SoO 



(;I,K,LN1NGS UN UEK CUJ/rUHK. 



Nov. 



HOW TvONG WILL A SWARM KEiMAlN CLUSTEREU 

 ON THE LIMB FROM DATE OF SWARMING? 



One of my colonies swarmed July 4th, and re- 

 mained on the limb till September 13th. There was 

 no comb built there, as I thought there would be. 



MY REPORT. 



1 commenced in the spring with 40 colonies, in- 

 creased to 45 by swarming, and got. on an average, 

 1.5 lbs. per hive. We had a light flow of honey the 

 first of September, and my bees made enough to 

 carry them through winter. This honey had a very 

 bad odor, and could be smelled some distance from 

 the apiary. Will it do any harm as a winter food? 

 This has been the poorest season since I have kept 

 bees. Most of the bees in these parts are kept by 

 farmers. In box hives, and will starve this winter. 

 J. E. Henderson. 



Honey's Point, W. Va., Oct. 24, 1887. 



Friend H., your statement is astounding. 

 Of couise, the bees didirt carry enough 

 honey in their saclss to last them five or six 

 weeks, so they must have gathered honey 

 and passed it around from mouth to moutli, 

 without having had enough at any time to 

 build combs. I have seen small clusters ex- 

 ist in this way for perhaps a week or ten 

 days, but they gradually scattered about or 

 got lost. I am inclined to think your honey 

 will do no harm as winter feed, especially 

 that which was gathered in September. 



EMPTY COMBS. 



How to Fill Them with Syrup or Honey, for 

 Feeding Bees. 



C. 0. MILLER MAKES IT SO PLAIN THAT EVEN A 

 CHILD MAY UNDERSTAND IT. 



TN Gleanings for June 1, 1886, page 463, you say 

 j^ that Dr. C. C. Miller, in his new book, says that, 

 ^l when he has a colony to be fed, he does it by 

 ■*• filling empty combs with syrup, in a manner 

 similar to that given by our old friend Quinby, 

 years ago. Now, will you please tell me, either in a 

 letter or through Gleanings, how they manage to 

 get the syrup into the empty combs, and oblige? I 

 have tried to do it, and failed. I suppose it is all 

 easy enough when we know how. N. L. Gerrish. 

 Nottingham Center, N. H., Oct. 14, 1887. 



Dr. Miller replies :— 



If you lay an empty comb flat upon a table, and 

 pour a liquid on it, instead of the liquid immediate- 

 ly running into the cells it will lie contentedly up- 

 on the surface. If the liquid fall from a considera- 

 ble height, so as to strike hard upon the surface, 

 some of it will force its way into the cells; so if you 

 pour syrup upon the comb out of a pitcher, holding 

 the pitcher 3 or 4 feet above the comb, you will suc- 

 ceed better than if the pitcher be held only a few 

 inches above the comb. Even then, if a portion of 

 the syrup falls in a compact mass upon an empty 

 cell it can enter the cell only by (iisplacing the air 

 contained therein;''and if the syrup presses with 

 equal force over all parts of the mouth of the cell 

 there is no chance for the air to get out, and the 

 cell remains empty. In other words, if a drop larg- 

 er in diameter than the cell falls centrally upon the 

 cell, the chances are that it will simply act as a 

 cork to cork up the air that is in the cell; but if the 

 drop be so small that it strikes nowhere upon the 

 Bides of the cell, there is nothing to hinder it from 



going directly to the bottom of the cell; and if it 

 strikes upon one side of the cell it will still make 

 fair progress bottomward. So the smaller drops we 

 can have as it falls, the better success we shall 

 have; and to this end, instead of a pitcher we will 

 take a watering-can from which to pour the syrup. 

 But thick syrup will not readily pass through the 

 rose of a watering-can, so we must have thin syrup; 

 and as we desire syrup (at least in the fall) no thin- 

 ner than can be made by using .5 lbs. of sugar to 

 one quart of water, we must thin it by using it hot, 

 taking care not to have it hotter than about 125°, as 

 beyond this there is danger of making the combs so 

 soft that they will give away. So now I think we 

 have reached the essentials: We lay our comb flat 

 upon the kitchen-table, and pour upon it from a 

 height of several feet, through the rose of a water- 

 ing-can, syrup heated to 125°. Whoever fulfills 

 these conditions will, T think, make no failure in 

 fllllng- his combs. He will, however, not leave the 

 table or the floor of the kitchen in the best condi- 

 tion; and any further effort needed is simply to 

 prevent waste and muss, unless it be to make the 

 work lighter. To this end, get a tin box made 

 about two feet deep, about half an inch or an inch 

 longer than the top-bar of your brood-frames, and 

 about an inch wider than the outside depth of the 

 frames. It will cost a little less to have made a 

 wooden bo,\ of the above dimensions, without top 

 or bottom, and then place it in a tin pan three or 

 four inches deep, and large enough to contain the 

 box. In either case, in one of the lower corners of 

 the tin box (or of the pan) a hole should be made 

 with a spout, say an inch in diameter and about 

 three or four inches long, through which the waste 

 syrup can pass to be caught in a pail or other ves- 

 sel standing under the spout. Of course, the whole 

 affair must be elevated sufficiently to admit of the 

 pail standing under the spout; and the operator, if 

 necessary, can stand on a box to make him high 

 enough. Now take an old tin quart fruit-can, hold 

 it upside down over a very hot stove or fire till the 

 solder melts so the top can be easily knocked off. 

 Then with a SVs-inch No. 13 wire nail, or a punch of 

 the same size, punch holes in the bottom of the 

 can. Punch the holes from the inside, so the pro- 

 jections shall be outside. Make a row of holes 

 around the outer edge, obout l,' of an inch apart; %, 

 of an inch inside of this another row, then inside of 

 this again, filling up the bottom with holes about ^4 

 of an inch apart. Near the upper edge, punch two 

 holes on opposite sides, and into one of these holes 

 pass a piece of wire about a foot long, fasten- 

 ing together the two ends by twisting, then serve 

 the other hole the same way. Tie one end of a 

 string into each of the wires, and tie the other ends 

 of the strings into two nails or staples in the ceiling, 

 five or six feet apart. Let the can be hung about 

 three feet above the bottom of the tin box, and let 

 the strings hang crosswise (not lengthwise) of the 

 box. Put a comb in the bottom of the box, then pour 

 a dipper of syrup rather rapidly into the can, and 

 with the left hand keep moving the can so as to fill 

 all parts of the comb; turn the comb over, fill the 

 other side, raise the comb and let it drain a few 

 seconds, then put it into a super, or hive without 

 a bottom, to plowly drain off. It is, of course, wel' 

 to have a pan, sufficiently large undei-neath to 

 catch the drip, and the combs may be tiered up five 

 or six high. If you don't watjt your clothes unnec- 

 essarily daubed when stooping to lift the frames . 



