THOUSAND ANSWERS 275 



emptying one side only partly, reversing and extracting the other 

 side, and again reversing to empty the iirst side. 



Q. If I wire the shallow 6-inch frames, can I use extra thin 

 surplus foundation in them? How many wires ought I to put in, 

 and where should they be? 



A. I fear you could not use extra-thin without four or five 

 wires. You could probably use thin surplus foundation with two 

 horizontal wires, one two inches below the top-bar and the other 

 one and one-half to two inches lower. 



Q. Is it necessary for frames to be wired? 

 A. Not absolutely necessary, but better, to have the combs 

 strengthened by being supported by wires or foundation splints. 



Q. Is vertical wiring as good as horizontal? If not, why not.' 

 A. That depends. If top and bottom-bars are sufficiently 

 rigid, vertical wiring is as good or better. With vertical wiring, 

 the wire must be drawn tightly, and unless a bar of some kind is 

 in the center to hold top and bottom apart, the bottom-bar will 

 be- curved upward, and if the top-bar be not pretty thick it will 

 sag. 



Q. What do you think of using wire from baled hay or straw 

 in place of your wooden splints in brood-frames? 



A. Such heavy wire would be objectionable. Only very fine 

 wire is used in wiring frames. 



Worms in Bees. — Q. Sometimes when I take off the lid there 

 is a worm crawling on the underside of the lid about an inch long 

 and one-fourth inch thick, gray color. Can that be some of the 

 larvae that got out of some cell, or is it some other prowling 

 stock? 



A. That worm is not an escaped larva from one of the cells 

 of brood, but "prowling stock" of another sort. It is the larva 

 of the wax-worm, which destroys combs when they are not prop- 

 erly protected by the bees. These prowlers are not worth mind- 

 ing in strong colonies, or those of good Italian stock, but when a 

 queenless colony is on hand, especially a weak black one, these 

 moth larva; finish up, like a lot of crows about a carrion. (See 

 Beemoth.) 



Worker-Bees. — Q. Can workers lay? 



A. Not as a rule; but when a colony has been queenless a 

 long time they may undertake the business, and then we have the 

 pest called drone-laying workers. (See Laying Workers.) 



