Nov. 23, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



743 



a chari-vari — and lasted about as long. Well, perhaps the 

 lapboard and queer old knife that have done service so long^ 

 constitute, after all, a very fair section-cleaning machine. 



THE WHOLE-HOGGISH COMMISSION MAN. 



Sometimes it's best to throw an old, soiled blanket over 

 repulsive phases of human nature, and just say nothing — 

 would be inclined on some account to do so for that com- 

 mission man on page 664, but the quiet, confirmed, cheerful, 

 business whole-hoggishness %vith which he makes a forced 

 sale of two barrels of honey at two cents a pound is bring- 

 ing sadness into too many humble and worthy homes. 

 What does he care ? He's all right, as long as the two cents 

 covers commission and expenses. Guess we had better 

 tlow a trumpet before him, and keep blowing it till even his 

 brazen cheek begins to blush. 



QUEENS BRED FOR BUSINESS. 



yes, breed queens for business rather than for color. 

 Page 666. (Some may have heard that remark casually 

 dropt before.) But if the breeders ever do, it will be a hard 

 time for those little George Washingtons who cannot tell a 

 lie — hard, anyhow, for those Jim Need-Washingtons who 

 don't like to have lies told to "em. On the whole, it's rather 

 nice for a man to be able to see at once that he has got just 

 what he sent for ; and these wise mentors would rob us of 

 this bliss. 



A TRIPLET OF AFTERTHINKS. 



Dr. Miller's dozen cages of discarded old queens, lying 

 in a pile out in the shade, bathed in a volunteer — ladies' aid 

 society, for instance — and swarming and going back to the 

 cages again once or twice every day, is unique enough to 

 make a fellow smile (and think) if he is not too much bored. 

 Page 667. 



1 like the temper of Mr. Bownds, page 669, who tells of 

 the bad queens he reared for his own use, and then adds, 

 " What's the matter with me ?" Rathermore Christian-like 

 than flinging too-angry pot-hooks at somebody else. 



Hold on, Mr. Prankard ! We " won't believe fish-story, 

 too," if you don't quit telling us that every queen is where 

 she ought to be, in that beautiful Herman apiary. Page 669. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Marengo, III. 



[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.] 



A Beginner's Questions. 



1. How do you tell whether or not the hive is full of 

 honey ? 



2. When do you take out the honey ? 



3. Do you take out all the honey at once ? 



4. Suppose one starts with 14 or 15 colonies of bees, 

 must there be a queen in each hive ? 



5. How do you get the wax, and how is it purified ? 



California. 



Answers. — Before answering your questions, let me 

 advise you in the strongest terms, if you have any thought 

 of starting in the bee-business in the spring, to get one or 

 more text-books on bees and make a thoro study of the 

 matter. It is perhaps not putting it too strongly to say 

 that for every colony you start with you can aft'ord to pay 

 a dollar for a test-book, rather than to do without. If you 

 start with 14 or 15 colonies, the careful study of a good 

 text-book may easily make a difference of S14.00 or S15.00 iti 

 results. The advice can hardl)' be made too emphatic, get 

 a good text-book and study it. Now to j'our questions : 



1. With the old-fashioned skeps or box-hives, the com- 

 mon way to decide as to the amount of honey in a hive was 

 to heft it. Every pound of honey, of course, adds just so 

 much to the weight, and by lifting the hive you can gain 

 some idea as to the weight of its contents. You may do 



the same way with hives of a more modern pattern, but 

 there are better ways. Nearly all modern hives — perhaps 

 it is better to say all modern hives — have movable combs, 

 and you can take out the combs and see how full they are. 

 But you must understand that there are two different apart- 

 ments that may be in a hive — the brood apartment, and the 

 surplus apartment. Generally no honey is taken from the 

 brood apartment, and it is not very important to know how 

 much honey is in it, only before winter or at such times as 

 bees are gathering nothing-, for if the brood-combs should 

 become entirely empty of honey there might be starvation. 

 The honey taken is from the surplus apartment, and if 

 it is to be extracted, then you can lift out the combs and 

 see whether they are full. If it is comb, all you need to do 

 is to uncover the top and see whether the sections of honey 

 are sealed over. 



2. Extracted honey is generally taken from time to 

 time as often as enough combs are filled and sufficiently 

 sealed. Some do not wait for the honey to be sealed, but it 

 is considered better practice to wait until at least two-thirds 

 of the cells are sealed. In such case the honey is thicker 

 and riper. Some of the best bee-keepers do not extract till 

 the close of the honey harvest, having a sufficient number 

 of extracting-combs to allow extra stories to be added as 

 often as needed. 



While it is true tliat for extracted honey it is all the 

 better to leave it on the hive till the close of the season, the 

 same does not hold true for comb honey. The honey may 

 be thicker and richer, but comb honey sells to a large ex- 

 tent on looks, and the whiter it is the better. If left on the 

 hive after it is sealed, the comb gradually becomes dark- 

 ened, so it is taken oft' as soon as a super full of sections is 

 sealed over, with perhaps the exception of the corner sec- 

 tions, for if you wait till these are entirely sealed the mid- 

 dle sections will generally become darketied. 



3. From what has been said you will see that in some 

 cases all the surplus honey is taken, and in other cases only 

 part. As a rule, however, all the surplus honey is removed 

 from the hive at the close of the honey harvest. 



4.' Yes, each colony must have a queen of its own, so as 

 to lay eggs enough to keep up the population. You might 

 do with only one queen for several colonies by moving her 

 in rotation from one hive to another, but this would be 

 hard on the queen, and the colonies could not be kept 

 strong. The plan is not advised. 



5. Formerly there was an annual pruning of the combs, 

 the lower portions of the combs being cut away, and wax 

 was also obtained when colonies were " taken up " or brim- 

 stoned. Neither of these plans is now followed in this 

 country, and wax is only obtained from the melting up of 

 defective or broken combs, or of drone-coinb, and from the 

 cappings of extracting-combs. You will hardl)' need to 

 take any wax for six months or more to come, and will 

 have plenty of time to study up the minutia; of the matter 

 before that time in your text-book. If you start in next 

 spring with 14 or 15 colonies and with no particular knowl- 

 edge about bees, it is quite possible that by the spring of 

 1901 you maj' have the brood-combs of 14 or 15 colonies to 

 melt up into beeswax. Perhaps you may do well to start 

 with a smaller number, increasing j'our number as you get 



experience. 



.« • » 



Ventilation of Hives. 



Mr. C. P. Dadant, on page 675, says, in telling how he 

 places his hives in the cellar : 



" We usually take them without cap. or bottom. Our 

 hives are all supplied with straw mats. . . .In the summer we 

 have an enamel cloth between the brood-combs and the 

 straw mat. In the winter the enamel cloth is removed and 

 the mat is laid directly over the frames, and this straw mat 

 is quite sufficient to separate the hives that are piled one 

 upon another." 



I have puzzled my head not a little to know how his 

 hives are ventilated. Iowa. 



Answer. — In the summer-time enamel cloth under the 

 straw mats prevents the bees from propolizing the mats, 

 and when the enamel cloth is removed there is plenty of 

 ventilation thru the mats. Even if a hive with a bottom- 

 board should be set over the mat, the mat is of such thick- 

 ness that the air from the hive can escape laterally. Unless 

 the entrance of the hive is quite small, very little vipward 

 ventilation is needed. Indeed, my hives, when in the cellar, 

 have no upward ventilation, but the wood covers are glued 

 on tight, just as they were on their summer stands. But 

 the entrance is large, 12x2 inches. 



