Oct. 18, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNA!. 



661 



colony of bees owned by one person g'athers white honey 

 while another colony of bees owned by another person a 

 block away gathers dark honey ? 



Mr. Taylor — They get the honey from different sources, 

 that is all there is about it ; bees don't make honey, they 

 g-ather it. 



QuES.- Can a bee-keeper afford to take time to sit down 

 while working over a hive ? 



Mr. Taylor — He can't afford to stand up ; he can't, un- 

 less he has a cast-iron hinge in his back. If he has the 

 hive raised up it would be all right to stand up ; but I have 

 found it dangerous to stand up if you have to stoop. 



OuKS. — Can gloves be worn to advantage by a practical 

 bee-keeper in the handling of his bees ? 



Mr. Taylor — No ; you can take the sting out quicker 

 than you can put on your gloves. 



Dr. Mason — I would like to say sometimes, especially 

 in early spring and in the fall, they can be worn with prac- 

 tical benefit. The gloves are easily put on, and then there 

 are no stings to take out. 



Mr. Taylor- -I am giving my opinion now. 



Dr. Mason — I am giving what I know. 



yuES. — In gathering pollen do bees use their tongues 

 in connection with their legs ? 



Mr. Taylor — I don't think they do for gathering pollen. 

 They may moisten the pollen to some extent by the use of 

 the tongue, but if j-ou watch a bee as it is getting pollen, 

 say from the blossom of the willow, it gets right into it and 

 scrapes it, and gets it on and pokes it back and works it 

 together with its legs. Of course, bees sometimes gather a 

 little pollen with the tongue, but that generally gets into 

 the honey, and I think that sometimes is the means of our 

 bad wintering. I prophesy in a good many sections we will 

 lose a good manj' bees the coming winter, for the reason 

 that a good many fall flowers are yielding nectar, and bees 

 are gathering a good deal of pollen from them, and a good 

 deal of pollen will go into the honey, and the honey will not 

 be very well evaporated. 



HOW OFTEN TO EXAMINE 'colonies. 



QuKS. — How often should one examine the hives and 

 bees ? 



Mr. Taylor — I understand the answer to that is, as 

 often as they need it ; but I suppose the questioner means 

 how often do they need it. Well, I don't think they need it 

 very often, if one has some experience in the handling of 

 bees. A person who has kept bees and uses his powers of 

 observation can tell by going thru the yard pretty nearly 

 correct whether a hive needs any looking into. Some years 

 I don't take out a frame from my hives to exceed one out of 

 20 hives ; that is, at that rate, it would take me 20 years to 

 have opened all my colonies and taken out the frames ; but 

 my hive has this advantage — it is in sections, and I can 

 open the sections ; can lift one end of one section and see 

 what is in the center of the brood-nest without disturbing 

 the frames. Sometimes, if your bees are not in good condi- 

 tion in the spring, it may be necessary to go over them two 

 or three times, and examine those that are in bad condition, 

 and see that they are helpt all that it is possible to help 

 them. 



Mrs. Gear — Does it do any harm to open a hive and 

 look at the bees when they are gathering honey ? Does it 

 disturb them ? 



Mr. Taylor— No, I don't think it does any harm at all if 

 the weather is sufficiently warm, if one handles them care- 

 fully. I think of the two, in the spring it is a slight advan- 

 tage because it excites the bees, and they will deposit a 

 little more honey while they are being excited than they 

 would otherwise. 



Pres. Root— I was going to say there is an opportunity 

 presented to ask questions. Mr. Taylor is right here to 

 answer them. 



too much SMOKE .\FFECTS THE HONEY. 



A. F. Morley — Does it do any harm to use much smoke ? 

 Does it injure the bees in any way, or the honey ? 



Mr. Taylor — If there is very much smoke used it may 

 flavor the honey for the time, but I don't think there is any 

 material danger in it. 



dl Mr. Poppleton— The first year I went to Cuba I shipt a 

 large quantity of honey — some 40,000 pounds — to Mr. Muth, 

 of Cincinnati, for sale. It was extracted by Mr. Osburn. 

 His method of extracting honey was to have the smoke 

 pumpt against the frame all the time, not to shake the bees, 

 to brush them, and use an enormous quantity of smoke. 

 Mr. Muth afterwards told me that all the honey tasted of 

 smoke. 



TOBACCO-SMOKE FOR INTKODUCINC (QUEENS. 



OiKS. — Has any one introduced queens by the use of 

 tobacco-smoke ? If so, with what success? 



Mr. Taylor I never tried it. Does any one here know 

 anything about it ? Has any one used tobacco-smoke for 

 the purpose of introducing (lucens? 



Dr. Mason — No one here who uses tobacco ? 



Mr. Taylor — Tobacco-smoke we are talking about. 



Dr. Mason It takes tobacco and a man to make to- 

 bacco-smoke. 



TNITING COLONIES. 



QuES. — I want to keep not more than 30 colonies. Could 

 I cull out the poorest in excess of that by sulphuring this 

 fall, and then keep the combs with the honey, and hive 

 swarms on them next season ? 



Mr. Taylor — You could do so, but I would not. 



Dr. Mason — What should be done ? 



Mr. Taylor- -I would prefer to unite weak colonies, but 

 would not make too strong colonies. I don't think it is best 

 to have too strong a colony. In the fall I would manage to 

 get rid of the old bees. Take the hive away when they are 

 flying, or when they are gathering honey, and leave them 

 out in the cold and then unite the younger bees, and in that 

 way you probably will have better colonies for standing 

 the winter. Mr. Poppleton will have something to say on 

 that. I see he shakes his head. I would not keep honey in 

 combs for the purpose of giving them to swarms. Your 

 honey will more or less deteriorate, will generally become 

 more or less candied, and, more than that, it will be car- 

 ried more or less into the sections or into the honey that is 

 being gathered in the honey season the next year, which 

 will probably have a bad effect upon it. Save what combs 

 you need with honey to have your bees well supplied with 

 honey in the spring while they are breeding, before the 

 honey season comes on, and extract the rest in the fall as 

 soon as you can after you take it oft' the hive. 



Mr. Poppleton — I used to practice in Iowa exactly as 

 that question suggests. In destroying the bees I followed 

 a little different plan from Mr. Taylor's. Instead of unit- 

 ing the bees, I simply took out the brood-combs of the colo- 

 nies I wanted to destroy and changed them over. This 

 uniting was never done during the honey season. We. sug- 

 gested doing it while they were after honey. This uniting- 

 doesn't want to be done until after the honey is all gone. 



Mr. Taylor — What I meant by their being out after 

 honey, was not that this uniting was to be done during any 

 gathering of surplus, but after that was closed bees still go 

 out and gather a little. 



Mr. Kretchmer — We usually set the hive in a new loca- 

 tion ; take the combs, shake all the bees off, the young bees 

 will enter the hive and not leave it, and the old bees will 

 return to the old location. You will be surprised at the 

 nurnber of young bees, or the bees j'ou have in the spring 

 that will unite. Young bees never fight; they will unite 

 peaceably and remain there ; then you may select the old 

 that you desire to save. By this means of saving the young 

 only, gives good, strong colonies for spring use, separating 

 the old bees from the young. 



Mr. Taylor — The plan Mr. Kretchmer suggests is sub- 

 stantially the one that I mentioned. 



FUMIGATING COMBS. 



QuES. — What is the best method of sulphuring ? 



Mr. Taylor — If you must sulphur, I think the best way 

 would be to put an empty hive on top of the open hive, and 

 set in the empty hive an iron vessel with a little sulphur 

 in it : then put in a piece of red-hot iron with the sulphur, 

 and close your hive, and the sulphur will do tlie rest. 



Dr. Mason — I had occasion to do a little sulphuring re- 

 cently. I disposed of some of my bees, and had a large 

 number of super-combs for use, and I noticed the other day, 

 just before I came to this convention, that the worms were 

 getting into them. I piled the hives with combs on top of 

 each other, and put an empty hive on top. In that I put a 

 basin with some dirt in it. I had made some sulphur 

 matches by melting sulphur, and while it was melted I 

 drew strips of old cotton cloth, about two inches wide, thru 

 it, and wound the sulphured rags around short pieces of 

 narrow shingles. You will need about two in a pile of a 

 dozen hives. I stuck the stick up in the dirt ; set the sul- 

 phured rags on fire at the top end, and put on the cover. It 

 will do all there is to be done. It will kill the worms every 

 time. 



Mr. Kretchmer — Why not use bi-sulphide of carbon ? 



Dr. Mason — Sometimes it blows up, and might blow the 

 bee-keeper up ; sulphur won't do that. 



