1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



761 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. C. lUILLER. IklARENGO, ILl^. 



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



Starting in Bee-Keeping. 



I should like to have some advice about entering into the 

 bee-busines9. While I don't suppose it is your business to 

 start men in this line, I thought you might advise me as to 

 finding out the proper way to begin in a small way. 



Lynnwood, Va. S. H. L. 



Answer. — Whew ! That's a pretty big topic, and it might 

 be answered a good many ways, depending upon circum- 

 stances, and also depending upon the person. As to all these 

 I know nothing, don't even know whether you're red-headed 

 or bald. 



If your idea is to keep a few bees on a farm, that's one 

 thing ; and if you mean to go into the business as a principal 

 means of obtaining a livelihood, that's another thing. But 

 I'll give a few hints as to what I'd do if I wanted to make a 

 thorough business of it. I think the first thing I'd do would 

 be to get a good text-book on bees and read it through very 

 carefully. Don't try to remember all that's in it, just try to 

 understand it as you go along. There's a good deal of time 

 from now till next spring, and you needn't greatly hurry. 

 After you've read the book through, I hardly know of any- 

 thing ijetter you can do than to read it over again. If you 

 are interested in the reading it won't do any harm to read it 

 a few times more, and perhaps get one or two bee-books more 

 to read. After you've read the book through about the sec- 

 ond time, you'll find a bee-paper very interesting reading, if 

 indeed you have none already. 



Toward spring you'll begin to cast about to see where 

 you'll get your start in bees, if you have none yet. If you had 

 asked the question in the spring I'm not sure but I should 

 have said to get the bees the first thing, but as you will do 

 best not to get the bees before spring, you may as well be im- 

 proving the time in the meanwhile, and you'll be just that 

 much ahead. 



If you get the bees near by for a reasonable amount, that 

 will probably be the best way, for expressage costs a good deal 

 if you get them from a distance. If you cannot get them near 

 by, consult the advertisements and price-lists as to getting 

 them from a distance. 



But it's a good while till spring, and after you've done 

 two or three months reading you'll have a good deal more in- 

 telligent idea as to what you want to know, and will be in 

 position to ask directly for what you want, so at that time ask 

 all the questions you like, and I'll answer to the best of ray 

 ability. 



Whence Came Those Queens ? 



A colony of bees cast a swarm June 2, which was hived 

 on full sheets of foundation on the old stand. On Aug. 4 this 

 also cast a swarm in my absence. The queen being clipped, 

 they returned to the hive, and on my arrival I gave the queen 

 a frame of brood and placed her beside the old hive. August 

 12 a large swarm came out, but returned and clustered on 

 one corner of the hive. These all entered the hive but about 

 a pint. Thinking they would all go in, I went to dinner, but 

 they went to the woods. 



After dinner I examined them, and finding two empty cells 

 I carefully cut out the remaining ones, and closed the hive. 



August 14 they came out again, and were hived on full 

 sheets, and placed beside the parent colony, but in about two 

 hours they came out and returned to the old stand. August 

 21, again swarmed, were hived, but returned as before. 

 August 25 those bees came out again, and were hived as be- 

 fore, while I started in to find why they would not stay in the 

 hive. I found three or four empty queen-cells, and some yet 

 unhatched, but no worker-brood. I cut out all the cells and 

 returned those bees to the hive, and there they are to this 

 day. But whence came those queens ? D. L. M. 



Tidioute, Pa. 



An.swer. — Your question is something of a puzzle. In 

 more ways than one, for some two months ago you sent it to 

 me and I puzzled no little to know where I should answer it. 

 Your letter had no signature, no place, no direction as to 

 what paper you wanted the reply in, and nothing legible in 



the postmark except the State. I knew very well some one 

 was probably saying some hard things about me for not mak- 

 ing reply, but please tell me what I could do. 



But now to your question. First let us get the facts be- 

 fore us. 



Aug. 4, a prime swarm issued. 



Aug. 12, a swarm issued and returned. 



Aug. 14, ditto. 



Aug. 21, ditto. 



Aug. 25, a swarm issued and returned, when empty cells, 

 and cells yet unhatched, wore found left in the hive. 



According to the appearance of things, there was no lay- 

 ing queen in the hive after Aug. 4. On that date a prime 

 swarm issued, taking with it the old queen. Eight days later 

 an after-swarm issued at about the usual time for the first 

 after-swarm, and for some reason returned — not an unusual 

 thing. The repetition of this on the 14th was nothing un- 

 usual. Not so common was the occurrence on the 21st and 

 25th, but these might be easily accounted for by saying that 

 the bees went out with the queen on her wedding flight. 



That accounts pretty easily for all the queens in the case, 

 but I'm afraid you'll ask me to account for the qneen-cells iu 

 the hive Aug. 25. I confess I don't know. I can give a 

 guess, although not a very satisfactory one. It is not an un- 

 common thing for bees to allow queen-cells to remain without 

 being torn down for a good many days. So the cells you found 

 empty on the 25th may have been left from the 12th or 14th. 

 As to the cells still occupied the 25th, there is a bare possi- 

 bility that you were deceived as to their being occupied. Bees 

 often fasten down the cap of a cell after a young queen 

 emerges, making it look exactly like a good cell containing a 

 young queen, and if you simply cut out the cells without ex- 

 amining them, they may have been of this sort. But you can 

 probably tell whether that was so or not. 



Another guess is that a small stray swarm with a queen 

 entered the hive at some time, and the queen was killed after 

 being allowed to lay merely the eggs that were in the queen- 

 cells. Indeed, it would be nothing impossible for the old 

 queen to have swarmed out of the nucleus and returned to 

 the old hive. I once had a case of exactly that kind. If she 

 did so, finding the colony in a swarming mood, it would be 

 nothing strange for her to lay eggs in queen-cells, then swarm 

 out, and there is such a possibility as her returning to the 

 nucleus on swarming out. That would satisfactorily account 

 for the presence, Aug. 25, of cells occupied and unoccupied. 

 If any one has a better guess, I yield the floor. 



Wintering Bees — Keeping Mice Out of Hives. 



I have three colonies in Simplicity hives with loose bot- 

 toms, with 8 frames nicely filled with honey^ I wish to win- 

 ter them in the cellar, which ranged from oO- to 30- last 

 winter. I left the hive-bottoms on last winter, and the bees 

 began to crawl out of the hive wet as rats. The part of the 

 cellar they were in was pitch dark, but well ventilated. 

 About the middle of March I had to carry them out on the 

 summer stands. I raise the hive about a foot from the cellar 

 bottom. If I leave the bottoms off the mice will destroy them. 

 Would I better put screen on and the hives on scantlings set 

 on bricks about one foot from the cellar-bottom, to exclude 

 mice, or put the screen on the hive before carrying them in? 

 Should I use fine or coarse screen ? Is the plan good ? I can't 

 be sure of getting rid of the mice as they appear after I think 

 I am rid of them. I hang carpet around the hives to make it 

 dark, and let in air every day. The thermometer registered 

 40° to 45- most of the time. 



If I take off the hive-bottoms, and try to carry them out 

 in the spring, would the bees fly out and make a bad mess ? 

 Is there any other plan that is better? Should I tack the 

 wire on the hive, and remove it when I put them out in the 

 spring ? J. M. Q. 



Syracuse, N. Y. 



Answers. — Y'ou must fasten the mice out of the hives, 

 but you mustn't fasten the bees in the hives. They'll not 

 stand that. So any screen you use must be close enough so 

 mice can't pass through, and coarse enough so bees can easily 

 pass through. The kind I use has three meshes to the inch. 

 Make a shallow box about an inch and a half or two inches 

 deep, the same width as your hive, and about three inches 

 longer than your hive. No cover to it, and let one end be 

 open. Set the hive on it, letting the open end of the shallow 

 box project at the front end of the hive. This shallow bos I 

 call a reversible bottom-board, for in summer I turn it t'other 

 side up, and it makes a good bottom-board for summer. You 

 can fasten hive and bottom-board together by means of what 



