202 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



Answers. — -1. Others have come out ahead 

 oh American foulbrood, why nol you? Of 

 course you can cono.uer it, although it may be 

 in surrounding apiaries and you may have re- 

 utbreaks. .Aside from the danger from 

 surrounding apiaries, none of the ten treated 

 this year should be diseased next year. 

 2. I should not hesitate to use biv< 

 had contained American foulbrood, and per- 

 majority would agree with me, al- 

 though some would prefer to scorch the in- 

 the hives by burning straw in them. 

 As to the frames, it's such a job to clean them 

 I i use again that 1 believe I would 

 rather use new frames. 



Moths 



Kindly give your opinion about tin vitality 

 of moth worms in the cocoons. A friend of 

 mine had a colony of bees die last fall. He 

 examined them the other day and found live 

 worms in the cocoons. I did not think it pos- 

 sible but he had witnesses to prove it. We 

 have had a few days of zero weather, and 

 many days of cold. I have found it takes 

 much more to kill the cocoons, but had sup- 

 posed plentv of disulphide carbon would kill 

 them. If freezing won't kill them, why do we 

 always say combs are safe after freezing? It 

 has always been mv experience they were. 



MISSOURI. 



Answer, — -Those worms must have been 

 wrong in their upper story. Any right-minded 

 larva of the bee-moth ought to know enough 

 to succumb to freezing. Seriously, I should 

 hesitate about giving up a rule for a single 

 exception, and I think this is the first time I 

 ever heard of live worms being in combs that 

 had been frozen. In spite of the zero weather, 

 is it not possible that in some way there was 

 enough protection so that there was no freez- 

 ing in the center of the hive? Yet there is a 

 possibility that there may be rare exceptions 

 to a rule heretofore considered without ex- 

 ceptions. 



Hive-Stands — Bottoms — Records, Etc. 



1. On page 134 of "Fifty Years Among the 

 Bees" I read of how you boil T-tins in lye 

 water to clean them. Do you think it would 

 be all right for wood separators and for supers, 

 or would it be injurious to the nails? 



2. Wouldn't it be good to make hive-stands 

 as you describe them in your book, page 88, 

 and nail a cleat about an inch square on top, 

 in front and back, for the hives to rest on to 

 prevent the hive-bottom from lying fiat on so 

 large a surface? 



3. I am running for extracted honey. Will 

 it be all right to let the queen go into the 

 super all summer, or is it better to have a 

 queen-excluder between all the time? 



I. What do you think is a fair price per 

 gallon to extract honey for my neighbors with 

 a two-frame extractor? 



5. Would it be unlawful for me to make 

 Standard dovetail hives with excelsioi 



6. Do you think a 2 inch deep botfc 



deep for outdoor wintering, or will it 

 De all right? 



ol lie cool in the hive at night 

 if I have an entrance at each story, 



it on page 185 in the book? And 

 i i it i ains, will I hav< {•■ go 



and shove them in place so the water won't 

 run in the hive? 



I sent for some Italian 

 .■I put the 

 cages in the hives on the frai 

 brood. M bees did not gnaw 



off the pasteboard on the end of the l I I 



pasteboard had holes in it. but the bi 



m with bi e glue Whal do you think 

 matter? 

 9. Would like to havi j ou show tl i 

 of a colony a> you have it in your record book, 

 so I will 



tLLINOIS. 

 Answers.- i li does no harm to supers or 

 (in separators of wood 

 curl up badly unless m under 



2. It seems it should work well. 



generally agreed that it i^ ' 

 use the excluder. 



4. I don't know that there is anything for a 



standard. At present prices for skilled labor 

 it should be enough to pay you at least 50 

 cents an hour, and if you have many bees of 

 your own to care for it may nof pay you at 

 that. 



5. I think there is no patent to prevent. 



6. It will be all right. 



7. During the time that supers are on the 

 hive the weather is so warm that no harm 

 comes from these openings, but if a cool spelf 

 of several days should come it is easy to lay a 

 little strip at the opening. I have never known 

 any harm come from the rain, although, of 

 course, it must enter at times. 



8. That must be a very unusual occurrence, 

 and it may be that there was not sufficient 

 candy to reach near enough the holes in the 

 pasteboard. 



9. As you will see at page 38 in the book 

 you have mentionel, an important thing in the 

 record book is to keep track of the queen and 

 the surplus from her or her antecedents. Early 

 in the season the amount of brood is noted, 

 as also the number of broods taken or given. 

 Anything unusual may be entered, hut the en- 

 tries are comparatively few for the average 

 colony. I've been looking through one of my 

 record books to find something that would be 

 a fair sample for you, but no two are alike, 

 and they vary so greatly that no one of them 

 would give you a very full idea. However, 

 I'll give you one of them: 



5-12 ,q cl 4 br; 5-29, br in 7; 6-30, 9 br; 7-9, 

 Dem; 7-18, exel; 7-27, kc above. 



Short as that is, it might need a good deal 

 of explanation. It may be read thus: May 

 12 I found the queen was clipped, and there 

 were 4 frames of brood. May 29 there was 

 brood in 7 combs. June 30 there were 9 

 brood. July 9 I Demareed the colony, putting 

 all but one brood in the fourth story. July 18 

 I put an excluder over the first story. (The 

 queen had presumably gone up through the 

 two stories of extracting-combs into the fourth 

 story and I put her down and kept her down 

 with the excluder.) July 27 I killed cells in 

 the upper story. 



Sections — 20-Frame Hives 



1. A few of my supers are for section. Is 

 it necessary to have section holders to sit sec- 

 tions in or on, or can I set sections on the 

 excluders? 



2. Suppose a fine, large swarm of btes were 

 put in a 20-frame hive and a 20-frame super on 

 top; later on, as they need same, another 20- 

 frame super added; would they swarm before 

 it was all full? 



'■:'• When they did swarm, would it be large? 

 I. 1 wonder what beekeepers up north think 

 of it being swarming time here in sunny 

 l . ., 



■ Why does -r. Miller not advocate the use 



tit on hives? 

 6. Is there anything at all in a honey- 

 suckle bloom or in a cape jessamine bloom for 

 lues? Both are very fragrant, yet 1 have 

 never seen bees working on them. TEXAS 

 Bi i >■. ill fill e< - if they 



are merely set on an excluder, but you will 

 I it a satisfactory way. Better have 

 some kind of a section-super; but you do not 

 need an i i ludt i H j qui set tions are filled 

 with worker foundation 



2. Likely thi n woul I 1- no sw li ming. 

 3 it i swarm should issue, il would likely 

 be large. 



! ers envy you your ad- 



yet if all of them should 1 i 



Texas it would be rough on northern frt 



to fi rtilize the fruil hi 



5. In in\ locality I think it costs lei 



new hives occasionally than to keep the old 

 inted, and 1 think unpainted hh 



'.\ inter while in the eel- 



6. I think the honeybee cannot reach the 

 nectar in these flowers. 



Transferring — Syrup for Bees — 

 Roaches 



1. I have 35 stands of bees; 15 are in old 

 hives or square boxes that I recently pur- 

 chased. Would it be advisable to transfer 

 them middle of April? All have plenty of 

 -i ores 



2. I have about 20 gallons of maple syrup 

 that is a little old for table use; would von 

 advise the feeding of this to bees after boiling 

 and skimming? I have some in patent hives 

 that need feeding. 



3. Some of my hives have roaches in them; 

 how do you get rid of them? 



MARYLAND. 

 Answers. — 1. You can transfer during fruit 

 bloom; although it may be still better to wait 

 till they swarm, put the swarm in the new 

 hive on the old stand, the old hive close beside 

 it, then a week later move the old hive to the 

 opposite side of the old one, and two weeks 

 later still break up the old hive and unite the 

 bees with the swarm. 



2. It may do to feed it, but look out not to 

 get it in the surplus. 



3. Don't allow any place where the roaches 

 can be sheltered against the attacks of the 

 bees. The use of quilts allows a nice, shel- 

 tered place for roaches and ants. 



The Blessed Bees 



Some years ago I had a copy of a book en- 

 titled "The Blessed Bees," written (I think) 

 by a Mr. Allen, who was located on a lime- 

 tree belt in Ohio. It was the record of a few 

 years' work of a successful beekeeper. The 

 book was, unfortunately, lost, and I shall be 

 glad if you can let me know where a copy can 

 be obtained. Kindly let me know, also, your 

 opinion of the book. IRELAND. 



Answer. — I think the book is out of print, 

 and I don't know where a copy could be had. 

 It was a well-written piece of fiction, yet 1 

 think it contained nothing impossible. 



A Beginner 



1. I have been studying beekeeping all my 

 spare time for a year or so. I have read your 

 "Thousand Answers to Beekeeping Questions" 

 twice, and it will be as interesting to read it 

 again. Do you think I will make a success at 

 beekeeping? 



2. I am buying 5 colonies of bees at $5.00 

 each. I would rather go in for extracted 

 honey, but I have some comb honey sections 

 and supers, etc., and will get some with bees; 

 will use full sheets of foundation in sections. 

 Can I fasten them sufficiently with the Parker 

 fastener, and with V wax tube? 



3. We are going to move south this fall, 

 probably west Tennessee, Arkansas or south- 

 eastern Missouri. Is west Tennessee between 

 the Tennessee river and Mississippi river any 

 good for beekeeping, or is the ground too 

 poor? 



4. The only objection we have to this coun- 

 try is the long, cold winters and frosts in late 

 spring and early fall. For bees to work on 

 here we have, first willow-maple; flowers, clo- 

 ver, wild cherry, raspberries, blackberries, 

 buckwheat, peas, goldenrod, etc. Would you 



I. r this a good bee country? 



5. Most farming beekeepii^ around here use 

 only 1-inch start) rs in »< i tions and in a good 

 year they expect to get 50 pounds, oi 95, 

 maybe, sometimes 100. Should I get mon Oi 

 course they have had experii II have 

 not. 



II. 1 want m> bees In make just .1- 1 h 



as they possibly can, and yet yet 

 a good swarm from each hive. Had I 

 bettei lei them swarm naturally and then hive 

 them, as you so often explain, putting swarm 

 mm old stand, "Id hive bi side it. and moving in 

 ■ ild hive?j 



7. ( H" i ourse l 1 '.in quite a risk ol lo ling the 

 iwarm when I may be working in the field It 

 I do lose the swarm, then how can l keep 

 them from swarming as 



8. It I had some experience I would swarm 

 them artificially, or divide, or something. 

 \\ hi< h 1 



0, 1 ani borrow 1 ng t hi monej to buy the 

 hives and supplies and want to be sure of 

 getting a 1 1 op, n there is anj to gel 



io \v,;i the Novice 01 Cowan two-fi ■ 1 

 tractor '.' take .1 regular Hoffman 



1.1 ood 1 Kim'- 



11. ben ] go in for extracted h u 

 I bettei use 2 stury or same si/.i- extracting 

 frames as brood? MK IIK.AX. 



