516 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Wltb Replies thereto. 



[It is quite uselesi to ask for answers to 

 Queries In this Department in less time 

 than one month. They have to wait their 

 turn, be put In type, and sent in about a 

 dozen at a time to each of those who answer 

 them ; get them returned, and then find 

 space for them in the Journal. If you are 

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

 them to be inserted here.— EdO 



Frames Partly Filleil w itli Pollen, 



Query 456.— What is the best way to 

 treat frames that are partly filled with pollen, to 

 such an extent that no honey is stored in one- 

 third of the cells ?-F. E., Texas. 



Use them for early spring breeding. 



— G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Put them to one side till early 

 spring, and they willuse it in brood- 

 rearing.— H. D. CUTTIKG. 



Give them to a breeding colony. If 

 the pollen is too old, you can only 

 melt them up.— Dadant & Son. 



Put them into the middle of the 

 brood-chamber in the month of June. 

 —James Heddon. 



My plan is to hold over such frames, 

 and then place them in the hives in 

 early spring, and let the bees clean 

 them out.— J. P. H. Brown. 



Leave them for the bees ; they need 

 this pollen. I have never had too 

 much pollen in my hives.— A. J. 

 Cook. 



In this locality I have never known 

 bees to gather more pollen than they 

 could proatably make use of; and we 

 often get frames of comb having ap- 

 parently too much pollen.— G. L. 

 Tlnkbr. 



Keep them until spring, and then 

 give them to the bees. Their places 

 may be tilled with frames of founda- 

 tion, and the bees fed if necessary.— 

 W. Z. Hutchinson. 



It depends upon circumstances. In 

 my locality I only need to give such a 

 frame to a good colony, and it will be 

 properly taken care of. If many of 

 them, one or two could be given to 

 each colony.— C. C. Miller. 



Keep them until spring, and give 

 them to colonies that need stimulat- 

 ing to produce early brood. We are 

 not troubled with excess of pollen in 

 this section, and have no trouble 

 whatever in getting all that is stored 

 worked up into young bees.— J. E. 

 Pond. 



Exchange them for combs in the 

 brood- nests that have no pollen in 

 them. I have frequently lost honey 

 by putting combs partly filled with 

 pollen in the cases to have honey 

 stored for the " honey machine." Bees 

 will not remove the pollen from the 

 combs when storing surplus. In the 

 spring of the year, when the combs 

 are mostly empty, both stored away, 

 and in the brood departments, they 

 should be sorted out and the pollen- 



filled combs should be put in the 

 brood-nests. The bees will clean out 

 the pollen if for nothing more than 

 to give room for the brood. I simply 

 " swap " the pollen-fllled combs for 

 combs in the brood-nest that have no 

 pollen In them.— G. W. Demareb. 



Give them to the bees when they 

 are rearing brood.— The Editor. 



Bee-House for f interinE. 



Query 457.— I want to arrange a bee- 

 house for wintering bees. The house is built, and 

 it is 7x9 feet inside and 6>6 feet high ; and has 

 boards and siding on the outside, and lar paper 

 inside. On the south side is a glass wall or front. 

 1 am going to put in a wall 4 inches from the inside 

 of the glass wall, of flooring, and seal it, and have 

 a double door. This will now be sedled all over 

 with tar paper between the walls. Then 1 will put 

 common building-paper all over, ceiling and all. 1 

 will put a 4-incn ventilator at each end of the 

 house. Will this make a good bee-house ? or would 

 it be better to cover the glass front over? I 

 thought by leaving it and putting a 4-inch wall in- 

 side of it, it would warm the house greatly, and be 

 a good thing. There will be no window in it, but 

 will be perfectly darit.— Herman, Wis. 



It will make a good repository.— J. 

 P. H. Brown. 



We have no experience with bee- 

 houses for wintering. We prefer a 

 bee-cellar.— Dadant & Son. 



For Wisconsin I should much pre- 

 fer a cellar. See page 439.— A. J. 

 Cook. 



I think you will never regret mak- 

 ing the constructions you describe, 

 unless on account of expense. — James 

 Heddon. 



The heat secured as the result of 

 the glass side, if there should be any, 

 would be too variable. From the 

 earth is the place to get heat for a 

 bee-cellar in winter.— W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson. 



You are treading on comparatively 

 new ground, and will take some risk 

 in making the experiment. I should 

 feel a good deal safer with the bees 

 in a good cellar.— C. G. Miller. 



I have never used a bee-house, but 

 judging from the reported experience 

 of those who have, my opinion is that 

 they are not worth the expense of 

 their construction, as the interest on 

 the money invested will pay for 

 losses. I speak, however, from my 

 own standpoint only, and have win- 

 tered my bees on the summer stands 

 for years without loss.- J. E. Pond. 



Such a house as you describe would 

 not be frost-proof in zero weather, 

 and unless you resort to artificial 

 means to keep up the temperature to 

 about 45°, your bees had better be 

 wintered on the summer stands. Any 

 one acquainted with the " reports on 

 wintering bees," must have noticed 

 that cold in a cellar or bee-house is 

 more destructive to bee-life than cold 

 in the open air, that is in the bee- 

 yard.— G. W. Demaree. 



I should prefer common building- 

 paper in place of tar-paper for a bee- 

 house, and the reverse for a poultry 

 house. I would prefer one ventilator 

 8 inches (not 8 feet) in the centre 

 reaching to within 2 inches from the 

 floor. Your glass front will help 

 warm the building, but you should 

 provide some way to cover over the 



glass front in very cold nights ; also 

 when it begins to get warm in the 

 spring, old carpets would do.— H. D. 

 Cutting. 



As cold penetrates glass very read- 

 ily, it should be covered on days when 

 the sun does not shine. But we have 

 so few days in winter that the sun 

 shines out clear, that I do not think 

 such an arrangement could be relied 

 upon to keep up the temperature in a 

 bee-house.— G. L. Tinker. 



I have had no experience with a 

 bee-house, but I should guess that a 

 window should have shutters over it, 

 so that they could be closed in a 

 warm time, else the house might be 

 almost too warm. On cold, sunshiny 

 days open the shutters if the room 

 needs warming. This is all guess- 

 work, however.— G. M. Doolittle. 



That will doubtless make a good 

 winter repository for the bees.— The 

 Editor. 



Chaff PacMng over tlie Frames. 



Query 458.— Where bees are wintered in 

 Southern Michigan on the summer stands, with 3 

 or 4 inches thick of chaff packing between the 

 hive and the outer case, how many inches thick 

 of chaff should there be [ilaced over the top of the 

 frames, so the moisture may pass off freely ?— 

 Pittsford, Mich. 



Six inches.— W. Z. Hutchinson. 

 I use about 3 inches.— G. M. Dog- 

 little. 



The moisture will pass off through 

 any amount of chaff.— Dadant & 



Son. 



- I use a chaff cushion about 5 inches 

 thick, and I have no trouble with 

 moisture.— H. D. Cutting. 



The moisture will pass off freely 

 through almost any thickness of chaff 

 packing over the top. Eight inches 

 would be preferable to four, and two 

 feet would be excellent. — James 

 Heddon. 



It would depend upon the strength 

 of the colony, and the ventilation 

 above the chaff in the upper story. 

 Four inches of packing does very little 

 good here, when placed at the sides, 

 but it seems to be about right over 

 the brood-nest. — G. W. Demaree. 



I do not know, but here in eastern 

 Massachusetts, where the mercury 

 ranges anywhere from 20° above to 

 200 below Fahr., I find that 5 or 6 

 inches thick of forest leaves pressed 

 loosely, is amply suflicient, and I 

 should judge that what is good here, 

 would also be good in Michigan. — J. 

 E. Pond. 



If a thin, unpainted board is placed 

 oyer the brood-chamber the moisture 

 will pass off through several inches 

 of chaff. But if the bees are not able 

 to keep up a proper temperature in 

 the hive, no moisture will pass up- 

 ward into anything. It is the re- 

 tained heat of the cluster that drives 

 off all moisture. A thin board is the 

 best thing to retain the heat in out- 

 door wintering.— G. L. Tinker. 



The packing could hardly be too 

 thick— but 6 or 8 inches will be far 

 preferable to 3 or 4.— The Editor. 



