September, 191.' 



313 



American Hee Journal 



and the vinegar-mother are stopped in 

 their development by the application 

 of heat. So heat should be used be- 

 fore bottling the vinegar. 



As a matter of course there are some 

 requirements to follow if we want good 

 vinegar. It must be made in clean, 

 fresh barrels, entirely free from mold 

 or bad taste. It must not be kept in 

 tin or in vessels containing iron, as it 

 has powerful Irusting influence. It 

 must be sealed as soon as its fermen- 

 ation is over. Its influence over other 

 articles of consumption is very great, 

 and it is a mistake to keep open jars or 

 vessels of preserves, marmalades.cider, 

 claret, etc., in the same cellar. 



For making pickle preserves, a very 

 excellent method consists in flavoring 

 the vinegar with leaves and stems of 

 tarragon {.htcmis/a dractinculus), an 

 aromatic perennial plant easily grown 

 in our gardens and deserving of more 

 credit than it gets. Tarragon vinegar 

 has a high reputation where it is known. 



The vinegar made from honey is as 



good as the best, if properly managed. 

 But like all other culinary prepara- 

 tions it requires care in the making 

 and proper preservation. 



If your vinegar is sweet, it is because 

 its alcoholic fermentation has not 

 been permitted to terminate before the 

 acetic fermentation took its place. 

 Both may go together, but the work 

 is more thorough when they follow 

 each other. Sometimes the sweetened 

 water is so strong in honey that there 

 is always a surplus of sugar. In that 

 case add more water and put your 

 vinegar in a warm place. It may con- 

 tinue to strengthen during the winter 

 if you keep it near your cellar furnace 

 or close to the kitchen stove. If it is 

 too weak, add a little honey. 



The adding of honey vinegar to 

 cider vinegar often improves both, the 

 former supplying additional strength, 

 the latter aiding the acetic fermenta- 

 tion by the numerous germs it contains. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Dr. Miller*s ^ Answers^ 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal or direct to 



Dr. C. C. Miller. Marengo, III. 



He does not answer bee-keepine questions by mail. 



Unfertile Queen— What to Do for Laying Workers 



I am the owner of an apiary of abojt 70 

 colonies, in a little town of 2000. situated on 

 the east coast of southern Florida. 50 miles 

 north of Miami. Ever since a boy I have 

 liked bees, and have always kept from 8 to 

 111 colonies. A year ago I bought about 40 

 colonies, and have now a little apiary of 

 which I am rather proud. lam 21 years of 

 aee. 



Having acquired so many bees all of a 

 sudden. I am meeting with quite a few diffi- 

 culties which I sometimes overcome, but 

 often not. My main trouble is to dispose of 

 my honey crop, for which I have not found a 

 regular market I have now on hand over 80 

 gallons for which I cannot get more than 4S 

 and 50 cents per gallon. It is a very good 

 grade of honey, a mixture of orange and 

 palm blossoms. 



1. I have a colony of bees which I caught 

 as a spring swarm. They started to build 

 very nicely, but after about a month I no- 

 ticed they had stopped working almost en 

 tirely. and upon looking I found them to be 

 queenless. They had the hive about half 

 filled with capped honey, so I gave them a 

 frame with young bees and larva;. After 

 about a week they had from five to si.\ nice 

 queen cells built, two of which were sealed. 

 Being very busy after that I did not get to 

 examine them for quite awhile, probably 

 another month. But noticing them still 

 weak I looked them over again, and to my 

 surprise I found the comb filled with drone 

 brood. Thinking that they had failed to 

 rear a queen, and had laying workers, I ex- 

 amined them closely, and again to my sur- 

 prise I found the queen; though it was but 

 very little longer than the workers, it was 

 a perfect queen. It seemed to be dragging 

 its left liind leg, as if it were hurt. What 

 do you think, lias she not mated ? 



2. What do you do with a colony that is 

 affected with laying workers and still is 

 fairly strong ? Florida. 



Answers.— I. I don't see any other an- 

 swer to the puzzle than the one you have 

 given, namely, that the queen was not 

 fecundated. 



2. In nearly all cases the best thing to do 

 with a colony having laying workers is to 

 break it up. If for any reason it be desired 

 to keep it intact, then it will not do to in 

 troduce a laying queen, as it will most 



surely be killed. It may or it may not re 

 spect a sealed cell, but it will receive kindly, 

 without any caging, a virgin less than 24 

 hours old. It will help in more ways than 

 one to give the colony one or more frames 

 of brood from a normal colony. Indeed, it 

 may answer to do nothing more than to give 

 brood, some of it eggs or young unsealed, 

 and allow the colony to rear a queen there- 

 from. Brood given more than once would 

 keep up the strength of the colony until 

 time for the queen to lay. 



Style of Sections to Use — Bottom Boards — Pre- 

 vention ol Swarming, Etc. 



1. What style of section would you advise ? 

 I had thought of the ideal, 3'sxsxi}4 plain. 



2. Do you prefer the plain or beeway 

 section ? 



3. Are not many of the best plain sections 

 ruined for shipping by the bees drawing 

 them a little beyond the wood ? 



4 Do the moths bother the honey after 

 it is removed from the hive ? If so. do you 

 fumigate, and how ? 



5. I believe you use a 2-inch space under 

 your frames with a rack made of lath, or 

 something' similar on edge to keep the bees 

 from building comb in this space. Is there 

 enough advantage in this .;-inch space over 

 the ^ .-inch space of the regular bottom-board 

 to warrant one in putting in something not a 

 standard ? P'urther. would the bees build 

 to any extent in the 's-inch space of the 

 regular bottom-board when running for 

 comb honey? What percent of swarming 

 would you have when using this deep bot- 

 tom-board if you did not look over vour 

 brood-nest regularly and remove queen- 

 cells ? 



(1. Do you leave your comb honey all on 

 the hive until the honey season is over or do 

 you take it off as fast as finished ? 



7. In the early part of the honey flow, in 

 putting on extra supers, do you put them 

 underneath those already on top ? 



.s What do you do to prevent swarming, 

 and what percent of swarming do you have 

 in spite of all your preventatives ? 



0. Do you use the 8 or 10 frame hive, and 

 is it a I.angstroth ? If not. give the dimen- 

 sions of the hire. I propose using the lo- 



frame Langstroth. as we have a 1 months' 

 honey How here. 



10. I have never seen the necessity for a 

 queen excluder with the beeway sections, 

 but the plain is considerably more open, 

 and I wonder if it is necessary to use queen 

 excluders? If so, that would be a big point 

 against the plain section. California. 



Answers.— I. After trying more or less 

 the different kinds of sections. I settled 

 down some time ago upon the j-beeway sec- 

 tions, 4!4x4^*xij8. I think this is the prefer- 

 ence of the great majority of comb-honey 

 producers. 



2. Beeway. 



3. I don't think there is so much objection 

 on that score as there is because the plain 

 require so much more care in handling lest 

 the fingers be thrust into the comb when 

 they are handled. More care must also be 

 taken in setting down a plain section lest it 

 topple over. During cleaning, the plain 

 section is more likely to be injured. In gen. 

 eral it may be said that the projection of 

 the wood in a beeway section is a protec- 

 tion, although it has more of a clean look 

 than the plain. 



4. Of late years I have no trouble in that 

 line, probably because of ttalian blood in 

 the bees. Years ago, with black blood. I 

 had a good deal of trouble, and fumigated 

 with sulphur. Carbon disulfide may be 

 better. 



5. Yes. I think there is advantage enough 

 or else I wouldn't use them, both on account 

 of the expense and because I am averse to 

 have anything out of the usual fashion. I 

 don't know what percent difference in 

 swarming is made by the deep bottom- 

 board: I know that it gives better ventila- 

 tion, and that good ventilation is a factor in 

 the prevention of swarming. 



6 I take off a super as soon as it is all 

 sealed except the corner sections, although 

 often these will be finished, too. 



7. The second super is put under the first, 

 and at the same time another empty is out 

 on top. This last serves as a safety valve in 

 case the bees should need more room. 

 There is another important advantage With 

 the best care it will sometimes happen that 

 the upper starter will not be fastened 

 securely its entire length, although this 

 would not be noticed in ordinary handling. 

 If such a section be put next the hive under 

 another super, the bees will cluster upon it 

 and drag it down. If it be put on top the 

 bees will very gradually occupy that super, 

 and will fasten the starter securely before 

 any special weight is put upon it. In most 

 cases the top super will not have much, if 

 any. work done upon it at the next visit, but 

 it will be ready to be put down as the lowest 

 one. and a fresh empty super will be put on 

 top. When the flow is on the wane some 

 care must be taken not to have too many un- 

 finished sections, and then the empty super 

 is not put below, but if the bees need more 

 room they can work up into the super on 

 top. 



8. To tell all about what I have done to 

 prevent swarming would be too long a story 

 to tell here, but if you care to know about it 

 you will find it in "Fifty Years Among the 

 Bees. ' After all, 1 count the prevention of 

 swarming an unsolved problem. At a rough 

 guess I should say that there may be from 5 

 to 10 percent of the colonies actually swarm. 

 But if they do swarm, no swarm is ever 

 hived as a separate affair, but obliged to 

 remain in its old colony, for one of the im- 

 portant points in securing good yields is to 

 keep from dividing the forces. 



0, I use the Sfranie Langstroth. or dove- 

 tailed, not because I think it better than the 



