522 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Aug. 15, 



take the frames with brood, bees and honey in the second 

 story of the hive ? Will the queen go down in the lower 

 frames all right ? Also, could I do the same with the other 

 hive that I have not transferred? The bottom-board is loose, 

 and it will go inside ofthe Langstroth hive. W. H. 



Huntington, Pa., July 29. 



Answer. — The queen would be likely to go down and lay 

 in the lower story when the upper story is so crowded with 

 brood and honey that she no longer has room to lay there. It 

 is doubtful, however, whether that will happen this year. 

 Still, if you have a heavy fall flow it might be. At first when 

 she goes down, there will be brood in both stories, and that 

 will continue so until the upper story is filled with honey. 



Hoarhound and Nervine. 



1. Please tell me if bees gather good honey from hoar- 

 hound. I have a large patch of it, and the bees work on it as 

 if it was linden. 



2. Also nervine — a tall flower or weed that has a stem on 

 top of the stalk, with blue flowers on it also. What quality 

 of honey does it produce, as the bees are swarming on it ? 



Bees are doing e.xtra well here in this locality this year. 

 Moscow Mills, Mo., July IS. J. W. K. 



Answers. — 1. It rather seems to me that I have read of 

 its being bitter. But if so, it ought to be good for medicinal 

 purposes. 



2. I don't know about this. 



What Were the Bees Doing P 



I was watching my bees July 5, and saw at one hive two 

 bees come out of the entrance. They were to all appearance 

 fighting ; one seemed to be trying to get the other away from 

 the hive. At last they flew into the air and separated, and 

 both flew back to the hive. I then watched the rest of my 

 hives, and they were doing the same thing. It does not look 

 like robbing, and, besides, there is a good honey-flow. What 

 do you think they were doing ? H. C. T. 



Answer. — I could tell better if I could see the bees, per- 

 haps. I've sometimes seen bees do something of that kind 

 when I could see no reason for it. I suppose there may have 

 been something objectionable about the bees that were being 

 dragged out, or they were in someway imperfect. When bees 

 work on milkweed they get their feet stuck up with the pollen- 

 masses, and the other bees may try to drag them out. 



Closed-End Frames —Frames Crosswise of the Entrance- 

 Bottom-Boards. 



I want to use a 10-frame hive (closed-end frame) for ex- 

 tracted honey, spaced l?s inches, with top and bottom bars 

 1 1/16 inches wide, all made of ;.< inch stuff. A saw-kerf is 

 cut in one edge of each end-bar — see Mr. Miunick's frame on 

 page 249 of the American Bee Journal. In my frame the 

 zinc runs from top to bottom of the end-bar, and the other 

 edge of the end-bar is not notched, but is straight and full to 

 the bottom. This is not my " invention " — I am simply bor- 

 rowing Mr. Minnick's idea and applying it to the closed-end- 

 bar frame. The zinc projects U' inch from the edge of the 

 end-bar. The frames rest on strips of sheet-iron nailed to the 

 bottom edge of the end-boards of the hive, with a ^s-inch bee- 

 space above the frames. I have only one hive made, and 

 won't make any more till I am assured that the plan proposed 

 herein might work well. 



Now Mr. Craycraft says, on page 789, that his frames 

 are crosswise the entrance of the hive, hives only 8 inches 

 apart, and he manipulates from the back of the hive. I like 

 this very well, but if the hive be raised an inch or two at the 

 back, the combs will be out of plumb, likewise the supers. 



Mr. T. I. Dugdale says, on page 247, that his hive is 

 made with bottom-board ^a of an inch below the frames at the 

 back, and 1 li inches below the frames at the front. Now by 

 using a thick cleat under the bottom-board at the back, and 

 a thinner cleat under the front part of the bottom-board, the 

 hive and combs will be plumb, and the bottom-board will have 

 a downward slant toward the entrance, and this is what I 

 would like, too. Then I would have them in good shape for 

 wintering on tlie summer stands, by packing in between and 

 around with chaff; with a narrow roof for shade in summer, 

 and well boarded up at the back for winter. But Dr. Miller 



says, on page 11, that the distance below frames should be % 

 of an inch. I have been watching the Bee Journal for com- 

 ments on Mr. Dugdale's bottom-board, but seeing none, I must 

 now appeal to you, hoping you will be so kind as to answer 

 the following questions : 



1. Did you ever use closed-end frames as here described? 



2. Do you think there will be less jarring and snapping 

 in taking these frames out, than if they were all wood? 



3. What objection is there to having frames crosswise of 

 the entrance ? 



4. Will the bees build ladders or hummocks on the Dug- 

 dale bottom-board? 



I would like to see something on Question 4 from Mr. 

 Dugdale, whose valuable articles in the American Bee Journal 

 I have read with so much pleasure and instruction ; and I 

 would like, also, if Mr. Craycraft would let us know if his hive 

 bottom-boards are level or otherwise. A. A. D. 



Answers. — 1. I've used closed-end frames, but lot made 

 in the way you describe. 



2. Yes, and it will take less prying to get them apart. 

 They will also have the advantage that after a year's use the 

 frames will take about half an inch less room than if the end- 

 bars were all wood. 



3. The objection you have already noticed, that they can- 

 not slant from rear to front, is one. Another is, that bees 

 cannot so directly reach any frame in the hive. 



4. I have had many hives with the bottom-bars % of an 

 inch above the bottom-board, and hummocks were always 

 plenty. I should expect many on the Dugdale bottom-board, 

 but possibly none toward the front end where the bees might 

 not think it worth while to try to build to such a height. But 

 I don't know that there's anything so very bad about such 

 hummocks. Messrs. Dugdale and Craycraft will please note 

 the questions asked of them. 



IVIaking Wax — Feeding Pollen — Dragging Out Young 



Bees. 



1. Can wax be made of combs filled with brood and pol- 

 len ? If so, what is the method ? 



2. Can pollen in old combs be fed to bees in early spring ? 

 8. I transferred a colony, drumming the bees into a box, 



and shaking them at the entrance of a hive partially filled 

 with foundation. I failed to find the queen. After tearing 

 up the old hive, I fastened the brood from it in a frame, and 

 placed it in the new hive. I find that the bees are dragging 

 the young bees out as they hatch. What is the cause ? I fed 

 some syrup after transferring. F. C. E. 



Cany Hollow, Va., July 17. 



Answers. — 1. Yes. By the sun wax-extractor is a good 

 plan, but by any ordinary means you'll not get a great deal of 

 wax, for the cocoons in the old combs act like sponges to soak 

 up the wax. Perhaps you better leave them till cold weather, 

 so they will be brittle, unless you can make them cold enough 

 now. Then break them up fine, and soak them in water for 

 two or three days. That soaks the cocoons full of water so 

 they cannot hold any wax, and then you can get the wax out 

 by almost any method. You will find pretty full instructions 

 on page 490. 



2. Y'es, if it has been well kept, and is not too sour or 

 moldy. 



3. Hard to tell without fuller information. Possibly 

 worms have been troubling, and the young bees are imperfect. 

 Possibly some injury was done to the brood in transferring, 

 making the young bees imperfect, and a bee that is not per- 

 fect is likely to be hustled out without ceremony. 



A Cannon-Iioad of Questions on Swarming and Other 

 Hatters. 



Friend Miller : — I am going to turn a whole cannon- 

 load of questions on to you, and I don't want yon to fire back 

 at me a lot of " don't knows," for I want to know. 



1. On June 17, 1895, I had three second swarms and one 

 prime swarm to cluster together. I hived the most of them 

 in with a weak colony (which for convenience we will call No. 

 1), and the rest in No. 2. The next morning I found two 

 dead queens in front of No. 1, and at 10 o'clock another, and 

 inside was a queen running around, piping just the same as 

 they do before a second swarm, only there was no queen in a 

 cell to answer. Do the bees kill the extra queens, or does one 

 of the queens kill the others, and she was piping while she 

 was looking for more ? I have united swarms like that lots 

 of times, and never heard any piping afterward. A neighbor 



