GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



W. E. D , of To., wants to know whether the 

 cover should be put on the hive again after put- 

 ting the chalT cushion in. ^?is.— Why. friend 

 D., what reason should there be for leaving it 

 off? Of course, you want to put it on, other- 

 wise the cushion would become soalted from 

 rains, and thus defeat the very object of the 

 cushion— namely, making a non-conductor to 

 the cold. 



B., of Can., asks how long foundation may 

 be kept. ^n.s.— The experiments conducted by 

 R. L. Taylor, as recorded in our issue for Dec. 

 1.5, together with the noted observations of G. 

 M. Doolittle in the previous number, go to show 

 that old foundation is nearly if not quite as 

 good as new. Foundation does become a little 

 harder with age, but it may be softened by im- 

 mersing it in water that feels hot to the hand. 



R. A. McP., of III., wishes to move his bees a 

 distance of 5 miles, and would like to do it dur- 

 ing the winter months, ^ns.— It is usually de- 

 sirable to move bees in the spring, about the 

 time they will begin to fly. But it can be done 

 during mid-winter; but we would select a day 

 when the sun is shining, when the temperature 

 is above freezing, else the combs will be more 

 liable lo break, and disturbance to the bees be 

 more serious. 



W. E. F., of Va., would like to know how to 

 prevent bees from mixing. A.7is. — We do not 

 understand exactly what is meant by this ques- 

 tion. If W. E. F. means that he wants to know 

 how to prevent queens from mating with in- 

 ferior or other drones, we would say, put on 

 drone-traps or entrance-guards to all entrance's 

 of hives containing undesirable drones. As to 

 the mixing that takes place from entrance to 

 entrance of hives that are situated close togeth- 

 er — /(t'cs going from one hive to another — that 

 will make no serious trouble. 



H. C. M., of III., would like to know whether 

 it makes any difference whether a honey-house 

 be made of brick or not. Ans. — Brick would be 

 considerably more expensive, and we doubt 

 whether it would be as good. While brick 

 dwellbujH do very nicely because artificial heat 

 is used inside, they would be poor places for the 

 storage of honey without that artilicial heat. 

 He asks further as to the advisability of put- 

 ting honey into empty molasses barrels or kegs. 

 Ans. — There would be no objection, providing 

 such receptacles wen- washi^d out with hot wa- 

 ter. 



J. R. v., of Val., wants to know how to get 

 bees out of rocks. Ans.—\'i you want to have 

 a little fun, blast the rocks: but perhaps you 

 may then get neither bees nor honey in shape 



to be of any service. We do not know how the 

 bees can be gotten out except by trapping the 

 bees out with a bee-escape.' Keep the escape 

 on for three weeks til! every last bee has gone 

 out. In the meantime put the first catch of 

 bees in a hive on the outside, near the entrance 

 of the rocks. After the bees have all hatched 

 out, and gone from the cavity in the rock, we 

 are of the opinion that, if the escape were re- 

 moved, the bees now in the hive would rob the 

 honey out of the rock, and put it into their new 

 quarters. J. R. C. asks further whether turpen- 

 tine or any other liquid of strong scent, if pour- 

 ed into the entrances, would probably drive the 

 bees out. Ans. — We do not know. Possibly a 

 weak solution of carbolic acid poured in might 

 drive them out. Try it and report. 



E. R., of W. Fa., asks: " Can I use perforat- 

 ed zinc as a screen on the entrance of the hive 

 during theswarming season, to prohibit swarm- 

 ing? If not. why not?" Ans. — Yes, you can, 

 and lo a certain extent it will check, or, rather, 

 prevent, runaway swarms; hv.t it is, to a grf»at- 

 er or less extent, unsatisfactory. The bees 

 must either be gratified in their natural desire 

 for swarming or they will fritter away their 

 time in making unsuccessful attempts in 

 swarming out, trying to get the queen to go out 

 with them; and theii' failure to thus accom- 

 plish their purpose will end up in their killing 

 their queen: and in all probability the honey 

 season will have gone by, and no honey will 

 have been gathered. If you have an oUt- 

 apiary, entrance-guards may very often be used 

 to advantage; but we should prefer to use the 

 Pratt automatic hiver. as illustrated on page 

 12.5, last year. 



D. G.. of Neh.. has quite a number of colo- 

 nies that had foul brood last fall, and asksd) 

 whether the honey in the foul -broody hive 

 would be fit to eat, without extracting and 

 heating; and (v) whether, after boiling, it 

 would do to feed to bees with safety; and (3) is 

 there any way of disinfecting the hives so that 

 they may be used with perfect safety? Ans. — 

 (1) Such honey would taste all right; but we 

 would not advise you to make any use of it, for 

 bees will very often itiake their way into the 

 house; and if one of them should happen to 

 get a sip of this infected honey it would carry 

 the disease to its colony, and thus spread it all 

 over the apiary again. C-) Yes. (3) Hives may 

 be cleansed by immersing in boiling water, as di- 

 rected in the A B C yon have. It is also pos.si})le 

 that they may be disinfected by the use of car- 

 bolic acid reduced 50 times, the same painted 

 on the inside and outside of the hive, as direct- 

 ed by a correspondent in this issue. That is the 

 way we painted our house-apiary before putting 

 any more bees in it. 



P. W., of Pa., asks, " What is the best cover- 

 ing on top of the brood-frames for wintering 

 colonies outdoors in double-walled hives?"' 



