iyo8 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1139 



SFLLING HONtY AROUND HOMf; A SURPLUS OF 



QUEENS SAFELY WINTERED WHrN SEPARATKO 



BY QUEEN-EXCLUDING ZINC. 



I never need to leave the house to sell the hon- 

 ey that 1 get from niy 3M colonies. People rome 

 and get it in piiis, churns, kegs, and any thing 

 that will hold it. I keep pure Italian bees of the 

 red-clover strain, and they appear to work red 

 clover as well as white, except when there has 

 been a very wet spell, when I get the bulk of my 

 honey from goldenrod. This honey is very 

 light, almost like that from white clover. 



I winter two and three queens in a hive with 

 excluders to keep them separate, and have had no 

 trouble so far; hut, of course, I have done this 

 on only a small scale. D. L. Anuerson. 



Flandreau, N. D. 



DECIDING WHETHER A VIRGIN QUEEN IS PRFSENT 

 BY GIVING YOUNG BROOD TO THE NUCLEUS. 



If we should follow the advice given on page 

 867, July 15, we should lose all our \ irgin queens. 

 When we give unsealed brood to a nucleus with 

 a virgin queen, in every case the queen is killed 

 and cells are started at once. Our advice is to 

 give nothing but sealed brood to a nucleus with 

 a virgin queen. F. W. D^AN. 



New Milford, Pa. 



[If you will refer again to page 867 you will 

 see that the giving of unsealed brood was for the 

 purpose of determining whether the nucleus that 

 was supposed to have a virgin was queenless or 

 not. 



But the gi\ing of such unsealed brood mrg/it, 

 in rare casts, be the death of an introduced vir- 

 gin. But ourcjueen-breeder, Mr. Pritchard, who 

 will rear two thousand queens this season, s.iys 

 he often gives unsealed brood to colonies with 

 virgin queens and has no trouble. — Ed.] 



MAKING INCREASE ON THE SOMERFORD PLAN; A 

 GOOD SUGGfSTION. 



Mr. E. D Townsend, in his description of the 

 Somerford plan of making increase, p. 577, tells 

 us to prepare a hive by nailing a lath over the 

 entrance and boring a H-inch hole in the lath, 

 which is stopped with a cork which is removed 

 three days after the swarm is formed. 



I find that, by making a small notch on one 

 edge of the lath, and taking a plug of newspaper 

 to stop it up, the bees liberate themselves in about 

 the right time (usually 3j^ days) by gnawing 

 away the paper. 



Porous i/enxispaper should be used, and not 

 glazed wrapping-paper, as it takes too long for 

 the bees to gnaw through the latter. By using 

 the paper, increase can be made at outyards, the 

 bees left to free themselves, thus saving one trip. 



Georgiana, Fla. L. E. Baldwin. 



MAKING INCREASE LA^E IN THE SUMMER; ANTS IN 

 COMB HONEY. 



Would it be practicable to make increase now 

 at the end of the white-clover season.'' I would 

 have made it before, but wanted a full crop of 

 honey. Could I feed sugar syrup and build up 

 for fall crop to advantage.'' Can you suggtsta 

 method of keeping ants, etc., from honey in sec- 

 tions.? I have honey which should be taken from 



the bees, and I wish to keep it awhile. I have 

 shipping-cases, but, of course, these are not ant- 

 priiof. F. B. Lambert. 



Barbersville, W. Va. 



[It would be perfectly practicable to make in- 

 crease by dividing right after the honey-flow; but 

 all nuclei should be givtn continuous stimulative 

 feeding up till September, or later if the requisite 

 strength is not obtained. Of course, if one has 

 any kind of late summer or fall flow, no feeding 

 during the time will be ret|uired. It should be 

 understood that no brood will be reared unless 

 there is a supply of food coming in constantly. 

 To make this increase properly, one should care- 

 fully follow some of the well-known methods. 

 The Alexander plan, as given in Gleanings, p. 

 423, 1906, and again in the last edition of the A 

 B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture, p. 279, will be 

 found as good as any. It the shipping-cases can 

 not be made ant-tight, keep the honey in a room 

 that can be made tight. — Ed.] 



AUTO.VIATIC UNITING; A GOOD SCHEME. 



In place of using wire screen, as has sometimes 

 been recommen(ied when following the Alexander 

 plan of building up weak colonies, I simply place 

 a sheet of paper over the queen-excluder and 

 leave three or four perforations uncovered at the 

 front of the hive by tearing a piece out of the 

 edge of the paper. The uniting in this way is 

 done at one manipulation, as we mentioned in 

 Canad.an Bie Journal iox March, 1908; and if I 

 were asked when I remove the paper I would say 

 that the bees will attend to that; for when we 

 have occasion to open these hives again we find 

 the paper is not there. Wm. Beuglas. 



Piattesville, Ont. 



[The plan here proposed seems feasible — at 

 least we see no reason why it can not work. — 

 Ed.] 



HONEY souring IN COMBS WHILE IN THE HIVE. 



I am troubled by honey souring in the combs 

 in the hives, and can find nothing in the ABC 

 regarding it. The honey gathered is very watery 

 alfalfa honey, and in about a tenth of the hives it 

 begins souring before it is sealed, and sometimes 

 after it is sealed. The souring commences by 

 small air-bubbles forming in the cells; the bees 

 quit work, and the souring spreads all over the 

 hive, even into the brood-chamber. It occurred 

 to me that there might be some acid antidote for 

 it. Henry Perkins. 



Calexico, Cal., July 31. 



[Will some one who knows please answer.? 

 There must be something that the bees gather 

 that causes the trouble. — Ed.] 



COMB HONEY HAULED IN LUMBER WAGON. 



Can comb iioney be hauled safely on a lumber 

 wagon without springs, provided six or eight 

 casts of honey (about 200 lbs.) are put in each 

 carrier — of course with hay or excelsior under 

 the bottom cases.? John H. Johnson. 



Bangor, Pa. 



[We should suppose that the roads would have 

 a great bearing on this question, and also the dis- 

 tance the honey is hauled. We should be glad 

 to hear from any who have had experience. — Ed.] 



