Sept. 28, 1899. 



AMEPICArN BEE JOURNAL 



615 



strong- colonies that can fully occupy the whole super at 

 once, and during- a big, fast honey-flow. 



Pres. Jones says that locality lias a great deal to do 

 with it. Then there is a difference in colonies of bees to 

 produce straight combs. During slow flows separators are 

 absolutely necessary, and they are always advantageous in 

 producing straight combs. 



Mr. Atchley advises the use of separators, as much 

 honey is ruined by not using them. Beginners need them, 

 and with them separators are necessary. Then he prefers 

 to run colonies for extracted honey if not strong enough to 

 fill the super with bees, and not strong enough to produce 

 comb honey in sections. 



The convention then adjourned for supper. 

 [Continued next week.] 



CONDUCTED BY 



r>R. C. C. AlILLER, Ulareago, 111. 



(The Questions may be mailed to the Bee 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.] 



Preparing Bees for Cellar Wintering. 



I have been in the habit in the autumn of putting on 

 top of my colonies a section-case in which I put a burlap 

 cushion filled with chaft", a Hill's device underneath the 

 cushion. My colonies are put into the cellar in November 

 in this form. Our house is used only in the summer, and 

 has no fire in it thruout the winter, which is long and 

 severe. The bees are carried out from the cellar about 

 April 20. I have had trouble from moldj' combs and hives, 

 cushions, etc.. gathering dampness. Would you advise me 

 to continue the use of the cushions, or will there be less 

 dampness in the hives without them ? I have thought of 

 filling some of the cushions with mineral-wool, and of put- 

 ting a quantity of unslackt lime in the cellar, altho the 

 cellar itself is a dry one. The dampness comes from the 

 bees themselves, and a low temperature. 



I winter the bees without a bottom board, and cover 

 them with a cag-e of wire-netting to keep mice out. Any 

 criticism of this method will be gladly received. 



New Hampshire. 



Answer. — I doubt my ability to suggest anything bet- 

 ter. The cushions can hardly do any harm, and may do 

 good. The lime and mineral-wool plan is at least worth 

 trying. The main trouble seems to be the coldness of the 

 cellar, and you rather implj' that no one is present in winter 

 to keep it warmer. Couldn't you make the cellar warmer 

 by sufficient banking ? If the house is unoccupied thru the 

 winter, two or three feet of straw or hay on the floor over- 

 head would make the cellar warmer, but such a suggestion 

 would throw a tidy house-keeper into convulsions. An 

 extra quantity of paper — even several thicknesses of news- 

 papers — would answer much the same purpose. The paper 

 could be under or over the carpet. 



Wtiat Ailed the ttueens? 



On page 567, " Mich.'' asks, " What do you think is the, 

 trouble ?" referring to a queen that would lay drone-eggs. 

 In reply you do not tell him ; you say, " It is to be feared 

 the queens are at fault." Now, we know that, Doctor, with- 

 out writing to you, but how is the faulty queen produced ? 

 and what do those queen-breeders do, or not do, to have 

 such ? 



Last winter was the worst one I ever went thru. In the 

 spring I had lots of dead bees, and so great nuinbers of 

 empty combs that I protected from the moth by placing 

 them under strong colotiies. That gave the colony un- 

 bounded room, and I had no swarms, so I sent to a queen- 

 breeder for IS, and after much delay I got them. I intro- 

 duced them all right ; a few went to laving all right, but 



seemed afraid of the bees, getting on the outside frame and 

 the most of them were not right. One never layed an eg,g, 

 finally she was not there, and I gave them a frame with 

 eggs from another colony. Some of the others laid drone- 

 eggs, or worker-eggs in worker-comb, anj' way ; and one all 

 drone-eggs — that one I killed. 



Now, I am sure there was something that was tiot rig-ht 

 with that breeder, and he can never sell me another queen, 

 for he is either a man without principle, or he does not 

 know his business. So when I saw the question, "What do 

 you think is the trouble ?" and you did not explain, I thought 

 perhaps he is not up to the trick of the trade, but no doubt 

 can find out. So will you please give us the particulars ? It 

 is some way connected, I think, with rearing large num- 

 bers of queens in an upper story, and not having them 

 strong. Illinois. 



Answer. — Referring to the first question on page 567, 

 if you knou! that the trouble is with the queen, you know 

 more ttian I do. It is entirely within the range of possibil- 

 ities that there may be no queen at all in the case, but lay- 

 ing workers. The only thing to militate against such view 

 is the implied statement that some of the sealed brood is 

 worker-brood. But definite length of time is not given, and 

 it is just possible that the sealed worker-brood may be the 

 work of a previous queen, or it may possibly have been 

 given from another colony. 



But the probability is that the trouble was with the 

 queen, and coming to the gist of your question I must 

 frankly saj' that I don't know what the breeder did, or did 

 not, that made the trouble. Indeed, I don't know enough 

 to know whether the breeder was at all at fault. At the 

 same time it must be contest that in the large number who 

 pose as queen-breeders the probability is that a g-ood many, 

 or at least some of them, don't know their business very 

 well, and it is even possible that, as in all other lines of 

 business, there may be one or more that may be properly 

 clast among the unscrupulous. But the most skillful and 

 the most conscientious breeder may send out a queen that 

 he has found to lay all right, and when the purchaser gets 

 it, it may perform as did the one mentioned. 



Without knowing all about the matter. I may mention 

 two points in the case. There seems to be a change some- 

 times made by a journey in the mails. A queen that lays 

 all right in the hands of the breeder, is in some way so 

 changed by her travels that she lays irregularly or scarcely 

 at all for the purchaser, sometimes recovering in a short 

 time, and sometimes not. I once paid a round price for a 

 queen imported from Italy, and when she got among my 

 bees she wouldn't lay an egg in the orthodox way. but per- 

 sisted in sticking them on the sides of the cells. Fortu- 

 nately she changed her behavior in a few days, and did ex- 

 cellent work. 



As to the other point, a queen is sometimes so mal- 

 treated by the bees in a strange colony as to be unfit to do 

 the work she did before. That may be the case when she 

 has not been jolted thru the mails, but is likely to be aggra- 

 vated in the latter case. 



It would take more space than can be here afforded to 

 tell all that must be done, and all that must not be done, to 

 rear good queens. But I'm not sure that you are making a 

 straight guess when you lay the trouble to rearing large 

 numbers of queens in upper stories. No better queens in 

 the world can be reared than can be reared in the upper 

 story of a strong colony with a laying queen below. But 

 you" make a center shot when you add, "and not having 

 them strong." To have the royal larva; fed in anything 

 but a strong colony is neither, necessary nor wise. It is 

 possible that they are correct who say that a good nucleus 

 -will rear as good queens as a strong colony — at least it is 

 possible that they are right under some circumstances — but 

 it costs only such a trifle more to have the work done b3' a 

 strong colony, that a breeder is hardly bright, no matter 

 how dishonest he is, if he does not have his queens reared 

 in a strong colony. 



If any one else knows in what way a breeder might be 

 at fault ill the case, aside from the ordinary rules for rear- 

 ing good queens, the floor is yielded. 



Please send us Names of Bee=Keepers who do not now 



get the American Bee Journal, and we will send them sam- 

 ple copies. Then you can very likely afterward get their 

 subscriptions, for which work we offer valuable premiums 

 in nearly every number of this journal. You can aid much 

 by sending- in the names and addresses when writing us on 

 other matters. 



