1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



445 



the entrance, and around the front of the 

 hive on the ground. My bees seemed to be 

 benefited immediately by the sulphur, very 

 few dyings alter I gave it to them. 

 ', I suppose my plan takes a great deal more 

 sulphur, but it saves a great deal of time, 

 and the amount of extra sulphur used is of 

 less value than the extra time saved in 

 applying it. A. B. JuDSON. 



Escondido, Cal., Mar. 7. 



[I would clip the wings of the queen and 

 then follow the plan outlined by Geo. Shi- 

 ber on page 441. — Ed.] 



HOW TO PUT CANDIED CHUNK HONEY INTO 

 MARKETABLE CONDITION. 



I have 300 or 400 lbs. of chunk honey that 

 has granulated, and is of dull sale at any 

 price. Can I heat this hot enough to melt 

 cut the comb, and feed the honey back to 

 the bees? Will it injure it by heating? 

 Would you dilute it with water? Is not 

 this honey more liable to start robbing than 

 granulated sugar? My wish is to feed this 

 honey at once before putting on surplus 

 cases, so as to have them strong for the 

 honey harvest. J. W. Martin. 



Greenwood Depot, Va., Mar. 31. 



[The chunk honey that you refer to can 

 be best treated with a very slow moderate 

 heat. It should be set in a warm room back 

 of the stove, where it will get a temperature 

 of about 100 degrees or a little more, but be 

 careful not to let it get warm enough to 

 melt the wax. It may be necessary to put 

 the honey in tin pails, and the pails in a 

 wash-boiler of warm water heated to a 

 temperature of about 110. This will cause 

 the honey to melt, leaving the wax in its 

 original shape. After the honey is all 

 melted, drain off that portion which is free, 

 and put the rest in a regular wax-press 

 and squeeze the honey out. When it is 

 drained clear, apply heat, and melt the 

 wax. You will thus be enabled to get the 

 honey free without spoiling its quality, at 

 the same time getting the wax in market- 

 able condition. — Ed.] 



A SHORTER WAY THAN THE HEDDON SHORT 

 WAY OF TRANSFERRING. 



You advise, page 340, the Heddon short 

 method of transferring. This seems to me 

 a rather long way. Why not shorten it the 

 way I have been doing with entire success? 

 Fill the new hive with full sheets of founda- 

 tion; give drawn-out comb if you have any, 

 and it will work still better if you can put 

 a little brood, even only a few cells full (of 

 cour.-e unsealed) into the hive; but neither 

 of the last two is absolutely necessary. Go 

 to the hive to be transferred; remove it; put 

 the new hive in its place; put on a queen- 

 excluding honey board, then a reversed 

 Porter escape-board without escape. Now 

 drum the bees out of the box hive, the same 

 as in the Heddon, then with saw and square 

 make the bottom ends of the sides of the 

 box hive perfectly square. Put the box hive 



right side up over the hole in the bee- escape, 

 then dump the bees out of the hiving- box in 

 front of the new hive, and the job is done. 

 In three or four weeks' time lift up the box 

 hive; put a bee-escape into the board. Next 

 da3'ii take off the box-hive bee- escape, and 

 honey-board, and put on super and hive- 

 cover; cut out the combs from the box hive; 

 extract what honey there may be in Ihem, 

 and melt out the wax. 



1 have found the foregoing the easiest and 

 best; and the best time for my locality is 

 the end of April or first of May. The hives 

 so treated will seldom swarm, but give 

 plenty of hcney in sections, as these will 

 be put on just at the commencement of clo- 

 ver. 



If you want to Italianize at the same time, 

 sift out the old queen; give some comb with 

 honey; let new queen and bees run in to- 

 gether, but for a day or two put on a cover 

 and then place the box hive over the escape- 

 board. L. H. WiLLMER. 



Napoleon, Mo., Apr. 5. 



ARRANGEMENT OF AN APIARY. 



Mr. Editor: — I herewith hand you a 

 crude drawing of what seems to me a very 

 good arrangement for hives on a small plat 

 of ground. The hives, as you will see, 

 front east and south alternately, leaving a 

 back alley between each pair of rows entire- 

 ly free of bees. Hives set in pairs, on this 



plat of 48 feet square, give a space of 4 feet 

 between each pair of hives, and 8 feet from 

 center to center cf pairs. Eighty colonies 

 can be provided for nicely in this way, on 

 such a plat of ground. The alleys are wide 

 enough for all practical purposes. I have 

 tried many forms of placing hives, but I 

 like this better than any other. 



Wm. M. Whitney. 

 Lake Geneva, Wis., Feb. 9. 



[One objection to havirg hives on the zig- 

 zag or the cata-cornered plan is the diffi- 

 culty of cutting down weeds or grass with 

 scythe or lawn mower, particularly the 



