650 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 5 



course, any kind of super may be used on 

 these straw hives. The Gartenrat says en 

 this point, a third section may be made 

 of any odd pieces cf lumber by the bee- 

 keeper himself, and fitted out with frames 

 or bcxes, which may be used as the sur- 

 plus- honey chamber. 



The German bee-keepers, as a whole, the 

 followers of Dzierzon in particular, have 

 always been opposed to the American meth- 

 od of opening- hives from the top. The lat- 

 ter are still holding to this view, and can 

 not condemn the American style of hives in 

 too strong terms. The introduction of such 

 hives as described, and the Gerstung hive, 

 and the enthusiasm with which they are re- 

 ceiv. d, shows plainly which way the wind 

 blows. 



Naples, N. Y., April 4. 



VARIOUS MATTERS. 



No Danger from Putting Honey in Syrup. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



I have desired to write about many things 

 which have appeared in Gleanings during 

 the pist few months, but could not find the 

 time; and what I write now must be in 

 briefest form — only just touching, as it 

 were, on a few things upon which it seems 

 necessary for me to say a word or two. 



On page 219, March 1, Dr. Miller seems 

 to think it necessary to caution the readers 

 against my plan of using honey when mak- 

 ing sugar syrup for feeding bees, especial- 

 ly where the honey has to be bought, for 

 fear that the same might not be free from 

 foul brood. He must have forgotten the 

 formula or else failed to realize that honey 

 brought to the boiling-point is free of all li- 

 ability to disease. The formula is this: 15 

 pounds of water put in a suitable-sized ves- 

 sel, and brought to a " boil." When boil- 

 ing, slowly sift in 30 pounds of granulated 

 sugar, stirring well as the sugar is sifted 

 in. Now bring to a boil again, and skim, 

 if necessary. When boiling, set from fire 

 and stir in 5 pounds of honey. This 

 makes 50 pounds of syrup, equal to if not 

 better than honey, to use in any spot or 

 place for feeding bees for winter stores. 

 Now, Dr. M., if you or any one else can 

 start any foul brood from this preparation 

 you will be able to bring about an impossi- 

 bility, ■aiCCor ding to my experience in the ear- 

 ly seventies, when I cur d my whole apiary 

 of foul brood, and fed back the whole of the 

 foul-broody honey to the bees, without any 

 treatment of the "honey more than to bring 

 this bad honey to the boiling-point, or 

 ''scalding the honey," as it was then term- 

 ed. 1 know nothing (experimentally) about 

 foul brood since that time; but unless the 

 foul brood of 1900 is different from that 

 which swept the center cf this State nearly 

 clean of bees during the sixties and seven- 

 ties, neither jou nor any one else need have 

 any fears about using honey in making su- 

 gar syrup by the above formula. I should 



not notice this, only as I am confident, aft- 

 er using it for more than a score of years, 

 and after testing all other ways of making 

 syrup for feeding bees, that the same is 

 superior to any thing else along that line. 



INDOOR vs. OUTDOOR WINTERING. 



On pages 275 and 324, March 15 and 

 April 1, I see that E. R. Root and Dr. Mil- 

 ler do not just agree as to my present 

 standing on wintering bees, the editor 

 seeming to think that I still try to winter 

 half of my bees on their summer stands and 

 half in the cellar. I supposed that I had 

 made it plain that, afer the loss cf the ear- 

 ly eighties, when, out of 90 colonies win- 

 tered outdoors, I found I had only 13 hives 

 that were alive, and not enough of these 

 live bees in the 13 hives to make three ce- 

 cent colonies, that I then and there changed 

 to cellar wintering entirel}', only for the 

 few that I intist have winter out as " play- 

 things " to satisfy my desire of inspecting 

 them when I dtsire, and hearing their mer- 

 ry " hum " whenever a warm day occurs in 

 winter. That same year I had 55 in the 

 cellar, and came out with f4 rousing colo- 

 nies, so that I was able to stock up m}' bee- 

 less combs in fine shape before the month 

 of June was half out. The past winter I 

 had 7 out on their summer stands, and 3 

 o1 the 7 pulled through, but not having a 

 flight from October 30 to April 5 so wore on 

 their vitality that all the bees in the three 

 living colonies would not make enough to 

 equal those in one colony from the cellar 

 on May 15. So Dr. Miller is right in think- 

 ing that, when I settle to a certainty which 

 is better, I always change to the better. 



BROOD OVER SECTIONS. 



Oo page 323, April 1, I see that both the 

 editor and Dr. Miller agree that, in putting 

 brood over sections, "The bees will seal 

 the sections more or less dark with bits of 

 black comb brought down from above." 

 They will do just that where open tops are 

 used; but with sections having closed tops, 

 or where wide frames are used, the same 

 fitting close at the top, no such thing can 

 or will result. Nearly half of my surplus 

 arrangements have wide frames with close- 

 fitting top bars, each wide frame holding 

 4 sections. Each super is the exact size of 

 the hive, except in height, which is the same 

 as the sections are deep. Eleven of these 

 wide frames go in a super, together with a 

 thin board and two wedges, which are yi 

 thick. Now, in brief, how they are used in 

 connection with non-swarming: 



As soon as the colonies become strong 

 enough to begin to think about swarming, 

 or want more room in which to store honey, 

 put a queen excluder over the hive the colo- 

 ny is in, and on top of this set a hive of 

 empty combs of the worker size of cells. 

 Leave thus till your honey- flow is about to 

 commence, or you think that the two hives 

 will not keep the bees from swarming long- 

 er, when you will set off the top hive, take 

 off the excluder, and set the lower hive off 

 the bottf m board, putting the hive that was 



