96 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



At this point one may imagine a 

 bright little woman arising to re- 

 mark, "So far as I am concerned it 

 is idle to discuss the matter. I sim- 

 ply haven't the strength to lift a 13- 



frame story, and I can lift an 8-frame 

 i there i< need to pile more 

 than 5 stories high, I can extract 

 enough to make room; or, I can use 

 a step-ladder or a box." 



Dr. Millers ^Answers- 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or dlract to 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Mahbngo. Ilv 



He does not answer bee-keeping Questions by mail. 



Transferring — Restless Bees 



1. I bought several hives of bees in old, 

 worn-out hives. The bottoms are nailed and 

 the frames so tight they cannot be taken out. 

 I want to move them in new hives; can 1 do 

 that by turning them upside down on top of 

 new hives with full sheets of foundation when 

 there is a good honey flow in June, and will 

 the queen and bees go down into the new hive 

 next fall? 



2 .My bees are in the cellar and all hives 

 are quiet but one. This one is very restless 

 and throws off a strong odor. It weighs 45 

 pounds, so surely has enough stores. They 

 had a heavy run on buckwheat the last half of 

 August, when it suddenly turned cool and 

 wet. Can it be that the honey was not 

 ripened enough, and soured? Would they be- 

 have that way if the queen died? But this 

 would not account for the odor. I have put 

 sugar candy on the bars, but it don't seem to 

 help. SOUTH DAKOTA. 



Answers. — 1. Yes, unless the season is a 

 failure you may expect things to turn out 

 about as you have anticipated. But if the 

 bees are left entirely to themselves after the 

 new hive is placed under the old one, you may 

 find in the fall that the brood-nest is partly be- 

 low. If the season should prove very good it 

 may be that the two stories will not furnish 

 room enough. So it will be well for you to 

 examine occasionally, and as soon as you find 

 the queen is laying in the new hive you should 

 put a queen excluder between the two stories. 

 In 4 or 5 days look to see if there are eggs 

 below, and if not you must take away the ex- 

 cluder for 2 or 3 days, when you can return 

 it if you find eggs below. In three weeks 

 after you have succeeded in getting the queen 

 shut off below, all the worker-brood above will 

 have emerged, when you can extract the honey 

 from above, or you can leave it till fall. Of 

 course you will give more room for surplus 

 if it is needed. (Would it not work better to 

 place the new hive above, instead of below?. — 

 Ed.) 



2. You don't say what kind of odor. If 

 very disagreeable, it may be foulbrood. If not, 

 queenlessness may be the trouble. It is just 

 possible that the trouble may be neither one 

 of these, for it sometimes happens that one- 

 colony in the cellar may be especially uneasy 

 when there appears no good reason for it, un- 

 less it be pure cussedness. 



Large Hives — White Clover 



1. Which hive would you prefer, the 10- 

 frame story and a half or a 13-frame hive all 

 Hoffman hives except the half story, increase 

 to be made by dividing, and all run for ex- 

 tracted honey? 



2. Does a cross between golden and 3- 

 Landed Italian ees make them cross like 

 crossing with black bees ? 



3 There was some white clover around hen- 

 last season, but the bees didn't work on it 

 much; do you cuppose there was any seed in 

 the blossoms enough to seed it for next year, 

 1919? We had some good rains in i 

 and lots of rain in November. I never knew 

 anyone to sow white clover seed; does it lay 

 over from one season to another when it is 

 real dry? IOWA. 



Answers. — 1. I'd like to be accommodating 

 enough to answer your question, but the fact 



is, I don't know. Maybe some one at Ham- 

 ilton does. 



(This will be treated separately. — Editor.) 



2. I think not. 



3. Most likely you will find a fair supply ol 

 seed has matured. Yes, the seed will lie over, 

 if dry enough, till another year. 



Increase — Cover Picture 



1. How would it be for increase in spring 

 to give another brood-chamber and feed, if 

 necessary, and just before the flow opens 

 move to a new stand and place top chamber on 

 old stand, seeing that there are eggs in the 

 queenless colony? 



2. Do bees breed in cellar in the early 

 spring? 



3. How much honey will my round tank 

 hold, 5 ft. wide, 5 ft. deep, pounds or gallons. 



4. Who are the lady and children on front 

 cover of October number? 



ONTARIO. 

 Answers. — 1. It will do all right, but it will 

 be a good while before a queen is reared. 



2. Often. 



3. About 734 gallons; 8,800 pounds of honey. 

 4: Mrs. Hillman and children, of Seattle, 



Wash. It's a very beautiful picture. 



Non-Swarming Hive 



1. Is there not a demand for a non-swarm- 

 ing hive? 



2. Could we not, by hive construction, ac- 

 cornplish a great deal to prevent swarming? 



MISSOURI. 



Answers. — 1. Yes; at least there would be 

 if such a hive were made. 



2. I don't know. A good deal of effort has 

 been made in that direction; yet it is a ques- 

 tion with what success. 



The Sheppard Plan Again 



The article beginning in the center column 

 of page 412, December, 191 S. issue of the 

 American Bee Journal is of peculiar 

 to me, and would like to have your opinion 

 on one feature of it. It is stated therein that 

 when there are two full-depth hive-bodies upon 

 each other with an excluder between and the 

 queen above with but little brood, the bees 

 will make queen-cells below. The question is, 

 what do you think of this as a probability? 



Now, in center column, page 27, January, 

 this year, "Mass.*' writes of thinking to do 

 the same thing, except that instead of an ex- 

 cluder between the two hive-bodies, he speaks 

 of a ":s-inch double hole in center of cover 

 over the lower hive," and as to that in view 

 of the abovi i red to, you revert him 



the original Demaree plan. 



While I was putting up my comb supers 

 with bait and starter sections for use this 

 coming summer (they are now all ready) I 

 had hastily taken off and temporarily put out 

 of the way these supers from their hives, and 

 i Luling them found honey that I sold 

 for $8. In one of these supers there" was a 

 lot oi lead bees right in the cells; as one is 

 apt to find or sec in brood-frames, thi 

 also honey in some of these cells; 

 that there was much staining, suggestive of 

 dysentery. My question in would you mind 

 putting sections and baits so derived on hives 

 with colonies, or had I better destroy them? 

 Of course there was nothing in the way of 

 brood in these sections; just fully matured 

 and quite a profusion of dysentery, 

 spattering. I feel satisfied that the bees died 

 after the supers were taken off. 



..>YLVANIA. 



Answer. — If a common zinc excluder be 



kelj cells will be started below. 

 If the new wire-excluder lie used, it is much 

 ely. Indeed, you would get that idea 

 from Sheppard's article were it not for what 

 1 am sure is a printer's error. The types 

 make him say. "when the new excluder was 

 used 'In bees, as a rule, would build queen- 

 cells." I am sure Mr. Sheppard meant they 

 would not build queen-cells. So, if the wire 

 excluder be used you must do as Mr. Shep- 

 pard suggests, put both an excluder and an 

 extracting-super between the two stories with 

 brood. You might also accomplish the same 

 thing by putting a sheet under or over the ex- 

 cluder, the sheet being small enough so that 

 a margin of an inch or more should be left 

 on all sides for the bees to pass up and down. 



If you will look again you will see that the 

 plan of "Massachusetts" differs widely from 

 that of Mr. Sheppard. In the one case the 

 bees are entirely separated, no bees passing 

 from one story to another; in the other case 

 there is free passage for all workers, although 

 not for the queen. In the one case half the 

 brood is with the queen, leaving the proba- 

 bility of a swarm from that half, while in the 

 other case the queen has only one brood. In 

 the one case there is no killing of queen-cells, 

 while in the other case all cells but one are 

 killed in the queenless part. Don't you think 

 the two plans are about a mile apart? 



The fact that I "revert him back to the 

 original Demaree plan" is nothing deroga- 

 tory to the Sheppard plan. I am safe in re- 

 ferring to the Older plan, because I know 

 more about it and it has been more fully 

 proven. I suspect the Sheppard plan is an 

 improvement, but I don't know. It is possible 

 that in the hands of others it may not prove 

 so successful. And in giving advice to one 

 with so raw a plan as that of "Massachusetts" 

 it is better for me to play safe and advise 

 ■ lans well proven. 



It is not advisable to use the sections con- 

 taining honey nor the dysentery-bespattered 

 ones. Those merely containing dead bees may 

 be used, and it is possible you may help the 

 bees to clean them out if the dead bees are 

 thoroughly dried. Shake out what bees you 

 can by pounding the sections flat on a table. 



Brood-Combs Above Sections 



In American Bee Journal, 1918, page 270, 

 "Swarm Preventior, as managed by Fowls," 

 may work very well for extracted honey, but 

 how for comb? 



Don't you think the bees would use some 

 wax from upper brood-combs to cap sections? 

 MISSOURI. 

 Answer. — Yes, my experience has been that 

 when brood-combs were above sections the 

 bees would cap the sections with more or less 

 dark comb, no doubt brought down from 

 above. The sections will also be darkened if 

 brood-combs are close beside them. The bees 

 will even carry up some dark comb from below 

 tu work into the cappings of sections if the 

 sections are close down to the brood-combs; 

 so it is worth while, when working for sec- 

 tion honey, to have thick top-bars in brood- 

 frames, if for no other reason than to keep 

 I lie sections white. 



Sheppard's Plan Discussed 

 i. Referring to W. J. Sheppard's article, 

 page -112 of December, on experiments with 

 variation of Demaree plan when by two or 

 rames of brood with the queen are 

 placed in another brood-body over the colony 

 with an excluder between, leaving its bees to 

 build cells in the brood-body and rear a young 

 queen, wouldn't it be well to give them a ripe 

 cell at the time of changing the queen? 



w would it work to place the queen 

 and all the brood but two frames above, leav- 

 ing two frames of sealed brood and a ripe 

 cell from a choice queen in the body below, 

 placing another body with empty combs oi 

 frames of foundation, between the body con- 



