1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



281 



pounds of surplus comb honey. This I got from the first two 

 new swarms. In those days we did not have sections, but the 

 old five-pound honey-bo.xes, six to a hive, one colony tilling 

 eight of these boxes. And the finely arranged, movable-comb 

 hives had nothing to their credit excepting seven feeble 

 colonies. 



The record was taken in the fall of 1874. In the spring 

 of 1875 I had but nine of the monkeyed-with colonies left 

 out of the 13, and all six of the let-alone colonies, and all in 

 good condition. This proved to me that there was a great 

 foundation here for experimental work, and I followed it up. 



Now the reader will readily see that the heading of my 

 article is suitable for my subject — too much monkey work. 

 While we can assist Nature once in a long while, it does not 

 prove that every time we operate, or go over the same opera- 

 tion it is always the outcome of the best. We must study the 

 nature and habits of the honey-bee to become a successful api- 

 arist. It is proper to make examination inside of the hive, 

 but remember you do this at your own expense, as I will prove 

 to you plainly further on. If you wish to make experiments, 

 it is much the best way to use a colony for that purpose only. 

 After observing for five or six years, I became satisfied that to 

 go and tear up a colony of bees was a great detriment to the 

 colony, and a great loss to the bread-and-butter side of the 

 question. 



In 1886 I made an experiment on this subject. In June 

 of that year we had a good honey-flow, beginning from the 

 6th to the 2-ith. I put two colonies on two scales, selecting 

 two that tipped the scales about the same for eight days. On 

 the ninth day we opened one of the hives in the morning. In 

 the evening the colony was three pounds short. The next day 

 it was not disturbed, and held its own a little better. The next 

 day it was not opened, and it tallied nearly with the unopened 

 one. The following day I opened the other hive to see if it 

 was due to the strain of bees, but with the same result — Sjo 

 pounds short — an average of three pounds short, or a loss of 

 three pounds for opening the hive. Now, supposing I had had 

 50 hives and opened them all, I would have lost 150 pounds 

 of honey for that. Now, you will see that this will harmonize 

 with my first year's experience with monkey work. 



Knoxville, Iowa. 



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CONDUCTED BY 

 DR. C. C MILLER, 3JA.RE]ffGO, ILL. 



[Questions may be mailed to tbe Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.] 



Feeding Royal Jelly to Drone-Liarvae. 



1. Have you tried feeding royal jelly to drone-larva?, in 

 order to increase the size and add to the longevity of bees ? 

 2. What has been the result? 3. How, and at what age of 

 the larval state, is it best to feed ? Iowa. 



Answers. — I'll answer your questions all in a lump. I 

 never did any feeding of drone-larvK, and I don't know any- 

 thing about it except what I learned from Dr. J. P. Murdock. 

 He developed a large strain of bees, and says he paid special 

 attention to feeding the drone-larva? ; but what he fed them I 

 don't know. He said it took him some time to learn how to 

 feed, and in his first attempts he killed the larvas. I don't 

 know just how much larger than common his bees were, for I 

 didn't try to measure them, but I did measure some comb he 

 sent me, and there was no question about the increased size. 

 Some of the worker-cells were nearly large enough to go four 

 to the inch. 



Feeding After Transferring — Going Slow with Bees. 



1. I would like a little more light on feeding. I am trans- 

 ferring from old gums and box-hives into 8-frame dovetailed 

 hives, saving all, or about all, the brood and but little honey. 

 I save and put in all the straight comb that is not too old and 

 black, and fill the balance of the hive with full sheets of 

 worker foundation wired in. Of course I feed some after 

 transferring for several days, or until they seem to be able to 

 shift for themselves. The question with me is, will it not pay 

 to feed them granulated sugar syrup and help them fill up 

 their eight frames and get to work upstairs iu the sections by 

 the time for white clover, and thereby trade them syrup for 

 comb honey ? 



2. I have agitated the Alsike clover question in this sec- 

 tion, selling seed at cost, and thereby secured 60 or 70 acres 

 sowed within two miles of my apiary. Is not that amount a 

 pretty good base of supplies for my 26 colonies and their in- 

 crease for next year ? I believe it does not bloom the first 

 year, or but little. I also had 20 pounds of sweet clover seed 

 scattered in by-places within l}o miles. 



I have no doubt but what I am the man Mr. Abbott refers 

 to on page 2o5. He advised me to go slow, when he was here 

 last fall ; but what in the name of the board of trustees would 

 I do with 75 acres of Alsike clover, great patches of sweet 

 clover, and plenty of white clover, with only two colonies of 

 bees ! I would be in as bad a fix as the old backwoods farmer 

 who lost .S2,000 in one year by not having enough hogs to 

 eat up the acorns! 



I have made some mistakes already, and paid for them, 

 and probably will make more and pay for them. My selection 

 of the dovetail hive may be one, but I haven't found it out 

 yet. In a few years hence I may look back and wish I had 

 taken Mr. Abbott's advice, and gone a little slow ; but my 

 present bee-fever isn't the slow type of the malady. 



Russellville. Mo. L. G. C. 



Answers. — 1. Theoretically, it would look as if there 

 were millions in it, but sometimes things don't pan out all 

 right in practice. I saw a statement somewhere lately from 

 Christopher Grimm, a man of largo experience, saying he was 

 satisfied after trial that spring feeding did not pay. Of course 

 every one knows that feeding to prevent starvation is good, 

 but beyond that the case is not so clear. Several things are 

 to be considered. May not the feeding prevent them from 

 getting stores from natural sources at the time of feeding. 

 Sometimes bees are getting a good bit of honey when you don't 

 know, perhaps, of a single plant that's yielding. If you feed 

 enough to crowd the queen at any time, that's worse than 

 wasted. If you give so much that it will be crowded Into the 

 super to make room in the brood-nest, that's worse still. Go 

 a little slow on it, and leave some without feeding, and see 

 how the two compare. And at the same time I believe it 

 might be a good plan for you to leave some without transfer- 

 ring, and see how the outcome compares with those trans- 

 ferred. Then if you want you can transfer three weeks after 

 swarming. 



2. You've done a big thing in getting that Alsike planted. 

 As to numbers, I should say to you, if you should ask me : 

 " Bro. Abbott is right. Go slow until you have more experi- 

 ence. You'll find it an easy thing to get up to 50 or 100 

 and then drop down to nothing." But if one of your neigh- 

 bors should ask me behind your back, I should say: " Yes, 

 that man C. is a headlong sort of a chap. Still, a man that 

 has snap enough to get his neighbors to put in so much Alsike 

 clover for him is not likely to be caught very badly." Let's 

 know how you come out at the end of the season, and also 

 next spring. 



^ I m 



Question on Removing Sections from the Hive. 



On page 153 I asked the cause of the sections in the 

 lower super pulling apart when removing them from the hive. 

 You can infer from the question that I have a great amount 

 to learn about bee-keeping. I have used the Simplicity hive 

 for several years without anything between the super and 

 brood-frames. I did not know until I began reading the Bee 

 Journal that anything was needed between them. I am going 

 to use another hive for swarms this season. Can I do any- 

 thing- with the Simplicity hives to prevent the bees from fast- 

 ening the sections and brood-frames together. 



I stated before that I had one colony that had not cast a 

 swarm in four years, from which I took 75 pounds of tine sec- 

 tion honey last season. This is a colony of hybrids, in a 10- 

 frame two-story Simplicity hive. My bees are all hybrids. 

 All wintered well, but none are as strong as this colony. 



Hannibal, Mo., April 8. S. W. S. 



Answer. — Y'es, you can manage to have very little trouble 

 in the Simplicity with sections being built fast to the brood- 

 frames. You have failed again to tell us what kind of super 

 you use, but in any case you can have your sections left all 

 right by having between the brood-frames and the super a 

 queen-excluding honey-board that leaves a space of '4' inch 

 between the honey-board and the sections or super. It isn't 

 even necessary to have it queen-excluding. The Heddon slat 

 honey-board has no excluder zinc about it, being simply a 

 number of slats about an inch wide with a space of 'V between 

 them, having a border so constructed that a space of '3 is left 

 between this honey-board and the sections. Possibly it might 

 be better to have the space V4 instead of %, both between and 



