February, 1913. 



63 



American l^ee Joarnal j 



for every 20 pounds of sugar, previously dis- 

 solved in water, was stirred into the syrup, 

 and it was tal<en from tlie fire. I would 

 hardly suppose that your reversing the or- 

 der would make any difference; still it 

 might. 



Cappings Mellers 



1. Is there any melter that will do fast 

 work and not iniure the flavor of the honey 

 that goes through it ? 



2. In Feb. is. May i, and Nov. 15 (10081, is- 

 sues of Gleanings in BeeCulture there were 

 three melters described. Are any of these 

 satisfactory ? The honey that comes from 

 the melter would be put in with the rest and 

 bottled for a fine trade. Montana. 



Answers.— I. Maybe; but as the Scotch- 

 man says. "I hae ma doots." To do fast 

 work there must be considerable heat, so 

 that at least a little of the tine flavor would 

 be hurt. 



2. Carefully managed, they may be as good 

 as any. But for the finest grade of honey you 

 will likely find it best to keep out any that 

 has been heated with wax. Still. I may be 

 mistaken about this, and if experienced 

 producers say they secure honey from 

 melted cappings not at all affected by the 

 melting. I am ready to stand corrected. The 

 large experience of Editor Dadant will en- 

 able him to give valuable information. [Hav- 

 ing additional inquiries on the subject, we 

 hope to go into the matter at length in a 

 month or two.— Editor. 1 



Clipping Queens' Wings— Miscellaneous Questions 



1. If the queen's wings are clipped and 

 queen-cells are cut out every 10 days, will 

 that prevent swarming ? 



2. When a clipped queen goes with a 

 swarm and finds she cannot fly, will she re- 

 turn to the hive, if it is low on the ground so 

 she can crawl in easily ? 



3. Is the quality of honey of the Carniolans 

 better than of other races of bees ? I have 

 been told so. and that they don't gather 

 honey-dew as much as the other bees. Is 

 there any truth in the statement ? 



4. The other day a book came to me from a 

 friend in Missouri. It was Dr. Jones' book 

 on how to prevent swarming by operating. 

 What do you think of the plan ? 



5. Don't you think there is a tendency to 

 produce extracted honey instead of comb ? 

 It looks that way to me. I'",xtracted honey 

 has put the price of comb honey down so 

 low in this vicinity that it hardly pays. 



Illinois. 



Answers.-i. The clipping of the queen's 

 wings will not make a particle of difference 

 about a swarm issuing. A swarm will issue 

 exactly the same as if the wings were 

 whole. Cutting out queen-cells every 10 

 days may make a great deal of difference 

 and it may make very little. In the ordinary 

 course of events a prime swarm is likely to 

 issue when the tirst queen-cell is sealed. If. 

 at any time before this, you cut out all cells 

 that are started, the bees will be likely to 

 start fresh cells, but this second time they 

 may not wait for the sealingof cells, and the 

 oftener you cut out cells the more eager 

 they may be to swarm, so that finally a 

 swarm may issue immediately after you 

 have cut out cells. Sometimes, however, 

 cutting out cells once or twice in the season 

 may prevent swarming entirely. I think the 

 character of the bees has something to do 

 in the case, some bees being much more 

 given to swarming than others. 



2. Generally she will; but sometimes she 

 may wander off or enter the wrong hive. 



i. The quality of honey gathered from the 

 same source will no doubt be the same, no 

 matter what bees gather it. I don't know 

 whether Carniolans are less inclined than 

 others to gather honey-dew. I didn't know 

 it was claimed for them. 



4. I think that shaving off the heads of all 



sealed brood will be likely to prevent 

 swarming; but I don't suppose many would 

 want to use such a plan. 



5. The tendency toward extracted or 

 comb honey is somewhat pendulum-like. 

 Not so very long ago there were some who 

 urged that more attention should be given 

 to extracted, and iust now it is the other 

 way. Each one must judge what is best for 

 himself for his own market. The scarcity 

 of an article is generally supposed to raise 

 the price, and if all others in your region ex- 

 tract, that ought to make comb scarce and 

 high. If, however, others find they can 

 make more extracting, perhaps you might, 

 too. 



Color of Hives Overstocking— Winter Feeding- 

 Drone Comb 



1. My bees are wintering very well. I 

 think. We have been having some frost 

 every night the past two weeks Which is 

 the best, to paint each hive alike or say 

 three different colors? Paint one super 

 white, one red. and the other blue, and then 

 mix them together when they are put on the 

 hives ? Some think that when the hives are 

 all the same color the bees will lose their 

 location. 



2. Is thereany way to judge how many bees 

 to keep at each apiary? Two years ago I 

 had an apiary of 45 colonies; they gathered 

 22 cases of honey, and they had enough to 

 winter on. A bee-man told me he thought I 

 ought to keep 150 colonies here at this api- 

 ary. Would I have gotten as much honey, 

 per colony, as I did with the 4s ? Then there 

 would be theextra honey for the isocolonies 

 to live on. I would have more bees to store 

 honey, but they would have to have honey to 

 live. 



1. Which is better, to feed bees liquid or 

 granulated honey in winter putting the 

 granulated honey right above the cluster of 

 bees? 1 do not think it would start robbing 

 so easily. I leave my bees on the summer 

 stands, and close the entrances to 2 inches. 



4 Do you think it pays to put on queen- 

 excluders where one runs for extracted 

 honey ? I have an odd sized hive now. but I 

 hope to get the lo-frame standard size in the 

 near future, and want things up-to-date. 



5. How many drone-cells do you think it is 

 necessary to have in each hive? Some of 

 my hives had so much drone-comb that I 

 melted some of it up and put in founda- 

 tion. Arizona. 



Answers.— No doubt the bees are guided 

 somewhat by color, as you will easily see 

 when the sun shines brightly on the front 

 of a hive which is nearly always in the 

 shade. The bees plainly show by their hesi- 

 tation in front of the hive that they note the 

 difference. So differences in color ought to 

 be a help about recognizing their hives. But 

 I suspect that they are guided a good deal 

 more by form than by color. I have had two 

 or more nuclei in the same hive, and with 

 entrances only 6 inches apart I do not be- 

 lieve there was as much chance for entering 

 wrong hives as there would be in separate 

 hives 4 feet apart in a straight row. For in 

 the latter case all would look alike, while in 

 the case of the nuclei in the same hive the 

 entrances at different parts of the hive gave 

 the bees the advantage of the difi^erent form 

 at or about the entrance. A tree, a little 

 bush, or a post, in front of a hive will, I sus- 

 pect help more about locating entrances 

 than all the paint you can put on the hives. 



2. I have been trying for 50 years, right in 

 the same location, to learn how many colo- 

 nies could be kept without overstocking, 

 and I don't know yet One great trouble is 

 that no two years are alike as to yield. In a 

 a poor year there may not be nectar enough 

 for 25 colonies, while in the very same spot a 

 good year may give abundance for 100 colo- 

 nies. And you never can be entirely sure in 

 advance whether the year will be good or 

 bad. If the 22 cases made by your 45 colonies 

 were 22 cases of 24 sections each, that 

 would be about 12 sections per colony. If 



that was all the surplus that could be stored 

 by decently good bees, it is doubtful that a 

 larger number would have given so very 

 much more For you are right in counting 

 the honey gathered by the bees for their 

 own use, and it is generally a good deal 

 more than the amount they put in supers. 

 Suppose it takes 200 pounds per colony for 

 their own use. and that each colony yields a 

 surplus of 100 pounds. Each colony would 

 then gather 300 pounds, which would be 

 13.500 pounds for 45 colonies. Now suppose 

 the field yields 15,000 pounds. There would 

 be 1500 pounds that would go to waste, and 

 you might just as well have 5 colonies more 

 to gather it all. But suppose you plant 150 

 colonies. They would need 30.000 pounds 

 for their own use. But the field yields only 

 15.000. and so you would get no surplus and 

 would have to feed 15.000 pounds. 



3. That's hardly a fair question, for there 

 ought to be no feeding in winter. But where 

 there has been such bad management that 

 certain colonies must be fed in winterer 

 starve, then the best thing is to give them 

 combs of sealed honey. If these are not to 

 be had, and it is a question between liquid 

 and granulated honey, then like enough the 

 latter should have the preference, placed as 

 you say directly on the top-bars over the 

 cluster. 



4. As things are generally managed it pays 

 to use excluders, for without them the 

 queen will be likely to lay in the extracting 

 supers. E. D. Townsend, however, suc- 

 ceeds without excluders. When a second 

 super is needed, instead of putting it under 

 the first he puts it on top. He claims that if 

 the empty super be put immediately over 

 the brood-chamber the queen will be likely 

 to enter it promptly, whereas if it is put on 

 top, the queen will not go up through the 

 partly-filled super. 



5. 1 doubt that it is really necessary to 

 have any drone-comb except in those hives 

 which contain such good stock that you 

 want to rear drones from them. Some, how- 

 ever, believe in having perhaps 2 inches 

 square in each hive. 



Yellow 



Flowers— Yellow Honey— Requeenlng- 

 Comb or Extracted? 



1. I have been told yellow flowers tend to 

 make cappings yellow too, or. in brief, that 

 the bees will cap honey from yellow flowers 

 with a yellow capping. If this is true, please 

 explain. 



2. To requeen all or part of an apiary with 

 ripe cells from a breeder, I thought of de- 

 queening about Aug. i and introducing rioe 

 cells. The bees hatched from eggs laid by 

 the old queen from Aug. i to 14 when the 

 new queen would begin to lay), would not, I 

 think, aid materially in the harvest, which 

 is about July 10 oris to Aug. 25 or Sept. i. 

 How would this work ? and how are cells to 

 requeen with ? 



3. Editor Root, in Gleanings in Bee Cul- 

 ture, bewails the rush of producers to ex- 

 tracted honey production, predicting a 

 scarcity of comb in the near future. Should 

 this hinder or deter me from going into ex- 

 tracting if I dispose of my whole crop direct 

 to the consumers, and accompany it with a 

 printed and verbal propaganda of educa- 

 tion ? Really, if a bee-keeper is careful in 

 his producing, extracting, liquefying, etc.. I 

 can see no reason why any one should pre- 

 fer comb honey to extracted. It seems to 

 me that one big mistake of most honey pro- 

 ducers is to ship out and neglect the con- 

 sumer trade near home; however. I noticed 

 several articles in journals on the subject of 

 developing the home trade. Colorado. 



Answers.— I. 'Yes. it is true at least of 

 some flowers, dandelion, for example. I 

 suppose the bees get the yellow coloring 

 from the honey or the pollen. 



2. It ought to work all right. Requeening 

 with cells is all right, only, of course, there 



