" NOVICE'S " GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



5 



HEADS OP GRAIN PROM 

 FERENT FIELDS. 



DIE- 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 



fl£Xl) me all the information you can on 

 ^f 1 bees, as they have been my study for 30 

 years. I have fed two bbls. A crushed and 

 one bbl. coffee sugar: 1 wish to know best 

 preparation, and which sugar is best, and 

 the sort of bee house you recommend. I 

 find that strong colonies will do well any- 

 where and weak ones do best in the house. 

 I used one gill of vinegar to 2.3 lbs. sugar, 

 and 2 J gallons water, boil and skim. Will 

 that candy if not used up before spring? 

 .1. Harris, Montville, W. Va. 



Axswers. — We have used the recipe as 

 given in our circular, for the past f> years, 

 more or less, with uniform success : and a 

 friend near us has this fall fed a bbl. of 

 coffee sugar by simply pouring boiling 

 water on it, and nothing more. The bees 

 have sealed up the greater part of it, and 

 all is well so far. Will report further in 

 spring. We have no doubt }"our recipe will 

 be all right, if fed early enough, but why so 

 much water? Full directions will be given 

 in our next, for building for winter, to lie 

 used as honey houses in summer. We 

 think there can be no danger of candying, 

 but your syrup may sour if fed too late to 

 be sealed up. (See problems. ) 



Ik answer to Mr. Eli Coble, Cornersville, 

 Tenn., we reply that K. 11. Murphey's ex- 

 tractor comes nearer to what is wanted 

 than any we know of. Have them made to 

 take the frames the largest way up and 

 down, and have the can as small as can be 

 and revolve the combs not more than 10 

 inches from each other, and have him leave 

 off all the wood work, so that it can be fix- 

 ed over the bung of a barrel. (See pro- 

 blems. ) 



G. E. ' Corbin, St. Johns, Mich., asks: 

 "Is not 9£ inch frame too shallow to econo- 

 mize heat to the best advantage in winter- 

 ing, and for spring brood rearing?' Our 

 experience is most strongly in favor of 

 shallow frames for the very reason you 

 mentioned. See American lift Journal, 

 page 101, Vol. VI. and page 271, June, 

 '72, and problems. 



''Do you use any honey board ? — Never 

 except the cloth quilt. "Are not frames 

 18x6 inches or thereabouts, of on awkward 

 shape to use in extractors?" — Quite the 

 contrary, see a former question. "Do you 

 place the boxes at the side or on top of 

 frames?" For box honey make the dollar 

 hive we have recommended in our circular, 

 of double the width and put on a second 

 story. Now put the bees on ten combs 

 placed in the center below, and put your 

 boxes on each side and above a la Quinby's 

 hive. If you can raise bees enough, all the 

 boxes will be filled probably, but you would 

 certainly get more honey to let the bees 

 fill frames if room be given them gradually 

 as they can use it, and then when you get 



I nice combs in all 40 frames, it seems such 



a waste to destroy them that we should ad- 



! vise taking out the honey with the extract- 



! or, and returning them to be filled again ; 



which will be done in one-fourth the time it 



; would take to build new ones. Such a hive 



i should be made for about one-half more 



j expense than $1.00 hives, and affords every 



• facility for working frames spread out 



horizontal^, or for getting enormous yields 



I of box honey with powerful colonies, or 



! those made so by taking brood from other 



! stocks. 



"Will not extracted honey soon become 

 unsalable, or at least at a paying price? 

 It is certainly much thinner, watery, more 

 liable to ferment in quantities, etc., etc., 

 and I notice that while it is quoted at 13c, 

 it is claimed that box honey sells as high as 

 30, 40, and sometimes 50c." 



Do not extract the honey until the bees 

 begin sealing it, and it will be precisely like 

 that in the comb. Whenever you can dis- 

 tinguish any difference in taste, it indicates 

 that the honey has not been fully* ripened 

 in the hive. Small quantities that have 

 been extracted too soon, may be ripened 

 by placing in shallow pans in an oven. No 

 Apiarian should make the blunder more 

 than once. Extracted honey, too, retails 

 in some places for 30 or 40c. (See honev 

 page). 



"Am I to understand that any swarm of 

 bees will take up and deposit 25 lbs. of 

 syrup in ten hours?" Many report that 

 they do not, but ours do even better when 

 we have a full colony of Italians, weather 

 warm, and syrup warm, and feeder on the 

 frames directly over the cluster. 



"When you have a colony large enough 

 to need two or three stories in the summer, 

 do you force them all into one to winter ?" 

 Sometimes, but they have required more 

 food, and were no better in spring than 

 those with fewer bees, and now we take 

 brood from them after the working season, 

 for others that may need it, or to make new 

 colonies. 



Henry Palmer, of Hart, Michigan, writes ! 

 "That swarm that had given us 400 lbs. 

 when I wrote you, have since given us 100 

 lbs', fall honey, making a good 500 in all. 

 Our surplus will not come much, if any, 

 short of 3000 from 11 swarms, no increase 

 of swarms." As Mr. Palmer has given us 

 one of the best reports ever made in bee 

 culture, will he be ao kind as to describe his 

 hive and mode of working. He adds fur- 

 ther : 



"How do you keep the bees from gluing 

 the upper and lower stories together, also, 

 lower story and bottom so that you cannot 

 move the hive forward and back to enlarge 

 and contract entrance. My bees glue them 

 so it is almost impossible to separate them, 

 and how do you lift off the upper story 

 without strips and cleats around the hive?" 



Mr. Palmer, we declare, we will put you 

 in the problem department. Geo. Howe, 

 M. D., away down in Louisiana, wrote 

 us a pleasant letter last May, and in 

 it remarked that a cloth dipped in 



