1910 



(4 LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURP: 



Heads of Grain 



from Different Fields 



Disinfecting Hives and Frames ; Honey Vinegar. 



1. Is not boiling water sufficient to disinfect foul- 

 brood hives and frames? 



2. Can a super of dry combs that has been on a 

 foul-brood hive be used with safety? 



3. I.ast spring I had a few colonies that showed 

 foul brood; but after they swarmed and the new 

 queen had ooninienced laying it disappeared. When 

 a new swarm is placed on full comb.s. why would 

 they not work as well in two supers or hive-bodies, 

 with full foundation, as one? 



4. How can I make honey vinegar? 1 put several 

 gallons of honey-sweetened water in a crock last 

 fall, and it is now just as sweet as ever. 1 have a 

 good deal of very dark honey which is not readily 

 salable, and 1 should like to make it into vinegar. 



5. Is there any way to restore soured honey? 

 Fenwick, Mich. C. W. Sanders. 

 [1. It is doubtful if boiling water splashed into the 



hives would be sufficient: but frames should be 

 boiled at least twenty minutes, and we would rec- 

 ommend one or two hours to make sure. We 

 should much prefer to disinfect the hives by means 

 of a flame from a gasoline-torch or burning a little 

 straw inside of the hive, so that every portion of the 

 inside of the hive and the entrance and alighting- 

 board will be blackened but not charred. 



2. Yes and no. In the great majority of cases, 

 empty combs from a super above a foul-broody col- 

 ony will not carry di.sea.se; and as there is always 

 danger, we would advise putting such combs in 

 some particular hive and keeping watch of them 

 there. If you wish to be on the safe side, melt the 

 combs up and substitute clean frames with founda- 

 tion. If the rendering be done properly the price 

 secured from the wax will buy new foundation. 



3. A swarm can just as well be placed in two su- 

 pers or hive-bodies of combs as in (me — no advan- 

 tage in using two unless the colony is very strong. 



4. Your honey water was probably too sweet. 

 The late K. France, who used to make considerable 

 (luantities of honey vinegar, determined the degree 

 of sweetness by putting in the mixture of honey and 

 water a fresh egg. If the egg would float so as to 

 leave just a spot above the liquid about as large as 

 a ten-cent piece he pronounced it about right. Mr. 

 G. D. Black uses an ordinary hydrometer. This 

 should sink, he says, into the liquid so that the 

 scale will register at U. It is important to place 

 the sweetened water in a warm place in an open 

 vessel covered with cheese-cloth to keep out in- 

 sects. The process of making vinegar can be great- 

 ly hastened by using " mother " from an old vine- 

 gar-barreL 



5. Nothing can be done with sour honey except to 

 convert it into vinegar. — Ed.] 



Making Increase and Changing from Eight-frame to 

 Danzenbaker Hives. 



Last year I had one colony of bees, and managed 

 to increase it to four colonies without any trouble, 

 and they are doing finely. They are in eight-frame 

 dovetailed hive. I have now bought twelve Dan- 

 zenbaker hives with supers and full-sheet founda- 

 tion. What is the best way to make increase from 

 eight-frame hives to Danzenbaker hives, without 

 swarming? In your booklet, "Facts About Bees,'' 

 on p. 56, you speak about the queen occupying the 

 cells. How did the queen get there? Was it acci- 

 dental or was she shaken off into the grass with the 

 bees? On p. 774, Dec. 15, Mr. Barron tells me how to 

 increase on the shake-out plan. Where does he 

 shake the bees ? and what does he do with the 

 brood? I wish very much he had told more about 

 It In his communication. 



Tilton, N. H.. Dec. 25. F. M. Clark. 



[When we speak about the queen "occupying the 

 cells," p. 56 of " Facts about Bees," we mean laying 

 in those cells. You have the impression, somehow, 

 that she went inside of a queen-cell. That is not 

 what we meant. Referring to the item on page 774, 

 Dec. 15, Mr. Barron meant the usual procedure — 

 that is, shaking the bees in front of the entrance. 



The brood can be left in the parent hive, for not all 

 of the bees will be shaken out of it. For further 

 particulars on shook swarming see " Facts About 

 Bees," also our A 15 C of Bee Culture, under the head 

 of "Swarming."— Ed.] 



Would Another Swarm Issue Within 30 Days ? 



When the first .swarm comes out. if the old hive 

 with what bees are left, together with all the frames 

 of brood and queen-cells, are moved to a new stand, 

 can two of the frames of brood containing one 

 queen-cell be placed in a hive on top of the old 

 hive, having a queen-excluder between? There 

 would thus be one queen-cell in the top hive, and 

 one in the lower liive with queen-excluder between 

 them. ( )f coiirse, there would have to be a small 

 opening in the top hive till the young queen has 

 taken her bridal flight. As soon as the young 

 queen has commenced to lay. the top hive could be 

 filled out with frames of foundation. Would such 

 an arrangement cause the lower hive to cast an- 

 other swarm before thirty days? If one of the 

 young queens failed to return from her flight, the 

 other would most likely land safely. 



Colorado. A. B. Clement. 



[There will be no danger of a second .swarm if all 

 the cells but one are cut out in the lower hive. .\s 

 to whether the colony will raise a queen in the sec- 

 ond story when they have a perforated zinc, a good 

 deal will depend on cifcumstances. The bees might 

 and might not allow the virgin in the upper .story 

 to remain. A good deal depends on the strain and 

 the time of the year. — Ed.] 



The Danger of Sugar Syrup Going into the Supers. 



A year ago last fall I fed 26 hives of bees i after I 

 took the .supers off) 200 lbs. of sugar, and the follow- 

 ing spring I fed tho.se same hives, before I put the 

 supers back on them, 125 lbs. more of sugar, and at 

 the time I put the supers on I had the brood-cham- 

 bers full of bees and brood and sugar syrup. I be- 

 lieve the bees carried a good portion of that syrup 

 up into the super.s. Did 1 lay myself liable to pro.s- 

 ecution for violation of the pure-food law? I .sold 

 my honey to the public. 



Gardener, Va., .Ian. 29. II. Hurt. 



[It is hardly likely that the bees would carry into 

 the supers the syrup that you fed. The presump- 

 tion is that it was all capped over before the honey- 

 flow came on. A good portion of it will be u.sed in 

 brood-rearing. We see no rea.son. therefore, why 

 you could not honestly sell your honey as pure 

 honey. We would, however, avoid feeding just be- 

 fore the honey-flow, for then there would be quite a 

 possibility that some of the uncapped syrup might 

 be carried Into the supers.— Ed.] 



Bee-keeping in a Garret Very Simple. 



I read, on page 113, Feb. 1.5, about a colony of bees 

 kept in a garret for eleven years, and that never 

 •swarmed. Now, I should like to know if Mr. Stew- 

 art ever changes the frames in the brood-nest — that 

 is. took out the old combs and put in new ones, and 

 also if he requeened, and how often, or did he leave 

 it to the bees to supersede her? 



Vowinckel. Pa.. April 4. D. P. Toomey. 



[Mr. Stewart replies as follows:] 



In an.swering the questions submitted I will men- 

 tion some other things that may be desirable infor- 

 mation to some persons desiring to make a start 

 with a colony of bees in a garret. 



The hive-stand should be on a level with the bot- 

 tom of the window, and the window raised about 

 an inch to afford the bees ingress and egress. The 

 gla.ss should be closely covered : and if there are 

 other windows they should be shaded .so that the 

 bees see no light except that from the opening at 

 the sill, which is an extension of their alighting- 

 board. 



When for any reason the hive is opened for ma- 

 nipulation it is well to open the window, when 

 most of the bees that take wing will fly out. In the 

 colony kept eleven years in a garret without swarm- 

 ing there was no change of frames or combs in the 

 brood-nest, and it was but once requeened by the 

 owner. The bees did the superseding, with the one 

 exception, and in that instance the colony was 

 queenless, and without eggs or larvae- cause not 

 known. In such a case the colony (without re.scue) 

 is doomed. Fortunately this does not often occur. 



The main precaution, and practically the only 



