1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



167 



side of the cluster, be sufficient protection in 

 spring l I winter my bees in the cellar) in 

 northern Michigan? 



5. Are the unspaced frames very much "n 

 use? 



6. If I use a screen bee-escape board on top 

 of the super and raise the hive cover one inch 

 for ventilation, would that he too much? 



7 . Could I get the Dadant or the unspaced 

 frames and space them 1 X A inches from center 

 to center witli staples at top and bottom?. 



8. It" 1 use a wooden barrel to make a honey 

 extractor, will the wood affect the honey in 

 anv wav ? 



ast shore of Lake Michigan, 

 re is a steep bank about 200 

 Between this bank and the 

 narrow strip of land about 

 .vhich is heavy clay ground 

 and wild peas grow. Would 

 r here, and would the bees go 

 mile to get the nectar? 



MICHIGAN. 



Along tin- t 

 lere I live. Hit 

 300 feet high. 



distan 



Answers. — 1. Yes, they 

 are not essential. 



2. You can use staples c 



3. When enamel-cloth is 

 to rest directly upon the top-ba 

 use no cloth, having a flat h 

 rectly <>ver the top-bars, with 



then 



but the 



hingle nails. 



:d it is supposed 



rd cover di- 

 bee-space be- 



4. In cella 



ed no such protection. 



Surplus Pollen 



When we look over the colonies in the 

 spring we at times find combs nearly full of 

 beebread, old and hardened. Would it not be 

 better to take such combs out altogether and 

 give new combs, as it seems to me the bees 

 will not, or cannot, use the bee-bread plugged 

 cells unless they spend much unnecessary la- 

 bor? WISCONSIN. 



Answer. — Yes; in a bad case it is probably 

 better to melt up the comb and start afresh. 

 In some cases it is possible to jar the pollen 

 out of the comb when it is thoroughly dried. 



Moving Short Distance 



I shall have to move one of my apiaries 

 about a quarter of a mile after this season's 

 clover flow. I do not like to move the whole 

 apiary twice to do this job. How would it 

 work to move the greater part of the apiary 

 direct to the new location, leaving a few weak 

 colonies to catch the bees that return, and then 

 move these to another apiary? OHIO. 



Answer. — You could do that way, but I 

 think I would prefer this way: remove all the 

 colonies, and leave in the old place a hive con- 

 taining empty combs. The returning bees 

 would settle on these, when you could take 

 them to the new location, shake off the bees 

 in front of any colony or colonies you liked, 

 and then take the combs back to the old place, 

 repeating this until the bees gave up returning. 



Transferring From House Wall 



Will you please inform me the best and 

 most Mire way to capture a swarm of bees that 

 1-. located in a house, the entrance being a 

 crack where the porch roof joins the siding of 

 the house? The people prohibit taking off any 

 boards. 



When is the best time to do this? 



KANSAS. 



Answer. — I'm afraid I can't help you much. 

 It is barely p sible that you might manage to 

 inject carbolic acid or some other substance so 

 offensive to the bees as to stampede them en- 

 tirely, making queen and all rush out of the 

 entrance, when you might stop the entrance and 

 capture the bees. You might also capture a 

 good part of the bees by attaching a bee-escape 



to the entrance, say in fruit bloom or at the 

 beginning of clover bloom, getting them to 

 settle on a frame of brood or an empty brood- 

 comb. This could be given to any colony you 

 like, and the performance repeated about every 

 TO days. 



Honey on a Virginia Island 



I want to know about the location, sources 

 of nectar and your advice in general. The 

 place is Chincoteague Island, Accomac County, 

 Virginia, situated on what is known as the 

 eastern shore of Virginia, extreme northeast 

 corner of the State. 5 miles from the mainland, 

 you might say in the ocean. It is an island 

 containing 7 square miles, with another ad- 

 joining containing about 4 square miles; both 

 have lots of pine forest, some black gum, holly, 

 oak, cedar, persimmon and a few locusts on my 

 place. The 3Sth degree of latitude is just 

 north of both islands. Blackberries and other 

 berries that I do not know the names of; also 

 an abundant growth of wild flowers that bloom 

 in spring, summer and fall; also some fruit 

 bloom. No clover or buckwheat grow wild, nor 

 are they cultivated. No bees on the place, 

 only bumblebees, as far as I know of. Only 

 uncultivated plants, etc , for the bees. 



What do you think of it for a back lot api- 

 ary? If it is good, and I should succeed, I 

 would eventually cover the whole acreage with 

 a few colonies placed elsewhere than at my 

 home, and plant clover if I could get it to 

 grow on so low an elevation — about 4 feet 

 above the sea level on an average. Once in a 

 while (about 5 to 7 years) the place is flooded 

 with salt water from the ocean; only the 

 highest points left out. Fortunately my place 

 is one of them. 



My idea is to start with about 4 colonies, us- 

 ing Jumbo 10-frame hives, and running for 

 chunk honey, as the demand there is most 

 favoraDle for that kind of honey. I will buy 

 what extracted I have a market for. 



I was told that it would be a good location 

 for a queen breeder, for pure stock. 



VIRGINIA. 



Answer. — I don't know enough to say 

 whether your prospective location is a good one 

 for bees or not. I should be a little afraid 

 that the pasturage is not of the best kind, but 

 it may be better than I think. Your plans are 

 all right if you only have the nectar. If you 

 are counting on a continuance of some years, 

 it might pafy big to scatter widely seed of 

 white and sweet clover. I don't know whether 

 clover will grow for you, but should be very 

 hopeful of sweet clover. Even if it should 

 grow poorly at first, it might be increasingly 

 successful in time, and it might be a good 

 thing to apply to the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture for material to inoculate the seed or 

 the soil. In one respect there is a possibility 

 that you have struck a bonanza in one thing 

 you have mentioned. If you become an ex- 

 pert at rearing queens you are all right for 

 that business, even if you cannot get very 

 good crops of honey, for if there are no bees 

 on the island that you cannot control you are 

 sure of pure mating, a thing that very few 

 can boast of. Under the conditions mentioned 

 you could guarantee absolutely pure mating, 

 and that's perhaps half the battle in queen- 



Virgins — Moisture — Old Combs 



1. What kind of honey in flavor and color 

 does the Scotch broom give. My bees are 

 busy on it as long as it is in bloom, but there 

 are only three or four bushes in my reach. 

 One beeman, two miles away, near a fair patch, 

 gave me a sample that he says his bees gath- 

 ered from this Scotch broom. Very thick, 

 wine or cherry color, a little strong in taste to 

 me, but pleasant to others who tasted it. 



2. In requeening, what is the proportion of 

 satisfactory to unsatisfactory virgins? 



3. In maintaining two queens, one above an 

 excluder, has anyone ever introduced a queen 

 to the upper story without waiting for one to 

 be hatched? 



4. I have the 10-frame dovetailed hives. 

 One, upon examination this spring, had mois- 

 ture dripping and the inner cover of the 

 metal cover was swelled tight, and the other 

 hives had nothing like this. The entrances 

 were cut to 5 inches. 



5. Do the brood-combs ever have to be 

 thrown out, or how long are the bees able to 

 use the t .ue combs? WASHINGTON. 



Answers.— 1. I have never heard of this 

 honey before, and perhaps it may be left for 

 you to find out about it and tell the others. 



2. Likely you mean what proportion of vir- 

 gins become laying queens. I don't know; pos- 

 sibly three-fourths, although sometimes much 

 less. 



3. Yes. 



4. Perhaps this hive was closed more tightly 

 nn top than the others. 



5. I don't know that they ever become too 

 old, if the combs are good and straight. 



Pollen — Louisiana for Bees 



1. When bees are gathering abundant pollen 

 do they gather less nectar for their use? 



2. Is Louisiana a good State for bees. I am 

 here first year LOUISIANA. 



Answers. — 1. When bees go afield they 

 gather nectar in most cases without any pollen. 

 They may gather both nectar and pollen, and 

 for all I know they sometimes gather pollen 

 without any nectar. A bee that carries a 

 heavy load of pollen would hardly be expected 

 to carry as much nectar as it would if it had 

 no pollen. But it should not be forgotten that 

 it is just as important to have pollen as nectar; 

 and if a bee should never carry anything but 

 pollen, it is doing its full share toward secur- 

 ing a honey-crop. 



2. I think it is so considered. 



Bees From Trees — Strong Swarms 



1. Is there any way of smoking bees out of a 

 bee-tree? How? When? 



2. Is there any danger of not getting the 

 queen? 



3. Is there any way of attracting stray 

 swarms? NEW JERSEY 



Answers. — 1. They can be gotten out by 

 blowing enough strong smoke,, or putting in 

 enough carbolic acid or other substance offen- 

 sive to the bees. If the object is merely to get 

 the bees there could be no better time than 

 in the spring, before much or any brood is 

 present. 



2. Unless all the bees are gotten out there is 

 danger that the queen may be among the last. 



3. In a number of cases I have had stray 

 swarms occupy empty hives standing in or near 

 the apiary. 



Sorghum for Bee Feed 



1. Do you think that real good quality, nice, 

 clear, light colored sorghum molasses would 

 answer as winter stores for bees, or if not, 

 how would it do if mixed with sugar? 



2. Is there any preference between the white 

 and yellow varieties of sweet clover as honey- 

 producing plants, as to growth of plant or 

 yield of nectar?. ILLINOIS 



Answers. — 1. I don't believe that it would 

 be well to have even a very small quantity of 

 molasses in the bees* winter food. 



2. Yes; the white is preferred. Both are 

 good. 



Dead Brood — Requeening 



1. When I took my bees from the cellar this 

 spring I found one dead colony. I think star- 

 vation caused their death. On one frame I 

 found a patch of dead brood about the size of 

 the palm of my hand. This brood was sealed, 

 but the caps were not sunken; the dead brood 

 gave off no smell and was not the least bit 

 ropy. This colony was short of stores in the 

 fall, so I fed them about 5 pounds of honey. 

 When I put them in the cellar they had brood 

 in all stages of development. What do you 

 think caused the dead brood? 



2. Would it have been better if I had re- 

 moved the brood before putting in the cellar? 



3. What do you think of introducing queens 

 by smearing with honey, as advised by F. M. 

 Baldwin on page 200 of the June, 1918, 

 American Bee Journal? 



4. Would the first part of July be a good 

 time to requeen ? We have a good fall flow 

 here. MINNESOTA. 



Answers.— 1 The brood probably did not 

 die till the bees died, and then it chilled to 

 death. 



2. There was probably some wrong condition 



