THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



139 



To Cleanse Wax.— Why do not some 

 •of the great hee-keepers tell us how 

 they get so much honey, and what 

 kind of hives they use, one-story or 

 two, and whether they extract from 

 the brood chamber or the (ipper story 

 only, and how niucli the honey weighs 

 to the glillon ? Then we would know 

 where these great yields of honey 

 come from. A gets 25 lbs. and R ^ets 

 75 lbs. to tlie colony, side by side. 

 This is my method: In the spring I 

 get brood in all the combs by trans- 

 ferring the outside combs to the cen- 

 ter one at a time ; then I put on a half- 

 story to give the bees room. I try to 

 keep the luve and boxes full of bees. 

 If they swarm before .Jiuie 20th, I put 

 them in a new hive, and after a little 

 return them to the old hive. I use the 

 American frame, 9 in a hive. My bees 

 have averaged me 90 lbs. per colony, 

 spring count, for 5 years ; increase, 

 double. I have 4-1 colonies in the cel- 

 lar at a temperature of 46-, and they 

 are quiet. Following is a good method 

 to cleanse wax : Tie some wheat ttonr 

 in a sack or cloth, then immerse it in 

 ■water and squeeze it out until the 

 ■water is about the color of skim-milk; 

 put in your wax and melt it ; the Hour 

 will take all of the dirt to the bottom. 

 Twice melting this way, will cleanse 

 the blackest wax you ever saw. 

 Please answer : 1. Is it best to give 

 bees a flight between iN^ovember and 

 April y 2, Which hive will give the 

 best returns— a long one, or a two- 

 story hive y Payette Lee. 



Co^cato, Minn. 



[1. Yes, by all means, if the weather 

 is suitable. 



2. A two-story hive ; as the honey 

 ■can be taken from it to much better 

 advantage, and with less disturbance 

 of the bees. The "long idea" hive 

 was much in vogue at one time, but 

 has been generally abandoned, even 

 by those who were most sanguine of 

 its success.— Ed.] 



Marking Location Anew. — I have 

 read the Bee Journal with much 

 pleasure for :> years, and, although a 

 bee-keejjer for over 30 years, I have 

 known but little about them except 

 what I have learned from the Jour- 

 nal,, and through use of the move- 

 able-frame hive. But I have much to 

 learn yet. In the Journal of Nov. 

 16, page 3G3, 1 read Rev. Mr. Briggs' 

 description of an out-door packing 

 box, and I built two such, each 16 feet 

 long, and filled them with hives of 

 bees, and packed them as he directed. 

 I was so well pleased with them that 

 I built two more, but before putting 

 the bees in, a neighbor told me that it 

 the bees fly out they will return to 

 their old stand, and will be lost. If 

 this is true. I will pack no more. They 

 have not had a flight since I packed 

 them. Please let me know if this is 

 so. Last summer I had my hives 

 standing 5x3 feet apart, but not 

 straight in line. Next summer I 

 would like to place them in a straight 

 line, but not so close, as I have plenty 

 of room. What distance apart should 

 I place them to be handy to manipu- 



late? I have 30 colonies, nearly all in 

 good order. Lust winter I lost S out 

 of 15, and bought 4 in the spring in 

 log-gums, which I transferred into 

 frame hives, and increased to 30. How 

 shall 1 manage tliose I liave packed in 

 the bi-foot boxes, in the spring, as I 

 cannot put them back on the old 

 stands? Samuel Utz. 



Kenton, O. 



[You will have no trouble about 

 those packed away in the 16-foot 

 boxes. If there are no hives on the 

 old stands, the bees will find their way 

 to their own hives; but a safer way 

 will be to stand up, or slant, a board 

 in front of each hive, to partialiy ob- 

 struct their free egress and ingress. 

 Put up these boards as soon as you 

 set them out in tlie spring, before 

 they have had an opportunity to fly. 

 By this means, they will mark their 

 location anew. We often adopt this 

 plan in summer, when changing loca- 

 tion of hives, and never have experi- 

 enced any trouble, nor lost any bees. 

 If we had plenty of space, we would 

 prefer our hives to stand 5x8 feet 

 apart — that is, rows 8 feet apart, and 

 hives 5 feet apart in the rows. — Ed.] 



Bees in West Tennessee.— This is 

 a medium section of our country, as I. 

 judge from reading the itemsinthe 

 Bee Journal from other States. We 

 have here maples, willows, red-buds, 

 wild plums, hazels, black and sweet 

 gums, and most all kinds except lin- 

 den or basswood, which is so highly 

 prized in the Northern States, though 

 we have the poplar (tulip tree), wliich 

 is hard to beat, for quality as well as 

 quantity. Wliite clover covers the 

 ground in many places. All clovers 

 do well here that 1 have seen. Alsike 

 does well, also the Japanese clover, 

 which has very delicate looking stalks, 

 of finer texture than the white clover, 

 and which the leaves resemble alittle; 

 but it has a yellowish bloom. Itgrows 

 spontaneously in the woods and fields 

 where not cultivated. Last season it 

 stood the drouth better than any of 

 the grasses, and cattle are fond of it. 

 I do not know whether it is a good bee 

 plant. I have kept bees 8 or 10 years 

 in a small way; had 14 colonies last 

 spring of Italians, hybrids and Ger- 

 man bees, in Langstroth hives, which 

 I increased to 27 by dividing, all in 

 good condition now. Our bees are not 

 troubled with dysentery here, and we 

 need no winter houses or chaff hives. 

 Bees winter well on the summer 

 stands if the cracks are stopped up. 

 I obtained 600 lbs. of extracted and 80 

 lbs. of comb lioney, wliich I sold at 10 

 cents per lb. Some sell at 8 cents per 

 pound for 30 to 40 pound boxes. We 

 will have to use the extractor to drive 

 them out witli their old boxes. 1. 

 Would it be advisable to use some of 

 the small sections for comb honey V 

 2. Are the recipes given in " Honey 

 as Food and Medicine" all reliable'? 

 I wish to write off some of them for 

 our county paper, to improve the bee 



business and interest the Patrons. 3. 

 Do those extractors that use 3 frames 

 at one time, require the frames to be 

 lifted out each time when you wantto 

 reverse ttiem, or is there room inside 

 of the extractor to turn them ? 4. 

 Which do you consider the best ex- 

 tractor for 3 frames ? 5. How much 

 better is a good honey knife than a 

 good table knife? 6. What would 

 bees be worth, after May, without 

 queen, per pound ? I have no use for 

 my workers after that time. 7. Could 

 they be utilized ? 



II. H. C. Mitchell. 

 Humboldt, Tenn. 



[1. Yes; your locality is no excep- 

 tion to the rule, that the more attrac- 

 tive merchandise finds the quickest 

 sale at the best prices. 



2. We believe they are. They were 

 culled with great care, and from the 

 best authorities. 



3. The frames require to be lifted to 

 turn them. 



4. The Excelsior Extractor is the 

 only one we are aware of that takes 3 

 frames. 



5. A good honey knife is as much 

 better than a good table knife, as a 

 good steel-pointed plow is better than 

 the old-time forked stick, or the steel- 

 bladed axe is better than the stone 

 one. 



6. Bees would not be worth much 

 per pound after having spent a season 

 of labor in your honey harvest, as they 

 would all be old ones. You might, 

 however, find buyers for them. 



7. They could be utilized for but 

 few days; probably not long enough 

 to remunerate for express charges iu 

 transportation. We never took kindly 

 to the tratlic in bees by the pound,and 

 many who were quite enthusiastic 

 over the plan have abandoned it in- 

 disgust.— Ed.] 



Dysentery and Wintering.— The 



question of wintering seems to be the 

 only one left of great importance. 

 The following conclusions I have 

 arrived at after 15 years' of experience: 

 Either very great cold, which causes 

 a consumption of honey and pollen; 

 or poor fall honey, when stores are 

 scarce; or warm weather, which pro- 

 duces flight or uneasiness, and a con- 

 sumption of stores; or brood-rearing, 

 wliich causes the manipulation of 

 pollen, are hints as to the cause of 

 dysentery, the ravages of which are 

 greatest toward spring, when long, 

 cold confinement, or cliangable wea- 

 ther and partial confinement furnish 

 the conditions, as pollen is not got rid 

 of by perspiration, and dysentery is 

 the result. It may be urged that bees 

 do not always die with these condi- 

 tions — I answer, neither do men nor 

 animals ahvays die under conditions 

 favorable to disease. Mortality is the 

 exception, not the rule, and the same 

 with disease. A prevention by artifi- 



