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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Wltb Replies thereto. 



lit is quite useless to ask for answers to 

 Queries in this Department in less time 

 taan one month. They have to wait their 

 t arn, be put in type, and sent in about a 

 dozen at a time to each of those who answer 

 tbem ; get them returned, and then find 

 space for them in the Jotibnai,. If you are 

 in a "hurry" for replies, do not ask for 

 them to be inserted here.— Ed.1 



Fall Crop— Feeding Granalatefi Honey. 



Query 447.— In colonies of bees run for 

 extracted honey the combs are filled with sugar or 

 granulated honey. 1. Whereafall crop iegenerally 

 good, would itbe wise to rear queens and build up 

 nuclei into full colonies to gather the fall crop ? 

 2. Will the granulated honey do to winter bee s on? 

 — Pineville. N. C. 



Yes.— Dadant & Son. 



1. Yes, if you can get your colonies 

 sufficiently strong in time. 2. It will 

 do in a moist, warm climate, but not 

 in a cold one.— J. P. H. Brown. 



1. I do not clearly understand your 

 meaning. 2. Granulated honey is not 

 safe to winter bees on in Michigan, 

 but it may be in North Carolina, how- 

 ever.— Jasies IIeddon. 



Yes, use up the sugar and granu- 

 lated honey in getting bees for the 

 fall crop.— G. M. Doolittle. 



1. The plan is good, if you can get 

 the colonies strong enough in time. 

 2. I am afraid the bees will waste 

 much of the granulated honey.— C. C. 

 Miller. 



1. I should suppose so, though one 

 can hardly advise without more 

 knowledge of the surroundings, etc. 

 2. I should suppose so, in North Caro- 

 lina. I should prefer liquid honey in 

 the North, where the bees are long 

 confined to the hives.— A. J. Cook. 



1. If you want to increase your 

 bees it will be a good way to do it. 2. 

 In my location bees winter all right 

 on granulated honey. But what are 

 you doing with sugar in the combs, 

 when you have a " fall flow " of honey 

 to fill up your hives for winter ?— G. 

 W. Demaree. 



1. Where you have a good fall crop, 

 get all the bees you can to gather it 

 with profit. 2. Bees will winter on 

 granulated honey, but well-capped 

 liquid honey is better.— H. D. 

 Cutting. 



1. If a fall crop is assured it should 

 be prepared for ; and if the number of 

 workers can be increased as yon sug- 

 gest, without too great an expense, it 

 may be advisable. 2. I have never 

 used granulated stores for winter, 

 and I do not know how it would an- 

 swer.— W. Z. Hutchinson. 



1. I have made my increase on the 

 nucleus plan iu the late summer for 

 years, allowing the bees to gather 

 what fall honey they could, and feed- 

 ing the balance with honey or syrup. 

 2. In my experience, granulated 

 honey is not safe to winter bees on. 

 The best use to make of it is to utilize 



by building up swarms with it in the 

 spring. It is as good as any food for 

 that purpose.— J. E. Pond. 



1. Yes ; if a fall crop of honey is 

 reasonably expected, it will be well to 

 prepare for it by building up nuclei 

 into full colonies. 2. Granulated 

 honey is not suitable food for winter- 

 ing bees in the North ; but it may do 

 in North Carolina, where the rigors 

 of winter are less.— The Editor. 



What Ailefltlie Bees? 



Query 448.— I lost 7 out of 10 colonies 

 the past winter. Tliey were packed with 5 inches 

 of shavings on the sides, the ends of the hives 

 being double, made of ^inch boards, with build* 

 ing paper between. The bottoms were double 

 thickness with shavings between ; the top IH 

 inches, bee-space, with wire-cloth, 3 inches of dry 

 poplar shavings, and the balance of the top filled 

 with straw, with three 1-inch holes in the top. The 

 entrances were 5-16x6 inches, open, and the 

 alighting-board leaned up, and a tight board- 

 fence 4 feel high was on the east and west. Last 

 year I increased my apiary from 4 colonies to 10, 

 took 600 full one-pound sections of honey, and a 

 multitude of partly-filled ones. Swarms were all 

 out by June in, and no honey was stored after 

 July 10, caused by the drouth. Why did the bees 

 die ?— Grinnell. Iowa. 



The data given is not of the proper 

 character to enable one to say why the 

 bees died.— W. Z.Hutchinson. 



I suspect that they died because 

 you did not put them in a cellar.— C. 

 C. Miller. 



Not knowing the exact condition of 

 the colonies, it is pretty hard to say. 

 Probably by too few bees, and not 

 sufficient stores. — J. P. H. Brown. 



If the bees did not starve, it was 

 probably the weakness of the colonies 

 that was the cause of their death. 

 The fault may lie in something that 

 you do not mention, or did not notice. 

 —Dadant & Son. 



It is a freak that they have quite 

 often, and (excuse me) no one knows 

 why. I am the most successful in 

 cellar wintering. — G. M. Doolittle. 



I suppose that they had the bee- 

 diarrhea, caused by eating pollen in 

 continued confinement.— James Hed- 

 don. 



Your method of packing was all 

 right. It looks like a case of old, 

 worn-out bees, that you put into win- 

 ter quarters.— H. D. Cutting. 



If the bees did not stop breeding so 

 early as to have none but old bees to 

 begin the winter, and were not de- 

 stroyed by disease, I could give you 

 no clue to the trouble. I am of the 

 opinion that bees only partially pro- 

 tected with packing are worse off 

 than if not protected at all. In your 

 climate 2 feet of shavings would not 

 make the hives frost-proof. I doubt 

 if such packing would exclude all 

 frost in this more moderate climate. 

 — G. W. Demaree. 



I do not think that ordinary wood- 

 shavings are suitable to pack bees 

 with. As packed, the hives were 

 little better than double-walled hives 

 with air-space between the walls, and 

 such hives do not protect much. Cold 

 killed the bees, and the heat of the 

 clusters mostly going out of the top of 

 the hives. I am against free upward 

 ventilation in out-door wintering. A 



thin, unpainted " under-cover," with 

 chaff packing above it, allows mois- 

 ture to pass off freely, but effectually 

 retains the heat.— G. L. Tinker. 



Possibly poor food ; more probably 

 long confinement with too great 

 variation of temperature. It is just 

 such experiences that make me the 

 hearty advocate of the cellar, where 

 we can surely control the tempera- 

 ture. Give the bees good food and a 

 uniform temperature from 40° to 45° 

 Pahr., and they will winter safely 

 every time. At least I think so.— A. 

 J. Cook. 



I do not know from the data given. 

 You say nothing about the amount 

 or position of the stores, or the 

 quality. I have kept my bees on the 

 summer stands in winter, in practi- 

 cally the same way as regards pack- 

 ing, and I have not lost a colony for 

 over 16 years ; except two that starved 

 in March, 1885, when I was too ill t& 

 attend to them.— J. E. Pond. 



Probably it was a case of starvatiort 

 or too long confinement, or both, per- 

 haps.— The Editor. 



Simplicity Hives for Wintering. 



Query 449.- Can bees be wintered In 

 Simplicity hives with as good results as in any- 

 other kind of hive ?— M. J. B., Pa. 



Yes, in the cellar.— G. M. Doolit- 

 tle. 



No, not in the regular single-walled 

 Simplicity hive.— Dadant & Son, 



I think so.— A. J. Cook. 



Yes, with proper protection.— G. L. 

 Tinker. 



Yes, by protecting the hive either 

 by packing or putting it into a cellar. 

 — W. Z. Hutchinson. 



I should as soon risk them as any 

 other hive in a good cellar.— C. C. 

 Miller. 



I think they can, if all the necessary 

 conditions are observed.— J. P. H. 

 Brown. 



I can see no reason why they can- 

 not, if properly protected. J. E. 

 Pond and others are very successful 

 in wintering their bees in the so-called 

 Simplicity hives.— G. W. Demaree. 



Properly stored and packed I can 

 see no reason why they will not win- 

 ter as well as in any hive under like 

 conditions.— II. D. Cutting. 



I have found that they do ; but I 

 think with a novice chaff hives would 

 be preferable, as it requires some ex- 

 perience and labor to fix up a Sim-- 

 plicity hive all right.— J. E. Pond. 



Practically, yes. The style of the 

 hive has very little to do with suc- 

 cessful wintering. Experience has 

 proven this, against all theories to the 

 contrary. — James Heddon. 



Why not V If properly protected 

 on the summer stands, or if placed 

 in cellars, after being properly pre- 

 pared for winter, bees winter well in 

 almost any kind of a hive. — The 

 Editor. 



