1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



29 



3. Under the conditions you name, the 

 queen would begin laying hardly later than ten 

 days after emerging from her cell; possibly in 

 eight days. I don't know how long after she 

 begins laying she reaches her maximum, and 

 wish some one would tell us. My guess would 

 be not more than i ne day. That would make 

 her at full maturity when nine to eleven days 

 old. But that guess of "one day" may be con- 

 siderably off: 



4. I don't know enough to answer defi- 

 nitely. I'm inclined, however to the opinion 

 that all the brood an average queen could pro- 

 duce up to the time of the sealing of the first 

 of it would be properly fed if a pound of 

 newly hatched bees were added. At that it 

 might be hard to prove that some of the 

 fielders did not turn in and help on the feed- 

 ing. 



Bees in Frost-Proof Building for 

 Winter 



An old patriarch in our town dreamed of 

 an idea concerning a bee-house, so he began. 

 Being somewhat of a carpenter, he did his own 

 work. He built a house 6x13x10 feet; he put 

 S inches of sawdust packing all around it to 

 make it frost proof. He left a bee-entrance 

 at the side, entire width up near the eaves. 

 His door also contained 8 inches of sawdust, 

 in other words his door is as thick as his 

 walls. He worked for weeks putting in 

 frames that were stationary. Then he placed 

 five hives of bees up near the roof, removed 

 the covers and thought his task was over, the 

 bees would do the rest, and after the bees had 

 filled it full he would swing back the huge 

 door and cut great chunks of pure white 

 honey. His hopes were futile. The bees re- 

 fused to leave their brood-chambers to any 

 great extent. 



Recently I rented his bee-house and stored 

 25 swarms for the winter. Now tell me if 

 I made a mistake. I placed a thermometer in- 

 side and he writes me it stands at . 53 degrees 

 when it is 35 degrees outside. We believe 

 the house to be frost proof. There is a bee- 

 entrance five-eighths of an inch by four feet 

 near the eaves and a small space one-third of 

 an inch under the door. Will that give them 

 sufficient ventilation? The hives all face the 

 door and on warm days he will open it so 

 they can get a flight. Or do they need it? 

 They had a good flight November 22. They 

 can't get out at the five-eighths in. by four 

 ft. entrance and the room is perfectly dark 

 with door closed. This is near Baker, Ore., 

 where it gets 30 degrees below zero at times, 

 but not of long duration, but there will be 

 zero weather now for three months. We gen- 

 erally have a Chinook wind in February; then 

 the bees get a flight. 



I averaged 90 pounds of extracted honey to 

 the colony this ye^r. I beat Dr. Miller; sold 

 it for 25 cents a pint. 



We have white clover, alsike, alfalfa, sweet 

 clover and Rocky Mountain bee plant. The 

 alfalfa meadows are covered with dandelion 

 all through May and until the middle of June. 

 The bees are generally carrying pollen from 

 the alders by the middle of March with a 

 snowdrift behind the hives four feet high. But 

 they didn't do it this year. It was nearer the 

 first of May before they got any pollen. A 

 friend of mine in Baker averaged 176 pounds 

 extracted honey, or had 6,000 pounds from 

 34 hives. We beat Idaho Mine would have 

 done as well had I stayed at home- and given 

 them room. I am working in a gold mine. I 

 even worked at mine from the time I put the 

 supers on until I extracted. We lost 60 per 

 cent of our bees last winter; gave them no 

 protection. OREGON. 



Answer. — I don't know how your bees will 

 come out. December 2 the temperature was 

 53 degrees, and if the building is frost-proof, 

 as stated, it should stand at that. As the bees 

 usually gather pollen oy the middle of March, 

 the confinement would probably be no later 

 than that, making the time of imprisonment 

 three and one-half months or less. My guess 

 would be that at a steady temperature of 53 

 degrees they should stand nicely three and 

 one-half months' confinement without need of 

 a flight. I am skeptical, however, about that 

 "frost-proof" business. Even with your thick 

 walls, the temperature will inevitably become 



lower until it reaches the average of the out- 

 side temperature, and I'm afraid that in con- 

 siderably less than three and one-half months 

 it will be down to a point where it will be 

 hard for the bees to keep up the proper tem- 

 perature in the cluster. 



If the temperature stands at 53 degrees 

 the bees should be so nearly dormant that the 

 ventilation will be abundant. If it gets 

 colder, so that the bees will be quite active, 

 I'm not so sure. If the bees have a flight 

 while in the building, that will help, provided 

 you can get them to fly and return to their 

 own hives, as to which there may be question. 



In the past such buildings have been used, 

 sometimes with success, perhaps oftener with 

 failure. 



3. A queen might be caged probably a 

 month without harm to her, but it would 

 hardly be so well for the colony to have her 

 caged more than ten days. 



Keeping Queen Below Super — Swarm 

 Prevention 



1. I have fifty colonies of bees and am 

 running my apiary for comb and extracted 

 honey. I have one shallow extracting super 

 for each hive, with Hoffman frames; top-bars 

 are one-fourth of an inch thick. In the spring, 

 when the honey flow is starting, I give each 

 colony one extracting super, then when they 

 have made a fair showing gathering honey 

 I raise the super and give each one a super 

 containing one-pound sections with full sheets 

 of foundation in each section. The important 

 question to me is, will the bees carry pollen 

 into the section, or will the queen get into the 

 comb-honey super and raise brood there? I 

 don't use queen excluders and thought per- 

 haps this comb-honey super would keep the 

 queer from going into the extracting super. 

 Would it be bette to leave the extracting su- 

 per next to the brood-chamber and put the 

 comb-honey super on it? Would the bees De 

 more apt to put pollen in the one-pound sec- 

 tions over thin top-bars than the over thick 

 ones? If you were running my apiary, 

 equipped as I am, state just how you would 

 manage it. 



2. When one doesn't want any natural 

 swarm, bow would this plan work? When you 

 find a colony preparing to swarm, catch the 

 queen and put her in a cage; then remove all 

 queen-cells containing eggs or anything else; 

 leave the queen caged for ten days, then ex- 

 amine the colony and kill all queen-cells, then 

 release the queen. Would this prevent swarm- 

 ing? Or would it be better to let the queen 

 remain in the cage for a longer period than 

 ten days? If so, how long? 



3. How long can a fertile queen be left in 

 her own hive without injury to herself of to 

 the colony. Also, where would you advise 

 leaving the caged queen.just inside the en- 

 trance under the frames, or between two 

 frames of brood, or elsewhere? 



Answers. — 1. I'm not sure just how it 

 would work to have sections over extracting 

 supers and no excluders, having had no ex- 

 perience in that line. The queen is less likely 

 to go up into shallow extracting-combs than 

 into deep ones, so you have an advanntage at 

 that point. She rarely goes up into a section- 

 super, provided the sections are filled with 

 worker-foundation. So, if the qneen has not 

 already gone up into the extracting-super when 

 a section-super is placed under it. I think the 

 chances might be good that she would not en- 

 ter the sections. If, however, there should be 

 brood in the extracting combs when they are 

 put up, the queen would likely enter the sec- 

 tions. If the sections were put on top of the 

 extracting combs. I should not expect the 

 queen to go up. In any case pollen is not 

 likely to be carried up if the queen does not 

 go up. 



You ask how I would run your apiary. In 

 these days, when the government is urging 

 food conservation and the greatest amount of 

 production, I should run for extracted honey 

 entirely, or if I should want some sections I 

 should run one or more of the strongest colo- 

 nies for comb honey entirely. 



2. Caging the queen for ten days (which is 

 better than a longer or shorter time) would at 

 least delay swarming, and in a large number 

 of cases prevent it entirely. 



Feeding Foulbrood Honey 



1. I have some honey taken from foulbrood 

 hives. It has been boiled hard for half an 

 hour with equal amount of water. I under- 

 stand this is perfectly safe to feed back to 

 the bees. I also understand that it is not safe 

 to feed it in the winter, as it is likely to cause 

 dysentery. When and how can I feed this 

 with safety. ? 



2. Should this be sealed the same as ex- 

 tracted honey for keeping some time, or would 

 it keep in an ordinary jar with paper cover? 



ILLINOIS. 



Answers. — 1. Boiling does not make it un- 

 safe for winter food, unless it is burned. But 

 unless absolutely necessary to prevent starva- 

 tion, it is best never to feed in winter. After 

 bees get to flying in spring it may be fed the 

 same as any honey. 



2. It will keep as well as any honey with- 

 out sealing, unless so thin as to sour. After 

 you have boiled it if it is thinner than ordi- 

 nary honey, allow it to continue with moderate 

 heat until it is as thick as good honey should 

 be, taking care that it does not burn. A safe 

 way is to use a double boiler. 



FOR. SALE 



FOR RENT— My home of 2J4 acres, l'A miles 

 south of Bureau, 111., on the I V. W. road; 

 6-room dwelling, work shop and storeroom; 

 barn, corncribs. chicken house and outdoor ce- 

 ment cellar; good well and cistern; plum or- 

 chard, grapes, apple, cherry, peach and pear 

 trees; two good garden plots. Fine chicken 

 farm and one of the best bee locations in Illi- 

 nois, and home of the late R. A. Elliston, who 

 was a large honey producer. For information 

 address Mrs. R. A. Elliston, 357 Grand Ave., 

 Aurora, 111. 



FOR SALE— Wishing to retire from active 

 business, I offer for sale 300 colonies bees 

 in 8 and 10-frame L. hives; 750 full depth ex- 

 tracting supers, with combs; 400 section honey 

 supers; 300 honey boards; 75 escape boards; 

 eight-frame power extractor, with honey pump; 

 four H. P. gasoline engine; saw with dado, 

 planer heads and attachments for making sup- 

 plies; a complete apiary in No. 1 condition; 

 good location. 1917 crop was 14 tons honey. 

 Will also sell my home place of ten acres, 5- 

 room house and No. 1 improvements, near to 

 a $5,000 schoolhouse. Will sell home sep- 

 arately and give terms. J. R. Marlow, 



R. D. No. 1, Weiser, Idaho. 



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