MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 275emptying one side only partly, reversing and extracting the otherside, and again reversing to empty the iirst side.Q. If I wire the shallow 6-inch frames, can I use extra thinsurplus 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 fivewires. You could probably use thin surplus foundation with twohorizontal wires, one two inches below the top-bar and the otherone 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 combsstrengthened 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 sufficientlyrigid, vertical wiring is as good or better. With vertical wiring,the wire must be drawn tightly, and unless a bar of some kind isin the center to hold top and bottom apart, the bottom-bar willbe- curved upward, and if the top-bar be not pretty thick it willsag.Q. What do you think of using wire from baled hay or strawin place of your wooden splints in brood-frames?A. Such heavy wire would be objectionable. Only very finewire is used in wiring frames.Worms in Bees.—Q. Sometimes when I take off the lid thereis a worm crawling on the underside of the lid about an inch longand one-fourth inch thick, gray color. Can that be some of thelarvae that got out of some cell, or is it some other prowlingstock?A. That worm is not an escaped larva from one of the cellsof brood, but "prowling stock" of another sort. It is the larvaof the wax-worm, which destroys combs when they are not properlyprotected by the bees. These prowlers are not worth mindingin strong colonies, or those of good Italian stock, but when aqueenless colony is on hand, especially a weak black one, thesemoth larva; finish up, like a lot of crows about a carrion. (SeeBeemoth.)Worker-Bees.—Q. Can workers lay?A. Not as a rule; but when a colony has been queenless along time they may undertake the business, and then we have thepest called drone-laying workers. (See Laying Workers.)