674 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



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GLEANED 



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UESTION. — 

 Wliat are the 

 prospects of 

 getting sugar 

 this month for bee- 

 feed? The weather 

 has been so bad 

 that the prospects 

 for a fall flow are 

 poor, and there is 

 absolutely no sugar 



here. I am selling the largest quantity of white- 

 clover honey in years and still have a lot on hand. 

 But I am thinking of stopping selling and saving 

 it for the bees. Yet it seems too bad to keep all 

 this high-priced honey for the bees. 



Vermont. N. H. Wilson. 



Answer. — It does seem a pity to feed such 

 fine clover honey to the bees when sugar 

 would do just as well and perhaps better. 

 We are in hopes that you will be able to 

 obtain the sugar in time. Yet we feel you 

 are wise in reserving enough honey for the 

 bees until you actually have the sugar in 

 your possession. 



Question.^Can you tell me what is the cause of 

 honey becoming candied in the comb? I have just 

 taken off a super with five out of eight combs filled 

 with candied honey, and capped. I could not ex- 

 tract clean, and the honey is now candied, and 

 consequently is not clear. Is there any way to 

 remedy or prevent this? Esther M. Meredith. 



Virginia. 



Answer. — As we understand it, the combs 

 were not extracted clean, and the honey 

 candied in the. bottoms of the cells. Then 

 later, when the bees filled these cells with 

 honey, this honey also candied. If a little 

 candied honey is within a cell, one can be 

 quite certain that it will cause the candying 

 of other honey placed there later. It is a 

 good plan, after extracting, to allow the 

 bees to clean out the stickiness from the 

 ccmb in order to prevent this later granula- 

 tion, "We might also add that honey from 

 certain sources candies more readily than 

 that from other sources. 



Question. — I feel much disgusted with myself 

 this afternoon. It was with misgivings that I killed 

 two one-year-old queens to put in two young ones. 

 The ones I had, had the frames filled with brood. 

 This afternoon I found one of the queens dead in 

 the cage; and the other one, after four days in the 

 cage to get acquainted, was smoked in, but was 

 balled; and when I loosened the ball she flew away. 

 Is it wise for one who does not raise queens to run 

 the risk, especially where the queen is comparatively 

 young? Edwin Bebb. 



Illinois. 



Answer. — Tho young queens are to be pre- 

 ferred, we should hardly recommend that 

 you requeen every year. Still, we believe 

 that it usually does pay to requeen every 

 two years. You will doubtless have 

 better success next time at requeening 

 if you requeen during the honey flow, when 

 the bees are more apt to accept the queen 

 readily. A very successful way of requeen- 

 ing, and one entailing but little risk, is to 

 introduce the new queen or queen-cell to a 

 nucleus of two or three frames pf hatching 

 brood. This nucleus should be provided 

 with a cover and bottom-board, and placed 

 immediately over the cover of the colony 



BY ASKING 



Fowls 



LJ 



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OCTOBKE, 1019 



to be requeened, 

 having the en- 

 trance contract- 

 ed, and facing in 

 the direction op- 

 posite that of 

 the lower colony. 

 If the introduc- 

 ed queen is a 

 virgin, she could 

 easily be mated from the upper story; and, 

 after she begins laying, all of the unsealed 

 brood from the lower hive may be placed in 

 the upper hive, and the old queen killed. 

 Between the upper and lower hives may be 

 placed a screen so that the bees of the up- 

 per colony may get the colony odor of the 

 colony to be requeened. After two days re- 

 move the screen very quietly and insert a 

 single layer of newspaper. We have just 

 requeened an entire apiary by this method 

 and have found it satisfactory. 



Questions. — (1) "Grouping in Fig. 1 looks better 

 and takes up a little less room than in Fig. 2, but 

 the latter is more convenient if two people are work- 

 ing together at the same hive — Editor." — Page 587, 

 September Gleanings. I'm much interested about 

 that "two people working together." Seems sociable 



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Fig. 1. 



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Fig. 2. 



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Fig. 3. 



like. We do a little at team work in this locality, 

 but perhaps not as much as we should. Please give 

 us particulars about "working together." (2) You 

 make no mention of the usual way of grouping, Fig. 

 3. Is there anything wrong with it? I have used 

 it for many years and like it, yet not having tried 

 either of the other ways may not know. Fig. 1 

 takes up more room than Fig. 3. If better in any 

 way, in what way? Dr. C. C. Miller. 



Illinois. 



Answers. — (1) Queens are more easily 

 found when the hive is first opened than 

 later; and therefore two working together 

 can find a queen in less than half the time 

 it would take one alone. Also, when one 

 keeps enough colonies to make his living in 

 that way he is sometimes obliged to work 

 with bees at an unfavorable time. An in- 

 spection of the brood-chamber may be re- 

 quired when bad weather or robbers render 

 it unwise to have the hive open any longer 

 than is absolutely necessary. At such a 

 time two may work at the same hive to ad- 

 vantage. With one on each side of the 

 hive, two people equally swift in their 

 manipulations may . rapidly examine the 

 combs, each taking alternate combs. The 

 one who handles the last comb shuts up the 

 hive while the partner is opening the next 

 one. This is also an excellent way of teach- 

 ing a beginner and helping him to gain con- 

 fidence in himself; but at the start it will 

 be necessary to keep watch of his combs as 

 well as one's own, and perhaps handle two 

 to his one. If anything unusual is noted it 

 is immediately mentioned, so that the other 

 may take it into consideration; and if both 

 are experienced, it often proves that two 

 heads are better than one. (2) It is our experi- 

 ence that with this grouping there is more 



