1910 



(ILEANlNCiS IN BEE CULTURE 



•271 



melted up in a special steam and hot-water wax- 

 machine. It Is possibly true that a large-sized so- 

 lar wax-extractor might be employed for this busi- 

 ness to advantage; but if we are correct they are 

 not used in Hawaii. 



2. We know of no better way for the average per- 

 son to introduce a queen than to use some good in- 

 troducing-cage so constructed that the bees can re- 

 lease her automatically by eating out a plug of 

 candy. There are other methods that are good: 

 but this we consider the simplest and quickest to 

 apply. — Ed.] 



WHY IS THE PARENT COLONY LAZY? 



We all know that, when a colony swarms, the old 

 queen leaves the old hive, where a new queen 

 hatches, with the larger portion of the worker bees: 

 then a period of depression reigns in the old hive 

 for quite a long time in some cases, and with the 

 frequent result that the new stand in the old hive 

 does not gather very much, if any, more than they 

 are apt to need for winter stores. It appears to 

 take them the rest of the season to recuperate from 

 the effects of the leaving of the old bees. Now, may 

 we not counteract this condition, and cause the 

 parent colony and young bees to store nearly if not 

 altogether as much as the old bees with the old 

 queen, although the old bees and queen store suffi- 

 cient for themselves and our money-making sur- 

 plus so much talked of. How is it that a new 

 queen and new bees, with hundi-eds hatching every 

 minute, can not do nearly as well as the old and al- 

 most worn-out colony? Is it possible that the very 

 act of swarming so depletes the vitality of the colo- 

 ny as to necessitate the rest of the season to recov- 

 er from the effects of the same? 



Chadron, Neb., Feb. 8. Lee Card. 



[There are two or three reasons why the parent 

 colony does not equal the performance of the swarm 

 itself. First, by the time the young hatching bees 

 are old enough to gather honey the honey season 

 in most localities is over. Second, the parent colo- 

 ny has given all its working force and many of its 

 young bees to the swarm: and even if all brood of 

 the parent colony had hatched, and the bees from 

 this brood were old enough to go to the fields, its 

 force would be light in comparison with the force 

 in the swarm. There may be a virgin in the hive 

 at the time the swarm is cast, and there may be 

 only ripe cells. At best there will not be a layina 

 queen for a week. There will be, therefore, a gap of 

 seven or eight days in brood-rearing, while brood- 

 rearing will commence in one or two days in the 

 swarm. The latter, from every point of view, has 

 all the advantage. — Ed.] 



ANOTHER CASE WHERE PART OP A LOT OF HONEY 

 SOURED. 



On p. 744, Dec. 1, mention is made of part of some 

 honey that soured while the re.st did not. 1 had the 

 same experience, only my honey was three years 

 old before it showed any signs of souring. Out of 

 ten cases there were only four that did not sour. It 

 was old honey that 1 had taken out in the spring to 

 give the bees room. It was strained into a 1500-lb. 

 tank, and then drawn off into 60-lb. cans. It stood 

 in my shop, where it was good and dry; so last 

 spring I thought I would ship it and get something 

 out of it, as it was very dark, and what we call tar- 

 weed honey. It was very strong. When I opened 

 the cans of honey they spewed right out; others 

 were all right. I tasted it, but it did not taste sour. 

 I could not think what was the matter with it, so I 

 sent it to San Francisco. The commission man kept 

 it about eight months, and then wrote me he could 

 not sell it: so I paid the freight both ways, and am 

 going to feed it to my bees. Do you think it will 

 hurt them? 



Arroyo Grande, Cal., Dec. 1. M. D. Price. 



[We would not advise feeding any soured honey 

 to bees under any conditions. Soured honey is 

 good for nothing except to make into vinegar. If 

 the honey is only very slightly sour, bring it to the 

 boiling-point to prevent further fermentation, and 

 give it to bees in spring or summer for brood-rear- 

 ing. We would not give it in the fall. — Ed.] 



this country, although, as a rule, the pollen supjily 

 comes early enough to set the bees breeding. The 

 large majority of British bee-keepers are engaged in 

 the pursuit on only a small scale — indeed, with most 

 it is more of an avocation than a vocation; hence, 

 as with most hobbies, it takes up an undue propoi- 

 tion of their time; and as soon as spring appears 

 they must be stimulating. To meet the want, sev- 

 eral of our appliance dealers list a special feedei-, 

 with an apartment for pollen as well as one for .syr- 

 up. The bees can, therefore, get a supply of ni- 

 trogenous as well as non-nitrogenous food inside 

 the hive in early spring. Then they advertise can- 

 dy cakes, of one or .several pounds, nuide from su- 

 gar or sugar and honey. Into this preparation, be- 

 fore it sets, they stir a quantity of common flour, 

 rye meal, or pea flour, as a substitute for pollen. 

 Indeed, a very considerable trade is carried on in 

 this line every spring. 



A rough-and-ready but very effective plan is to 

 make a thin paste of pea flour and honey. Work it 

 well and press it down into the cells of a tough 

 worker comb. Place this comb next to the cluster, 

 flat above the frames, or lying on the floor-board if 

 there is a deep bottom space. IJees can then start 

 breeding with a full supply near at hand. As, how- 

 ever, water is an utter necessity when brood is be- 

 ing reared, and bees must fly for it, it is question- 

 able whether all this stimulation does much to ad- 

 vance the prosperity of the colony unless in an 

 emergency. 



BallindoUock, Scotland. D. M. Macdonald. 



[The fact that bees need water in brood-rearing 

 makes it advisable, when giving artificial pollen, to 

 feed it outside; that is, make the hees fly for it. If 

 they then can get at the meal they can also get wa- 

 ter. For this reason we have discouraged giving 

 nitrogenous food in the hive, mixed either with 

 candy or syrup. — I-Cd.] 



YELLOW SWEET CLOVER. 



Will you please tell me how and when yellow 

 sweet clover .should be sown? also the amount per 

 acre. Will it make good hay, or is it to be used only 

 to plow down for fertilizer? Will it grow on wet 

 soil? 



Albion. Pa. W. H. Klingensmith. 



[Yellow sweet clover should be handled the same 

 as the white. We have been in the habit of recom- 

 mending sowing the .seed in about the same way, at 

 the same time, as common clovers. It may be sown 

 with any kind of grain; and if it does not come up 

 right away it will later — that is, if conditions are 

 favorable. 



No one ever needs to be afraid of any of the sweet 

 clovers being noxious weeds. They will readily 

 yield to the plow. Plow under as you would com- 

 mon clover, and for the .same purpose, and there 

 will be no more of it in that field except, perhai)s, 

 around the fence-corners or In waste places.— Ed.] 



raising queens over strong COLONIES OK IN 

 NUCLEI. 



I know the latest system of raising queens and am 

 able to produce them successfully. If I form a nu- 

 cleus over a strong colony with wire cloth between 

 the colony and the nucleus and get a queen fertil- 

 ized and laying in the nucleus, and then kill the 

 queen in the old colony and remove the wire cloth, 

 will the new queen in the nucleus be accepted by 

 the bees in the old colony? Is this a .safe way to re- 

 queen? Or ^'ould it be better to raise the new 

 queen in a nucleus and introduce her from a cage 

 with candy, the orthodox way? 



Mount Airy, N. C. .1. E. John.son. 



[Your plan will work, but we would not advise 

 raising queens on this plan, (ienerally speaking, 

 after the cell-building stage queens should be raised 

 in nuclei on separate stands. — FlD.] 



FEEDING POLLEN INSIDE THE HIVE IN SCOTLAND. 



I was interested in your reminiscences of the days 

 of auld lang syne in your reply to Mr. F. Dundas 

 Todd, p. 123, Feb. 15, on the question of feeding pol- 

 len in hives. We practice three separate plans in 



FOUNDATION TEN YEARS OLD STILL PLIABLE. 



I have just been using some Weed foundation I 

 bought of you in 1900. It is as soft and pliable as the 

 day it was made, and as tough as parchment. 1 see 

 no reason why it should not be as good after fifty 

 years as it is now. 



Fernhill, N. Z., Jan. 3. O. R. BoSTOCK. 



[This is contrary to the lately expressed opinion 

 that foundation should always be fresh. It would 

 be interesting to know whether the bees were able 

 to draw it out as easily as they would the fresh. — 



ED.] 



