1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



441 



had a swarm issue at half-past 9, and stayed 

 until 1, and then vamoosed for the wilderness, 

 my wife watching them. At 3 o'clock I re- 

 turned home, and at 5 o'clock I heard and saw 

 them return, and know that they were mine, 

 as they came back in the exact line they went 

 away in, and, furthermore, I am the only one 

 who has Italians in this section. Therefore 

 I think they could not find a place, and 

 thought best to return. J. H. Ali^en. 



[Dr. Miller replies :] 



While the circumstantial evidences are 

 strong, they are not entirely conclusive. 

 There still remains the possibility that on the 

 morning of June 12 a colony of Italians miles 

 away may have swarmed, the swarm entering 

 Mr. Allen's hive on the afternoon of the 

 same day. 



HOW TO GET A SWARM FROM AN INACCESSI- 

 BLE POSITION. 



Once, after a very mild winter, with the bees 

 in an apple-orchard, there were numerous 

 swarms in March. They invariably pitched on 

 the body of the tree, near the giound. There 

 was no foliage on the trees. I had trouble, in 

 the ordinary way, to get them into the hive. 

 I took a frame of eggs and brood in all stages, 

 and tied it to a limb so it would hang against 

 the bees. In a very short time I found the 

 queen on it. I put it in the hive, and the bees 

 all quickly entered. After that, whether the 

 swarm was in a difficult place or not, I put 

 against it such a frame, and the queen invaria- 

 bly got on to it in a very short time, and there 

 was no trouble in hiving the bees. Sometimes 

 I would use a pole to elevate the frame to the 

 place where the swarm was. By this method 

 I found hiving easy. J. W. Jackson. 



Opelousas, L,a. 



[I have practiced the plan you speak of 

 many times, and it works well. It is the only 

 satisfactory way to get a swarm out of a crotch 

 or off from a trunk of a tree. — Ed.] 



IS THERE DANGER OF OVERHEATING HONEY 

 SURROUNDED BY WATER? 



Mr. Root: — You say, page 305, about dam- 

 aging honey in liquefying, "No danger of 

 overheating unless the can is put right on the 

 stove." Now, I think you had better try it 

 and see. Michigan honey can be ruined, 

 even when heated in water, both in color and 

 flavor, mostly in flavor. I am not acquainted 

 with Mr. Fowls, but I judge he has had ex- 

 perience in this line. 



Otsego, Mich. O. H. Townsend. 



[I guess you are right — yes, I know you 

 are. On second thought I know there is dan- 

 ger of overheating honey in water. We have 

 for years cautioned against heating candied 

 honey higher than 180 degrees F. , because ex- 

 perience has shown us that when it is brought 

 to a higher temperature, the honey is likely 

 to be darkened in color, and injured slightly 

 in flavor. I am sorry to be obliged to confess 

 error, as I know my friend Mr. Fowls will 

 chuckle over it not a little. Spores can stand 

 a continued boiling temperature of from two 



to three hours, while the actual bacilli — those 

 hatched from the spores — will probably be 

 killed immediately in boiling water. It is ev- 

 ident that there has been confusion in the 

 minds of a good many on this matter of spores 

 and bacilli. — Ed.] 



GETTING DOOLITTLE OUEEN-CUPS ACCEPTED 

 WITHOUT ROYAL JELLY. 



IMr. Editor; — We have been raising young 

 queens this spring. The other day, when we 

 got ready to put the larvae in the queen-cups 

 we found we had no queen-cells and no royal 

 jelly, so we took a frame of unsealed drone 

 comb and removed the larvae, and procured 

 enough jelly from two or three larvae for each 

 queen-cup; and to-day I looked at the frame 

 and found eleven capped over. 



WHY DID THE SWARM DECAMP? 



On the 16th day of April I found a very 

 large swarm clustered on a tree, and hived 

 them in a ten-frame hive with inch starters 

 only. The next day I looked at them, and 

 they were working away lively. I thought 

 they were all right; but on the 18th I noticed 

 there were very few bees flying, and I opened 

 them up to see what was the matter, and 

 found they had decamped, leaving only about 

 half a pint of bees; but the mystery was that, 

 on opposite sides of the hive, they had built a 

 nice lot of worker comb as large as my two 

 hands, and in each were a few eggs. What 

 was the matter? E. B. Beecher. 



Auburn, Cal., April 21. 



[Yes, you can get the bees to build queen- 

 cells from Doolittle cups supplied with only 

 ordinary food from worker- cells; but as a gen- 

 eral rule a much larger percentage of cells so 

 supplied are liable to be rejected by the bees; 

 and in all probability, too, the queens reared 

 from a start of larval food would not be as 

 good as those supplied with genuine royal 

 jelly from the very beginning. 



As to why swarms will sometimes leave 

 their hives is one of thethings we can not ex- 

 plain; but it nevertheless is not an uncommon 

 thing for a newly hived swarm to decamp in a 

 day or two when hived on starters or frames 

 of foundation only. It is our practice, when 

 hiving on foundation, to give the bees just 

 one frame of unsealed larvae. It is very sel- 

 dom that they will desert young brood; and 

 while the presence of it will not invariably 

 hold them, yet it seems to be, according to 

 our experience, quite a restrainer. — Ed.] 



POLLEN IN SECTIONS. 

 Not long ago I saw something in GLE.A.N- 

 INGS about the probability of bees putting 

 pollen in sections. A long time ago I learned 

 by dear experience that when swarms were 

 hived on starters or wired foundation, and 

 the bees were immediately given partly filled 

 sections, brood would often, and pollen al- 

 most always, be put in the sections. Oueen- 

 excluders will keep out the brood, but not 

 always the pollen. With a set of empty 

 combs, or even two or three, with the start- 

 ers, the pollen would be left in the brood- 



