1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



423 



berry, wild cherry, basswood, raspberry, black- 

 berry, buckwheat, goldenrod, fireweed and 

 boneset. Can you beat it? 



Can you think of a good name for my 

 apiary? MICHIGAN. 



Answer. — According to the census, your 

 county appears to have the smallest population 

 of any county in the State, 2,027. This in- 

 dicates plenty of wild flowers, indeed. Why 

 not call your apiary "Wilderness"? — C. P. D. 



Extracting 



Would it be asking too much for a brief 

 sketch of the manner in which you do your 

 extracting with reference to the two points 

 mentioned below? I am now reaching a stage 

 with my bees when kitchen methods of ex- 

 tracting are not adequate and I propose erect- 

 ing a honey house. I propose using a Dadant 

 uncapping can and running the honey from 

 the extractor into a galvanized tin or iron 

 tank, from which I shall draw it off as re- 

 quired. But I have formed no satisfactory 

 ideas as to (1) rendering the cappings. and (2) 

 disposition of the empty combs for the bees to 

 clean out. 



1. When the receptacle in which the cap- 

 pings are rendered cools, I am unable to re- 

 move the wax without breaking it badly, and 

 much of it sticks to the sides. I should like 

 to know how this rendering is best accom- 

 plished. 



2. When I replace my supers of empty 

 combs upon the hives, the bees take possession 

 and clean out the combs satisfactorily, but they 

 won't vacate, and this means a lot of extra 

 work in shaking them off again. In an out- 

 apiary this is a great inconvenience, as an ex- 

 tra trip or two is necessary. And, by the time 

 this shaking is wholly accomplished, particu- 

 larly if it be towards the end of the season, 

 the bees are in an uproar and are apt to sting 

 badly. If I pile the supers in the yard, I am 

 apt to cause robbing. I should like very much 

 to know your practice as to these two matters. 



3. How do you get the bees out of the su- 

 pers for extracting? 



BRITISH COLUMBIA. 

 Answers. — 1. When you render cappings, or 

 any beeswax for that matter, you should have 

 some flaring cans at hand, 2 inches wider at 

 the top than at the bottom. We use cans that 

 are 12 inches high and 14 inches wide at top. 

 They hold about 40 pounds of wax. We pour 

 about a quart of hot water in the can first, and 

 then the hot beeswax. Let it cool slowly, 

 and the residue will all be found at the bot- 

 tom of the cake, except such things as dead 

 bees, which ought not to be allowed . to float 

 on the wax, but should be skimmed off, in case 

 any are there. You will find that, in cooling, 

 the wax shrinks away from the sides of the 

 can. Should any part of it stick fast, when 

 cool, just turn the can over on a block and 

 pour boiling water outside on the sticking spot. 



2. This is a mooted question. Many apiarists 

 prefer to put the supers out of doors, and let 

 the bees clean them out. We do not like it. 

 It excites the bees, and, besides, the neighbors' 

 bees can help themselves, too. If you put an 

 entirely empty super between the brood-cham- 

 ber and the supers to be cleaned, the bees will 

 not remain in them, unless the weather is so hot 

 and the colony so populous that they can fill 

 that empty super with bees. Usually we leave 

 the supers on to be cleaned until our next 

 trip. 



3. We have found nothing equal to the 

 Porter bee escape, to get the bees out of the 

 super. It requires a trip to the apiary the 

 evening before extraction, but it is well worth 

 the trouble. — Editor, 



Honey Disappeared 



I have a colony of bees in a Langstroth hive. 

 I fitted a Falcon 8-frame hive and placed it on 

 top. The bees filled the 8 frames with honey 

 and had it capped nicely. When I took it off 

 today there was nothing but nice white combs, 

 but no honey. Now I want to know what the 

 bees did with it, and why they did it? 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



Answer. — I would be inclined to say that 



the colony was robbed. But you say it is 

 strong. So that cannot be it, unless you are 

 mistaken about its strength. If it was robbed, 

 there would be no honey in the lower hive 

 either. 



There is another guess, and that is that the 

 upper hive combs were not filled full of honey, 

 but were full only along the top edges. That 

 is sometimes the case when a man does not 

 look carefully or does not lift them out. 



If you say it was neither the one nor the 

 other, I am done guessing. You will be just as 

 good as myself for the next guess. 



Moths 



I am a florist and I keep a few colonies of 

 bees "for the fun of it." I double up every 

 fall to keep the number of colonies down to 

 5 or 6. I find it impossible, with my knowl- 

 edge, to preserve free from moths and larvs 

 my extra combs until swarming time the next 

 year. I keep them in a closed chest in an 

 outbuilding, but the worms are there ahead of 

 me. What can I do? NEW YORK. . 



Answer. — There is a failure somewhere in 

 your method. If the combs are free from eggs 

 or larva; of moths when put away, and the 

 chest is well closed, they will remain exempt 

 until exposed again. Perhaps your mistake 

 is to think that they do not contain any 

 traces of moths when put away. Often eggs 

 are laid on the edges of combs by moths, 

 which the bees would have removed if left in 

 their charge. 



Try a dose of carbon-disulphide spread on a 

 rag in that chest, as you put the combs in it. 

 Then give another dose in 3 weeks. If there 

 are no living moths then, there will be none, 

 for moths cannot stand a New York winter in 

 an outbuilding. 



When you take them out in spring, out 

 them in charge of colonies of bees immedi- 

 ately. 



Jumbo Hive — Demuth Winter Case 



1. While examining ray bees today (Septem- 

 bed 6), I found one colony which had one un- 

 sealed queen-cell with the larva about 4 days 

 old, but no other brood or eggs in the hive. 

 This queen was introduced in August and is 

 still in the hive. Where did the eggs for the 

 queen-cell come from, when there is no other 

 brood in the hive? 



2. How would a Jumbo hive be for co:nb 

 honey, if I put in 9 frames spaced \'/ 2 in. and 

 a division board? Would it prevent swarm- 

 ing? 



3. What do you think of the Demuth win- 

 tering case, when used with a 10-frame hive? 



MINNESOTA. 

 Answers. — 1. Your letter is not explicit, as 

 you do not state when this queen hatched and 

 whether she was introduced by you into .in- 

 other hive. Perhaps you do not mean that 

 you introduced her, but simply allowed her to 

 hatch there. There is considerable mystery 

 about this. If I am to give an opinion it is 

 that there was a queen already in the hive, 

 about ready to lay, when you saw this larva in 

 a cell. I would suggest that the egg in that 

 cell was laid by a drone-laying worker and 

 that this larva never matured into a queen, but 

 died and was thrown out, as usually done by 

 the workers in such cases. 



2. A Jumbo used as you proposed wcild 

 certainly be nearer a non-swarmer than a 

 smaller hive. But you can never be entirely 

 sure of preventing swarming. 



3. The Demuth wintering case, with -he 

 frames on end, is very good. The only ob 

 jection is the labor involved. 



winter. It would be better to let them 

 starve than to feed them on something that 

 would kill them. 



If you cannot get honey that you know to 

 be free from germs of foulbrood, write to 

 B. F. Kindig, President National Beekeepers' 

 Association, stating your case. He will per- 

 haps be able to help you out. 



Queens 



1. Can queens be reared in the same com- 

 partment with a young, vigorous queen with- 

 out them casting a swarm upon the sealing of 

 the first cell? That is, before they are strong 

 enough to require another story? 



2. About how many queens" will ten nuclei 

 mate in a month conditions being favorable? 



3. What distinction do breeders make be- 

 tween untested and select untested queens? 



4. Is it desirable to breed from a queen 

 whose bees persist in building an extra amount 

 of burr and brace comb, yet other points be- 

 ing in her favor? 



5. What are some of the criticisms you 

 have to offer in using a 10-frame hive body 

 with three bee-tight compartments; the two 

 outside ones having entrances facing the same 

 wa y? AN AMATEUR. 



Answers.— 1. Not if the colony is normal 

 and the crop promising. As a rule, the queen 

 will destroy the cells or the bees will prepare 

 to swarm. 



2. This depends upon your management. If 

 a cell ready to hatch or a virgin is inserted 

 in a nucleus, she will be likely to mate inside 

 of a week or ten days. After that it is only 

 2 or 3 days before she begins to lay. 1 would 

 say you might rear two queens a month, on 

 the average, in each nucleus, conditions being 

 favorable. 



3. A select untested queen would be one 

 that was large and very active. 



4. The building of brace combs is probably 

 due to accidental causes, hence would offer 

 no objections. But if you really have such 

 bees, it may not be advisable to breed from 

 their queen. 



5. A 10-frame hive body, divided into 3 bee- 

 tight compartments with entirely full division- 

 boards, would give less than 3 frames in each. 

 They would probably do for nuclei. 



Feeding 



I have two or three colonies of bees that 

 will have to be fed this winter. Can they be 

 fed on sorghum molasses? If not, what can I 

 feed them, as I cannot get sugar? 



ILLINOIS. 



Answer. — Molasses is death on bees in 



Size of Hives 



Up to date I have used the 8-frame hive 

 with two stories for the brood-chamber, with 

 the same result as reported by A. C. Miller 

 in the American Bee Journal. Often have I 

 found that bees gnaw down the cells in 'he 

 lower stories and often combs are found in 

 the spring with an abundance of pollen ap- 

 parently too hard for the bees to remove. 

 In consequence of this the queen goes to the 

 second story and the lower is neglected or 

 partly abandoned. This is a source of annoy- 

 ance to the beekeeper. Combs are too expen- 

 sive to melt them by the wholesale, and to 

 clean them takes time, and "time is money ' 

 Last spring I took big bunch of these combs 

 and soaked them for a whole day, then I took 

 an awl and "plowed" up the pollen, running 

 the awl through the cells near the middle of the 

 comb. Combs treated thus were pretty well 

 cleaned by the bees. However, I am apt to 

 believe that the Jumbo hive would remedy this 

 trouble considerably, because there is but one 

 story, and they are almost compelled to clean 

 up unnecessary pollen. I have always been in 

 favor of a large brood-chamber and I was 

 under the impression that two 8-frame hive- 

 bodies would ue all right, but now I see that 

 it is not the right kind of a hive. So far I 

 have made two Jumbo hives with standard 

 frames, 10 for each hive. Is this the right 

 number, or should I use more? Please state 

 exact width of a standard Jumbo hive. 



2. We winter bees on the summer stand m- 

 der a shed, protected in winter on three sides 

 west, north and east. We do not use much 

 packing at all, except a collapsible winter case 

 for each. Do you think it would be advis- 

 able to use burlap over the frames, four-fold, 

 with the cover put on loose to give a little 

 top ventilation? INDIANA. 



Answers. — 1. Bees do not usually place too 

 much pollen in the brood-combs, unless they 

 are queenless, or unless they have great op- 



