704 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



SEi"r. 



CAN SECTION HONEY BE KEPT FOR ANY LENGTH 

 OK TIME? 



Can section box honey be kept any leng-th of time? 

 I have a nurnbei" of 1-lb. sections that I should like 

 to kee)i fill winter, as they do not command a very 

 ready sale now. Mus. E. Gaines. 



Milliken's Bend, La., Aug. 10, 1886. 



You can keep section honey from now un- 

 til Christmas, or even hiter, witliout any 

 trouble at all, and without any apparent de- 

 terioration. As a rule, however, after it gets 

 to be one year old or moi-e it has to be sold at 

 a reduced profit. The only conditions requir- 

 ed in keeping it is to have it where it will 

 not become damp, or get frozen. Of course, 

 freezing does not, of itself, hurt the honey. 

 When comb Jioney becomes very cold, and 

 warmer air passes over it, moisture is liable 

 to condense on the surface of the honey. 

 This sometimes dissolves a portion of the 

 honey and then it becomes sour. JJesides, 

 comb honey is liable to candy when kept a 

 year or more, and this, as a matter of course, 

 injures the sale of it more or less. 



PLANT-LOUSE NECTAR. 



My bees arc at work on pond lilies, on the leaves, 

 not on the flowers, and it does not make g-ood hon- 

 ey— at least I do not call it so. I have had quite a 

 nnmber taste of it, and have found only one who 

 liked it. The leaves arc covered with lilack lice; 

 and when the lice are the thickest, the bees seem to 

 work the most. The leaves seem to sparkle like 

 honey-drops after it is dried down. Where does it 

 come from? Do the lice nnike it, or what is it? It 

 is black, and muddy; you will sny so when you get 

 the sample; but it does not look so black when ex- 

 tracted as it does in the comb. 



My bees are at work on the hickories some, but 

 not so much as on the pond lilies. Thei-e are white 

 lice on the hickories, and the honey is ligrhter than 

 I'rom pond lilies— at least I think the black is i'rom 

 the pond lilies, for the bees are at work on them 

 more, and I am getting- more black honey. The 

 honey which I think comes from the hickories is 

 clear and thick, but it is darker than white clover. 

 I can not extract the light to get a good sample, 

 for I have not got enough of it, so I will send a 

 sample of the black, and will send a pond-lily leaf 

 and the hickory. I should like to know whether 

 the lice on the hickory are thcisame as the ones 

 that made so much trouble a year or two ago. 

 This is my first experience with that kind of honey, 

 and I hope it will be the last. A. O. Quick. 



Leoni, Mich., July 19, 188C. 



Prof. Cook replies : 



Dear Mr. EdUm-:— This is certainly plant-louse 

 nectar. The pond lilies are thickly beset with black 

 aphides, and the hickory leaves with green ones. 

 The leaves also are thickly co\ered with the cast 

 skins of the plant lice. That this nectar from 

 plant lice is always pleasant and wholesome, as 1 

 had thought previous to a year ago, is far from 

 the fact. I am now inclined to the opinion that, 

 when unmixed with honey, it is often bitter and 

 unwholesome. I am sure that, in some cases, I 

 have tasted of a pure article which seemed quite 

 palatable, and to my taste. 



You remember what quantities came on the 

 plants from Oregon a year ago. That was very 

 pleasant. I have found the same true of nectar 



from the elm, cock's comb, gall-louse, and the 

 larch-louse. 



Mr. Editor, you have here a good reason to 

 doubt again. .Just think how wonderful for these 

 lice to Vie on pond lilies. How did the colony get to 

 this island home to establish itself? Did the little 

 Lilliput take a swim? and if so, where was the com- 

 pass to guide him to the desired spot? Again, 

 does the louse work on the upper surface, exposed 

 to the scorching sun, or beneath, to be washed and 

 rinsed and doused at the mercy of the waves? It 

 is the last place we should expect to be pre-empted 

 by a plant-louse; biU if to the liking of his louseship, 

 it is certainly a good and safe place. 



A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., July 2:5, 1880. 



nOOLTTTLE'S WAY OF MAKING NUCLEI. 



As it is ditticultto start nuclei early in the sea- 

 son, 1 again tried the plan, and in several cases 

 it worked well; but! soon found, as Ernest says, 

 that the old bees in some cases return. I do not 

 believe a safer way could be found to introduce a 

 queen; but in one case after releasing them, the 

 queen, a purchased one, took wing, and the bees 

 began to return; and as they were taken from two 

 hives they were killed when returning to thi^ one, 

 and in the other hive they balled a flue queen and 

 killed her; and then the new queen, not having 

 marked her location well, and it being quite windy, 

 entered another liive, and was also balled. It is 

 safer to release the bees directly on the frames 

 instead of at the entrance, and should also be 

 taken as far as possible from the hive they were 

 taken from. When » plenty of young bees are 

 hatching, 1 don't think it worth while to bother 

 with the plan. Christian Weckesser. 



Marshal I ville, O., Aug. ;J, 1886. 



a IIO.MK-MADK SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTOIt ; ANOTHER 

 WAY TO MAKK THE REFLECTOR. 



I see Prof. Cook is going to try to improve 3-our 

 solar wax-extractor, if he can. 1 have an improve- 

 ment which is ditferent from any I have yet read of. 

 I made my box by nailing a bottom-board on an up- 

 per story of a hive, to make the box close. I made 

 a frame to fit on top loosely, about three inches 

 deep. 1 cut a groove in both upper and lower sur- 

 faces to I'eceive a pane of glass in each side. I got 

 two panes of glass cut to <n-der to fit this frame, for 

 .3.5 cts. On top of this double-glass frame for a re- 

 flector I made a large hopper, the lower part to fit 

 on top of the glass frame closely all round the edge, 

 and not touching the glass. The sides of this hop- 

 per are U'o inches wide all round; bottom, inside 

 measurement, 1C^19?4; top, inside measurement, 

 30X4314 inches; corners beveled to fit. This gives a 

 good slope to all the sides for reflection. I painted 

 the inside a thick white coat; and if you think the 

 inside of that box doesn't get hot on a sunshiny 

 day, you would acknowledge it did if you were to 

 put your hand inside. 1 arranged some cleats in 

 the box to support a large circular tin pan to hold 

 the wax to be molted. The pan, which is slanted at 

 the lower edge, has the edge pressed down to form 

 a spout. Underneath this spout I place a half-gal- 

 lon tin vessel to catch the wax. I have several 

 times filled this vessel during the middle of the day 

 when the sun was hottest. The only fault I find 

 with it is that my box isn't large enough square. I 

 do not have enough square inches, yet it does ad- 

 mirably for small meltings. W^e have so little sun- 



