1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



337 



ag'o through knot-holes in the clapboards. 

 For some time honey was taken out everj' 

 3'ear, but of late years none can be reached, 

 and every fall there is a strong- smell of 

 over-fermentation. Now, the new owners 

 want to know if there is any way of ridding- 

 the house of them except by burning it. 

 The woman of ignorance imagined a new 

 queen in a tempting hive would tempt them 

 out where they would prove the nucleus of 

 a fortune, or at least provide the family 

 with honey. What particular form of en- 

 dearment is used in cajoling bees? and 

 with how long a pole is it allowable to han- 

 dle them? They have always been very 

 much attracted toward the woman, show- 

 ing a desire to nestle in her hair, etc. She 

 is firmly persuaded there is no good bee 

 but a dead one, and expects to badger the 

 men into the necessary formalities. 



Helen M. Griffen. 

 Yorktown Heights, N. Y. 



[When a colony or colonies of bees once 

 get lodged in between the inner and outer 

 walls of a dwelling it is not an easy mat- 

 ter to get them out without tearing oiT the 

 clapboarding. I have seen several attempts 

 made to take the bees out. Perhaps the 

 most feasible is to put a Porter bee-escape 

 over the entrance or knot-hole through which 

 the bees go. This will catch all the flying 

 bees, and all other bees as fast as they 

 come out to fly. But the result in the end 

 will be some dead brood, some young bees, 

 the queen, and more or less honey. After 

 all, the attempt at best is somewhat abor- 

 tive. If the brood die, there will be a 

 smell, and the honey may sour, or it may 

 melt from the direct action of the sun's 

 rays, and at some future time leak out and 

 run down somewhere. — Ed.] 



TWO-STORY DANZENBAKER HIVES ; CONDI- 

 TIONS UNDER WHICH THE SAME 

 MAY BE USED. 



Can a larger crop of comb honey be se- 

 cured by using two stories to a Dauzenba- 

 ker hive? and will it curtail the desire of 

 the colony to swarm? I should like to hear 

 of other bee-keepers' experience with two- 

 story Danzenbaker hives. 



Wm. H. Earnshow. 



Bridgeport, Pa., March 19. 



[A great deal depends on a locality as to 

 whether two brood-chambers of a hive can 

 be used to advantage. My impression is 

 that, situated as you are, you could to very 

 good advantage use two brood-chambers up 

 to the be'ginning of the honey-flow. At 

 that time, crowd all the brood into one 

 brood-chamber, and give the remainder to 

 some other colony or nucleus. In place of 

 the brood-chamber removed, put on another 

 with empty combs. After the bees begin to 

 store in the combs, put on a comb-honey su- 

 per containing sections, with full sheets of 

 foundation, and then look out for comb 

 honey. — Ed.] 



A SIMPLE TEST FOR DETECTING GLUCOSE IN 

 HONEY. 



Have you a simple test for the purity of 

 honey? Why not tell us how to analyze 

 honey, through Gleanings? I have access 

 to a chemical laboratory. 



Peru, Ind. Geo. S. Demuth. 



[It would not be practicable for the aver- 

 age person to analj'ze honey to determine 

 its purity. This is the work of experts, 

 and the very best of them at that. A sim- 

 ple test, however, may be applied in the 

 case of hone}' suspected of containing glu- 

 cose. If a little alcohol be stirred in with 

 such mixture a slightly cloudy appearance 

 will be noticed in the course of five or ten 

 minutes if glucose is present. But if one 

 is familiar with the " brassy " taste of or- 

 dinary commercial glucose he can usually, 

 by means of his tongue, detect (at least for 

 his own satisfaction) the glucose in honey, 

 even if only a small amount is used. — Ed.] 



QUEENS FLYING OFF THK COMBS. 



The queen that I received last summer 

 came in good condition, and was success- 

 fully introduced by being allowed to run in 

 at the entrance. On the third day I had 

 some friends call, and they wanted to see 

 the new queen; so I took out a frame of 

 bees, found her, and we were inspecting 

 her, when, without warning, she left the 

 frames, flying over the barn, and that was 

 the last I ever saw of her. Did you ever 

 have such an experience? 



Sam. a. Fenner. 



Providence, R. I., Mar. 15. 



[The circumstance which you have re- 

 lated is not an unusual one. A queen that 

 has been introduced is usually a little shy; 

 and when the hive is opened she may be 

 frightened. She maj' rush about over the 

 surface of the comb trying to hide, and this 

 act of hers has a tendency to excite the 

 bees, with the result that they grab for her. 

 This will frighten her the more, when she 

 will take wing, possibly never to return. 

 But when a queen " lights out " in this 

 fashion it is best to set the comb back in 

 the hive, leave the cover off, and go away 

 and leave the hive. There are chances she 

 will return and go in among the combs. 



I have two or three times stopped queens 

 by knocking them down with my hand. 

 This may stun them a little, but they will 

 recover all right providing you can catcii 

 them in the grass before they take wing. — 

 Ed.] 



night ventilation of bee-cellars not 

 satisfactory. 

 I have tried your plan two winters of 

 leaving a cellar door open nights and closed 

 days; heat about 42 to 45°; went up one or 

 two days to 50°; have a large cellar with 

 heater, but not in the part where bees are, 

 and I will never try it again. They kept 

 up a roaring all winter, and came out bad. 

 About three bushels of bees came out on 



