May :jo, 1S99. 



americain bee jouknal, 



327 



CONDUCTED BY 



UR. C. C. MIKI^ER. :i/nreng-o, 111. 



[The Questions may be mailed to the Kee Journal office, or to Dr. Miller 



direct, when he will answer them here. Please do not ask the 



Doctor to send answers by mail.— Editor.] 



T Supers Shorter than the Hive. 



In your answer to " Missouri "" on pag-e 279, you say: 

 "No, the T supers are shorter than the hives and don't need 

 anything' to till out the ends." I would like to know what 

 kind of supers you use shorter than the hives. Mine are the 

 same leng'th as my hives and I don't need anything' to fill 

 out to the end. The case holds 2-1 sections, and they fit up 

 close to the end. I would like to have some more of them, 

 but I believe the manufacturer has gone out of the business. 

 Do you know of any one that is making that style ? I sent 

 to Mr. for some T supers, and he sent me some slat su- 

 pers, and I don't like them a little bit. I want nothing but 

 T supers with the T turned upside down when in use. 



Iow.\. 



Ansiver. — The T supers I u.se are of the plainest kind, 

 the sides and ends being of % stuff and the inside measure- 

 ment 17->sx12;s. Of course that must be shorter than a hive 

 that takes frames I'yi long. Some object to the looks of a 

 hi\'e with a shorter super on it, but it isn't best to sacrifice 

 too much for looks. If yours are the same length as your 

 hives, the super being for 4'4 sections, and the hive taking 

 frames 17% long', then the ends of your supers must be 

 made of stuff thicker than >H. I prefer to dispense with the 

 additional weight, even if it doesti't look quite so well. I 

 think you ought to have no trouble in gfettingrT supers from 

 any of the leading manufacturers. Certainly no one should 

 send )'ou slat supers if you order T supers. Possibly you 

 merely ordered supers without specifying what kind, for 



Mr. is agent for , and they have T supers in their 



list. But they make the super the same length as the hive 

 by adding' a cleat at each end, which is not a bad plan. 



Combs of Honey Left by Dead Colony- 



I have eig'ht frames of comb left by a colony that died 



' recently ; they are all partly filled with hone^' and some are 



mildewed. What can I do with them ? If I put them under 



a colony will not the queen take possession and lay there ? 



Or can I hive a swarm on them in their moldy condition ? 



Jeksev. 



Answer. — Nothing would be more desirable than to 

 have the queen take possession and lay in the combs, if she 

 needs the room. If desired, however, an excluder could be 

 put between the two stories. It would be better to have the 

 bees clean up the combs before offering them to swarms, as 

 a swarm is more fastidious about such matters than a col- 

 ony having brood, and might not be willing to stay on mil- 

 dewed or moldv combs. 



What to do with Empty Combs. 



I lost some bees the past winter, and they left some 

 nice, bright combs. What can I do with the empty combs ? 



Kentucky. 



Answer. — There is no better way than to let the bees 

 of a strong colony take care of them till swarming-time. 

 See reply to " Gary," on page 311. 



Making Increase by Dividing. 



Would you advise in making one increase froin each 

 parent colony as follows, to take one frame which has the 

 queen and bees on it and put into a new hive just when the 

 old colony has new queen-cells started ? I don't wish to 

 buy a new queen for the old colony. I have movable-frame 

 hives. Indian.^. 



Answer. — Of course it will cost you less money to fol- 

 low the plan 3'ou propose than to buy new queens. Whether 

 it will work all right depends somewhat upon further de- 

 tails. If you mean that as soon as you find queen-cells 



started you'll ta'ne one frame of brood with adhering bees 

 and queen, put it into a new hive on a new stand, leaving' 

 the old hive without further attention, it won't do at all. 

 But you might wait till one or more cells are about ready to 

 be sealed (the difficulty is to know just when that is, for as 

 soon as one is sealed the colony is likely to swarm), then 

 put your frame with brood, bees, and queen into the new 

 hive, brushing into it also about half the bees from the old 

 hive, set it on the stand of the old hive, leaving the old hive 

 beside it, and a week later take the old hive away and set it 

 on a new stand. There would be no advantage in that over 

 letting the bees swarm naturally, but from your question it 

 is a possible thing that you cannot be on hand to take care 

 of the swarms. 



Young Bees Thrown Out. 



1. Mornings, when I go to my bee-yard, I find young 

 bees on the bottom-board dead. Some are white .vet and 

 some are brown. What is the trouble ? 



2. I find sotne worms on the bottom-board. Do they 

 crawl out, or do the bees carry them out ? New Jersey. 



Answers. — 1. If there are many of them, it is to feared 

 that the bees are about at the starving-point, and are suck- 

 ing out the juices of the larvs- and throwing' out the skins. 

 If, however, they are fully matured young bees — which may 

 be the case from your saying some are brown — then the 

 probability is that the wax-worm has made the trouble by 

 making its silken galleries through the brood-combs. 



2. Likely they were thrown out of the combs by the 



bees. 



^ * » 



Black and Mouldy Combs. 



I wish to ask about two colonies I bought one month 

 ago. They were in very poor shape, and after it got warm 

 enough to examine them I found the combs mostly all black 

 and mouldy, and dead bees piled up on the bottom between 

 the combs. I got them into a clean, new hive all right, and 

 they seem to have started to work. Of course, I had to put 

 the' old frames that had honey in them into the new hives 

 with some frames of foundation, but the combs in the old 

 frames are all out of shape, and I wish to have them re- 

 placed with new frames with sheets of foundation. Will it 

 be safe to take them away from the bees when the fruit- 

 trees are in bloom ? or w-hen would be the best time to do it ? 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — If your bees are busy on fruit-bloom or any 

 other flowers, you may make the change at once, but likely 

 you may as well wait till they are at work on clover. In- 

 deed, it will be easier to make the change when the colonies 

 are stronger, and you must look out not to waste any 

 worker-brood that may be in the old combs. One way is to 

 have these crooked combs with brood in another story either 

 above or below the one the queen is in, with a queen-exclu- 

 der between. The combs that have no brood in them may 

 be taken awaj- at any time without ceremony, providing it 

 doesn't take away honey that they need. But don't feel 

 troubled about the blackness cf the combs. That's just 



what the bees like. 



# * i» 



Entrances in the Supers— Excluders. 



I am desirous of knowing whether, if in running for ex- 

 tracted honey and using honey-boards, the bees would 

 gather, or rather fill up the supers, more readily, if the en- 

 trances were made in them ? If this would not work well, 

 how should I go about it ? Do you think I would obtain 

 more honey by not using excluder-boards ? 



We are having a fine season of it this year. Bees are 

 gathering immensely from the logwood (which we have 

 in abundance). I shall take pleasure in sending a sample 

 of this (logwood) honey, next mail. Jamaica, April 25. 



Answer. — Entrances in supers from outside have been 

 tried, but I don't remember that anyone who has tried them 

 has reported favorably. There seems to be a desire on the 

 part of the bees to enter where the brood is. Moreover, if 

 bees entered supers without first entering the brood-nest, 

 they might put more pollen in supers than would be de- 

 sired. It's better to have no pollen in extracting-combs. 



The general opinion is that it is better to use excluders, 

 and that they are no great hindrance. If you have j'our 

 brood-chamber large enough, there is not so much need of 

 excluders. 



