FEBRUARY 15, 1914 



153 



Heads of Grain from Different Fields 



A Vision of Spring 



The trees still stand naked and brown and bare, 



With never a leaf showing anywhere. 



The snow's piled deep, and the winds are chill 

 As they sweep o'er the orchard upon the hill. 



The bees are housed in their quarters snug. 

 With plenty of honey for each small "bug;" 



And they scarecly hum ; they're almost as still 



As the giant trees upon the hill. 



But we'll shut our eyes, and in vision see 

 How the spring will alter each bare brown tree. 

 See ! out from their cozy cradles come 

 The leaves and the flowers, one by one, 



Till even the tiny gurgling rill 



Will sing of the fragrance upon the hill. 



Then deep in their hearts, 'neath the pollen gold, 

 The blossoms a promise of fruit will hold. 



And, courting the blossoms, we find the bees 

 In the branches swayed by a Maytime breeze. 

 In the happy hum of the bees we hear 

 Tlie promise of honey to eat next year. 



Though the trees are bare, and still the bees' hum, 



We know that the glad spring in due time will come. 



Gladwin, Mich. Ikma True Soper. 



Trouble in Malting Hard Candy 



I have been trying to make hard candy for bees 

 according to the instructions given in Gleanings. 

 It is easy enough to boil it down to the consistency 

 you recommend, but it is difficult to do so without 

 darkening the candy and having it go back to sugar. 

 I have tried to make it several times, and each time 

 I got a cake of sugar about the color of goldenrod 

 honey. Some of these experimental batches were 

 boiled briskly, and others very slowly ; but in each 

 case the result was about the same. It is not fit for 

 bees. If you can give any further information it 

 would be appreciated. 



St. Paul, Minn., Jan. 9. Subscriber. 



[We are not sure from what you say that your 

 candy is unfit for the bees. Goldenrod honey, owing 

 to the fact that it is so often not pure goldenrod, 

 varies in color from quite light to quite dark, so 

 your comparison is not definite. The candy, as we 

 make it, is considerably darker than most clover 

 honey, but not dark enough to be called a dark am- 

 ber. It might be called light amber, but, of course, 

 this also is somewhat indefinite. 



When you place a little of the candy in your 

 mouth you should not be able to detect at once a 

 strong scorched or burnt taste. We have just been 

 eating some of our candy, and we find after it has 

 remained in the mouth a few minutes it is possible 

 to detect a slight taste along the caramel order — a 

 pleasing taste rather than a scorched burnt tast€. 

 If your candy has a distinctly burnt flavor we are 

 sure that vou boiled it too fast or else too long. 

 Perhaps you added too much water in the first place, 

 so that it required too long exposure to the heat to 

 evaporate it to the right consistency. — Ed.] 



Tiie 4x5 Sections Used in a 4X Square Section 

 Super 



I am using 4x5 sections in an ordinary super 

 made for 4% square sections without any change in 

 the super except strips nailed to the upper edges to 

 make the side walls the proper height. Instead of 

 putting a false end in each end of the super to take 

 up the extra space I make a special fence, the end 

 cleat on one end of which is enough wider to make 

 thu fence reach from one end to the other of the 

 super. The section-holders are also a little different, 



one upright being nailed far enough from the end 

 of the bottom-bar to be just right for the four sec- 

 tions. 



I use the 4x5x1% sections in the same supers 

 formerly used for the 4i/4 square section. At any 

 time if I should want to use the latter again it will 

 not be necessary for me to pry out any false ends in 

 the supers, nor to make any other alterations. 



I use a top-bar over the sections, so that I really 

 have wide-frame section-holders. I find that this 

 keeps the sections cleaner, and saves lots of scraping. 



San Jose, Gal. W. A. Barstow. 



Granulated Sugar Not Suitable for Queen-cage 

 Candy 



Being a subscriber to Gleanings, I am presuming 

 on that fact to address you. I also have your A B 

 C book. In looking over its columns, I note the 

 formula for making "Good" candy. I find that the 

 common granulated sugar is not a success in making 

 this candy, as the crystals will not dissolve. I have 

 plenty of pulverized sugar, but fear to use it on ac- 

 count of the small quantity of starch or flour that all 

 this class of sugars contains. Would the common unre- 

 fined brown sugar do ? I note a late formula in 

 Gleanings for making candy, but can not get all 

 of the ingredients. What shall I do? 



Berea, W. Va., Jan. 1. J. E. Meredith. 



[ It is not practicable to make Good candy using 

 granulated sugar or even brown sugar. The only 

 thing that you can use is pulverized sugar. Usually 

 you can secure this without any starch in it. It is 

 very possible and even probable that the pulverized 

 article you refer to has no starch in it. We suggest 

 that you try making it according to the directions 

 given in the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture. In 

 the mean time, if you desire candy for feeding bees 

 during the winter we refer you to the hard candy 

 referred to in Gleanings. See Jan. 1st issue. — Ed. J 



Wintering Bees in a Room with an Open Window; 

 Deep vs. Shallow Frames for Wintering 



Would it be practicable to keep two or more colo- 

 nies of bees in a building 15 feet square, using a 

 window four feet square as a common entrance? 

 Other conditions being equal, should bees winter 

 better in deep or very deep frame hives than in 

 shallow-frame hives ? 



Marlboro, N. Y., Dec. 8. Chas. E. Dowling. 



[ It would not be impossible to keep bees in a room 

 with an open window such as you describe, but we 

 do not believe it would be advisable. The bees, after 

 a time, would get accustomed to going into this open- 

 ing, and then into their individual hives; but the 

 difficulty would come at the close of the day when it 

 became so dark that the bees would not be able to 

 locate their entrances properly, and on that account 

 would not fly out very early nor very late in the day. 



The time was when it was thought the bees would 

 winter better on deep frames or square frames than 

 on shallow ones ; but if one shallow hive is placed on 

 top of another the advantage is in favor of the shal- 

 low frame. The bee-space between the two sections 

 makes it possible for the cluster to reach the stores 

 in any part of the hive, and at the same time pro- 

 vides a fine clustering-space. — Ed.] 



The Heat of a Solar Extractor 



Is the heat in a solar wax-extractor detrimental to 

 the wax ? It has been asserted that the heat gener- 

 ated causes the wax to be too brittle for foundation. 

 I have never tested the heat in mine, but it must go 

 over boiling-point of water, I think. I vrill note it 



