Dec. 



1899. 



AMExRICAN BEE JOURNAL 



775 



" location " there allee same as here. His three apiaries do 

 not run alike, the on a line only 11 miles long-. Pag-e 694. 



HONEY FROM WHD ROSES. 



And the " upper ten " in Constantinople are pampered, 

 it seems, with a honey gathered in a region of wild roses, 

 and very conspicuously flavored therewith. Would like to 

 be a '• Constant 10" long enough to get one taste of tliat 

 hone}'. Page 699. 



FLOWERS WAITING FOR INSECT VISITS. 



How curious are Nature's ways — in that flowers, effect- 

 ively covered from insect visits, remain in bloom several 

 days the longer for it, waitiigfor them. Hard to be an anti- 

 bee skeptic in the face of such evidence as that ; Page 700. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. C. MII^LER, Marongo, 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 can I start with queen-bees ? Will I have to 

 have other bees to feed them ? I saw queens advertised in 

 my paper at S2.00 each. I am thinking of getting some. 



2. Could I rear bees in the same neighborhood with 

 other bee-keepers ? 



3. What is a nucleus ? Subscriber. 



Answers. — 1. A queen can start alone without any 

 other bees, construct a nest and build up a colony, if she is 

 a bumble-bee queen, but not if she is of the hive-bee sort. 

 A queen of the latter kind is utterly worthless without a 

 force of workers. So far as feeding is concerned, she might 

 feed herself, altho that wouldn't do so well; but she 

 wouldn't know a thing about building combs, she couldn't 

 tend baby or clean house, and she would be chilled to death 

 in a temperature that would be just comfortable with a 

 family of workers around her. If you will watch the ad- 

 vertising pages of this journal, you will find queens adver- 

 tised for less than S3. 00 in the spring, unless you want 

 something special for a breeder. 



2. Yes, you can rear bees in the same neighborhood in 

 which other bees are kept, unless others already have all 

 the bees the territory will bear, in which case it would be 

 bad for them and you to add any more, and you ought to 

 find some locality where there is less danger of over- 

 stocking. 



3. There's about the same difference between a nucleus 

 and a full colony as there is between a little boy and a full- 

 grown man. With only bees enough for one or two combs, 

 it's a nucleus. By all means get a good test-book on bee- 

 keeping. 



Proper Spacing of Brood-Frames. 



If you were going to use the <Juinby frame spaced with 

 nails the same as you do your Langstroth frames, and win- 

 ter the bees on the summer stands, which would j'ou use, 

 IJ's or I'j inch spacing ? I mean, of course, from center to 

 center. Do you consider the 1'^ -inch spacing any better 

 than the l,^s for wintering out-of-doors? Penn. 



Answer. — I would use the same distance from center 

 to center, no matter what the means of spacing. But if you 

 insist upon knowing whether l;'s or 1'; from center to cen- 

 ter is best, I must confess I don't know. Nearly all hives 

 made nowadays are made with measurements favoring the 

 l^s spacing. Yet some whose opinions are entitled to re- 

 spect refuse to follow the crowd, and stick to the 1 '2 spac- 

 ing. In favor of the lyz it is said that that is the measure- 



ment bees use when left to themselves. Others say they use 

 Ifs. In the cases I have examined, the bees seemed to have 

 been impartial, sometimes using a spacing nearer one 

 measurement, atid sometimes nearer the other. But mj' ob- 

 servation has been somewhat limited. Counting brood- 

 comb J's-inch thick, the actual distance between two combs 

 with I'j inch spacing would be about 25 percent more than 

 with l^^s spacing, and if the bees are packt just as densely 

 in one case as in the other, a colony with bees enough to 

 cover 7 combs with IS spacing could cover 9 with lis spac- 

 ing. Very likely there is an advantage in that — at least at 

 times. But it is just possible that in early spring it might 

 be a disadvantage to have so few bees between two adjacent 

 combs, for too few could not generate sufficient heat. On 

 the whole, it is possible that one spacing may be about as 

 good as the other. 



Honey at the Cape of Good Hope. 



Can you give me any statistics concerning the export 

 or importation of honey at the Cape of Good Hope ? If not, 

 can you tell me where such information can be secured ? 



Rob Roy. 



Answer. — I'm sorry to say I can neither give the in- 

 formation nor say where it can be secured. Possibly this 

 may meet the eye of some one who can tell. 



A "finess" Wanted. 



The question I am about to ask is one to which, it seems 

 to me, you can very reasonably reply by saying, " I don't 

 know." Nevertheless, I am going to ask you for )'our 

 "guess," because I believe your guess will be worth more 

 than mine. 



Along towards the last of July I began feeding a strong 

 colony of bees with a view to making it swarm, as I wanted 

 a few queen-cells. On Aug. 6 I examined and found no 

 cells started, so I took out the frame on which was the old 

 queen, and continued the feeding. The colony swarmed 

 Aug. 21, and, of course, the swarm had a virgin queen. It 

 occurred to me along in September to examine the hive of 

 the swarm, but I could find no evidences of the presence of 

 a queen. I made a few more examinations during Septem- 

 ber, with the same result, and concluded that I should have 

 to buy a queen for the swarm. Before doing this, I made 

 another examination and found a queen on one of the 

 combs, but there were no signs of brood to be seen. The last 

 examination. I think, was in the early days of October. 



It seetns to me that the queen should have been ferti- 

 lized before the end of August, and that she should have 

 been laying early in September. There was no lack of 

 drones, and the honey-flow was quite good all thru the last- 

 named month. I am puzzled to know whether I have a fer- 

 fertile queen in the hive or not ; and, if not, why not ? 



Iow.\. 



Answer. — I "guess" that the queen is no good and 

 never will be any better. I don't know why. Barely pos- 

 sible it is a ph3'sical deformity- that is not discernible to the 

 naked eye. On the other hand, it is possible that the queen 

 is all right, especially if no honey was coming in after the 

 time she ought to have been laj-ing, say Sept. 1. Some 

 queens stop laying earlv — much earlier than others — and 

 the same thing that would make a young queen stop laying 

 Sept. 1 mig-ht keep a young queen from beginning to lay. 



By way of keeping up your hope till next spring, here 

 are three cases given in a French bee-journal, L'Apiculteur: 



1. July 26, 1897, I took the queen from nucleus No. 1. 

 Altho I kept watch from Aug. 25, I found no laying till 

 Sept. 13, when I found one egg. This single egg was de- 

 stroyed, and the laying ceast. Jan. 20 I took away the 

 queen, and the comb on which I found her had worker- 

 brood in all stages. 



2. July 29. 1897, I took the queen from nucleus No. 3. 

 Kept watch from Aug. 28, but never saw any laying. Feb. 

 26, 1898, I visited this nucleus, and the first frame I took 

 out had worker-brood of all ages. 



3. July 27, 1897, I took the queen from nucleus No. 4. I 

 found no eggs till Sept. 13. when I found about 60. Sept. 

 22 eggs were still present, more than one in some cells, but 

 they never hatcht, and were destroyed by the bees. Feb. 

 26, 1898, I took away the queen, and one comb had brood in 

 all stages. 



