244 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



concerned in the late spring and early summer 

 it will be placed at that end of the hive that 

 is remote from the entrance, whether the 

 frames are crosswise or in line with it. With 

 wide deep entrances, it is perhaps a slight ad- 

 vantage to have the edges of the combs point- 

 ing toward the entrances, as the flying bees 

 during the height of the honey-flow will fly 

 through the entrance and alight on the cluster, 

 just under the frames. If the honey is being 

 stored on the right they will steer their flight 

 toward the right, then pass directly upward. 

 If combs are crosswise, the bees will be com- 

 pelled to climb over from one frame to the 

 other or else go to the side of the hive and 

 then on to a frame where honey is stored. 

 But Doolittle says flying bees do not generally 

 deposit any honey ; that they give it to nurse- 

 bees which, in turn, transfer it to the combs. 

 Taking it all in all, I think we may safely con- 

 clude that, between the two different ways of 

 placing combs, it is about six of one and half 

 a dozen of the other. 



Royal jelly is found only in queen-cells. A 

 cell well drawn out, and a good fat larva in it 

 a day or two before it is capped, will contain 

 royal jelly of about the right consistency. — 

 Ed] 



M. S., Minn. — Your trouble with frost get- 

 ting through the hives will be remedied by 

 putting winter-cases over them, or packing 

 them in some way with straw, chaff, or saw- 

 dust. Put outside of the packing-material, of 

 course, something that would shed rain or 

 ■snow. In your locality the bees should either 

 be in the cellar or packed as described. 



]V. I. F. //., Pa. — If you have a superabun- 

 dance of drones at this time of the year in 

 your hives, I should suppose, from what you 

 say, that you have either a drone-layer or a 

 laying worker. Cyprian bees are better work- 

 ers than Italians, but they are very cross; still, 

 with the right degree of caution they can be 

 handled. The best record of Cyprian bees is 

 750 lbs. from one colony. 



C. L. L., Wis. — There is a great difference 

 in honey about candying. Some honeys will 

 candy within a few weeks or months, and oth- 

 ers will remain clear for two years. At one 

 time it was considered an infallible proof that 

 if honey candied it was therefore pure ; but it 

 i'S now known that this is no test, for some 

 pure honeys will remain clear for two or three 

 years without any treatment whatever, under 

 certain conditions. 



J. 5"., Kan. — If your bees are short of stores, 

 give them lumps of candy made by mixing 

 granulated sugar, or, better, powdered sugar, 

 and honey into a stiff dough, mixing in sugar 

 till the dough is quite hard. Lay two lumps 

 of this, about as large as the fist, over the 

 frames of the colony. Cover the whole with 



a quilt or cushion, as the bees will fail to take 

 the feid unless it is properly covered afid pro- 

 tected. If you can get a nice grade of rock 

 Ciudy, free from coloring-matter or flavoring 

 extracts, you can give this instead. 



J. C. D..Pa.- — Without knowing more about 

 your locality, it is hard to say whether you 

 should winter outdoors or indoors. If you 

 have considerable zero weather, and most of 

 the winter there is snow and a temperature be- 

 low 32°, I would advise indoor wintering; but 

 if you have but little z;ro weather lasting, say, 

 a week, and a great deal of open weather, and 

 a general range of temperature at freezing and 

 above, I would recommend wintering in 

 double-walled hives. For indoor wintering, a 

 good dry cellar is about as good as any thing 

 you can have ; but the temperature in it 

 should not be much above 50 nor below 40. 

 While you can use a stove sometimes to raise 

 the temperature, the general practice is to use 

 none. 



G. W. A., Mass — It is not wise to give bees 

 liquid feed during mid-winter or late in the 

 fall. If you have not combs of sealed stores, 

 better give them cakes of candy. The first 

 warm day you had better remove the feeder 

 containing the syrup, close the brood-nest 

 down to as small a capacity as possible, then 

 lay on top of the frames pieces of rock candy 

 made of cane sugar. The bees will winter very 

 nicely on such candy, and get along far better 

 than if you try to give them syrupy feed now. 

 While the bees can eat a great many of the 

 flavored candies, it will be far better for you 

 to give them that which is pure, and free from 

 flavoring and coloring matter as much as pos- 

 sible. For directions concerning how to make 

 candy or winter feed, see our A B C of Bee 

 Culture. Next spring, when you get settled 

 warm weather, then you can feed syrup. 



H. P. /,., ///. — As to which is the best hon- 

 ej'-plant to grow when honey alone is consid- 

 ered, it is a hard question to answer. Locali- 

 ty has every thing to do with the matter. If 

 it were in Colorado I think I would unhesita- 

 tingly recommend alfalfa. If for Ohio, I 

 think I would name the Simpson, or spider 

 plant ; if it were California, the mountain 

 sage ; if Utah, sweet clover. Speaking of this, 

 it might be well to state that sweet clover will 

 grow in a greater number of localities than 

 perhaps any other known honey-plant ; and 

 while it is difficult to make it grow as a plant 

 when you want it to grow, yet it will spring 

 up spontaneously in patches where nothing 

 else will sprout. 



But it should be well understood that no one 

 can afford to grow a)!y honey-plant for honey 

 alone. The only ones that will do for artificial 

 pasturage are those that are useful for either 

 grain or hay as well as honey. Of these the 

 principal ones I would name, then, would be 

 alfalfa, buckwheat, and alsike. 



BEES AND grapes; BEES NOT GUILTY. 



/. A. H , Ohio — Through the courtesy of 

 Prof. W. J. Green, of the Ohio Experiment 

 Station, Wooster, I have been permitted to 

 see two letters which you wrote him in refer- 

 ence to alleged damages by bees to grapes. 



