90 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. S, 1903. 



Getting Propolis Off Fence Separators— Keeping Pollen 

 Out of Sections. 



1. Is there any other way of getting the propolis off of 

 fence separators besides the tiresome way of scraping? 

 Will boiling injure the glued joints ? 



2. Is there any sure way of keeping pollen out of the 

 sections, where the swarm is hived on starters, in brood- 

 frames, on the old stand, with supers partly filled placed on 

 a new hive ? Michigan. 



Answers. — 1. I don't know of any better way than to 

 scrape. Boiling in water would dissolve the glue, and 

 would not be a success in removing the propolis. 



2. I don't believe there is, if you give the sections at 

 the time of hiving. Better wait two or three days after 

 hiving before you give the sections ; then the bees will have 

 such a start in the brood-chamber that they will not want 

 to carry pollen above. 



Moving Bees in Winter-Cases. 



Would you advise moving 30 colonies of bees, in winter- 

 cases, 6 miles on sleighs ? or would you wait until spring ? 

 If done now. what precautions are necessary ? Canada. 



Answer. — If convenient, it would be as well to wait till 

 spring. If moved now, take pains to avoid having the 

 combs tip over sidewise, or swing from side to side, espec- 

 ially when the cold is very severe. When quite cold the 

 combs are brittle and easily broken. 



Feeding Bees in Winter. 



I have a few colonies that have not quite enough honey 

 to run them through the winter, sol would like to feed them, 

 but as I have never done any of it before, I would like to 

 know how to do it, at this time of year. What is the best 

 and cheapest feed for them ? Kansas. 



Answer. — That's one of the things that you will find 

 fully answered in your bee-book, and it will be the best in- 

 vestment you can make to get a bee-book if you have none. 

 You will find from the book that if you have no combs of 

 honey the best thing will be to make cakes of candy an inch 

 or so thick. Just boil the sugar in a little water, being 

 very sure not to let it burn, pour it into greased pans, and 

 when cold lay a cake over the top-bars and cover up close. 



Comb Honey for Home l3se-Propolisin. 



1. I am running for comb honey. How would it work 

 to put super foundation in brood-frames and set the hive 

 over a strong colony, with a queen-excluder between the 

 hives, and use the honey thus stored for my own table ? 

 Would they store more honey by so doing ? 



2. In the January number of Gleanings there is men- 

 tion made of a " propolisin " for sores. Can you tell me 

 how it is prepared ? Minnesota. 



Answers.— 1. It will work well, and I think you will 

 get more honey. A good many Texas bee-keepers are quite 

 enthusiastic about bulk honej', producing comb honey in 

 the way you speak of, cutting it up and packing it in cans, 

 and then filling up with extracted honey. 



2. I don't know how "propolisin" is prepared, as I 

 think the process has never been made public. It is quite 

 possible, however, that you could get the same benefit with 

 very little preparation. If the propolis is soft, it might be 

 spread on a cloth and applied where desired, and if hard it 

 might be powered and mixed with lard or melted tallow. 



Keeping Queens— Transferring Bees. 



1. When is a queen-cell ripe ? 



2. Where should the queen-cells be kept until we can 

 use the queens ? 



3. We have some queens which we wish to keep until 

 spring, when we will transfer some blacks out of old box- 

 hives. Where should we keep them ? 



4. We have some queens that we have put in strong 

 colonies, that have not mated. There will be some warm 

 weather through the winter, that the bees will stir out, but 

 they have no drones. Will the queens lay through the win- 



ter, or will they wait until next spring, when drones will be 

 reared ? 



5. When would be a good time to commence transfer- 

 ring from box-hives, in this locality ? Alab.^ma. 



Answers. — 1. The term " ripe " is applied to a queen- 

 cell when it is near the time for the young queen to emerge, 

 perhaps any time within two days, possibly within three, of 

 emergence. When a cell is sealed, you may know that at 

 the farthest it will be only about eight days till the young 

 queen emerges. Usually the sharp point of the cell will be 

 gnawed away something like two days before hatching, 

 leaving the cell quite rounding at the end. When a num- 

 ber of cells are shut in with an excluder in a strong colony, 

 as mentioned on page 761 (1902), the time being all right for 

 swarming, the bees will allow only one of them to emerge, 

 and you can open the hive and take out any cells that are 

 very ripe, these cells having the cap partly gnavped open by 

 the young queen within. Of course the free queen can also 

 betaken out, if you should happen to see her. The bees will 

 keep the young queens (all but one) imprisoned in the cells 

 a day or more after they are ripe enough so you can see the 

 slit where the cap is partly gnawed open. 



2. You can keep the cells in a nucleus until one of them 

 hatches, when all the rest of the cells will be destroyed un- 

 less you remove or cage them. In other words, you can 

 keep only one queen in a nucleus. 



3. You may succeed in keeping them in nuclei. 



4. You should not expect your unmated queens to lay 

 through the winter, and their chances for mating next 

 spring are not good. 



5. Transfer in time of fruit-bloom, or perhaps better 

 still, wait till the colony swarms, and then transfer three 

 weeks after swarming. 



What Caused the Foul Brood ? 



Ten or 12 years ago I lost a large part of my bees dur- 

 ing the winter, by bad honey ; they got the dysentery, and 

 the combs were in bad shape for swarms and nuclei. 1 

 could not get them cleaned by the bees so I bought 8 pounds 

 of foundation, and in the summer I tried to increase as fast 

 as I could. The first few nuclei I made had combs, and then 

 I made a few that had foundation, and after awhile I found 

 they had foul brood, but those on the full combs were 

 healthy. I burned all the nuclei that were sick, made new 

 ones, and gave them foundation ; only a few were on full 

 combs, but as soon as they had brood then they had foul- 

 brood again, but not in those that had full frames, but 

 every one that had a little foundation in. They were burned 

 and also the rest of the foundation, and a little later on one 

 hive more; all the other colonies kept free from the sick- 

 ness. Was it possible that the germs of the disease were in 

 the foundation ? Or were the nuclei affected in some other 

 way ? Minnesota. 



Answer. — According to what you tell about the matter, 

 it looks very much as if the foundation was to blame, and 

 yet it has been generally understood as a fully settled thing 

 that even if foundation were made from diseased combs 

 there would be no danger. In spite of appearances, I am of 

 the opinion that the fonndation was not to blame. 



Removing Honey from Bait-Sections. 



I sent a sample of some comb honey which my bees 

 gathered in September. Please examine it and tell me 

 what it is gathered from ? 



From the first it never seemed to be a liquid, but more 

 like molasses sugar ; later it became quite hard and white. 

 Do you think the bees will carry it out in the spring ? 



I have quite a number of bait-sections with it in. I set 

 the sections out for the bees to clean out last fall, but they 

 left that in. New York. 



Answer. — I don't know from what the honey was gath- 

 ered, but it is certainly very solid, and withal quite tough. 

 I am very much afraid you can not get it emptied out of the 

 sections so as to make them proper for bait-sections. By 

 spraying them with water as often as the bees lick them 

 dry, you may get them emptied out, but some of the gran- 

 ules might remain, and that is generally considered objec- 

 tionable. Perhaps the best thing will be to melt them up, 

 heating them carefully and slowly so as not to injure the 

 flavor of the^honey, then taking off the cake of wax when 

 cooieu _- ■ I^ ^ 



