1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



787 



he had never looked into his hives. I bought 

 them for ^1.50 each. J. Harky Wilson. 



Orphans Home. Texas, Sept. 35. 



7000 LBS. OF HONEY FROM 55 COLONIES, SPRING 

 COUNT. 



I had 55 stands last fall. I lost five during 

 the winter and spring, and had two more that 

 lost their queens so they did not amount to any 

 thing, and were of no use at all. That left me 

 48 stands. I went to work with them in the 

 spring to get them in shape for business, as I 

 partly expected a good flow of honey. I put 

 sections on one hive, and extracted from 47. I 

 got in all 7000 lbs.— 4000 lbs. of clover and 3000 

 of basswood, all as tine honey as I ever got in 

 my life. There is no one around here who got 

 so good an average as I did, nor any thing like 

 it. I think it is all in the way that I managed 

 my bees. They now number 63 stands, all very 

 heavy with honey for winter. Mont VVyrick. 



Cascade, la., Sept. 2(). 



Answers to Questions 



FROM BEGINNERS. 



A. P. D., of Texas. Your question is answer- 

 ed under the initials " H. C. R.," below. 



S. W. P., of Maine, asks whether bees can be 

 transferred in the fall. Ans. — Any time when 

 bees can fly; but it should be done early enough 

 so that they will have time to patch up the 

 combs and take in a little extra syrup if it 

 should be necessary. 



H. O. S., of New York, wants to know wheth- 

 er it is advisable to crowd a ten-frame colony 

 on to six frames. ^?i.S'. — If the colony is good 

 and strong, we would not reduce the ten-frame 

 brood-nest to less than eight frames nor an 

 eight-frame to less than six. 



C. L. W., of Peinisylvania, has a considerable 

 quantity of honey-dew in his combs, and wants 

 to know whether it would be safe to give it to 

 his bees lor winter. Ans. — We would risk it, 

 because the majority of the reports show that 

 bees have wintered successfully on such inferior 

 stores. Of course, it is safer to give the bees 

 sealed clover or basswood honey, or, better 

 still, sugar syrup that has been fed in the early 

 fall. 



H. C. R., of South Carolina, asks what causes 

 honey to sugar in the hive during midsummer. 

 Ans. — We can not explain the reason, only that 

 we know that honey from some sources has a 

 peculiar habit of candying almost as soon as 

 gathered. If H. C. R. could tell us the source 

 whence it comes, we might tell him more about 

 it. He also asks, further, how to get this can- 

 died stuff out of the combs. There is no prac- 

 tical way that we know of. We would set 

 aside the combs containing such honey, and use 

 them for supplying bees with stores when they 

 require it. In your locality you will, quite like- 

 ly, require to use them before next summer. 



R. H. S., of Ohio, has several colonies in his 

 apiaries that have only virgin queens, and asks 

 whether it would be advisable to replace these, 

 or whether, if left, they will be fertilized n<'xt 

 spring. Ans. — Virgin queens left over dui'ing 

 winter are sometimes fertilized the following 

 spring; but the cases aro rather rare; and in 

 many of the instances when it was thought 

 that such delayed mating took place, the 

 queens were actually fertilized the previous 

 fall; but as it was past the lime for egg-laying, 

 they passed for only virgin queens. Referring 



particularly to the question, we would recom- 

 mend that the virgins be removed, and laying 

 queens be inserted in their stead. The latter, 

 at this time of year, can be bought for a trifling 

 sum. 



E. N. R., of Michigan, asks what sort of 

 packing material we recommend, and whether 

 it would pay to send out into the country when 

 he has planer-shavings or forest - leaves in 

 abundance on hand. Ans. — After experiment- 

 ing with the various packing materials, we can 

 discover but very little ditt'erence in favor of 

 any of them. We have wintered bees as well 

 under planer-shavings as under the best wheat 

 chaff. Chaff has the preference for cushions 

 because it is lighter, and is more available for 

 the average farmer. Where forest-leaves are 

 used, the packing should be made thicker, and 

 pressed down so as to be more compact. 



A. P. H., of Illinois, inquires vvhether it is 

 too late too feed. Ans. — If colonies are short 

 of stores we would feed even up to and into cool 

 or cold weather; but the syrup should be next 

 thing to hot when given to the bees ; and if 

 placed under chaff cushions, we think there 

 will be no trouble about the bees taking it 

 down; but when they are fed so late, the syrup 

 should be a little thicker than usual. The 

 usual proportion is 20 lbs. of sugar to a gallon 

 of water. During cold weather we would make 

 the syrup about 25 lbs. of sugar to a gallon of 

 water, because during cold weather the bees 

 will not be able to evaporate the honey down 

 as well. If the weather is freezing, or down 

 near zero, we would give the bees cakes of hard 

 candy. Full particulars of how to make are 

 given under "Candy," in the A B C of Bee 

 Culture 



C. F. F., of Minnesota, wishes to know 

 whether we would advise him to winter his 

 bees in the cellar, or outdoors in double-walled 

 chaff hives. Ans. — In the very coldest climates, 

 or, at least, where the winters are severe, and 

 the temperature runs for several weeks below 

 zero, cellar wintering seems to prevail. Wheth- 

 er this is because bees can best be wintered 

 that way or not, we can not say; but it is usu- 

 ally safer to follow the prevailing custom. 

 Indeed, some bee-keepers say it is impossible 

 for them to winter on summer stands, even 

 when packed in hives of the most improved 

 pattern. On the other hand, there are some 

 bee-keepers — tor instance, E. Sturgeon, of Kin- 

 cardine, Ont., Can., — who can not winter in- 

 doors, but always have success in outdoor pack- 

 ing. For the latitude of Northern Ohio, the 

 outdoor method gives generally the best result 

 — that is, the beginner seems to succeed better. 



C. C. & S., with several others, say that their 

 bees seem to be suffering from fits; that they 

 come out and flop and crawl around and finally 

 collapse; that they have a sort of tremulous 

 motion to their wings, the bees themselves hav- 

 ing a swollen and greasy appearance. Ans. — 

 This is what is called "bee-paralysis,"— a dis- 

 ease that is getting to be quite common, al- 

 though it has never proven to be any thing 

 serious except on one or two occasions, and is 

 generally confined to two or three colonies. 

 We have, in the past, recommended removing 

 the queen and introducing another; but reports 

 show that this does not always work. Some 

 recommend giving the bees a fine spray of 

 slightly salted water, the si)ray being scattered 

 over the combs and the bees. Some insist that 

 this always cures, while others say it has no 

 effect. As the disease sometimes disappears of 

 itself, we are obliged to confess that we know 

 of no remedy that can be sun^ly relied upon, 

 although, if wc; had diseased colonies, we would 

 administer the salted spray. 



