736 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



November, 1919 



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QUESTIONS. — 

 (1) I have 

 some extract- 

 ed clover hon- 

 ey of the 1918 sea- 

 son, which has 

 soured. It is the 

 first time this has 

 ever happened with 

 me, and I am at a 

 loss to understand 

 it. This honey was left in the combs from the clover 

 flow of 1918 until I extracted it this spring in June. 

 It was at least three-fourths sealed over, and I am 

 sure it was well ripened. I stored it in a building 

 that was dry but subject to freezing at times. Would 

 this aifect the honeiy ? (2) Must honey be kept in an 

 air-tight container? (3) How long will well-ripened 

 extracted clover and buckwheat honey keep? (4) 

 I have a quantity of this honey, and I should like 

 to know if it can be used next spring for stimulat- 

 ing the colonies. Would heating it help when feed- 

 ing? Frank M. White. 

 New York. 



Answers. — (1) If the lioney was perfectly 

 ripe we should not expect it to ferment un- 

 less it became damp from being exposed to 

 damp atmosphere, as in the case you de- 

 scribe. The dampness of the atmosphere 

 doubtless combined with the honey in the 

 unsealed cells, and fermentation resulted. 

 When honey is extracted from the combs 

 and put in tin cans it may be kept for years 

 provided it is ripe at the time of extracting. 

 (2) It is not necessary to keep honey in air- 

 tight containers. (3) We have kept both 

 for years. (4) If the honey has become 

 granulated, you will, of course, want to heat 

 it and get it in liquid condition, and also 

 dilute it with some water before feeding. 

 It may then be used as feed in the spring, 

 if free from American foul brood germs, 

 but would not be fit for winter stores. 



Question. — I have five strong colonies, but they 

 did not store as much honey in the supers as they 

 should have done according to the abundance of 

 white clover and other flowers there have been this 

 summer. What was the trouble ? 



Wisconsin. Albert Gutliu. 



Answer. — This season was very unusual 

 in many localities; and where there was an 

 abundance of bloom there seemed to be but 

 very little nectar in it, so that the bees 

 made little or no honey in many places. If 

 your colonies had good queens, and were 

 strong, the fact that you got no honey was 

 pro.bably not due to the bees but to weaker 

 conditions. We are all hoping for a better 

 crop next year. 



Question. — I had a very weak colony in the. 

 spring — only a handful of bees. I gave them a 

 frame of brood to help them along until I had a 

 fair-sized colony. Then on July 8 I gave them a 

 frame of brood with a queen-cell which they ac- 

 cepted, and the colony built up very rapidly. In 

 August I raised four frames to the iipper story with 

 an excluder between ; cut out queen-cells above, and 

 gave them the once-over every week to see their 

 progress. On Sept. 1 I put the bee-escape on, in- 

 tending to take off the super, but found they would 

 not leave the super. On examining I found a 

 queen above, and also one below — no brood above, 

 and no eggs. I gave the upper super an empty 

 frame to see if the queen was fertile. On Sept. 8 

 I found eggs in the upper super and set it aside 

 and gave three other frames of brood from other 



GLEANED by ASKING 



Fowls 



LJ 



1 



colonies. How did 

 the queen get in 

 the upper super ? 

 Why no brood, al- 

 tho they had room 

 there ? Did I do 

 right by setting 

 aside, or should I 

 have put the queen 

 below and killed the 

 lower queen ? Tlie 

 lower queen is only two months old. I have had 

 several during the season in which I found mother 

 and daughter working side by side, but the above I 

 cannot fathom. John A. Braun. 



New York. 



Answer. — If there were enough bees to 

 make two good colonies, then you were right 

 in setting them off to one side as you did, 

 provided also that the queen was a good 

 layer. Of course, if you saw only eggs and 

 no sealed brood, it might be that when tear- 

 ing down cells you missed one and a queen 

 was raised in the upper story, never had 

 any chance to mate, and was, therefore, a 

 drone-layer. In this case the brood would 

 by this time tell the story, for, of course, it 

 would be drone brood. If you find the queen 

 above was a laying queen capable of pro- 

 ducing worker bees, then there must have 

 been an entrance to the upper hive where 

 she M^as able to leave and be mated; or else 

 you had two queens in the lower hive at the 

 time you put the bees and brood above, and 

 accidentally put one of those queens in the 

 upper story. Of course, it would have been 

 unusual to have two queens in that lower 

 story; but at the time you gave the colony 

 the queen-cell it may be that they already 

 had a laying queen that was old and play- 

 ing out so that they were willing to accept 

 a new queen and at the same time tolerate 

 the old one. 



Question. — Will it injure the bees to paint hives 

 containing them ? Thos. M. Keller. 



Illinois. 



Answer. — If a great many hives are to be 

 painted, a cool time should be chosen so that 

 there will be no danger of the bees flying 

 out and alighting in the fresh paint. When 

 but a few hives are to be painted, plenty 

 of drier should be used and the hives paint- 

 ed along toward night. The odor of the 

 paint will not injure the bees in the slight- 

 est. 



Questions. — (1) If I take a queen from among 

 the workers while clustered on a tree, can I put 

 her in a cage with a section of honey and preserve 

 her for future use? (2) Will the workers return 

 to their parent hive and stay? (3) Will a queen 

 pass thru a one-way Porter bee-escapei with the 

 workers? (4) Can a queen sting while one is clip- 

 ping her .wings ? E. R. Webb. 



New Y'ork. 



Answer. — (1) The queen would die in a 

 short time if no attendant bees were left 

 with her. If she were put in a queen-cage 

 with a few of her own bees, and the cage 

 provisioned with a good queen candy, she 

 might be kept easily for a week or more. 

 (2) If one finds a queen in a cluster like 

 that, unless this is a first swarm he can not 

 be certain that there are not other queens 



