doubt, I think, who has ever tried them. 



My hives are 8 frames, but if I were to start in now I would 

 make them 10 frame. My section of the country (southern New 

 Hampshire) is quite 1.200 to 1.400 feet above sea-level, and we need 

 a warm hive. My bees are wintered on the summer stands. Some 

 years we get a fair quality of honey, and a fair amount, but in 

 others hardly enough for the bees themselves, tho I think almost 

 every season there is honey enough, but the weather is wrong just 

 at the time when the bees would get a good supply if conditions 

 were favorable. 



When you try closed-end frames until you are accustomed to 

 them I think you would hardly like to go back to hanging frames, 

 tho perhaps propolis troubles more with you than here, but we 

 have plenty of it. N. H. 



Answer.— All do not think alike about things in g;eneral, nor 

 about hives in particular. It may be on account of the hives 



themselves, and it may be on account of something else. All do 

 not have the same management, and so what suits one may not 

 suit another. As closed-end frames have been in use nearly as 

 long as hanging frames, they are by no means new things, and it 

 seems pretty clear that the majority prefer the hanging frames, 

 considering the large number m use. It is possible that if I tried 

 the two kinds thnt ire linre Jiad, I might prefer the closed-end frames. 

 I hardly think I would prefer any closed-end frame to the hanging 

 frames I now use. I certainly know that I prefer the ones I am 

 using to either of the kinds of closed-end frames I used, and they 

 were among what are considered the best, and I think I gave them 

 a fair trial. But they were so unsatisfactory that they are now 

 untenanted. But I am quite willing to concede that others may 

 have a different preference. 



Albino Bees. 



Are the albino bees equal to the Italians, as honey-gatherers ? 

 Are they any gentler ? SmscRiBER. 



Answer.— As a rule, I believe that albino people, or albino 

 animals, are supposed to be somewhat lacking in vigor, but it is 

 possible that some albino bees may be just as vigorous as regular 

 Italians. I think albino bees have a good reputation for gentle- 

 ness. 



Thin Foundation for Brood-Frames, Etc. 



1. Will thin foundation do for brood-frames ? If not, why ? 



2. Can I extract frames not wired or fastened at the bottom, 

 and partly to the sides ? I have no extractor, but will get one if 

 those combs can be extracted. They are the large Langstroth or 

 brood-frames. Kansas. 



Answers.- 1. The chief objection to thin foundation for brood- 

 frames is the sagging. If sufficiently supported by wires or splints, 

 it may do very well. 



2. By being careful enough, you may extract if the combs are 

 fastened only at the top. 



Comb or Extracted Honey ? Fastening Bee-Veil. 



1. Which crop would you rely on one year with another if 

 you could get 1'2}.> cents per pound for comb honey or six cents 

 for extracted ? 



2. Would you advise always using a queen-excluding honey- 

 board when working for extracted honey ? 



3. Which is best, wood-slatted or plain zinc ? 



4. My mother cannot think of any way to keep her bee-veil 

 fastened down at the bottom, so as to keep out the bees. Can you 

 give any hints that will help her ? 



5. Which crop has the least labor connected with it, comb or 

 extracted ? Mo. 



Answers.— 1. Comb. But in some places the other would be 

 the best. 



2. Yes, as a rule. 



3. Wood-zinc. Yet it is possible you might like the plain zinc. 

 Some excellent bee-keepers do. 



4. Have a hem at the bottom through which is run a rubber 

 cord. With a safety-pin fasten it down to the waist in front. If 

 well strecht down when pinned, not a bee can get under. 



5. Probably in most cases extracted. That is. it is less labor 

 to run the same number of colonies for extracted than for comb. 

 Yet it is possible they might be run in a slipshod way for comb 

 honey with less labor than for extracted. But it would be slipshod 

 comb honey and would command slipshod prices. 



Getting Bees Into Standard Hives. 



I have often intended writing you before, but if I waited a 

 week or so some one else in the same quandry would present his 

 case to you, and save me (and you) the trouble. 



Don't tell me to get a bee-book; I got them before I had ever 

 seen a hive of bees, except in a picture. Now I suppose 

 you wonder what I ran have to ask you. if I have any intelli- 

 gence whatever. But I do not know nearly as much after having 

 bees two summers as I imagined I did after reading a lot of bee- 

 literature the winter of ISUli '.IT. I bought a choice colony from a 

 New York bee-keeper, another here, and transferred them both to 

 Langstroth hives. It took hours— from one p.m.' until after 

 six for each one. But I did it, despite advice to get "Ole Mose Liv- 

 ingston," who could transfer, put in " cross-sticbs," and make the 

 bees stay, for a dollar a colony. 



The first summer I was trying all sorts of experiments, divid- 

 ing, rearing queens, etc. Last year I had 12 colonies, or perhaps 

 nuclei I would better call them. " Only one survived the cold snap, 

 our below zero weather, and all my hopes are centered on that col- 

 ony and one I bought but have not moved home yet. It is in a tall 

 hive, frames 11 inches wide, and 13 inches deep, inside measure, 

 and slanting bottom nailed on, and the four sides project three 

 inches above the frames. What hive is it ? 



The colony I have here had a hybrid queen hatcht July 30. 

 They were cross, and so got a chance to build up, as I did not med- 



