I have given my bees some rye flour, they take it first rate, for the last two days they have been carrying it in pretty freely. It is bolted flour such as the bakers use. Is it as good as the unbolted or not? I have not lost a colony yet and they all have sealed honey enough to spring them I think, but I have commenced to feed for brood rearing; feed syrup made of white sugar.
Now friend Novice, I want some advice. I want to adopt some other hive than the Buckeye, but I want a two story hive that I may procure, not box honey, but frame honey, and I want the frames in both stories alike so I may use them interchangeably.
T. B. Parker, Goldsboro, N. C. Feb. 1st, ’75.
The bolted flue flour, is just as good as the unbolted, except that the bees sink down in it. If mixed with bran or sawdust it does very well. When they can choose, bees always prefer rye and oats, to wheat flour.
Use the Langstroth frame by all means, if you are going to have a two story hive. If you have not seen the L. frame you had better have us send you a sample by mail. We should also use the Simplicity hives to hold them, for then you can have both stories also, just alike, and perfectly interchangeable. We can furnish a one story hive, frames, quilt, and all complete for $1.75, and two of these makes a complete two story hive. We decidedly prefer the L. frames for two story, on account of their shallowness, any of the other frames loom up so tall when placed one above the other. We think we have ample evidence that the Langstroth hive winters equally as well as any deeper frame in any climate.
Our only reason for giving a preference to the Standard frame over the Langstroth, under any circumstances, is that more than 10 L. frames, placed side by side, make a hive inconvenient to make and inconvenient to handle. Therefore if you are going to get your surplus above the brood combs, use the L. frame every time. The Quinby would come next to it, as it is much the same thing on a larger scale, but the American, Gallup, or Standard, are not suitable to be used two stories as a general thing. Single instances ’tis true, may sometimes seem to point otherwise, but we have gleaned the above from a large number of reports extending over several years. Any of the frames will we think, work very well on the plan given on another page by friend Joiner, but the last three mentioned would stand a little the most compactly.
Do you believe a pure Queen fertilized by a black drone will produce pure drones? and do you believe pure Queens fertilized by such drones, will produce pure stock, and do you allow such drones in your Apiary? What would you charge for—say 3 cards 4×5 inches each of drone comb filled with fresh laid drone eggs from your imported Queen, with bees enough to keep up the heat, and send by express in May next?
George K. Huffman, Effingham, Ills.