GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



GLEANINGS FROM QUESTIONINGS 



L. P., Kyors, Mo. — When is the best time 

 to sow buckwheat for the bees, and what 

 variety is best? 



A. The first week in July is considered 

 the best time to sow buckwheat. The Japan- 

 ese buckwheat has been preferred for a good 

 many years, altho of late the silverhull has 

 given the best results in honey. 



W. J. N., Cleveland, O.— What are the 

 names and addresses of good French, Ger- 

 man, and English bee magazines? 



A. Schweizerische Bienenzeitung, Edi- 

 tor, Hans Moos, Sonneggstrasse 61, Zurich, 

 Switzerland. German. 



Deutsche Imker aus Bohmen, Prague, 

 Bohemia, Austria. German. 



British Bee Journal, 23 Bedford St., 

 Strand, London, England. 



L 'Apiculteur, 28 Eue Serpente, Paris, 

 Fi'ance. 



L. P., Ryors, Mo. — Which is the best meth- 

 od of keeping bees in the summer — under a 

 good shade or in a regular bee-shed? 



A. Partial shade is better than either 

 plan. Small grapevines at the south of each 

 hive to afford partial shade during the heat 

 of the day j^re preferable to anything else, 

 altho the majority who find some shade nec- 

 essary use shade-boards to prevent the hives 

 from becoming too hot. 



W. F. B., Akron, N. Y.— Do black, hybrid, 

 or Italian colonies affected with European 

 foul brood ever rear queens naturally and 

 have the queens mature? If artificial meth- 

 ods of queen-rearing are used, the larvae in 

 the queen-cells usually develop the disease, 

 even if pure Italian stock is used. Is this 

 a rule or an exception? 



A. Our Mr. Pritchard says that when he 

 was in Virginia he grafted cells in a colony 

 that was quite badly affected with European 

 foul brood, and he succeeded in raising a 

 part of them. As a matter of fact, it is 

 probable that a larva in a queen-cell has an 

 equal chance with any other larva in the 

 hive. There are always some healthy lar- 

 vae, even in the last stages of the disease. 



A. B. C, Illinois. What are the duties of 

 a bee inspector? 



A. A bee inspector- should look over every 

 square inch of comb in a hive during the 

 breeding season. There is no use looking at 

 the outside of the hive or smelling at the 

 entrance, because bee disease of no kind 

 ■can be detected except by opening up the 

 "hive and examining every piece of comb 

 therein. 



There is not much use in going thru a hive 

 after the breeding season or before it, altho 

 one can detect the scales in combs where 

 American foul brood has been present the 

 previous season. 



An ordinary })ee inspector will pot be able 



to cover all the territory. He will not pay 

 so much attention to the hives belonging 

 to the best beekeepers and people who are 

 neat and clean, and who, he has every reason 

 to believe, are watching their own colonies 

 very carefully. It is the small beekeepers, 

 those who do not know bee disease when 

 they see it, those who have had very little 

 experience in the keeping of bees, that are 

 more to be feared than these large producers 

 who would for their own sake keep bee 

 disease well within bounds. 



Wherever queens are reared, every inch 

 of combs should be examined at least once 

 in a season, and it is better twice a season. 

 Whether the queen-breeder is a good one 

 or not, it is very important that he should 

 have nothing but clean healthy stock. 



C. A. S., Ohio. I am puzzled whether 

 to use double or single walled hives. I 

 propose using single-walled hives, and in 

 the fall contracting down to about six or 

 seven frames and placing these frames in 

 a large colony hive which is on the plan of a 

 double-walled hive, but long enough to 

 hold 40 or 50 frames — seven or eight col- 

 onies. Do you think this plan will work 

 if I place light division-boards between 

 them, and have a small bee-entrance for 

 each colony so that on nice days they can 

 fly out? 



Is it possible to place a queen on each 

 side of a hive separated by a division-board 

 which allows the workers to go back and 

 forth but not the queen? Is one inch of 

 packing enough for this climate, where the 

 temperature ranges from 60 to 10 below? 



A. (By Dr. C. C. Miller.) Others have 

 thought of conserving mutual heat by hav- 

 ing a hive wide enough to hold seven or 

 eight colonies for winter, but if any one 

 has made a permanent practice of it I 

 have never heard of it. A serious difficul- 

 ty in carrying out the jilan is that, when 

 the change is made in the fall, many of 

 the bees upon their first flight would not 

 return to their new locations, and there 

 would be the same trouble upon making 

 the change in spring. 



It is possible to have a hive with two 

 queens in it, one on each side of a middle 

 partition with excluder zinc in it allowing 

 workers to pass back and forth freely, yet 

 keeping the queens separate. Years ago 

 a good deal was said about a hive of that 

 kind in use in England, but I think nothing 

 is said about it nowadays. There seemed 

 to be a good deal of trouble with one side 

 or another going quccnless, and no great ad- 

 vantage over a strong colony with a single 

 queen. 



In yoiw climate, with thermometer rang- 

 ing from 60 above to 10 below, an inch of 

 packing may do for outdoor w:intering, 

 but more is likely to be better. 



