374 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



June 15, 1899. 



simpler the cage the better. You can take a piece of wire- 

 cloth about four inches square, wrap it around a stick one 

 inch wide and ;s thick, and four or five inches long-. At one 

 end tie some fine wire around to hold it tog-ether. Now 

 slide the other end off the stick till about ;'s of an inch pro- 

 jects, and bend or fold down the wire-cloth upon the end of 

 the stick. Your cag-e is now complete. When you desire to 

 use it, draw out the stick, let the queen run in. and push the 

 stick in perhaps an inch. You may take the queen in your 

 fing-ers and put her in the cage, or, if you are somewhat 

 patient you may set the cage over the queen and let her run 

 in of her own accord. 



•^-•--^ 



Crimson Clover— Italian Bees. 



1. Will crimson clover sown in the spring, bloom before 

 or in the fall of the same year that it is sown ? 



2. How is it for feed for all kinds of stock ? 



3. Would it pay me to get pure Italians, with another 

 bee-keeper within a little over half a mile away keeping 

 black or mixt bees all the time ? He won't get pure stock. 



4. Of all the bees, which do you think are the best for 

 Kansas ? K.\nsas. 



Answers. — 1. I sowed some in the spring:, and some of 

 it bloomed that same year, but the larger part bloomed 

 early the nest summer. It may not act in all places alike 



2. Fine. 



3. You would stand no chance of keeping pure Italians 

 with blacks onlj- half a mile away, and yet it might pay you 

 well to try to keep them. The hybrids -ivould most likely be 

 nearly as good workers as pure Italians, and occasionalh- 

 introducing fresh Italian blood would keep up vigor. 



4. Very likely nothing better than Italians. 



Giving Swarms Combs or Foundation 

 Prevent After-Swarms. 



Dividing to 



1. I have 16 colonies of bees in 8-frame Langstroth- 

 Simplicity hives, running for comb honey. I have 16 more 

 of the same kind of hives filled with good, straig-ht worker- 

 comb. Would you advise giving the new swarms full hives 

 of comb? Or wiir the bees fill it with honev, leaving no 

 place for the queen to lay ? Which will be the better, the 

 combs or foundation ? 



2. What is the best method for dividing, so as to pre- 

 vent all after-swarms ? Wisconsin. 



Answers. — 1. I should prefer the comb to foundation, 

 but it may be well to give only half the combs at first, 

 giving the rest 10 or 12 days later. For if all are given at 

 first the bees would store in them rather than in sections. 



2. One way is to take all but one or two frames of brood 

 from a colony, leaving it all its bees, cutting out all queen- 

 cells, and giving plenty of surplus room. Let the frame or 

 two that you leave contain the youngest brood itt the hive. 

 The brood you take away maybe put in another hive, brood 

 from some other colony, if convenient, being added to fill 

 out the hive, and this may be put on the stand of another 

 colony which is removed to a new place. Care must be 

 taken that all the cells are cut from these combs, and a lay- 

 ing queen from a nucleus is to be given and left caged for 

 two days. 



Blacks and Hybrids in Same Hive— Transferring. 



1. Is the queen fertilized by more than one drone ? If 

 by only one, what is your reason for both black and hybrid 

 Italian worker-bees in the same hive ? 



2. Is it a good plan to transfer bees from bos-hives by 

 this method ? Place a hive containing either comb founda- 

 tion or comb underneath the box that you wish to transfer 

 the bees from, and drive the queen and" some bees into the 

 hive that is prepared, and then place a queen-excluder on 

 top of the hive. Leave the bos on top of the hive say 21 

 days, then remove it as the bees will be hatcht out in that 

 ti™e. Illinois. 



Answers. — 1. The belief is that in general a queen 

 mates with onlj- one drone. That part of the progeny take 

 after one parent in color, part after the other, and part after 

 both, is nothing unusual. In a family of 10 children with 

 a black-headed father and a red-headed mother, you would 

 not think it strange that some of them should have red hair, 

 some black, and some a compromise. 



2. The plan might do very well, only you would find it 



difficult to drive bees down-hill into an empty hive. You 

 would find it easier to drive them up-hill. Turn the box- 

 hive upside down, put the new hive over it and drive the 

 bees up. or drive the bees up into some box convenient, then 

 put the bees in the new hive. It will be well if you can put 

 at least one frame of brood in the new hive before putting 

 the excluder over, otherwise the Cjueen may be slow about 

 commencing- to lay. 



Hives and Honey-Extractors. 



1. What kind of hive would j'ou call mine, which has a 

 gable cover, holds eight brood-frames, and has. only place 

 for one super of sections under its cover ? 



2. Taking all these points into consideration, would you 

 call it a good hive for producing extracted honey ? It has 

 no movable bottom-board, which is one thing I do not like. 



3. What hive having a movable bottom-board is also 

 good for the production of extracted honey ? 



4. Which honey-extractor is the best for general use, in 

 your consideration ? 



5. One of my neighbors has a honey-extractor for which 

 he says that he paid $10 when new. It holds four frames 

 of honey, and has a spout or faucet below for letting the 

 honey out. What is its name ? Iow.\. 



Answers.— '1. I don't know. 



2. It may do verj' well, but one can judge very little 

 from the description. 



3. Any hive such as the 10-frame dovetailed, but re- 

 member that the best hive will accomplish little if badly 

 managed, and with intellig-ent manag^ement almost any hive 

 will do well. The man is more than the hive. 



4. My knowledg-e of extractors from actual use is very 

 limited, but I suppose almost any of the extractors now on 

 the market are good, the Cowan, that you mention, among 

 them. 



5. I don't know. There may be more than one 4-frame 

 extractor with a spout. 



Starting in Bee-Keeping. 



I now find that the closely confined office practice 

 (doctor), and chemical work of a specialist, does not agree 

 with my health. I am always well in the open air. So the 

 question comes to me as it probably came to you (in a some- 

 what similar waj') years ago, " Shall I keep on and die 

 young, trying to laj- up money here, or shall I be content 

 with a living in close contact with nature, and live to a 

 good old age ?" 



I have the best berry location — blueberries, blackber- 

 ries and raspberries — in a radius of 15 miles ; thousands of 

 apple-trees, maples and small fruits ; plenty of golden-rod 

 and a moderate amount of other small honey-plants ; little 

 or no basswood. and acres of mountain laurel. Is it poison- 

 ous ? Do the bees gather from it ? An old farmer two 

 miles off has 16 colonies that he manages on the old natural 

 swarming^ plan, and lets the bees take care of themselves. 

 He got 30 pounds of coinb honey per colony last season, and 

 said nothing about poisonous honey from laurel. If tiiere 

 was any doubt I would not risk it. 



Do you think in the present condition of the honey bus- 

 iness that I could make a living at it ? How would you ad- 

 vise me to begin ? Would you advise me to run for comb or 

 extracted honey at first ? 



I had thought of starting 25 colonies in a correctly built 

 house-apiary, and putting my increase out-doors and' win- 

 tering them there. 



I have sufficient capital to enable me to do what is'nec- 

 essary in order to start favorably. I have a brother in Cal- 

 ifornia and could start there if it seemed best, c R. I. 



Answers. — Perhaps no other sort of questions makes 

 me feel more keenly my incompetency to advise than yours. 

 So many things must be taken into account, and with re- 

 gard to a good many of them one can hardly have any pos- 

 itive knowledge. The best I can do is to reply somewhat 

 generally. To one who desires to live to a good old age, 

 keeping- close company with nature, bee-keeping presents 

 strong- attraction. I should perhaps put it that I would 

 rather die young after living a good many years than to die 

 an old man after living- but few years and laying up money 

 that I could not enjoy. But the financial part cannot be 

 entirely ignored, and that's where the pinch comes. 



As to location, the probability is that you have a good 

 one, but if you have told the whole truth about it your loca- 



