352 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



It was in 4 years last summer, and they went 

 into winter fairly well. I destroyed a number 

 last season, and melted the combs of 42 hives, 

 boiled the frames and hives, but not in linseed 

 oil, and expect to use them this season. 



Nelson Dewey. 

 Birdsall, Mich., Feb. 22. 



HOW TO GET CANDIED HONEY OUT OF 

 COMBS ; HOW TO DO IT WITHOUT MELT- 

 ING COMBS AND HONEY ; A VALUA- 

 BLE SUGGESTION. 



I notice in a late number of Gleanings 

 where some one asks how to clean candied 

 honey out of brood-combs ; and the answer 

 given is, "There is no way except to melt 

 them." 



In the winter of 1898 I had over 100 combs 

 well filled with honey that I had put away for 

 spring feeding. The honey in these combs 

 candied. I think this was due partly to their 

 being stored in a very cold place, and this 

 honey was what we call "alfalfa" honey, 

 which seems to candy more quickly than oth- 

 er sorts. Well, I did not Uke to melt the 

 combs, so I thought I would experiment a lit- 

 tle. I uncapped some, and then, filling a large 

 tub with cold water in which I put about a 

 quart of vinegar, I filled it with combs, put a 

 weight on to hold them down, and left them 

 24 hours, when they came out as clean as ever 

 —no honey, no pollen. They were a little 

 sticky, but I hung them in some empty hives, 

 and the bees soon cleaned them up. I used 

 the one tub of water for all the combs. I 

 cleaned about 150, and then put the honey 

 and water into the vinegar-barrel. I am posi- 

 tive this plan will work every time. 



Ft. Collins, Col. Mrs. J. M. McLEan. 



[This is indeed a valuable suggestion ; but, 

 say, do you suppose the vinegar had any di- 

 rect influence on getting the honey out? 

 Would not the combs have been emptied just 

 as soon without the acid ? I don't know, 

 and simply ask for information. — Ed.] 



HOW TO ITALIANIZE AN APIARY WITH TWO 

 QUEENS ; HOW TO RAISE CHOICE DRONES. 



On account of being so busy with other 

 work I have neglected to keep my bees pure, 

 so I am now entirely out of a pure colony. I 

 want to Italianize them this summer, but am 

 not able to buy queens for all of them. I 

 thought my best way would be to buy two 

 queens not in any way related, and raise my 

 queens from one and drones from the other to 

 fertilize those queens. There would be no in- 

 breeding in such a case. Will you please ad- 

 vise me as to the best way to go at it to get 

 this queen to raise drones and have them in 

 readiness along at times as I might need them ? 

 I understand it is difficult to get a young queen 

 to raise drones. A clipped virgin queen might 

 do all right, but in giving the bees frames of 

 brood along at times to keep the colony in 

 good working order would not the bees persist 

 in building queen cells, and destroy this queen? 

 and wouldn't she lay her drone eg^s in this 

 worker comb, which would raise dwarfish. 



worthless drones for my use ? Tell me the 

 most reliable certain way you know of, and 

 whether you would risk only the one queen 

 for the whole business, and how old it is best 

 for her to bt,. Perhaps a pure drone-laying 

 queen would be best for me. 



John R. Millard. 

 Flagler, Iowa, Apr. 10. 



[You can Italianize an apiary with two 

 queens of selected stock, one to raise the 

 daughters and the other the drones ; but un- 

 less the queen is a year old, and unless, too, 

 you supply her with plenty of drone comb, 

 feeding the colony a little every day when 

 honey is not coming in, you would not secure 

 very many drones. Of course, you under- 

 stand that you would have to trap the drones 

 of all other colonies, with perforated zinc, or, 

 better. Alley traps, or, better still, give each 

 black and hybrid colony nothing but worker 

 combs. Even then it may be desirable to 

 have perforated zinc over the entrances of all 

 such hives. 



The problem of making some choice queen 

 and her colony rear a large lot of choice 

 drones, just at the time we want them, is not 

 an easy one to solve. To get a sufficient num- 

 ber of drones, it might be necessary to have 

 several queens, all of whose colonies were sup- 

 plied with drone comb. A drone-laying queen 

 — one that has been a good queen in her day, 

 and whose workers were uniformly well mark- 

 ed, and desirable in other respects, might af- 

 ford the easiest solution of the problem, but 

 it would be doubtful if it would be wise to 

 clip an average virgin queen and compel her 

 to go into the business of furnishing drone- 

 eggs. In the first place, you can not deter- 

 mine a queen's purity by the markings of her 

 drones. While the male bees vary greatly, 

 the worker bees should show at least three 

 yellow bands. 



Yes, the bees would try to raise cells where 

 there was a virgin that had laid only drone 

 eggs. 



It may be the time will come when a drone- 

 laying queen will have a market value. We 

 have seen the time when we would have given 

 more for one of them than we would for two 

 or three high-priced mothers of good workers. 

 In the fall of the year it is difficult and almost 

 impossible to get a normal queen, even by 

 stimulative feeding, to lay eggs in drone-cells. 

 She seems to know that cold weather w ill .soon 

 be on, and that it is not the time for that sort 

 of business. For late laying of drone eggs 

 we have had to rely something on drone-lay- 

 ing queens, and even those from virgins ; but 

 we do not like to use these latter if we can 

 avoid it. — Ed.] 



REARING DOOLITTLE CELLS IN BROOD CHAM- 

 BER. 



Will you please tell in full, as soon as pos- 

 sible, about rearing queens in Doolittle cells 

 in brood-chamber, as you practiced last sea- 

 son ? Is it successful ? 



Pearl City, 111., Mar. 21. E. J. B. 



[This matter is very fully explained in our 

 issue for July 1, 1899, page 510. In a word, 



