GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Ai'RiL, 1919 



thus used up considerable quantities of 

 stores. In the case of hives not sufficiently 

 packed it is possible that a sudden cold 

 snap may now result in the destruction of 

 all this brood and the consequent loss in 

 the honey and energy expended in its pro- 

 duction. As soon as a warm enough day ar- 

 rives, an examination should be made, and 

 the stores replenished if necessary. If pos- 

 sible, frames of honey should be inserted; 

 lacking these, a hard candy should be given. 



We notice one of the journals having a 

 million circulation has in its January issue 

 an article discouraging the use of hard can- 

 dy, and recommending as feed to be placed 

 on the tops of the frames a soft candy made 

 by mixing pulverized sugar with extracted 

 honey. This is exceedingly poor advice to 

 be spread broadcast over the country, and 

 we heartily condemn it. Such candy, if fed 

 at all, should be placed in a dish; for it 

 soon absorbs moisture, runs down between 

 the combs, killing all the brood with which 

 it comes in contact, and gradually spreads 

 over the bottom of the hive and runs out at 

 the entrance. In some cases we have known 

 an entrance to become completely closed 

 by the candy, and the colony killed outright. 



For a good candy we recommend the fol- 

 lowing: Place on the stove a granite or 

 aluminum kettle * containing granulated 

 sugar and a little water, stirring until the 

 sugar is all dissolved and the syrup very 

 thick. Then bring the syrup to a boil. As 

 soon as the boiling begins, the stirring 

 should be stopped and the boiling continued 

 until when one dips a finger into cold water, 

 then into the boiling syrup and back again 

 into the cold water, a thin film hardens on 

 the finger and will just crack when the 

 finger is bent. At this stage the syrup 

 should be removed and poured into pans 

 lined with paper. When pouring the syrup 

 the dish should not be scrai^ed, nor the pans 

 be moved or jarred until after the candy has 

 hardened. When cold, the candy will be 

 hard and transparent. 



A CONSIDEEABLE of a hornet's nest, or 

 rather a bee 's nest, was stirred up among 

 the beekeepers of 

 Some New Bee California over 

 Legislation. some proposed bee 



legislation that 

 called for a tax of ten cents per colony, li- 

 cense fees that might be revoked, and some 

 appropriations of sums in amounts of $10,- 

 000 and $15,000 each. 



It appears that a proposed law in Cali- 

 fornia must be submitted 30 days in ad- 

 vance; but apparently legislators can get 

 around that by proposing a dummy bill and 

 then substituting another under the same 

 title and number. There were several dum- 

 my bee bills introduced, with the expecta- 

 tion, so we are told, that they would be 

 amended. 



Whatever the bills were, thej' were un- 

 satisfactory to the rank and file of beekeep- 



ers. The Southern California Beekeepers' 

 Association took up the fight against the 

 bills and this was followed by the State Bee- 

 keepers ' Association. Even members of the 

 California Co-operative Honey Producers ' 

 Exchange repudiated the bills, notwith- 

 standing that one of their members placed 

 one of these bills in the hopper, with no 

 thought of its passage in that form. Who is 

 responsible for the others no one seems to 

 know. 



The thing that raised the ire of almost 

 everybody was the i:)ro]3osed tax of 10 cents 

 per colony and the scheme of licensing bee- 

 keepers, with the possibility of the license 

 being revoked at the will and whim of the 

 inspector. After several conferences, a 

 meeting of all the parties interested was 

 held, and it was tentatively agreed at that 

 time to drop all legislation for the time be- 

 ing and wait until Dr. E. F. Phillips of the 

 IT. S. Bureau of Entomology and his corps 

 of workers should come back into the State 

 the following fall. There the matter seems 

 to rest for the present. 



There is probably nothing in a decade that 

 has stirred up such a nest of mad bees, or 

 more exactly beekeepers, as this proposed 

 legislation of a tax of 10 cents per colo- 

 ny, a license scheme, and the various funds, 

 the meaning and purpose of which no one 

 seems to understand. 



H. H. SWEET of The A. I. Eoot Company 

 of California has for years used a scheme 

 for making divi- 

 I A Clever Idea. sion-boards for ear- 



ly spring that is 

 not only unique and cheap, but useful. 



He wraps a newspaper of suitable length 

 vertically around a common Langstroth 

 comb. When this frame wrapped in news- 

 paper is pushed down in the hive, the folds 

 and projecting ends of the paper make a 

 tight contact with the bottom-board, ends, 

 and cover of the hive. A similarly wrapped 

 frame on the other side of the brood-nest 

 makes a tight warm compartment. 



If the two outside frames of a lO-frame 

 hive are wrapped in the manner explained, 

 it makes on the sides a double-walled hive 

 for an 8-frame brood-nest. As the season 

 advances and the bees need more room, they 

 gnaw away the newspaper and fill it with 

 brood, pollen, or honey. 



In the ease of a 3-frame nucleus, this 

 scheme of using two newspaper-wrapped 

 frames can be used to most excellent advan- 

 tage, for a nucleus should not have more 

 room to keep warm than is absolutely neces- 

 sary. 



Mr. Sweet 's scheme of making division- 

 boards out of brood-combs and newspapers 

 may save thousands of nuclei all over the 

 United States. It is so cheap and simple 

 that where a bunch of bees in the spring 

 doesn't fill the hive, the beekeeper can't af- 

 ford not to use it, if they are not otherwise 

 protected. 



