134 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1917 



these on the first thiii;^ in the fall rather 

 than bother with the tarred paper in the 

 meantime. 



3. We would advise introducing a queen 

 as soon as the nucleus is formed. There 

 would be no advantage in waiting twelve 

 hours. 



G. A. C, Massachusetts. — Does a winter freeze 

 kill all the eggs and larva of the bee-moth ? 



A. Yes. Sometimes, however, combs in a 

 building are not subjected to a freezing 

 temperature. If there is a stove in the 

 house, or if the walls are double, it may not 

 be cold enough to kill the eggs and larvae. 

 However, there will be no hatching of eggs 

 nor development of the larvae during the 

 cool part of the year. In the South, how- 

 ever, the bee-moth and its larvae can do 

 much damage, because there is no freezing 

 to kill them. 



S. C. F., Indiana. — What makes a colony cross 

 at certain times and gentle at others? 



A. Weather conditions and the manner of 

 handling the bees have everything to do 

 with it. Bees are apt to be crosser when 

 the atmosphere is chilly or immediately fol- 

 lowing a rain. But the gentlest colonies will 

 sometimes become very cross after a sudden 

 stoppage of the honey-flow, due either to 

 honey-dew drying up, to rain, or to a sudden 

 drop in the temperature when the nectar 

 has slacked up. Colonies in the buckwheat 

 regions, when the flow stops in the middle 

 of the day, are crosser than when they are 

 working on white clover at a time when the 

 flow is light but continuous from morning to 

 night. 



Bees are often cross when working on 

 honey-dew. The saccharine deposit from the 

 aphides on the leaves of certain trees will 

 be gathered by the bees during the morning 

 hours. Along about ten o 'clock, and from 

 then on, this deposit either dries up or is 

 taken wholly by the bees. The result is a 

 sudden stoppage in the supply. This sudden 

 stoppage always makes the bees cross. Bees 

 that are robbing are not necessarily cross 

 until their supply is shut off. Then mischief 

 follows. 



C. L., Altoona, Pa. — I have noticed that on sunny 

 days my hees will come out on the snow only to 

 freeze. I have my hives well protected from the 

 cold winds by corn stover, but not in front. Would 

 you advise me to put a fine-mesh screen (mosquito 

 netting) in front of the opening of the hive to pre- 

 vent them from coming out? 



In the spring of 1914 I received a hive from a 

 friend. I now have four hives, but I noticed they 

 were quite restless last May, and swarmed consider- 

 ably. I examined the hive to ascertain the cause, 

 and found several cocoons of queens which I cut 

 out. Did I do right? Do you think that I should 

 obtain a new queen this spring to improve the stock? 



A. It sometimes happens, when weather 

 conditions are right, atmosphere warm, and 

 snow on the ground, that the bees will fly 

 out in large numbers; many of them will 

 fall on the snow, and chill, never to rise 

 again. If the snow is only a thin coating, 

 melts away, and it is followed by another 



warm day, these chilled bees will rise again 

 and go into the hive; but when they fall 

 on snow that is deep they will die. 



The bees referred to had evidently started 

 queon-cells; and as long as these were in the 

 hive they would continue to swarm as the 

 young queens prepared to emerge. You did 

 right in cutting the cells out. It would be 

 safer for you to get a queen of good stock 

 rather than depend upon what might be rais- 

 ed in the hive. 



T. O. S., Missouri. — Is it safe to use combs in 

 which no brood has been reared, but which have 

 been in a super over a colony that has had American 

 foul brood? 



A. While in most cases perhaps such 

 combs would not impart the disease there 

 is always danger of it. The only safe thing 

 to do is to melt up every comb that has 

 been in contact with bees that have had 

 American foul brood. Combs that have been 

 in a hive having European foul brood may 

 be used over again, providing the disease 

 has not gone too far, an " providing that the 

 beekeeper himself uses ordinary precaution. 



J. A. S., Michigan. — Is the ordinary house cellar 

 a good place to winter bees ? 



A. That depends. When the temperature 

 goes below 40 and at other times goef as 

 high as 60 to 65, it is a very poor p.uce. 

 Except for a few hours or a day or so the 

 temperature should never go below 40 nor 

 much above 60. If higher than the latter 

 point, there should be a large amount of 

 ventilation. If the winters are more or less 

 open so that the bees can fly about every 

 week or so during winter, it would be better 

 to discard the cellar and winter bees out- 

 doors in double-walled hives or packing- 

 cases. 



T. O. C, Tennessee. — What makes wax become 

 dark during the process of rendering? 



A. Wax from old combs will be darker 

 than that from new combs. When combs 

 are melted up in a galvanized receptacle 

 they will be darker than if melted in one 

 lined with tin. Wax that is kept hot in a 

 metal container for a long time will become 

 dark, and it is, therefore, desirable not 

 to keep it in a melted condition longer than 

 necessary. Hard water has a tendency to 

 darken wax more than soft. Wax should not 

 be heated more than twice — first, in render- 

 ing it; second, in putting it in cake form 

 suitable for market. Every time wax is 

 heated it is darkened slightly. 



R. A. T., New York. — I am a producer of comb 

 honey. I am well equipped with a complete set of 

 fixtures. I have had a fairly good demand for all I 

 could produce. Would you advise me, in view of the 

 strong demand for extracted honey and the sluggish 

 demand for comb honey, to run for extracted next 

 year ? 



A. We would produce more extracted 

 honey. It would be a mistake to drop comb 

 entirely, because a large number the coming 

 season will run for extracted because the 

 price of it is approaching more nearly the 

 price of honey in the comb. 



