GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE 



GLEANINGS FROM QUESTIONINGS 



T. C. J., Lake Cicott, Ind. I have some 

 honey that has a queer smell, and it does 

 not taste very good. Do you think it could 

 be honey-dew? 



A. Honey-dew honey is usually dark and 

 cloudy — muddy-looking, in fact — and it has 

 a mealy, bitter taste. There are certain 

 kinds of fall honey that are very strong in 

 flavor, but they are usually clear, even tho 

 dark. Honey-dew nearly always looks dirty. 



P. S., Epworth, Iowa. I am building a 

 new honey-house with a bee-cellar under 

 it. Will the odor of fresh cement injure 

 the bees? 



A. We do not believe the odor of the 

 new cement would injure the bees in any 

 way. The dampness would, provided the 

 temperature remained very long around the 

 freezing-point after the bees were in the 

 cellar. Dampness combined with a low tem- 

 perature always makes trouble. Probably 

 it would be well to put a little lime about 

 the cellar after you have it finished, to ab- 

 sorb the moisture. 



A. G., Ben Avon, Pa. What is the proper 

 weight of a hive — combs, bees, and all — at 

 this time of the year? 



A. It is difficult to give even an approxi- 

 mate answer to this question. Notice the 

 different weights that Mr. Doolittle gives 

 In his department in the last issue. You had 

 better not rely upon weighing the hive, for 

 this is too risky on account of the variations 

 in the weight of the hive-body itself — bot- 

 tom-board, cover, frames, etc. The only sure 

 way is to wait until it is warm enough for 

 the bees to fly, and then look over the 

 combs rapidly. It would have been a good 

 deal better, of course, to make sure about 

 this before the middle of October. 



T. C. J., Lake Cicott, Ind. When the 

 white clover first started to bloom my bees 

 went right to work in supers; but we had a 

 spell of cold rainy weather, and they were 

 not able to get out for four days, then as 

 soon as nice weather came they started to 

 swarm. All my queens are clipped, so I cut 

 out all the queen-cells. The bees came out 

 the next day again, so I took away all sealed 

 brood — in fact, I took all combs except one 

 and put in full sheets of foundation instead. 

 That did not stop them from coming out. 

 They came out and went back two or three 

 times a day, and kept it up for four days. I 

 left the supers on; but about all the bees do 

 is to loaf and swarm. 



A. CBy Dr. C. C. Miller.) The fever for 

 swarming seems to be a sort of cumulative 

 affair. If you do something to thwart them, 

 and it isn 't quite enough to stop them, it 

 seems to make bees all the more fierce for 

 swarming afterward, and each move on 

 your part seems only to make them more 



determined. Some years ago one of my 

 colonies swarmed, and I took away one or 

 more of its frames of brood. It swarmed 

 again, and again I took away brood; and 

 as it continued swarming I left it each 

 time with less brood, until I had taken away 

 all its brood. Then it swarmed with no- 

 thing but foundation in the hive, and the 

 only thing done with the foundation was 

 the building of one queen-cell in which 

 there was an egg! If, after it had swarm- 

 ed the first time, I had left only one brood, 

 I've no idea it would have had any fur- 

 ther thought of swarming. If half its 

 brood had been taken away two or three 

 days before the actual swarming, it might 

 have been sufficient; and if only one or two 

 brood had been taken away when queen- 

 cells were first started, it might have pre- 

 vented swarming, or at least postponed it. 



Years ago it was the rule that a colony 

 never swarmed until the first queen-cell was 

 sealed. Nowadays it is nothing uncommon 

 for a colony to swarm with not a queen-cell 

 sealed, or even with only an egg in a queen- 

 cell. I suspect that the bees follow the 

 same rule as of old, except when the bee- 

 keeper does something in the way of pre- 

 vention — not enough to stop swarming en- 

 tirely, but enough to make the bees more 

 and more stubborn. 



There seems, too, to be a difference in 

 years. Some years a very little will prevent 

 swarming, while in another year the bees 

 seem to be swarm-crazy. You seem to have 

 struck one of the worst of years in this 

 respect, and may never see its like again. 



Now as to what shall be done. First, a 

 " don't " or two. Don't think of doing 

 any good by cutting out queen-cells and 

 leaving the old queen in the hive, after the 

 bees have actually swarmed. Don't count on 

 cutting out cells as a certain preventive in 

 any case. If done before queen-cells are 

 well advanced, in some cases it will delay 

 and sometimes even prevent swarming. 

 Generally it will fail to have the desired 

 effect. Don 't leave supers containing 

 honey on the hive containing the swarm. 

 I'm not sure but that was the mistake I 

 m.ade in the case where the bees swarmed 

 leaving empty foundation. 



From all this it may be easily understood 

 that the thing to do is to take vigorous 

 steps at the outset, taking away enough 

 brood either before or after swarming so 

 that the bees will feel too impoverished to 

 think of swarming out. That will mean that 

 not more than one brood will be left if it 

 be just before or just after swarming. 

 If no queen-cells are yet sealed, taking 

 away half the brood may discourage the bees 

 from swarming. If nothing beyond quite 

 small larvae is found in queen-cells, it is 

 possible that taking away two brood may 

 answer. 



