746 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



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GLEANED by ASKING 



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Emma V. Biles. 



QUESTION.— 

 I have a 

 quantity of 

 last yeiar's 

 honey, some of it 

 c a n di e d in the 

 comb. Would it be 

 safe to feed it to 

 the bees for win- 

 ter stores or would 

 it be better to feed 

 it, if at all, in the spring ? 

 Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — The combs of candied honey 

 would not be suitable for winter stores. In 

 order to get such honey out of the combs it 

 would be necessary for the bees to use quite 

 a good deal of water, and, of course, they 

 are unable to obtain this during the winter 

 months. It would, therefore, be better to 

 wait until next spring. At that time remove 

 the cappings, lay the combs flat in the bot- 

 tom of some container, and pour water on 

 them from a height; then place the combs, 

 while wet, in the hive for the bees to clean 

 out. 



Questions. — (1) Is the following a good method 

 of making comb foundation ? Cut a piece of screen 

 wire the size and shape wanted. Dip in melted wax. 

 If so, is it not especially good for brood-frames? 

 (2) "What is the best way to unite two or three 

 colonies in the fall? (3) How close is it advisable 

 to set hives? (4) If one wishes to requeen, how 

 would it do to kill the old queen and let the bees get 

 another from worker brood in the hive ? 



Missouri. Roscoe Mawson. 



Answers. — (1) Using screen wire for the 

 base of foundation would not be satisfac- 

 tory, since the holes are four-sided instead 

 of hexagonal. The bees would be apt to 

 build the combs crisscross or any way they 

 desired. (2) Two or three colonies may 

 easily be united in the fall by doing the 

 work along toward night and alternating 

 the combs, giving the colonies or nuclei a 

 good smoking at the same time. If the work 

 is done in the daytime, about the best plan 

 is to use the queen-excluder and one thick- 

 ness of newspaper immediately above the 

 brood-chamber and then set the queenless 

 colony over this. In a few hours' time the 

 bees will gnaw thru the paper, and the two 

 colonies unite peaceably. (3) The hives may 

 be placed within a few inches of each other; 

 but there is more danger that the queens 

 may be lost when they leave the hives to be 

 mated, and there is also more or less drifting 

 of bees from one hive to another. We thjnk 

 it is a better plan to put the hives five or 

 six feet apart if one has sufficient room, and 

 also to have them face alternately south and 

 east. (4) One iurj requeen the way you sug- 

 gest by killing the old queen and allowing 

 the bees to raise another from the brood al- 

 ready in the hive; but except at the height 

 of tiie honey flow one would be apt not to 

 get as good a queen. More than this, ther^ 

 are certain times in the season when this 

 would be a distinct disadvantage. For in- 

 stance, immediately before the honey flow 

 one would not wish to be without brood Sv 

 long, as these bees are necessary in order 

 that the colony may be built up in time for 



1 



lona Fowls 



^^^^^^^^ 



TU 



December, 1918 



the flow. Also 

 in late summer 

 or early fall it is 

 a poor plan to 

 kill the queen 

 and leave the 

 colony for some 

 time queenless, 

 for at that time 

 of year is it de- 

 sirable that new bees be raised in order that 

 the colonies may go into winter quarters in 

 good condition. 



Question. — Do latereared queens always lay soon 

 after becoming fertile? I had several queens this 

 fall that looked like fertile ones, but they did not lay. 

 Michigan. C. E. Halsted. 



Answer. — Sometimes late-reared queens do 

 not lay until the following spring. However, 

 you would probably have been able to get 

 these queens to lay in the fall, if you had 

 fed them slowly for a time, for perhaps a 

 week or so. 



Question. — I have four colonies, each consisting 

 of about 4 frames of bees. How would this plan 

 of doubling up work? Remove the cover from the 

 first hive, and place on top two queen-excluding 

 boards ; then next the second hive and its cover ; 

 then pack one foot of straw around and over the top 

 of the whole business. With such a plan the bees 

 would tolerate both queens, would they not? Would 

 the usual entrance slide provide enough air, or 

 would it be necessary to bore a hole in the upper 

 hive? Ralph Gaston. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — To bore a hole in the ujiper hive 

 would not be necessary, and would be apt to 

 cause a draft. Since the nuclei are so small, 

 we hardly think your plan a good one, for 

 the heat from the lower hive would rise to 

 the itpper one, and the lower nucleus would 

 have extremely hard work to keep warm 

 enough. It would be better to have both 

 nuclei in the lower hive separated by a thin 

 wooden dummy or division-board. We have 

 known such nuclei to be wintered successful- 

 ly separated by a double screen division- 

 board but have never tried this latter plan 

 ourselves, and should fear it would be a 

 much cooler arrangement. Ordinarily we 

 would say the best thing to do with those 

 two nuclei would be to unite them or else 

 winter them in a good cellar; for, of course, 

 small colonies can be wintered successfully 

 in the cellar if the conditions are right. 



Questions. — (1) I have five 10-frame hives that 

 are very full of honey. If I pack bees so they will 

 use only a small amount this winter, will there be 

 enough brood-comb next spring for bees to raise 

 plenty of brood? How can I remedy this? (2) 

 How can I tell honeydew ? If it is not desirable for 

 winter stores, should it not be removed? 



Ohio. Charles Case. 



Answers, — ^(1) The object of contracting 

 the brood-chamber is simply to give smaller 

 space to heat during the winter. Bees 

 would, it is true, use more stores during the 

 winter if they had a larger space to heat 

 than if they had a small one; but we would 

 hardly say that the contraction would result 

 in the consumption of only a small amount 

 of their usual stores. In the spring, as the 



