406 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Dec. 



$&§& and §u$riq$. 



EXTRACTING UNSEALED HOSEV IN PREPARING BEES 

 FOR WINTER. 



fl^EES have done very poorly in this pirt of the 

 f[f<i\) state, but some better north. I shall get about 

 *— -»y one third as much as last year, with an in- 

 crease of 100 per cent. Hives are well stocked with 

 bees, and the brood comb3 are partly filled with hon- 

 ey not capoed over. Should the uncapped honey be 

 extracted for the good of the bees? I have my tene- 

 ment hives stocked, and report in spring'. 



N. A. Pruddex. 



Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct. 23, 1879. 



[In our locality, I should not extract the unsealed 

 honey, for the reason that the bees, usually, con- 

 sume it themselves before we have very severe 

 weather. If they have a large amount of thin, wat- 

 ery, unsealed stores, I do not know but that I would 

 extract it. "Will those who have practiced extract- 

 ing the unsealed honey from a part of their hives, 

 leaving it in another part (if any have done this), 

 please tell us if it seemed to be an advantage.] 



QUEENS THAT WON'T RAISE DRONES. 



Honey crop has been light. I have gone into win- 

 ter quarters with 22 colonies in fair condition. I 

 have an Italian queen that would not lay drone eggs 

 at all last season, and I gave her drone comb in the 

 center of brood chamber. J. C. Whitehead. 



West Point, Ind., Nov. 3, 1879. 



LI do not think it will be at all difficult to find plen- 

 ty of queens that will not produce drones; but are 

 they as prolific as queens that produce drones in the 

 proper season?] 



QUERIES ABOUT CHAFF, CHAFF DIVISION BOARDS, 

 AND CHAFF CUSHIONS. 



What thickness should the chaff division boards be? 



[It is not material; we make them of common 

 lath which brings them about 2 inches thick.] 



What thickness is the chaff cushion? 



[Six or 8 inches; a foot will do no harm.] 



When supers or the double hive are used, would 

 you recommend filling the space above with straw? 



[No; chaff en allium.] 



Which is the best absorbent of moisture, wheat 

 straw, flax straw, or cotton ? 



[I prefer wheat or oat chaff for reasons I have re- 

 peatedly given.] W. O. Pierce. 



Winchester, Ind., Aug. 16, 1879. 



QUEENS BY MAIL. 



It appeared, at Chicago, that sending queens by 

 mail would be a great aid to many. I go to Wash- 

 ington this winter, to effect a change if possible in 

 the decision of the P. M. G. The complaint is, the 

 bees sting agents, and the mails are daubed. Now, 

 I wish to take a cage with candy, and so made, with 

 double shield of wire gauze, as to convince the 

 P. M. G. We would better put no bottle in it. 



Please send me your ideal cage for such purpose. 



A. J. Cook. 



Lansing, Mich., Nov. 5, 1879. 



[By making the soft candy described in the A B C, 

 we can put up bees so as to stand a week very well, 

 without water. In the cage we have sent friend 

 Cook, we fastened securely, over the wire cloth, a 

 piece of perforated tin, with a 1-1 inch space be- 

 tween the two. There is certainly no difficulty in 

 protecting the mails and the officials from any possi- 

 ble chance of daubs or stings, but I have sent so 

 many cages to Washington, I fear they have other 

 objections to bees in the mails, besides the two 

 named.] 



GRAPE VERSUS CANE SUGAR. 



If grape sugar contains only % the sweetening 

 power of cane sugar, is it really any cheaper for 

 candy than cane sugar and J£ flour? 



[The sweetening power of the two sugars hardly 

 decides their value for food, either for man or bees; 

 for instance, corn meal has little or no sweetening 



power, but a pound of meal would sustain a man 

 during hard labor, longer than a tt>. of sugar. As 

 grape sugar is made from corn, is it not likely it 

 would, to some extent, follow the same rule? It 

 should be borne in mind, that honey is, principally, 

 grape sugar. Since grape sugar has risen to about 

 half the price of cane sugar, we are very much in 

 need of some accurate experiments in regard to the 

 cost of "boarding" bees, when fed on different sub- 

 stances.] 



FINE FLOUR VERSUS MIDDLINGS E3R BEES. 



Is patent process flour (ground middlings) better 

 or worse than the other for bees? 



Oliver Foster. 



Mt. Vernon, Linn Co., Iowa, Oct. 31, 1879. 



[I do not know about the kind of Hour you men- 

 tion, but I have experimented a great deal with all 

 kinds of substitutes for pollen. When the bees were 

 given little heaps of fine Hour and middlings, they 

 invariably chose the fine flour. They also preferred 

 rye and oats ground together, to the wheat flour, 

 and I am just taking steps to substitute this for 

 wheat flour in our bee candy.] 



NUMBER OF CJLOXIE3 TO BE PUT INTO A WINTERING 

 ROOM. 



Honey is so scarce, 1 hat my bees hardly pay ex- 

 penses. I was surprised at some of the advice on 

 wintering; I always supposed that a dry, dark cellar 

 which would keep potatoes would keep bees. Mine 

 have always wintered well, and I have put in from 

 three to sixteen. Hannah W.Williams. 



Springville, Linn Co., Iowa., Oct. 30, 1879. 



[Thanks, friend Hannah, for your correction. The 

 ABC has been changed so as to warn against trying 

 to winter a few stocks in a room above around, not 

 including cellars. It must have been a fit of absent 

 mindedness, perhaps occasioned by my growing 

 old(?), that caused me to include cellars, 1 do not 

 know but one colony can be wintered in a dry, frost- 

 proof cellar, as well as more.] 



DRONE-LAYING QUEENS. 



Bo stocks having drone-layers ever destroy their 

 drone brood at the end of the honey season? I have 

 a stock that has been carrying out young drones, 

 nearly matured, for the past week. My business 

 takes me away from home during the day time, or I 

 should have examined and found out the cause. 



II. L. Lankton. 



Wethersfleld, Ct., Nov. 3, 187a. 



[I think it very likely the bees destroy such drone 

 brood in the fall, for I have often wondered what be- 

 came of it. The worker-bees, knowing their span of 

 life would only be the shorter for keeping these use- 

 less consumers, evidently destroyed them as a means 

 of self-preservation. Stocks should be examined oft- 

 en in order to prevent such a state of affairs from 

 ever occurring.] 



GOOD REPORT FROM THE SIMPLICITY HIVE. 



I made more honey in the Simplicity hive I got 

 from you last April, than with 8 others I had of a 

 different pattern. It is the hive, according to my 

 notion. J. W. Pearman. 



Nebraska City, Neb., Oct. 29, 1879. 



chaff hives; transferring bees erom simplicity 

 into them, in the winter. 



Should the weather keep open, would you advise 

 transferring from Simplicity hives into chaff hives, 

 as late as Bee? I could make chaff hives enough to 

 put the rest of my bees in by Bee, and, if we have a 

 broken winter, I am afraid my cellar will be too 

 damp. J. G. Clark. 



Gableville, Van BurenCo., Mich., Nov. 10, 1879. 



[Yes, or in any other month in the winter or 

 spring, whenever'a day occurs not below 40 degrees. 

 If it is freezing weather, you will have to be care- 

 ful about bees that get out and get lost ; but, as they 

 will soon drop down, you can gather them up and 

 put them back over the cluster, and they will revive 

 all right. With metal cornered frames, we can 

 usually get the frames into the ehaff hives before 

 the bees rouse up enough to get scattered; but, if 

 you have to pry each frame loose with a snap, it may 

 be best not to undertake it until you have weather 

 permitting them to fly.] 



