42G 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 4, 



CONDUCTED BY 



liR. C. C. MILLER, AIA.REXGO. ILL. 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.! 



May Be Foul Brood. 



I want some information in regard to foul brood In bees. 

 On May 6 I hived two swarms of bees for a neighbor living '4 

 of a mile from me, and on Saturday, June 15, I was at his 

 place removing some honey for him, and on e.xamining the 

 two swarms hived Muy 6, I found one of them in a condition I 

 could not account for, they having built comb on but 5 frames, 

 and them from half the length of the frame to sheets not 

 larger than my hand, every cell being filled with brood or 

 eggs, but the brood was all dead, the unsealed brood having a 

 light brown appearance, and the cappings of the sealed brood 

 was all sunken and full of small holes, from one to four holes 

 in each, and the sealed brood had shrunken to not more than 

 half the natural size of sealed brood, the heads being dark 

 brown, and the bodies pale green. Now what I want to know 

 is, what is the matter with them ? and what can be done with 

 them ? Can it possibly be foul brood ? 1 have never heard of 

 /oul brood in southern Illinois. W. E. W. 



Benton, III., June 17. 



Answer. — I'm afraid foul brood has something to do with 

 the case, and I don't think this is the first that has been in 

 southern Illinois. See if the dead brood is somewhat stringy, 

 so that when you stick a toothpick in the cell and withdraw it 

 the dead matter strings out. If there's only a single case I 

 should promptly burn up the whole business — bees, combs and 

 hive. If you want to study up the management of foul brood 

 look over former numbers of the American Bee Journal, or 

 perhaps, better still, send 25 cents to the Bee Journal office 

 for Dr. Howard's pamphlet on foul brood. 



Wants to Feed Grape-Jvuce to Bees. 



Can I profitably use my second crop of Muscatee grapes 

 by crushing the grape and feeding the grape-juice to the bees 

 for comb honey ? or by dipping the grapes first in lye, and 

 rinsing after this process breaks the skin and hastens the 

 drying process, and will cause the grapes to sugar early if 

 immersed in the lye long enough? I expect to have six or 

 eight tons of second-crop grapes to dispose of in this way, or 

 feed them to the hogs. I prefer honey, any way, to pork, but 

 doubtless the bees would leave the hogs all they needed. If 

 this plan is practicable, I shall be glad of any suggested means 

 whereby I may carry it out. A. R. G. 



Merced, Calif. 



Answer. — I shall have to leave this question for some one 

 with experience in that direction. If I were obliged to guess, 

 I should say you couldn't get good comb honey from grape- 

 Juice, and I should be afraid it wouldn't be good for bees to 

 winter on. 



Swarming Interfered with by Cool Weather. 



If bees are preparing to swarm, and have capped queen- 

 cells, what will they do if a cold, rainy spell comes ? Will 

 they swarm when warm weather comes again, if that happens 

 between the fruit-bloom and sweet clover, when little honey 

 is coming in ? G. S. S. 



Norwood, Ohio, May 18. 



An.swer. — Nobody under the sun knows what they'll do. 

 Most likely they'll give up swarming and destroy the cells, but 

 sometimes when you feel pretty sure of that they'll go right 

 ahead and do the opposite. 



What Made them Swarm ? — Clipping Queens. 



1. This spring I had one colony of Italian bees. I divided 

 them May 20, and sent for a queen the same day. I put the 

 old queen with the new colony. I received the queen May 25, 

 cut out all the queen-cells, and introduced her in a cage, and 

 let her in with the bees May 28. In three or four days I had 

 a swarm come from the old hive where I put the new queen. 

 I had her wings clipped, and the swarm came back and went 

 into the hive they came out of. I put the queen with them. 



and they have staid all right since. Now what do you think 

 made them come out so quick after being divided ? 



2. Do you think the new queen is out of the cell at the 

 time of swarming ? If so, how long would it be before she 

 would be mated and laying? When would be the proper time 

 to clip her wings? W. N. D. 



Danbury, Conn., June 10. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know for sure, but I can make a 

 guess. When you made the division, queen-cells were started, 

 and you afterward cut out these queen-cells all but one that 

 you missed. In 11 or 12 days from the time you made the 

 division the queen was ready to come out of her cell, and the 

 colony swarmed. When you returned the swarm the bees 

 took it into their heads, for some reason, to retain the old 

 queen, and the young one was destroyed. 



2. At the time a prime swarm issues there is nothing 

 more than sealed queen-cells left in the old hive, and the 

 young queen may be laying in 10 or 15 days. But don't you 

 go to clipping wings until you find eggs present, and know for 

 sure the queen is all right. 



Queens Getting Through Excluders. 



I said in a whisper that queens were not always barred by 

 excluders, and here's a man who thinks I needn't say it so 

 softly : 



Dear Dr. Miller: — One can safely shout it from the 

 house-tops, that young queens will go through queen-exclud- 

 ing zinc, with no danger of successful contradiction? I have 

 lost eight swarms in the last 10 days, all passing through 

 queen-traps. I took a swarm from a tree to-day, and hived 

 them back through the trap, and found two queens with them. 



Brookewood, Va., June S. F. T. Brooke. 



Why the T Super is Preferred. 



You claim you prefer the T super. We would like to know 

 why. Do you think the bees will enter them quicker, or is 

 the honey sweeter ? I have not used them. I use the No. 2 

 dovetail S-frame hive. C. H. A. 



Answer. — No, the bees will not enter T supers quicker, 

 nor is the honey in them any sweeter. But the sections will 

 go into them quicker, and come out quicker, and the same 

 super will take sections of a dozen difl'erent widths. They may 

 not suit the bees any better, but they suit me for convenience 

 in handling better than anything I ever tried. But I may yet 

 find something better. 



Planting Basswood Seed, Alsike Clover and Buckwheat. 



1. When is the best time to plant basswood seed ? 



2. Is Alsike clover a valuable houey-plant? When is the 

 best time to sow ? Can black bees work as well on it as 

 Italians? 



3. How is the locust as a honey-producer ? 



4. When is the best time to sow buckwheat for bees ? 

 New Hampton, Mo. M. T. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know. I planted quite a lot one 

 spring and not a seed grew. If I were to try it again, I'd 

 plant in the fall, or about the time seed is falling off the trees. 

 I suppose the self-sown seed is planted about that time ? 



2. Alsike is very valuable as a honey-plant. Blacks work 

 on it as well as Italians. Sow the same lime as other clover. 



3. Good. Perhaps there isn't often a great deal stored 

 from it, because it comes when so much honey is used for 

 brood-rearing, but it's none the less valuable on that account. 



4. Probably the same as farmers would consider the best 

 time to raise a crop of grain. In latitude 42-', somewhere in 

 the last half of June or the first part of July. 



What Caused the Trouble? 



To-day when I went in the apiary I saw plenty of bees fly 

 like a swarm around one hive that never before gave any 

 signs of swarming. On going near I saw that the bees came 

 out of the hive, but they were going in like a swarm going 

 back, having lost their queen. They were not robbing, and 

 many stopped outside in a bunch. A few hours after, I went 

 again, and saw plenty of bees dead in front of the hive. I 

 opened it, and found it full of brood and bees. Two queen- 

 cells were started, one queen-cell being open, but no eggs in 



