456 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



the whole apiary. The last thing is to fill up Nos. 1 

 and 2 with the empty frames. This plan has two ad- 

 vantages: It serves to keep the eolonies uniformly 

 strong or weak, as the case may be, and also saves 

 time. It is also a safeguard against keeping a col- 

 ony queenless for a great while; i. e., provided hon- 

 ey comes in fast enough to give one a chance to ex- 

 tract frequently. Should the queen he looked for 

 before the bees are brushed from a frame of brood? 

 I have extracted on the plan you mention, 

 and I did not see but that it worked well 

 generally. When a large lot of brood was 

 given to a very weak colony, however, I 

 think that there was, at times, a little diffi- 

 culty in a few bees caring for so much brood. 

 We afterward rather decided to leave the 

 queen and the greater part of the brood-nest 

 undisturbed. Where the brood-combs are 

 all extracted, I would a little rather see the 

 queen, to be sure she is not lost. 



RIPENING HONEY IN THE HIVE AND OUT. 



I try to ripen my honey in the hive as much as pos- 

 sible, believing it better done there than anywhere 

 else. But, how shall we manage when it becomes 

 necessary to extract every 2 or 3 days? Does the 

 process of ripening close when the capping is done? 



I think the process of ripening goes on 

 quite a while after the honey is capped over. 

 This is why old honey has that mellow taste 

 that we find lacking in the new. If you 

 want the honey ripened more, put on addi- 

 tional stories, tilled with empty combs or 

 foundation. 



EVAPORATION IN RIPENING HONEY. 



Some one please tell us how much thin honey will 

 evaporate in ripening. I have 9% lbs. of clover hon- 

 ey standing in the sun, out of doors, that has lost l'/4 

 oz. in just 10 days. I had extracted just one week 

 before Ihis honey was taken from the hive. It 

 was not thick, by any means; neither was it very 

 thin. I shall try to find out if possible the propor- 

 tion of evaporation. 



HONEY-PLANTS, AND THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY 

 BEAR HONEY. 



Will not friend Jas. Heddon, or some one who is 

 well posted in the matter, give us a list of the hon- 

 ey-producing plants, trees, etc., in this State, in 

 their order, also the time when they bloom, and the 

 kind of weather favorable to each? This, of course, 

 with your consent. 



I opened a hive to-day that had a queen 4 years 

 old. I was surprised to find 4 eggs in a cell. A good 

 many cells had 3 and 3 eggs. I found the queen all 

 right, only looking rather small. Now, is this her 

 work, or, has she been superseded by a fertile work- 

 er or drone-layer? 



Several eggs in a cell are an indication of 

 something wrong with either the bees or 

 queen. It often happens in the spring, when 

 the cluster of bees is too small to keep the 

 queen busy ; but in your case, I think the 

 eggs are all laid by the queen ; but she has 

 become decrepit from great age. She will 

 likely fail very soon. 



SALT WATER FOR BEES IN SUMMER. 



On page 296 of Gleanings 1 spoke of small sponges 

 filled with water for bees. The more I have to do 

 with water for bees, the more I am convinced that 

 they need itdviring the warm weather. Isoon found 

 that small sponges would not do, so I tried jelly- 

 tumblers that hold 12 oz. of honey. I have some col- 



onies that will not use a tumblerful in a day, while 

 others need more. A piece of board (not too smooth) 

 with the tumbler inverted upon it is all that I use to 

 give the water. I set this near the entrance where 

 the young bees can get it as well as the old ones. A 

 piece of salt, the size of a large butternut, dissolved 

 in a pailful of water, appears to be about the thing 

 to suit them. I found last spring, that it required 

 about half a pail of water per day for 12 colonies. 

 Now, who can tell the amount of time and hard labor 

 that is saved each worker-bee by this little kindness 

 on my part? I ff)und, by watching one colony, that 

 the amount of water consumed caused 15 air-bubbles 

 to rise to the top of the water in one minute. 



I agree in regard to water for bees, but I 

 am not fully satistied in regard to the im- 

 portance of salt water. 



OLD queens versus YOUNG ONES. 



Are the bees and queens raised from an old queen, 

 as good as those raised from a young one? At what 

 age is a queen most valuable? 



I can not answer positively, but I am in- ^ 

 clined to think there is little difference, pro- 

 viding the mother-queen is in full health . 

 and fertility. ■ 



EXTRACTING OFTEN TO GET LARGE YIELDS. B 



Will extracting often, cause the bees to store 

 more honey; and will it pay In the end? 



I am quite certain that we get much more J 

 honey by extracting as often as the combs 1 

 get pretty well filled. A great deal of time 

 is lost by any colony when they are allowed 

 to till every last crack .nnd crevice before 

 more room is given them. Terhaps adding 

 successive stories might answer the same ^ 

 purpose as extracting often, and this plan 

 enables us to get the honey fully ripened. 



RELATIVE PROFIT ON COMB AND EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Iffdn.be used in the brood-chamber and in the 

 sections, and if extracted honey is worth 10 cents, 

 what should comb honey bring, to give an equal 

 profit? F. A. Palmer. 



McBrides, Mich., July 31, 1882. 



Under the conditions you name, I should 

 say comb honey ought to bring 14 or 15 cts. 



OUR NEW BELL GLASSES FOR HONEY. 



Those cylindrical glasses I got of you some time 

 ago are now filled with the most beautiful honey. I 

 fear there may be some difficulty in getting the 

 comb to adhere to the top of the vessel sulflciently 

 to be retained in position, especially in the larger 

 glasses. The comb in my 9-inch glass has dropped 

 down in a body, without leaving scarcely any trace 

 of where it was stuck on by the bees. 



R. McCrory. 



Jerome, Union Co., O., Aug. 8, 1882. 



To be sure,ihe honey will slip down, or at 

 least it is very likely to, friend M., unless 

 some other support be given than the smooth 

 glass. In our drawings, an upright waxed 

 stick is shown in the center ; and besides 

 this, I would reccommend a board bottom to 

 the glass, to be lifted off the hive with them, 

 and which remains a permanent fixture. If 

 the bees are admitted through a two-inch 

 hole in the center, and this hole is placed 

 over a similar hole in a clean honey-board, 

 the whole can easily be lifted off arid raised 

 up a little until the bees have all gone out, 



