40 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan 1 



most every day, and that the sudden changes 

 catch them away from home and freeze them. 



Over against these discouraging reports I may 

 say I have just put the third super on a new hive, 

 having two partly capped. I have taken out 15 

 sections of fine honey, all capped over. 



Nashville, Okla., Sept. 2"). G. E. Lemon. 



[We should be glad to hear from any of our 

 readers in Oklahoma who can tell whether the 

 above conditions are serious. The trouble may 

 have been with those who kept the bees. — Ed.] 



WINTER CONDITIONS NEAR PORTLAND, OREGON. 



In the back yard of a neighbor I saw to-day 

 a bunch of sweet clover blooming as freely as 

 could be expected in the summer. We have had 

 a very mild winter here, however. Our coldest 

 weather so far has been 29 degrees. It is a pecul- 

 iar fact that here in the Willamette Valley ten- 

 der plants may often freeze stiff; and yet if they 

 thaw out slowly under clouds and in a damp at- 

 mosphere, they are seldom injured. Only when 

 they thaw with a severe east wind or warm sun- 

 shine are they killed. Roses, carnations, and 

 some other plants and shrubs are still blooming. 



DOUBLING UP COLONIES FOR THE PURPOSE OF 

 CONSERVING THE HEAT FOR WINTER. 



I thought I saw great things in this for suc- 

 cessfully wintering bees here. I argued that two 

 persons can generate more heat than one, and 

 therefore require less covering than one. So I 

 argued that two colonies would keep warmer 

 doubled up than single, and that brood-rearing 

 would begin much earlier in the spring than oth- 

 erwise, and so the colonies would come out 

 strong much earlier than otherwise. So in 

 November I doubled up six single colonies with 

 a queen-excluder between them, and left them so 

 until the last of December, when on examination 

 I found that in two of these double colonies the 

 bees in the lower colony had gone above and left 

 their queen below to die, supposedly, for we did 

 not find her, though we did not examine the up- 

 per colony to see if she might have squeezed 

 through the excluder. Concluding that it was 

 unsafe to leave the two other colonies together I 

 hastily separated them so as not to lose another 

 queen. Some one in California wrote recently 

 that he had splendid success wintering in this 

 way. It seems strange that I had failure. 



Portland, Ore., Jan. 29. P. J. Green. 



IS HONEY TAINTED BY GALVANIZED IRON? 



Will galvanized iron taint or injure the flavor 

 of honey? I can buy a new galvanized-iron tank 

 cheap to put honey in to hold it until prices get 

 better. Dan A. Keller. 



Hallendale, Fla., Oct. 29. 



[Where there is a relatively large amount of 

 galvanized iron to the honey (like a little in the 

 bottom of an extractor), the honey will take on a 

 bad brackish flavor if allowed to stand for a 

 month. Such honey would be slightly poison- 

 ous, and, of course, unfit for use. It might 

 cause sickness if eaten. But if the tank has 

 a capacity of 30 gallons or more, and is kept 

 full of honey, no harm results. In California it 



is the universal custom to store honey in large 

 galvanized-iron tanks, and we never hear of any 

 trouble or tainting of the flavor. Some of these 

 big tanks hold 30 to 40 barrels, but even from 

 these big tanks an inch or so of honey should 

 not be allowed to stand for any length of time. 

 It should be drawn off at once. — Ed.] 



PRESSING HONEY FROM CAPPINGS. 



After uncapping the combs in a box with a 

 screen bottom 1 allow thecappings to drain until 

 I am ready to press. When time suits me I lift 

 out the cappings in balls pressed as tight as I can 

 conveniently roll them. 



The press is a simple one, of home manufac- 

 ture. It suits my purpose very well, and costs 

 but little. To make such a press, build rim 

 of 1^-inch pine, 12 inches square and 7 deep, 

 inside measurements, and bind it on the outside 

 with hoop iron. Rib the sides on the inside 

 with y^ in. strips placed fs in. apart vertically. 

 Then make a bottom and top of Ys. X 1-inch strips 

 placed on edge ^ inch apart, and run a ^-inch 

 iron rod through the ends and middle to hold 

 them from turning over. This ribbing allows 

 the honey to run out all around as it is pressed. 

 There should be a sheet of tin underneath to 

 convey the honey to the pail 



Now place the rim over the bottom and put 

 in the cappings wrapped in cheese-cloth, with 

 a X-inch-mesh screen above and below. Now 

 place the whole thing on a board foundation. 

 Put board followers on top, small enough to fit 

 inside the rim. Put two pieces of 2X6 hard 

 wood, one above and one below, with a carpen- 

 ter's iron bench-screw at each end. By tight- 

 ening the screws at intervals the honey is squeez- 

 ed out. 



The tin underneath should project out far 

 enough in front to clear the bench, and the whole 

 press should be tilted forward so that the honey 

 will run freely. 



After the pressing I remove the cake from the 

 press and place it in a sun extractor, or on a flat 

 shallow dish in a moderately warm oven in such 

 a manner that whatever honey is left will run off 

 with wax when melted. John Bailly. 



Bracebridge, Ont. 



WHITE CLOVER IN IOWA. 



The outlook for white clover in Iowa is a little 

 below the average. We had a dry fall and cattle 

 gnawed things close. White clover being an 

 annual, the seed that starts this fall and gets a 

 good root is what gives us the honey. We have 

 about 6 inches of snow now, which is favorable 

 for the protection of plants. 



Marshalltown, Iowa. E. C. Wheeler. 



RECIPE FOR PANCAKES WANTED. 



Out here in Iowa we can now buy native buck- 

 wheat flour, but no one knows how to make 

 cakes as the downeasters do, and no cook- book 

 gives the formula. Can't you get some good 

 Ohio farmer's wife to tell you, and you print in 

 full in Gleanings? B. H. Barnes. 



Des Moines, la., Dec. 4. 



