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hives, placed in pairs on cement foundations, and all 

 the necessary apparatus for working them. I have 

 been in the business nine years, and have made a 

 success of it every summer. I made one bad winter 

 failure when I commenced cellar wintering. The 

 tirst season I prepared my cellar in accordance with 

 the instructions of several men who had practiced 

 cellar wintering. I put in thirty colonies of bees, 

 and took out seven living in the spring. Since that 

 time I have used some methods of my own for forced 

 ventilation, and have never lost a colony of bees that 

 could have endured one month of cold weather out 

 of doors. Last season I commenced with forty-two 

 colonies ; increased to seventy, and netted myself 

 $900. 



I have noticed in Gleanings quite a number of 

 arguments from beekeepers for and against cellar 

 wintering. I am quite confident that in this locality 

 cellar wintering is by all odds the better. The saving 

 in honey would amply pay for the construction of 

 the cellar. I wintered my bees in 1912 on an aver- 

 age of 8 lbs. and 2 ounces of honey per colony, 

 weighing them in and out. 



Omaha, Neb., April 14. H. C. CoOK. 



Some Interesting Questions 



1. Where " shook " swarming is practiced, how 

 soon can the two colonies be united without danger 

 of swarming? 



2. Will queen-cells in an upper story with wire 

 cloth between the two stories have a tendency to 

 induce swarming? 



3. How much space can I leave between the bot- 

 tom-bar of frames and the hive floor without danger 

 of combs being built between ? 



4. How much space can I leave between dummies, 

 and have no comb built between ? 



5. What should I do with combs that become 

 moldy ? 



6. Will the steam-heated uncappingknife work 

 satisfactorily on combs of cold honey ? 



Coffeyville, Kan., April 16. Bird Hart. 



[1. Your question implies that you wish to practice 

 " shook " swarming as a method of swarm control 

 and not for increase. The intervening time between 

 shaking and uniting again without danger of swarm- 

 ing would depend considerably on the honey-flow. 

 If uniting were done near the close of the honey-flow 

 there would be little danger of their swarming for 

 the rest of the season ; but if honey-flows should 

 come on later the bees would be likely to swarm. 



2. In our experience we have not found that 

 queen-cells in an pper story with wire cloth between 

 two stories have any tendency to make the bees 

 swarm. 



3. It is generally regarded that if more than one 

 inch of space is left between bottom-bars of frames 

 and floor boards there is danger of combs being built 

 in the space. However, some beekeepers report leav- 

 ing much more space than that, without that trouble. 



4. That depends on how much the bees are crowd- 

 ed during a honey-flow. Three-eighths to one-half 

 inch is about right. 



5. A hive containing moldy combs may be set 

 under a very strong colony where the combs will be 

 cared for and cleaned up ; or one or two moldy combs 

 may be placed at a time in the brood-nest of a strong 

 colony. 



6. On combs containing cold honey is just the 

 place where the steam-heated uncapping-knife will do 

 the most satisfactory work. It is hard to keep an 

 unheated knife from gumming on such combs. — Ed.] 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



I started in three years ago with Gleanings and 

 me A B C of bee Culture, knowing practica.ly 

 nothing about bees. I took them out of buildings 

 and cavities in the rocks, and used good queens. I 

 had 21 swarms a year ago, and increased them to 43 

 last season and got 2300 lbs. of surplius honey from 

 them — half fancy comb, half extracted, and captured 

 27 more swarms, so I am starting this season with 

 70. So you see bees "go some" in Nevada, even 

 if it is classed as a desert, in the East. 



Mason, Nev., March 20. A. J. Tedder 



A Queen-excluding Honey-board Under the Hive 

 to Prevent Swarming 



I have 14 stands of bees in Danzenbaker hives. I 

 am a day laborer, and do not want many more bees. 

 How would it do to put a queen-excluding honey- 

 board on the bottom-board under the hive at swarm- 

 ing time, SO' that the queen cannot get out? 



Flora, Ind., April 6. S. W. High. 



[Our opinion is that your plan would be a failure, 

 because the queen-excluder would soon become clog- 

 ged with the bodies of dead drones ; and, besides 

 that, it would be a serious hindrance to the loaded 

 bees passing through. A better plan would be to use 

 an Alley queen-and-drone trap on the front of the 

 hive. — Ed. ] 



Feeding and tlie Kind of Sugar to Use 



How do you prepare sugar for feeding bees? Is 

 there any profit in feeding? What kind of sugar is 

 used ? 



Oakland City, Ind., Mar. 27. Albert Jordan. 



[ Sugar is prepared for feeding by dissolving it in 

 water, thus making a syrup of a consistency varying 

 with the time of year in which it is to be fed. For 

 fall feeding it should be about half and half. For 

 spring feeding within the hive it should be about 

 three of water to one of sugar ; and for outdoor 

 feeding about nine water to one sugar. Generally 

 speaking, stimulative feeding in the spring is a very 

 good thing for the beginner to let alone. Granulated 

 sugar only should be used. — Ed.] 



Ground Ants Bothering Bees 



My bees are bothered by the ordinary garden or 

 ground ant in the summer. Do they hurt any thing ? 

 Tell me how to get rid of the pests. 



Gilbert, Pa., March 30. Elmer E. Hinton. 



[You can get rid of the ants by finding their nests, 

 and with a crowbar or some similar instrument 

 punch a hole down about two feet into the ground 

 in the middle of their hill. Drop in about a table- 

 spoonful of carbon bisulphide, and cover it up. This 

 ought 10 get rid of all the ants. If they should 

 bother you again from the same nest, give them a 

 little heavier dose. — Ed.] 



Value of Bees in a Cucumber Greenhouse 



A neighbor (a market gardener) has four colonies 

 of bees to fertilize his hothouse cucumbers. I take 

 care of them, and get the honey. From them and 

 two in our back yard last season I obtained 1007 lbs. 

 of extracted honey, which we sold at 12% cts. per 

 lb. 



The second week of picking, the owner of the 

 four colonies picked 200 dozen cucumbers per day, 

 and received an average of 80 cts. per dozen. 



Elmira, N. Y., March 18. P. F. Conklin, 



Getting Wild Bees out of Caves in the Rocks in 

 Nevada, etc. 



I am very busy at present, nailing up and getting 

 ready for increase of my bees. They have been 

 building up fast since the 8th on buckbrush. 



Preventing Bees from Flying when it is Too Cold 



The best method I have found to check spring 

 dwindling is to place the front of the hive to the 

 north and put a shade-board on the south side, 

 When it gets warm enough so the bees can fly they 

 can nearly always get back to the hive. 



Elsie, ilich., March 22. C. K. Cabtee. 



