556 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 15 



but No. 1 in cases so marked, and the No. 2 

 in the other, he would get back far larger re- 

 turns, and, what is more, make it possible 

 for all the rest of his honey to move off at 

 the same or even a better figure. 



This question of grading is not only a mat- 

 ter of common honesty, but one that involves 

 getting the highest price possible for the 

 product. We know of certain parties who, 

 careless in their gradings of the first ship- 

 ment, will never be able to get as good a 

 Crice as some other fellow who has always 

 een careful in that respect. 



FEEDING THICK OR THIN SYRUP FOR WINTER 

 FOOD. 



In this issue, in his usual department, p. 

 436, Mr. G. M. Doolittle gives advice on feed- 

 ing — when and how to feed, and how to 

 make the syrup. We particularly endorse 

 his advice to make a thick syrup, two parts 

 of sugar to one of water. When the syrup 

 is made thick, in this way, it is necessary to 

 put in something to prevent crystallization. 

 A small amount of vinegar is often employ- 

 ed, but honey is better. 



Perhaps some of our old readers will won- 

 der why we endorse the giving of a thick 

 syrup when we have for the last few years 

 recommended equal parts of sugar and wa- 

 ter. The evidence has been slowly accumu- 

 lating, showing that the last-mentioned pro- 

 portion entails ■'oo large an amount of work 

 on the part of the bees, wearing them out 

 prematurely, leaving them in a worked-out 

 or rundown condition, so that they are not 

 as well able to stand the rigors of winter. 

 While we have to acknowledge that a thick 

 syrup will not be ripened by the bees, that 

 is, "mverted," in the language of the chem- 

 ist, yet it is nevertheless a fact that a thick 

 syrup, even when inverted to only a very 

 limited extent, brings the bees through the 

 winter in a good condition; indeed, some of 

 our older readers used to say that they pre- 

 ferred sugar syrup to the best honey that 

 was ever produced. 



Where one desires to feed to stimulate 

 brood-rearing in the spring, or any other 

 time of the year, a syrup of equal parts of 

 water and sugar is preferable, of course; and 

 when feeding back to finish out sections, the 

 honey must be made thinner still, or of about 

 the consistency of raw nectar. We say /?o/2- 

 ev, because no honest bee-keeper would ever 

 think of feeding sugar syrup to fill out sec- 

 tions. While the product would be perfect- 

 ly wholesome, it would not be honey, and 

 could not, of course, be sold as such, with- 

 out incurring the severe penalties of the 

 pure-food law, both State and national. 



THE SHAKE-OUT METHOD OF INTRODUCING 



QUEENS. 



Our Mr. Mell Pritchard, who has charge 

 of our north yard, that will turn out neany 

 two thousand five hundred queens in a little 

 over three months, reports that he has been 

 having excellent results in introducing to 



refractory colonies by shaking the mother- 

 less bees all off the combs in front of the en- 

 trance and dropping the queen to be intro- 

 duced among them as they rush for the 

 hive. The bees for the time being are de- 

 moralized, and in their stampede to get into 

 the hive they pay no attention to the queen, 

 which, in the general scramble, acquires the 

 colony odor of the bees. 



Mr. Pritchard says he has introduced a 

 large number of queens in this way without 

 the loss of one. Some colonies he used for 

 cell-building, keeping them queenless for 

 practically a month. Such bees are quite 

 disinclined to accept a queen introduced in 

 an ordinary cage by what is known as the 

 candy plan, the bees eating out the candy 

 through a hole in one end of the cage, and 

 releasing her. After having a number of 

 failures with such colonies he practiced the 

 shake-out plan, and in every case the bees 

 accepted the queen just as if she had always 

 been in the hive. 



As we have before pointed out in these 

 columns, shaking bees, when properly done, 

 puts them into a state of demoralization for 

 the time being, and while in that condition 

 the colony spirit is broken. When bees are 

 shaken out in front of the entrance of the 

 hive, as Mr. Pritchard explains, the one and 

 only idea seems to be to get back into the 

 hive. Whether they think they have swarm- 

 ed or what, we do not know. He further 

 says that there are no guards at the entrance 

 of the hive to attack the new queen-mother 

 as she comes in with the general procession. 

 After they get in, it takes some little time 

 before they can readjust themselves and get 

 down to business. In the meantime, the 

 bodily contact of the queen with the bees 

 and the brood gives her the same colony odor 

 as the rest of the bees. 



This idea may not be new, but at all events 

 it is worth trying, and we suggest that some 

 of our readers report results, especially with 

 certain refractory colonies that seem dispos- 

 ed to kill a queen introduced in the orthodox 

 fashion. 



As this will be the season for uniting, we 

 might suggest that this plan of shaking might 

 be a good one to practice when putting two 

 lots of bees together. Simply shake one 

 frame of a colony, and then another frame 

 from another colony to be united, and so on 

 in alternation, until all the bees are in one 

 bunch. The general shake-up ought to take 

 all the fight out of them, and might induce 

 the moved lot to stay better in their new 

 quarters. 



RED-CLOVER AND LONG-TONGUE BEES. 



Several years ago we owned what we 

 thought was a remarkable queen, as her 

 bees were particulai-ly active on red clover 

 when it was in bloom. Indeed, they would 

 fill their hives with honey at a time when the 

 other bees were doing nothing. Examina- 

 tion showed that the tongue-reach of these 

 bees was considerably greater than the aver- 

 age of Italians. 



