Oct. 12, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



647 



bos, or whatever you call it, open, except in real bitter- 

 cold weather. 



I would not pack the bees before Nov. IS. I would get 

 the hives spaced sooner, but would not put the little shed 

 around them until that time. Kank.\kee. 



Answer. — 1. Your plan will probably work well, altho 

 it will be some trouble to move the hives tog-ether and then 

 get them back again in spring. 



2. There might be some mixing up, but hardly enough 

 to do any harm if the moving is gradual. If one or more 

 days come when the bees do not fly, then there will be no 

 use in moving again till the bees fly. 



3. It is not likely that any great harm would come from 

 breeding out of season. 



A Queen Lays Two Kinds of Eggs. 



There is a dispute between two bee-keepers. The ques- 

 tion is : Does a queen lay different kinds of eggs — queen, 

 drone and worker — or does she lay the same kind of an egg 

 in each cell, and the bees do the rest? Nebkask.\. 



Answek. — A normal queen lays two kinds of eggs, im- 

 pregnated and unimpregnated. If the egg is impregnated 

 on its passage thru the duct that leads outward, then it will 

 produce a worker. If unimpreg-nated it produces a drone. An 

 impregnated egg may also produce a queen, if properly fed 

 for that purpose by the nurses. That is according to the 

 Dzierzon theory, which up to the present time is generally 

 accepted among bee-keepers. 



A Method of Wintering Bees- 



On page 500 is an article by D. H. Metcalf, describing 

 (in part) his method of wintering bees, but I must confess I 

 do not understand his system. Can you tell me how his 

 hives are made, how those storm-doors or entrances are ar- 

 ranged, and in what part of the hive they are located ? If 

 his system is a success, as represented, will it not be a boon 

 to the bee-keeping fraternity ? Is it not worth investigat- 

 ing, and giving it a trial ? If you cannot give a full de- 

 scription of the system, perliaps you can induce the author 

 to do so. Ut.\h. 



Answer. — I don't know enough about Mr. Metcalf's 

 plan to reply, and perhaps he will be kind enough to give 

 the desired information. In reply to your question whether 

 his system will not be a boon to the bee-keeping fraternity, 

 I must confess I don't know. First, because I don't know 

 just what his system is, and second, because he goes " con- 

 trary to the advice of all experts." Without saying Mr. 

 Metcalf is not eminently successful in wintering, that 

 sounds just a little as if all others of experience are wrong 

 and only Mr. Metcalf is right, and it may be a question 

 whether Mr. Metcalf's success is because of his leaving the 

 beaten path of all bee-keepers of experience, or in spite of 

 it. Of course there is a possibility that all others are wrong 

 and Mr. Metcalf right, in which case he is entitled to all 

 the more credit for blazing a new path. 



Size of Hive— Average Surplus, Etc. 



1. What size of hive will be about the best for this lo- 

 cality, the 8 or 10 frame dovetailed, or wouldn't it be better 

 to use the 8-frame 1,^4 story for brood, instead of 10-frame 

 one-story ? 



2. About what is the average of surplus honey per col- 

 ony in this (Rice) county, or in this State ? 



3. Is Minnesota good for producing honey ? 



4. Can there be used more Ideal supers than one at 

 a time ? 



5. What super is the best for producing straight sec- 

 tions, and the most of them ? Minnesota. 



Answers. — 1. The best size of hive depends much upon 

 the man and the management, as also on locality or pastur- 

 age. The matter has been pretty fully discust in this and 

 other bee-papers lately, occupying many pages. As you 

 speak of sections, you probably mean to run for comb honey, 

 in which case the 8-frame hive may suit your purpose, using 

 two stories whenever more than eight frames are needed. 

 But unless you give close attention to the bees, the 10-frame 

 hive will be better, with less danger of starvation in winter. 

 The objection to a 1|^ -story hive is the two difi'erent kinds 

 of frames ; otherwise you might like it. Try to find out the 



kind of hives used by the most successful bee-keepers in 

 your region, and if you cannot satisfy yourself in this way 

 you can try two different sizes side by side on a small scale, 

 and find which succeeds best in your hands. Indeed, this 

 latter way, altho taking time and trouble, is the more sure 

 way. 



2. I have no means of knowing, but perhaps some bee- 

 keeper in your county will give his average in these 

 columns. 



3. Some bee-keepers have succeeded well in Minnesota. 



4. They may be piled up to any extent. 



5. One super will produce as straight sections as an- 

 other, providing separators are used ; and the number of 

 sections does not depend upon the sort of super. 



'Old Reliable" seen thru New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



BEES AND PEAR BLIGHT. 



" Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" The enemy 

 has found us this time, it seems — and has .secured a scientific 

 certificate of the fact. Bees actually guilty of carrying the 

 blight with them from infected orchards to healthy ones. 

 Sorry. But what then ? Squirting poison on the bloom 

 will not kill the bees promptly enough to prevent it at all. 

 Better squirt at something that needs killing, and do the 

 job at killing time. Perhaps in time even the scientists 

 may reflect that bees do not very often visit two orchards 

 the same day. Page 565. 



watermelon-juice for WINTER STORES. 



Possibly Dr. Miller's reply about watermelon-juice, 

 page 551, may need a little bit of qualification. I have read 

 somewhere about watermelons in Italy being largely fed as 

 a winter supply. If any one has that scheme in mind he 

 should remember that the winters of Italy and our North- 

 ern winters are very different affairs. Success there would 

 not necessarily mean success here. Better go slow till 

 American experience in a long, hard winter decides the 

 matter. It's a seductive scheme for lazy folks, to sell all 

 the honey, and then make the bees stock up for winter on 

 late melons, sliced few at a time right where they lie. 



STINGLESS or " COOL-TAIL " WASPS. 



Scientific item by Prof. Cook, page 555. No stingless 

 wasps. Thanks. The wasps are a very numerous genera- 

 tion (some of them nocturnal), and most of us did not know 

 for dead sure what to expect of their little tails. Wish he 

 had explained whether the phrase, "in our country," meant 

 that there are some outside, or only that science does not 

 presume to say yet all that is, or isn't, in central Africa and 

 central Asia. And I thirst for more information about 

 male wasps — whether all, many, or only a rare few of them 

 have cool tails. 



TAR-MAKING SMOKER-FUEL. 



On page 549, we find Dr. Miller's Black-Drop. No one 

 admires it, or even prescribes it ; but Mr. Thompson and 

 manj' others continue to retail it by the drop around their 

 otherwise cleanly premises. Business goes right on, even 

 if you clean the smoker and wash it with tears. Dr. Hasty 

 would prescribe a change of fuel. Some fuels are always 

 daubing things up with fluid tar; some never do anything- 

 of the kind, and some seem to be which and t'other, accord- 

 ing to weafner and the circumstances. Pays to have some 

 fuel in stock that won't make tar. 



DEEP FRAMES FOR WINTERING. 



Significant that Edwin Bevins finds, page 548, that his 

 colonies on deep frames do not die in winter and leave him 

 frames of that sort to experiment on. Still, this reviewer 

 inclines to say, don't be too fast in deciding whether it is 

 the mere depth of the frame, or the increast size of the 

 brood-chamber, that causes the good results. 



