1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



655 



swarming- problem hinges somewhat if not 

 largely on stock. During the early part of 

 the season we were short of queens, and had 

 to order from the South. The first queens 

 that arrived were of the yellow stock, and 

 a large number of them were put in the 

 apiary. It was a remarkable fact that 

 nearly all these queens were either super- 

 seded right in the height of the honey-flow, 

 and the young virgins subsequently led off 

 a swarm, or else the old queen would try 

 to swarm out. As our queens were all 

 clipped the queen would be disposed of, and 

 subsequently a virgin and the bees would 

 "light out." There is scarcely one of the 

 colonies of this particular yellow strain 

 that has any thing more than a one-story 

 hive. But our imported leather stock not 

 only are not disposed to swarm if it has 

 any kind of fair show, but it will keep on 

 storing honey, and the colonies having that 

 blood are, as a rule, three and four stories 

 high. On some of the hives there are two 

 supers of full-depth extracting-frames and 

 one of comb honey. It may be that abun- 

 dance of room or large hives prevented the 

 swarming; but this same leather-colored 

 stock in single story eight-frame hives will 

 store honey without swarming to a great 

 extent. I do not mean in one breath to con- 

 demn yellow stock and to praise the leather- 

 colored; but we have for years been trying 

 to develop the non-swarming honey strains; 

 and there is any amount of evidence to show 

 that this selected stock is far superior in 

 every way to some j-ellow blood. The 

 trouble with many strains of yellow bees 

 is, they are selected because of their color, 

 and color is all they have. But when I say 

 this I wish to say we have some yellow 

 blood that are home stayers and good work- 

 ers. But where we have one such yellow 

 strain we have ten others of the leather 

 bees that have been bred, not for color, but 

 for business. 



Now, then, to answer the query raised by 

 Mr. Shepherd, my own opinion is, he has a 

 stock that ought to be superseded by some- 

 thing better. If I mistake not, Mr. Shep- 

 herd is working for Mr. Marchant, who is 

 a producer of extracted honey largely. If 

 Mr. Marchant has bees that swarm at the 

 rate Mr. Shepherd speaks of, when run- 

 ning for extracted honey, the queens ought 

 to have their heads pinched and some other 

 ones put in their places. It does not seem 

 to me that modern methods should tolerate 

 such swarming for extracted honey, al- 

 though it may not be possible to curtail it 

 when running for comb. But we all know 

 there is a great difference in bees. Dr. 

 Miller, when I visited his apiary, showed 

 me here and there a colony that would far 

 outstrip any thing else in the yard. They 

 would not swarm, but keep on storing in 

 sections; and I think nearly every apiarist 

 has samples of these bees. I do not mean 

 that our readers should send to the Root 

 Co. for their stock; but let them select bees 

 for business out of their own yards, and 

 breed from them. — Ed.] 



CAN WE PREVENT BEES FROM CROWDING 

 THE BROOD-CH.\MBER ? 



We are having very dry weather here 

 now, and the bees are doing but little work. 

 I am using your Ideal super with all of my 

 25 colonies, and like them very much. I 

 think the bees seal the honey in thin sec- 

 tions much quicker than where they build 

 it thicker. Can you suggest some plan b}^ 

 which I can keep the bees from crowding 

 the queen in the brood-chamber? Here we 

 have a good flow of honey in April, then a 

 moderate flow until July 15, and by that 

 time the colonies are diminished in strength, 

 some so they can not work to the best ad- 

 vantage. Do 3^ou think it would help to in- 

 troduce young queens, say about May 1? I 

 nearly always rear a few queens from my 

 best colonies when they swarm, so as to re- 

 place any that do not suit me. 



Hazlehurst, Miss J. S. Wise. 



[This is a question that hinges a great 

 deal on locality, and I do not Know that I 

 am competent to answer it, for conditions 

 under which you are placed; but it strikes 

 me I would test on a limited scale the large 

 brood-nest with a large frame. The Jumbo 

 or Ouinby size of frame might aflord relief. 

 But whatever frame or hive I adopted I 

 would make it a rule to see that the bees 

 never found it necessary to crowd in on the 

 brood-chamber. If we were using eight- 

 frame hives I would make the brood-cham- 

 bers of two stories each, with some brood 

 in each storj'^ ; and I would run the hives 

 three and four stories high, making sure 

 the bees always had empty combs or foun- 

 dation. I should judge from what you 

 write 3^ou allow the bees to crowd the 

 brood-nest. If you run for comb honey it is 

 not always possible to avoid such crowd- 

 ing ; but when you run for extracted the 

 matter can be handled in the manner I 

 have explained. — Ed.] 



BLEACHING COMB HONEY WITH SULPHUR; 

 AN OPEN LETTER TO J. E. CRANE. 



I see in Gleanings of June 15 an article 

 from J. E. Crane, giving his experience in 

 bleaching honey, and the difficulties he 

 found in using sulphur. He says the writ- 

 ers of the articles on bleaching honey, 

 which appeared in Gleanings two years 

 ago, recommended the use of sulphur fumes 

 cold— that is, to be burned outside, and con- 

 ducted through a pipe. As I wrote the first 

 article that appeared in Gleanings on 

 bleaching honey I wish to give a statement 

 of the way I then recommended and still 

 practice in sulphuring honey'. I use a box 

 resembling a watering-trough, bottom side 

 up. Holes are bored, over which I place a 

 tier of seven or eight supers of honey-. I 

 place a teacupful of sulphur in a metal 

 dish, and touch a lighted match to the sul- 

 phur, and place it directly under the supers 

 on the box. In two or three hours the sul- 

 phur will have burned, the fumes will have 

 gone up through the supers, and escaped 

 through between the supers and under the 



