202 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mar. 2S, 



ought I to increase each colony to the coming year, if it is a 

 good honey year ? J. J. W. 



Mayking, Ky. 



Aksweks. — 1. For a beginner, I should say the best thing 

 is to commence on honey, and only after further experience 

 can he decide whether it will be better to run into any other 

 line. Different persons have different ability, and surround- 

 ing circumstances may malfe a difference. It may turn out 

 that you can malce more money producing honey than any- 

 thing else you can do with bees, and it is possible that after a 

 little experience you could make it profitable to sell queens, 

 nuclei or full colonies. But commence on the honey, and if 

 you have th« aptitude for it you may grow into one of the 

 other lines. 



2. If the year is good, and you don't care for honey, you 

 may have two new ones from each old one, and you might go 

 a good way beyond that, increasing each to five or six, but in 

 that case the great danger is that they will be so weak that 

 you would not get them through the next winter. Better be 

 satisfied with a moderate increase and be safe, then if the 

 season is extra-good you can have some honey besides. 



Straightening Combs — Empty Brood-Combs. 



1. My bees are in bad condition, as my father took care 

 of them, or kept them. Some of the comb is crooked and 

 some crosswise in the frames. Would it be advisable to 

 straighten it in the same way as when transferring bees ? 

 And how soon can it be done 1 



2. If honey sections are left on in the fall, and are not fit 

 for the following summer, how soon can they be taken off in 

 the spring? 



3. My brood-frames are just one foot square. If part of 

 them are empty at one end, would it be advisable to take them 

 out and insert a honey-board to keep the brood warm until 

 they get stronger and need it ? D. E. D. 



Whittington, Ind. 



Axs'WERS. — 1. Don't meddle with the frames till the bees 

 get fairly to work gathering on fruit-bloom. If only two or 

 three frames are out of shape, you can cut loose the crooked 

 parts and fasten them in straight as in transferring, but if 

 they are all crooked, you better consider it the same as a box- 

 hive. One advantage, however, over a box-hive is that you 

 can get the combs out easier. With a long knife cut loose the 

 attachments at the sides of the hive, then turn the hive upside 

 down and dump out all the frames in a lump, and you have it 

 so you cau see what you're doing. 



2. At fruit-bloom. 



'6. It will help keep them warmer, providing there is no 

 open space at the ends of the board, but only underneath so 

 the bees can pass under. 



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Gallon Crock Feeder — Sugar for Feeding. 



1. In using a gallon crock feeder, does the plate want to 

 be bottome-side up when on the hive, the same as a crock ? 



2. Will coffee A or light brown sugar do for stimulating, 

 as well as the granulated ? W. C. H. 



Answers. — 1. Put the sugar and water in the crock, put 

 the plate on upside down, then turn the whole thing over, and 

 your plate will be right side up and your crock upside down. 



2. Yes, when bees are flying every day it makes little dif- 

 ference what kind you feed, only so the bees like it. But look 

 out not to go to feeding before the bees go to flying. 



Substitutes for Natural Pollen — Rendering Wax. 



During the spring of 1894, shortly after the blizzard of 

 March, I noticed my bees were gathering pollen from some 

 source. Knowing that the soft maple bloom was all frozen, I 

 thought I would look around and see where they were gather- 

 ing their supply from. Passing by an out-building, I noticed 

 quite a number of bees flying in and out of the open door. I 

 passed in, and was amazed to see the top of a box of corn-meal 

 left open, and the bees simply carrying it off by the pocketful. 



But to-day (March 11) I was more surprised than before. 

 I was sitting near a colony which was surrounded by a thick 

 layer of clean sawdust over the ground, and on this sawdust 

 there were 23 bees at one time busily working in their efforts 

 to gather the sawdust, and they gathered it, too. Indeed, it 

 was very interesting to see them. They would first work 

 standing on the sawdust, and then when they had gotten some 



of the finer particles collected, would rise probably % or one 

 inch above the pile, and while sustaining themselves by their 

 wings in the air, would couvey the dust to their pollen-oasket. 



1. Now, what use could that sawdust be put to inside the 

 hive? 



2. Will corn meal stimulate brood-rearing if given at a 

 time when there is no pollen to be gathered? 



3. I have quite an amount of brood-combs that I wish to 

 extract the wax from. Please tell me the best common 

 method of so doing, and getting a good quality of wax, as I 

 understand that wax rendered in iron vessels is generally 

 quite dark colored. 



4. Does the color of wax generally affect the price ? 

 Weston, Ohio. N. T. S. 



Answers. — 1. It is a common thing to see bees work on 

 snwdust in the spring when no pollen is to be had. It con- 

 tains, I suppose, some of the material that's in pollen. 



2. I've fed bushels of ground corn and oats to the bees 

 when they could gather no pollen, and it probably does nearly 

 as well as pollen, but as soon as they can get the genuine 

 article they neglect the substitute. They take only the fine 

 particles of the corn and oats, and the rest can be fed to cows 

 and horses. 



3. Break them up fine while so cold as to be brittle, then 

 soak a few days in water, then extract in a sun extractor. If 

 you haven't a sun extractor it will pay you to get one if you 

 keep five colonies of bees. If you don't want to get one, you 

 can extract in this way : Take an old dripping-pan, split 

 open one corner, put the bits of wax in the pan, and put the 

 pan in the oven of your cook-stove, having the pan tip a little 

 so the wax will run out of the split corner. This open corner 

 you must have projecting out of the oven, and a dish standing 

 on the floor to catch the melted wax. 



4. Yes, bright wax will sell for a higher price. 



A Young Lady's Experience and Questions. 



My papa gave me a swarm of bees on my 16th birthday, 

 and I was delighted. I thought I would have honey to sell, 

 also a swarm or two of bees last summer. But to my aston- 

 ishment and disappointment they neither swarmed nor gave 

 me any surplus honey. But they would come out and hang 

 on the outside of the hive in great clusters, and at night all go 

 back in. They did this for weeks. What caused them to act 

 so? Do you think they had an inferior queen ? I thought I 

 would get me a new queen. Which would you advise — a Car- 

 niolan or Italian queen ? My bees were bought for Italians. 



Hadley, Mich. L. E. W. 



Answer. — Before saying wiat the trouble was, I'd like to 

 know what other bees did at the same time. It's possible that 

 the season was so bad that bees in general did nothing. I'm 

 more inclined to this opinion than to say the queen was bad. 

 For she must have been pretty faithful at laying to have so 

 many bees that they were hanging out. And that's exactly 

 what you might expect a strong colony of bees to do if there 

 was little or no nectar to gather. Unless other colonies did 

 well while this one was idle, I don't believe I'd get a new 

 queen. At least give the old one a fair trial. I think I'd 

 rather have Italians. I hope your bees will do better the 

 coming season. 



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A Colorado Sample of Comb Honey. 



I have taken the liberty of sending to you to-day, without 

 your permission, a one-pound section of honey that was pro- 

 duced here during the past season, and where the bees were 

 located is at an elevation of 7,874 feet. I see by the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal that honey is produced in extreme northern 

 climates, but I have failed as yet to see any mention of alti- 

 tude. I am aware of last year's honey-crop being short, so I 

 am willing to help out a friend (even if it be a strange friend) 

 in time of need. I have only a few colonies. 



If it isn't too much trouble for you, I would like to have 

 you tell me what the honey was produced from. I am old 

 enough to know these things myself, but this is ray first ex- 

 perience. The Rocky mountain bee-plant is quite plentiful 

 here, but I failed to see the bees working on it. The first 

 bloom here is yellow willow, next sarvisberry. and third, choke 

 cherry, and then alfalfa, but the alfalfa is several miles off. 



I will also send you a few seeds from a stalk that grew 

 near by that the bees were on early and late. The stalk grew 

 7 feet tall, and I should judge it had as many as 500 blossoms 

 at once. The smell was very offensive. The stalk mentioned 



