156 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



at and Jtoxu. 



ANSWERS BY 



Javies Heddon, Dowagiac, Mich. 



Saying Queeiiless Colonies. 



My bees had a good flight on Feb. 

 28; they have been conlined since 

 Dec. 1. I examined all, and they were 

 in good condition, covering from 5 to 

 8 frames, Langstroth size ; they have 

 •consumed more honey and come out 

 stronger than at anytime for 5 years ; 

 2 are queenless, and 7 have more or less 

 brood, out of 10. 1. Can Igetqueens 

 from the Southern States soon enough 

 to save them y 2. How much candy, 

 per week, will it take to carry 

 a 7 Langstroth frame full of bees 

 through y My bees are most as strong 

 as they were last full, and have no 

 •dysentery. D. S. Bukbank. 



Grundy Centre, Iowa, March 1, 1883. 



1. I think you can, but I cannot see 

 that it will pay you, if you care for 

 the queens only for that purpose. 



2. I have never had satisfactory re- 

 sults from feeding candy of any kind. 

 I feed liquid food, have just fed some 

 few colonies, and one took down 6 lbs. 

 in three hours. That colony is now off 

 my shoulders for the season. 



Spring Work. ^ 



I put 25 colonies into winter quar- 

 ters, and all of them are doing well. 

 I want to move them 2 or 3 rods in 

 my yard. 1. When is the best time to 

 do it V 2. How early in the spring shall 

 I begin changing, reversing frames 

 and feeding to stimulate brood-rear- 

 ing y 3. How often should the frames 

 be reversed? E. Newcojib. 



PlankRoad, N. Y. 



1. At the first period, when they 

 ■will be most likely to be shut in for a 

 ■few days, by cool weather. When you 

 move them, or just when they are 

 about to fly from their new stands, 

 smoke and jar the hives, and put 

 boards before the entrances, so that 

 they will bump noses, or have to fly 

 out sidewise around it, and remove 

 any fixtures from the old quarters that 

 may make them " look like home." 



2. After having fed and reversed 

 frames, to stimulate early breeding 

 for years, some years ago I abandoned 

 it; and with hives properly made and 

 arranged, no such practice pays. 



3. As a rule, never ; for the reasons 

 before mentioned. 



Bees in Texas. 



I have kept bees for 35 years. Here 

 in Texas, as a general thing, they do 

 tolerably well. I have 90 colonies in 

 frame liives. Last season was a tine 

 season for honey. I took from 50 to 

 150 lbs. from each. I could have got 

 )4 more, if I attended to them, but as 

 1 have no one to assist me, and the 



farm to run, the bees filled everything 

 full of honey, and a great deal on the 

 outside, before I could attend to them, 

 and when I got to taking honey. I 

 went at it with a rush, got the honey 

 scattered around, and the bees went 

 to robbing, and I have had a f'reat 

 deal of trouble. How can 1 check 

 robbing 'i Some of my strongest 

 colonies were diseased; the brood 

 failed to hatch, and they became weak, 

 and tlie moth and robbers destroyed 

 about 20 colonies. Tlie bees are all 

 blacks; they seem to be wintering 

 well, all on the summer stands. I 

 never knew of any being housed here 

 in winter. Our bees always go 

 through the winter safe, when sup- 

 plied with honey. The bees have had 

 a flight every day for 6 days; the 

 peach trees will be blooming in 2 

 weeks, if the weather remains favor- 

 able. J. E Jackson. 

 Richardson, Texas, Feb. 22, 1883. 



First, in this branch of our business 

 an ounce of prevention is worth ten 

 pounds of cure. When once really 

 crazed with robbing, the only practical 

 way I know of is to remove the rob- 

 bed colony to a cellar, give plenty of 

 ventilation, and close up the hiveS; 

 Protect the other colonies in the de- 

 moralised yard by close contraction of 

 the entrances. If the weather is hot, 

 shade or ventilate the hives at the top. 



A Diseased Colony. 



Last season my honey crop was 

 about one-third. Bees gathered a 

 good fall crop of fine quality. We 

 had a very cold spell on Jan. 17 to 21 ; 

 the thermometer was down to 18"^ 

 above zero. On Jan. 28, my bees 

 commenced carrying in pollen ; we 

 had one short cold snap since, and the 

 bees are working now very fast on 

 wild peach and dogwood ; I notice 

 one of my colonies has a strange dis- 

 ease ; the bees crawl out of the hive 

 in a trembling condition, turn over on 

 their backs and die. Please tell me 

 what is the cause of this V In regard 

 to the use of separators, my experience 

 is (and I believe that it is a good 

 teacher), that with one-pound sec- 

 tions, filled with comb foundation, 

 and with the use of tin separators, 

 wlien honey is coming in fast, I can 

 get as much honey as those who do 

 not use any, and I know I can have 

 nice, straight and well-filled sections. 

 Everything bids fair for a fine honey 

 season ; peach and plum trees are in 

 bloom, and farmers are planting corn. 



J. W. ECKBIAN. 



Richmond, Texas, March 5, 1883. 



Having never witnessed any such 

 phenomenon, I am entirely unable to 

 account for it. 



Snndry Questions and Answers. 



1. Is it necessary to have the tin 

 bars and diagonal wires (as described 

 in Mr. Root's circular) in wire frames? 

 2. Are queens, when sent by mail, 

 wrajiped up in the cage so as to be in- 

 visible? 3. Is an extractor, with its 

 basket having slanting sides, an im- 

 provement over one having vertical 

 sides y 4. How many Langstroth 

 frames would you recommend for a 

 liive 'i Will Mr. Heddon please give 

 his reasons for using only 8 frames V 

 5. Would you recommend a hive 

 with a permanent bottom and por- 

 tico ? A. S. 



Xewark, O., Feb. 24, 1883. 



1. Not if you will put a proper 

 amount of wood in the top bars of the 

 frames, which I do, and prefer to the 

 tin posts. 



2. Not necessarily so ; the law only 

 requires that they shall be divided 

 from the fingers of the mail agents, 

 by double wire screens, with spaces 

 between. 



3. Not, in my judgment. 



4. My reasons for preferring 8 to 10 

 Langstroth frames as the brood cham- 

 ber of a colony, in brief (stripped 

 of argumentive proof) are these : 

 First, the capital rests in the combs, 

 etc., and not the queen, since I want 

 all that capital used to its utmost, and 

 automatically so. Smaller brood 

 chambers tend toward up-stair work 

 in a potent degree. Narrower brood 

 chambers (that is, fewer combs) are 

 better for wintering. 



5. After having used hives, in 

 quantity, that had both permanent 

 and loose bottom boards, and those 

 with and without porticos, I prefer 

 and use those without porticos, but 

 always want my bottom boards perm- 

 anent. Mr. Langstroth gave argu- 

 ments in favor of tight bottoms, that, 

 as yet, I have not seen satisfactorily 

 controverted. My experience seconds 

 his views. 



Destructive Birds. 



Are martins destructive to bees ? 

 Creston, Iowa. A. E. Footb. 



I do not know, but I think not ; at 

 least, ours here are not known to eat 

 bees. 



Foul Brood, etc. 



1. What is foul brood; does it. or 

 can it proceed from chilled brood V 



2. Would bees, that were healthy 

 and clear of the disease in May, die 

 of tlie disease by September follow- 

 ing ? 



3. If you should take frames of 

 brood from a colony in July to form 

 a nucleus, and the old. colony die in 

 the fall, and the following fall you 

 find that the nucleus has tlie foul 

 brood, and no others in the apiary 

 have it as far (as could be seen), 

 would it not be very strong proof that 

 it came from the frames forming the 

 nucleus 'i 



4. If there were no bees, either 

 domestic or wild, •within 4 or 5 

 miles, would there be any probability 

 of bees, so situated, becoming af- 

 fected from bees outside, and die in 

 the same season ? 



