550 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



good honey 12 lbs., when the sun extractor 

 evaporates more water from it (also darkening 

 it), its specific gravity becomes greater, and it 

 sinks in common honey. 



Why not use some 12-lb. honey mixed with 

 some distinct coloring matter to place a Uttle 

 of it on top of samples of honey of which you 

 wish to test its consistency ? If the colored 

 sinks to the bottom, we say it is below par. 



Newhall, Cal., May 17. R. W11.KIN. 



[This letter, addressed to Dr. Miller, I glad- 

 ly place before our readers. Royal jelly in 

 worker-cells ! I wonder how friend Wilkin 

 knew it was such. The ordinary larval food 

 in worker-cells and in queen-cells look and 

 taste alike, but there is a chemical difference. 

 If it is true that royal jelly may on occasion 

 be put into worker-cells, that might accoimt 

 for laying workers. 



Regarding the relative specific gravities of 

 honey, I have seen in jars of extracted honey 

 a layer of darker honey at the bottom, but I 

 did not then suspect the cause. A honey of 

 known specific gravity might be colored with 

 aniline ; and this could be used to determine 

 the specific gravities of other honeys ; but af- 

 ter all would not a gallon measure filled wilh 

 honey, and weighed, show more quickly and 

 more satisfactorily its real specific gravity ? — 

 Ed] 



bee-spaces for comb honey — wh.at is the 

 exact measurement? 



Mr. E. R. Root : — I was surprised at your 

 criticisms on my measurements of the bee- 

 space between the comb and separator, as, 

 before making the statement, I went to my 

 honey-room and measured several combs to 

 make sure I was right, and found that every 

 one measured just j\ ; and as this exactly 

 corresponded with previous measurements, I 

 thought the statement absolutely correct. 



This morning I have been to my honey- 

 room to measure again, and the very first 

 comb I measured I found the space just % 

 inch. Could it be I h^d blundered? I kept 

 on measuring. The second or third comb, I 

 found the bee-space to be only j-',r, and others 

 all the way between these figures. The aver- 

 age, I think, was somewhere from %% to |^. 

 As but few of these combs were finished they 

 were, perhaps, not as full as the average. 

 Besides, they came from an out-apiary where 

 the bees are mostly black, which may make 

 a difference, and I havfe an impression that 

 black bees do not fill their combs as full as 

 Italians do. J. E. Crane. 



Middlebury, Vt., May 6. 



[I feel quite sure I have made no error in 

 measuring the bee-spaces in different lots of 

 comb honey, coming as it did from all parts 

 of the United States. As I staled in our issue 

 for May 1, the bee -spaces varied all the way 

 from about ^^ under to ,\t over % inch. Nine 

 out of every ten would run exactly '4 inch. 

 Dr. Miller wrote later that his bee-spaces ran 

 % inch. 



I can account for your difference in mea- 

 surement on the ground that the black bees 

 fill out the combs a little fuller than the Ital- 



ians. Some years ago some one else called 

 attention, I think, to this very point as an 

 argument in favor of the blacks. I wish some 

 of our friends who have nothing but pure 

 ■ black bees would measure the bee-spaces in 

 their comb-honey sections, and report the 

 result. Let us see whether the black bees do 

 give us fatter combs than the average hybrids 

 and Italians. — Ed.] 



J. jr. B., Ky. — If you have a virgin queen 

 in the hive that won't lay, the best thing you 

 can do is to pinch her head off. If the queen 

 does not lay inside of a week or ten days, she 

 probably never will lay, as there is something 

 structurally wrong with her. 



H.J. T., Ohio. — The hive to which you re- 

 fer, 12x12x13, may be large enough to ac- 

 commodate the swarm ; but the great trouble 

 with it is, it is not regular. You can buy 

 standard Langstroth hives, som.ething that is 

 used almost universally all over the United 

 States, for very much less money, and I would 

 suggest that you try to get into the beaten 

 track. 



J. H. y. , Pa. — It would not be practicable to 

 move bees only fifty feet away at this time of 

 year. If you desire to move colonies at all so 

 short a distance it should be done in the inter- 

 vening time between fall and spring ; for in- 

 stance, just after setting the bees out of the 

 cellar to their summer stands. Of course, you 

 can do something by moving the bees a little 

 bit every day ; but I would not advise at- 

 tempting it. 



F. 3/., I)id. — The black queen is at hand. 

 By a mere inspection of her we could not tell 

 why she does not lay. Possibly a man like 

 Thus. Wm. Cowan or Prof. Cook might, by 

 microscopical examination, detect something 

 wrong with the ovaries. Queens very often 

 fail to lay, and then the only thing to do is to 

 replace them by one that can lay. Queens are 

 so cheap now that it is penny wise and pound 

 foolish to try to get along with a poor one. 



C. S., Mo. — Without seeing a sample of the 

 brood we could give you no definite informa- 

 tion as to what the real trouble is. It may be 

 a case of the real disease itself. I would 

 refer you to the last paragraph or two on page 

 34 of catalog we are mailing you, for particu- 

 lars regarding this disease. Should you send 

 us a small sample of brood, be sure to wrap it 

 carefully in cotton batting inside of a stout 

 wooden box. A paper box would not do, as 

 the package might break open and expose the 

 disease to our bees here at Medina. The fact 

 that you do not find any honey in the hive is 

 nothing unusual this season. It may be that 

 your bees have no honey to get anywhere; 

 and it may be, also, that they are on the verge 

 of starvation and that the brood is dying. 



