846 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



lbs. of comb honey from one colony, and no 

 swarm, while some of the twenty-frame (two- 

 story) colonies were swarming whenever it 

 was not raining. I need not tell you how 

 much surplus I got from these hives. I have 

 been keeping bees about twelve years, and 

 have never had a queen that would fill ten 

 frames with eggs ; so, what are these two or 

 three extra frames for ? I should like to tell 

 you how I work my bees for comb honey; but 

 some one would say, " That was tried and dis- 

 carded years ago, when they had kings in the 

 bee-gums." G. H. Miller. 



Bluffton, Mo., Oct. 13. 



[Never mind, friend M. vSend on your 

 method ; and if it is not too ancient we will 

 give it to our readers. — Ed.] 



HOW TO STOP ROBBING WITH PERFORATED 

 ZINC. 



I have been keeping from 50 to 175 colonies 

 for the last seven years, and I don't think my 

 method of stopping robbing failed once where 

 the colony was of any account. Place a strip 

 of excluder zinc in front of the entrance, and 

 close to a one bee space if necessary. In seven 

 years I have had one crop failure (1897), and 

 1898 is a half-crop. The other five 3-ears have 

 averaged about 50 lbs. surplus per colony. 



S. LiNDERSMlTH. 



Faribault, Minn., Oct. 4. 



[This method has been before proposed, and 

 I think it worked successfully. — Ed.] 



THE FENCE AND PLAIN SECTION COME TO 

 STAY. 



I have just taken off a few of the plain sec- 

 tions (with fences), and I have this to say 

 about them. Most of the sections are well 

 filled. A few were attac led to the fences by 

 burr-combs — not more than with the plain 

 separator, however. I think the fence and 

 plain section have come to stay. 



Wm. H. Eagerty. 



Cuba, Kan., Sept. 29. 



E. S. //., Ind. — We use planer-shavings as 

 packing for bees, although any clean good dry 

 chaff or dry leaves might do just as well. We 

 use planer-shavings because they are more 

 available for us but wheat chaff might be 

 more easily obtained by you. 



J. S., Mich. — Certainly bees can be kept 

 profitabl}' in Cuba, and have been for years. 

 The statement that it is necessary for bees to 

 pass through a cold winter as an incentive to 

 store during summer is all bosh. In regard to 

 the yarn concerning manufactured comb hon- 

 ey, just hand them one of our $1000 reward- 

 cards. 



A. S. B., Ont. — The trouble was, you al- 

 lowed the bees to swarm, taking with them 

 the old queens. The virgin queens that were 

 left with the parent colonies went out with the 

 after-swarms, one at a time. The consequence 

 was, the parent colony was left depleted in 

 strength, and queenless and broodless. After- 

 swarming should be controlled. To accom- 

 plish this, see the methods advocated in any 

 of the standard text-books. 



J. B. K., N. H. — While not positive, I am 

 under the impression that he who first discov- 

 ers a bee-tree, and marks his initials thereon, 

 has the first legal claim to the bees ; but be- 

 fore he can procure them he must obtain the 

 consent of the owner of the tree. If the own- 

 er objects to letting him take the bees, then 

 legally they would be his, but he will be pow- 

 erless to touch them. You can feed bees quite 

 late in the season, almost clear up to freezing 

 weather ; but it is advisable to feed much ear- 

 lier, in order that the syrup may become thor- 

 oughly ripened or thickened. 



J. A'., N. Y. — We send you our catalog, 

 which will give 3'ou full particulars in regard 

 to making sugar syrup and how to feed. See 

 page 28. As to the amount of stores, we usu- 

 ally estimate that a colony should have at 

 least fi,ve or six combs, or their equivalent, of 

 sealed stores. In other words, bees should 

 have about 25 pounds of honey or sugar syrup 

 after it has been thickened down by them. 

 Feeding would not be necessary if honey is 

 stored in the second story, but I would advise 

 taking out the empty combs above and replac- 

 ing with sealed combs, perhaps leaving an 

 empty frame in the center for the bees to clus- 

 ter on. 



R. E. /., Il/.^V^Q do not advise putting 

 sand or sawdust around hives, especially at 

 the entrance, to keep down the weeds, for the 

 weeds will surely grow through it. Our prac- 

 tice is to sprinkle about half a handful ol salt 

 in front of the entrance of all the hives. An 

 entrance-board is very often used — that is, a 

 board about 8 or 9 inches wide, and in length 

 equal to the width of the hive. This board 

 should be placed against the front of the hive. 

 Any old cheap inch lumber will do. When 

 going around the hive with a lawn-mower lift 

 up the board, run the nio\\fer over the space 

 bordering the edge of the board, and then re- 

 place the board. 



F. G., N'. ]'.— -It is not possible to remove 

 stains from the cappings of honey. The only 

 thing that can be done is to grade such honey 

 as seconds, and sell for less money. The col- 

 or of the wax may be dependent upon the 

 bees, but probably more upon the locality and 

 the age of combs at the time of rendering. 

 New comb of the first j^ear will be of a ver)' 

 light yellow, or almost white. I note that 

 you state that your honey has yellow cap- 

 pings, and that honey you see on the market 

 is very white. It is probable that you left 

 your honey on the hive too long ; but, what is 

 more probable, your honey is of a light amber 

 color, and this to a certain extent affects the 

 color of the cappings. 



