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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jlly. 1919 



unsealed honey will be noticed that will 

 spill out of the combs quite readily. This is 

 the nectar that has not yet been completely 

 changed into honey. (2) We have known 

 cockroaches to enter hives; and yet, if the 

 colonies are kept strong, we have never 

 known them to do any special harm. 



Question. — Today one of my colonies swarmed, 

 and all settled on the ground and on the leg of the 

 chair holding the hive, and started to go back into 

 the old hive. A lot went back, and then I got a new 

 hive and set it there and took a large spoon and 

 took the cluster off the leg and put it on the top 

 of the frames. I found the queen in one spoonful. 

 I put her on the top, and she went in. Then I put 

 the lid on and all the rest that were on the chair 

 and ground went into the new hive; but none which 

 returned to the old hive afterward went into the 

 new hive. Did I do right? or should I have allowed 

 tbem all to go back into the old hive? I believe 

 they would have done so, for they were going back 

 as rapidly as they could. Miss Laura Keel. 



Nebraska. 



Answer. — Your method of hiving bees was 

 all right, only that it should have been ap- 

 plied a little sooner — before the bees had 

 begun retiring to the old hive. If you find 

 that there are not nearly enough bees in the 

 new hive, it wou^d be a good plan to take 

 several frames with the adhering bees from 

 the old hive and gently shake the bees from 

 them in front of the new hive. If they are 

 not shaken hard, only the older bees will 

 fall off, leaving the young ones which 

 should be returned with the frames to the 

 old hive. In doing this, care should be 

 taken not to get the frame having the 

 queen-cell from which they are to raise their 

 new queen; for if this comb is shaken, the 

 queen will probably not hatch. 



Questions.- — (1) Last Sunday one of my colonies 

 swarmed while I was gone, and a man tried to put 

 them into an old box. On my return I asked him 

 whether he thought it proper to hive those bees since 

 they were on my own lot, and only 30 feet from the 

 hive. He said that as long as I had not forbidden 

 him on the ground he had a right to trespass. Now, 

 had this man a right to trespass, and hive those 

 bees on my premises? (2) Have I a right to go 

 to my neighbor's orchard, without asking him, and 

 hive a swarm of bees that left my apiary? (3) 

 How can I see the queen when hiving? 



Indiana. Chas. J. Maurer. 



Answers. — (1) If the man followed those 

 bees from his own hive to your land he 

 would own the bees, but he would have no 

 legal right to touch them. Of course, if 

 they came from your own hives he had still 

 less right on the land. (2) According to 

 law, if your own colony left the hive and 

 went to a neighbor 's orchard the colony 

 would still be yours; but in order to hive 

 the swarm and take it home it would be 

 necessary to get permission from the owner 

 of the orchard. As a matter of fact, how- 

 ever, there is not one person in a hundred 

 that would think of objecting to allowing 

 a man to hive his own swarm of bees, even 

 if the swarm did happen to be trespassing 

 at the time. (3) It is not necessary to see 

 the queen when hiving a cluster of bees. 

 The only time it is necessary to see the 

 queen when hiving is when she has clipped 

 . wings and is not able to join the cluster. 



In this case she will doubtless be found 

 crawling in the grass in front of the hive. 



Question. — I had a colony of bees in a box hive, 

 and I wanted to transfer them into standard hives. 

 So I put a standard hive on top of the box hive 

 with full sheets of foundation in it, and then drum- 

 med the bees up into it. When I got the queen up 

 I put an excluder between so she could not get 

 back down. In two or three days I looked at them, 

 and all the bees were back down, and the queen 

 was on the excluder dead. What was wrong? 



Indiana. W. Crumrine. 



Answer. — The plan you used would have 

 been successful if j'ou had only left one 

 frame with a little unsealed brood at)ove. 

 If this had been done the bees would not 

 have deserted the upper story. 



ANSWERS BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Questions. — (1) If queen mailing cages are 

 bought with candv in them, will the candy remain 

 good until the following year? (2) If the brood- 

 chamber is full of capped sugar syrup, will they 

 carry any of it up into the supers when they are 

 bringing in nectar ? and will they carry it up when 

 they are enlarging the brood-nest? (3) Do you 

 think it is a good idea to get the small honey-boxes 

 built out with sugar syrup so that thev will be all 

 ready when the nectar comes in ? C. C. Mackey. 



New York. 



Answers. — (1) Not so good. It is likely 

 to be too dry; but if kept for a time in a 

 moist place — perhaps a steamy place — it 

 might be all right. (2) Bringing in nectar 

 would not send the syrup into the supers; 

 enlarging the brood-nest might. It is well 

 to be at least very careful about such things. 

 (3)1 do not believe it would do at all. You 

 cannot get comb built out without having 

 something stored in it, and you certainly do 

 not want any syrup stored in your sections. 



ANSWERS BY H. H. ROOT. 



Questions. — '(1) I am thinking of building some- 

 thing like the Bartlott-Miller capping-melter, and 

 should like to know about how large to make it. I 

 had tliought of miking the melter with half-inch 

 tubes along the top. The object of the small tubes 

 is to let the honey escape without having to travel 

 very far and bei'nming discolored by being heated 

 too long, and ge'ting hotter than necessary. I 

 should like your advice as to small tubes. There 

 may be some objection that does not appear al 

 first sight? (2) Would brass tubes be apt to in- 

 jure the honey? (3) What should be the distance 

 letween the tubes? C. E. Andrews. 



Nevada. 



Answers. — (1) I would hardly care to en- 

 courage one in making a capping-melter on 

 the Bartlett-Miller principle. Small tubes 

 have been abandoned by several who have 

 tried them. Mr. Bartlett-Miller himself 

 found that they were not satisfactory. They 

 soon fill up with propolis, and bits of cocoons 

 slide off with the cappings. Furthermore, it 

 is almost impossible to melt the cappings as 

 fast as they drop down from the knife on 

 steam-heated tubes as small as these. In 

 spite of all one can do, he will overload the 

 tubes unless he has an extremely large sur- 

 face, say a melter several feet long, which 

 would be impractical. (2) Brass tubes would 

 be very apt to discolor both the honey and 

 the wax. (3) The tubes can not be much 

 further apart than 3/16 of an inch, else the 

 (aiipings will fall thru unmelted. 



