1444 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



or four days before the introduction of another 

 queen. We presume half of those who receive 

 queens will actually keep them in the house for 

 two days after the old queen has been removed, 

 and then proceed to cage her. This is a great 

 mistake. She should be put in the colony at 

 once. — Ed.] 



Heads of Grain 



From Different Fields 



to prevent largely this trouble in future. The 

 flowers sent are asters. — W. K. M.] 



HONEY THAT CANDIED AS SOON AS CAPPED. 



My bees made nice honey last spring, but we 

 had a drouth, which, excepting a few slight 

 showers, lasted all summer and cut the honey- 

 flow accordingly. About September the bees be- 

 gan working again, and in a short time had ac- 

 cumulated a surplus of honey. This had a good 

 flavor, and was white in color; but all of it had 

 granulated in the comb before being taken from 

 the hive. The degree of granulation varied, even 

 in one section, for part of a section would be very 

 granular while the rest of it was only slightly so. 

 "Mushy" would best describe the condition. 

 The wax in the comb was noticeably thin, being 

 hardly thick enough to be objectionable when 

 eaten. There was a little very dark-amber honey 

 which was not at all sugary. 



The honey was taken from the hive as soon as 

 capped over; and some kept in an unheated store- 

 room and some in a room always kept warm; but 

 I noticed no difference in the keeping. 



So far as I know, most of the honey was made 

 from sumac and a tall white weed which some 

 call boneset; but I doubt if this is the true name. 

 The bees were also busy around sheep-burrs, 

 Spanish needle, smartweed, wild sage, rosemary, 

 and a tall yellow flowering weed that grows along 

 roads and in swamps, and a number of such 

 growths. 



We have fields of broom sedge all around us, 

 but I did not notice bees around that; and any 

 way, this broom sedge we have with us always, 

 and the sugary honey is something new. 



I do not understand the care of honey, as I 

 have just begun to try to handle bees, and so 

 would have thought the condition of honey due 

 to my ignorance if it were not general throughout 

 the county. Some of the honey sold is in a very 

 much worse condition than mine, being quite 

 dry, and can be eaten like candy. 



I have lived in this vicinity a number of years, 

 and never heard the complaint before; but older 

 residents say that it is owing to the dry weather, 

 and that it often occurs in dry seasons. 



Port Tobacco, Md. Margaret Gray. 



[It seems to me you waited too long before j ou 

 removed the honey from the supers. When half 

 of the sections in a super are finished, take them 

 out and put the others in the center to be finish- 

 ed. This applies to fall honey particularly. The 

 colonies dwindle down until there is not a suffi- 

 ciency of bees to keep the honey warm. Dry 

 weather does accelerate granulation. The honey 

 from some of the plants you mention is much in- 

 clined to granuulate, and the dry weather made 

 matters worse. Further experience will enable you 



keeping ANTS OUT OF HONEY-HOUSES IN WARM 

 LOCALITIES. 



I have a very simple yet effective method of 

 keeping ants out of buildings, that I have used 

 for twelve months or more. It is nothing more 

 than having the house stand on posts (mine is on 

 posts made of mulberry wood). A box surrounds 

 the bottom of the post, which is filled with ce- 

 ment, and a trench 3 inches deep and about 3 

 inches wide is made in the cement. This will 

 hold water three or four days or longer, even in 

 hot dry weather; and when it rains the trenches 

 are filled up without any help. When it does 

 not rain, of course one has to fill them. The plan 

 is far ahead of any thing else I have ever seen. 



Macon, Ga. Harry Griffin. 



[In the northern States ants do not prove to be 

 a serious enemy to the bees or bee-keeper, and, 

 consequently, no special provision needs to be 

 made other than to find the nests and destroy 

 them. — Ed.] 



MOVING COMB HONEY SUCCESSFULLY ON A WAG- 

 ON; UNITING COLONIES. 



You wished to hear from those who have had 

 good success in carrying section honey to market. 

 I take the sections out, clean the super and sec- 

 tions of propolis, return them to the super, thor- 

 oughly wedge them in, put them in a box, tier- 

 ing them up. I put hay in my lumber wagon, 

 set my box in, and it arrives in town in perfect 

 condition; and when I tell you it goes over the 

 roughest roads you will see this is remarkable. 



I started in the spring with 11 colonies and 

 now have 31. I might have had 50, but I united 

 them by putting paper jabbed full of holes on top 

 of the hive I wished to unite, and set the other 

 hive on top of it, and always had good success 

 except once, when the upper bees got into the 

 lower hive too quickly. They fought and killed 

 each other; but two good smokes in the entrance 

 made them think of something besides war. 



Brainerd, Minn. J. F. Watsic. 



IS IT advisable to WINTER BEES IN BUILDINGS 

 ABOVE THE GROUND? 



I am often asked if it would be a good way to 

 winter bees by putting them in a barn or out- 

 house. For instance, could they be put in a 

 honey-house and the entrance closed up with 

 wire so they could not come out.-' Would you 

 advise me to winter them that way ? I have not 

 a good cellar to winter them in. 



Schenectady, N. Y. H. Greulich. 



[It is not generally advisable to try to winter 

 bees in a room above ground, and still more in- 

 advisable to shut them in the hive with wire 

 cloth. While some make it a success, the be- 

 ginner, we feel sure, would make a failure of it. 

 A repository under ground will maintain a more 

 uniform temperature; while one above ground 

 will often become so warm that the bees will be- 

 come uneasy — particularly so in mild weather. 

 In very cold spells also the temperature may go 

 down to freezing and below, and this is quite as 

 bad as letting it go too high. In indoor win- 

 tering it is very important to maintain a uniform 



