THOUSAND ANSWERS 113 



Q. How long is it from an egg to a bee? I mean liow long 

 after the egg is laid till it is a full-grown bee? 



A. For a queen, IS or 16 days; for a worker, 21 days; for a 

 drone, 24 days. 



Heartsease. — Q. My bees have done well in this part of South- 

 ern Kansas this season. There is no trouble in wintering here, 

 as they have a flight nearly every week. I expect to move to 

 south-central Iowa this fall. Will my bees winter successfully 

 there on heartsease honey, or would it be better to extract the 

 honey from the brood-nest and feed sugar syrup? In 1905, some 

 of my bees died of dysentery wintering on heartsease honey and 

 not being able to take a flight for about six weeks on account of 

 the severe weather. 



A. It is possible that heartsease honey was not to blame for 

 the trouble of 1905. Surely thousands of colonies have wintered 

 on it, and it has not had the name of being bad for winter food. 

 My bees wintered well last winter, and I think a good share of 

 their honey was heartsease. 



Hive-Stand. — Q. Which is better, a hive-stand a couple of feet 

 high, or one a few inches high, with the entrance-board slanting, 

 so that in case the clipped queen went out to swarm she could 

 crawl back in the hive again and thus not be lost? 



A. For you it may be better to have the hive quite low. Where 

 certain kinds of ants are bad (generally in the south), it is well 

 to have the hive on legs so that by means of dishes of oil or water 

 the ants may be prevented from getting into hives. 



Hives. — Q. I would like to know if there is a book on making 

 hives? 



A. I know of no such book. 



Q. I am not a young man in years, but am young in the 

 knowledge of bees. I keep bees only for the honey I can get. 

 What use is there for me to use patent hives when I know noth- 

 ing about them? Why is not my old-fashioned gum with a good, 

 big, plain box-cap just as good for getting the same amount of 

 honey in a season as the patent hives? 



A. Let me say, first, that most of the hives in use now by 

 practical beekeepers have no patent on them, the patent on the 

 Langstroth movable frame having expired many years ago. So 

 your question probably is : What advantage is there for you in 

 movable-frame hives over common box-hives? Perhaps there is 

 no advantage. It depends upon circumstances. The movable- 

 frame hive is no better for the bees than a box-hive; in general 

 not so good. It has really only one advantage over a box-hive, 



