THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



469 



Bees Cleaning Combs. 



What is the best method of having 

 bees clean the comb, after the lioney 

 has been extracted V 



H. A. Whittlesey. 



Newington, Vt., Aug. 27, 1883. 



Answer. — If you have a good ex- 

 tractor, no siicli cleaning is necessary. 

 But the best way I know of, is to put 

 the combs into a super, or upper 

 story, and place this over a strong col- 

 ony just at night if in times of a honey 

 dearth, and in 4 to 12 hours the combs 

 will be all clean, and the super can be 

 removed iu the usual way. 



Beautiful Honey. 



Our Boston, neighboring city and 

 home markets, are yearly lilled with 

 the most beautiful honey. The combs 

 are snowy white, in perfectly clean, 

 white poplar sections, filled to the 

 corners and completely sealed. With 

 the above I am obliged to compete 

 in producing comb honey. My 

 sources of honey are mainly willow, 

 fruit-bloom, locust, raspberries, bass- 

 wood and goldenrod. My bees are 

 Italians. Quantity and quality of 

 extracted honey, per colony. Is above 

 the average. Not so with comb 

 honey except, perhaps, in point of 

 flavor. Now, then, if it is manage- 

 ment that forms the most important 

 part in producing such beautiful white 

 comb honey, what are the details or 

 the fundamental law govening the 

 same ? 



If fixtures, what influence do they 

 exert on both quantity and appear- 

 ance ¥ 



If location, how can I best utilize, 

 or if needed, improve the one occu- 

 pied y 



If bees, must I discard my clean, 

 sprightly, courageous Italians, and 

 notwithstanding the protest within, 

 endure the raothy, lazy blacks ¥ 



If Mr. Heddon will please answer 



the above questions through the 



"What and How " columns of the 



Bee Journal, he will greatly oblige 



L. H. Shevenell. 



Haverhill, Mass., Sept. 7, 1883. 



Answer.— My advise to you is, just 

 make the raising of extracted honey 

 a specialty, and adhere to tlie bees 

 that you prefer. I know of locations 

 where to raise choice white comb 

 honey is very much more difficult 

 than in other places only 10 miles dis- 

 tant, with everything else except the 

 resource for nectar the same. It is 

 plain to be seen that time and the 

 Yankee will make the production of 

 comb and extracted honey equally 

 profitable, and a choice as to which 

 we will produce should depend upon 

 the fitness of our field and ourselves. 

 If you are going to raise extracted 

 honey for sauce, consult Dadant's 

 little 15 cent book upon the subject. 

 If for mechanical purposes, then a 

 different management is advisable. 



Believing as 1 do that your flora is the 

 main obstacle, I will not answer your 

 questions until I may know that you 

 are bound to go for comb honey, 

 which I may find out by your next 

 communication. 



Preparing Bees for Winter. 



Will Mr. Heddon please answer the 

 following queries iu the Bee Jour- 

 nal in regard to box hives, as there 

 are several around here who liave a 

 few colonies of bees in box hives : 



1. In case there was not honey 

 enough in the hive for winter, what 

 would be the best food, and the best 

 way to feed them ¥ 



2. How would you advise preparing 

 them for winter, and wliat is.the best 

 material to pack them with ¥ 



3. Would it be a good plan;to make 

 a box a few inches larger, each way, 

 than the hive, and set the hive in it, 

 and pack chaff around It ¥ 



J. S. Barb. 

 Bristolville, Ohio, Sept. 3, 1883. 



Answer. — 1. If I had such bees in 

 box hives, I should be tempted to take 

 them up, considering the honey they 

 now have, and combs for wax, rather 

 than to feed them more dollar's worth, 

 and then risk their coming through in 

 a condition to make them worth what 

 they will cost you. 



2. Properly prepared, pure cane 

 sugar syrup (if it can be got pure, 

 which my investigations throw a 

 great shadow of doubt upon) or honey 

 is good food, and if the box hives have 

 no openings above, they might be in- 

 verted and a feeder placed on the 

 open top (previously bottom) and all 

 removed in the morning, before the 

 bees fly, and fixed at night after they 

 cease flying. Feeding in a successful 

 manner, and properly preparing the 

 food, is one of the fine arts of bee- 

 keeping, and if we are to learn it 

 properly and with certainty, we need 

 to see it demonstrated. There are so 

 many twists and turns to be made — 

 according to the condition of the 

 apiary, the bees to be fed, and the 

 weather. A good feeder is an abso- 

 lute necessity. 



1. Do bees gather pollen from white 

 and Alsike clovers ¥ I have seen 

 them at different times working on 

 those clovers, and at the same time 

 they had pollen on their legs. 



2. Are queens that leave the hive 

 with second or " after swarms," mated 

 with the drone before leaving the 

 hive with the swarm ¥ 



3. How old are queens before they 

 leave ttie hive to mate with the drone 

 or with second or after swarms ¥ 



Bristolville, O. J. S. Barb. 



Answer. — 1. As near as my limited 

 time has allowed me to discover, I 

 think white and alsike clover yield 



pollen in such quantities thatourbees 

 do sometimes gather from it, here, 

 but usually it affords too much honey 

 to tempt them to gather its pollen. 



2. No, the queen mates with the 

 drones usually, about 3 to 5 days after 

 the swarm is hived, with all after- 

 swarms. 



3. After-swarms often issue a few 

 liours after the hatching of the young 

 queen, or queens, that accompany 

 them. 



Dzierzon Theory, etc. 



I am a subscriber of the Weekly 

 American Bee Journal, Gleanings, 

 Exchange, and Bee and Poultry Maga- 

 zine. 1 am also owner and reader of 

 all the books written on the science 

 of apiculture, both in America and 

 Europe. Have had several yeara 

 practice in bee-keeping in the West 

 Indies, and was originally taught by 

 father Dzierzon 's " Rational Bee- 

 Keeping " many years ago ; but still 

 I find there is something yet wanted 

 which neither practice nor theory will 

 ever solve, namely : the proof positive 

 that an uuimpregnated egg laid by a 

 queen bee can, or does produce a 

 drone. This, tome, seems uunatural, 

 for this reason : an uuimpregnated egg 

 will and must always remain an uu- 

 impregnated egg, and could never pro- 

 duce a bee that is capable of impreg- 

 nating, as from nothing nothing must 

 remain ; the greater part of this world 

 thinks that "nothing" really exists, 

 and will try witli strong arguments 

 to prove it ; but the very fact of its 

 being "nothing" would not make it 

 something, therefore would be " no- 

 where," and then, pray, where is " no 

 where ;" just fancy for a moment any 

 thing in existence without length, 

 breadth, width, depth or thickness, 

 this would be " nothing," but this is^ 

 not within the grasp of human imag- 

 ination; therefore, as I have said, 

 " nothitig " does not really exist, con- 

 sequently under this head an uuim- 

 pregnated egg of a queen bee cannot, 

 in my opinion, produce a drone bee. 

 I am afraid that we do not as yet 

 really understand the principle func- 

 tions of her nature, although that baa 

 nothing particularly to do with the 

 dollars and cents part of the bee 

 business ; although if we knew these 

 particular functions mote accurately, 

 we might be able to breed up to a 

 standard of perfection : however, as I 

 like your style of explanations, and 

 your reasonable answers given to all 

 questions put, would you oblige me by 

 answering a few through the Weekly 

 Bee Journal : 



1. Are those queen-cells built over 

 drone eggs iu a queenless colony sup- 

 posed to become the drones that im- 

 pregnate the queen ¥ I have had 

 them in tliis apiary on tlie same sheet 

 of brood that had real queen- ceUa 

 built over worker eggs at one and the 

 same time. They are easily known 

 by tlieir smooth surfaces, and the 

 drone conili on which they are built. 



2. Why do the bees provide such 

 royal drones (which they must be as 

 they are fed on royal jelly, and pro- 



