552 



GI. EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1917 



c. 



c 



GLEANED 



E. R 



LJTS 



L. W., Illinois. 

 — I learn that 

 some large 

 honey -produc- 

 ers extract before 

 the combs are cap- 

 ped; others say that 

 when two-thirds of 

 the comb surface is 

 capped that it is 

 enoush. Still others 



insist that every cell should be sealed Ijefore ex- 

 tracting. 



A. A great deal depends on the locality 

 and the source of the honey. Buckwheat 

 honey may be fit to extract sometimes when 

 but few of the combs are capped. But it is 

 far safer to err on the side of having half or 

 two-thirds of the comb surface sealed than to 

 extract honey that is too green. Unripe ' 

 honey sent to the market does no little 

 damage, not only to the seller of such prod- 

 uct, but to those selling fully ripened honey. 

 In some localities it is well enough to ex- 

 tract when two-thirds of the combs are cap- 

 ped over. If one waits till every cell is 

 capped he is liable to force swarming, and 

 at the same time may cut down the crop 

 somewhat. 



It should be always borne in mind that 

 unsealed cells may contain fully ripe honey; 

 and in rare instances sealed honey may not 

 always be ripe; but we strongly urge every 

 beginner not to extract until two-thirds of 

 each comb surface is capped over. Better 

 err on the side of having used the uncapping- 

 knife too much than not enough. 



G. L. D., New York. — Will I not secure a better 

 price if I sell my honey on commission than .sell out- 

 right for cash ? 



A. That dei)ends. If the commission house 

 is reliable it can and often does get the 

 beekeeper a larger price than if he sold at 

 the then ca^h price; but if the house is not 

 reliable it may make false returns. We have 

 known of several instances where a commis- 

 sion house has sold extracted, say at ten 

 cents, but made returns on the basis of only 

 eight. Unless a producer can trace his honey 

 to the buyer, he cannot know for what his 

 honey actually sells for. As a general 

 proposition it is safer to sell on an actual 

 cash basis: and among reliable houses the 

 practice is becoming more and more common. 



E. E. F., Wisconsin. — -If I have a bad case of 

 robbinK when a colony is nearly overpowered what 

 shall T do? 



A. In some cases it may be best to let the 

 robbers finish up the job. If the entrance of 

 the robbed colony is closed entirely, the bees 

 inside may be suffocated while the robbers 

 on the outside will pounce on every other 

 colony in the immediate vicinity. The re- 

 sult is that the trouble is scattered all over 

 the apiary. A far better plan is to put a 

 wire-cloth cage over the robbed colony. At 

 intervals of two or- three minutes lift the 

 cage and let the robbers rush in from the 

 outside. In the course of ten or fifteen 

 minutes the robbers will all be trapped in 

 the upper part of the wire cage. These trap- 

 ped bees sliould not b<? released except at an 



BY ASKING 



Root 



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outyard. If they 

 are let out at 

 nightfall they 

 will repeat their 

 work the follow- 

 i n g m o rning. 

 They had better 

 be killed out- 

 right than to be 

 let loose again, 

 especially if one has nuclei or is attempting 

 to raise queens. 



M. M. B., Illinois. — When can one dec iJe that the 

 boney-flow is beginning to wane ? 



A. If the flow is from clover, two-thirds 

 of the clover-heads will be brown, and the 

 rest will show fairly fresh heads. If the 

 bees at the entrance are tugging at the 

 drones at the entrance, showing that they 

 are unw^elcome, and if they show an incli- 

 nation to rob along about the middle hours 

 of the day, it may be surmised that clover 

 is at or near its end. Some fresh rains, how- 

 ever, may i>rolong the season. 



S. E. G.. Pennsylvania. — -What makes my bees so 

 cross immediately after the honey-flow, especially 

 from basswood ? 



A. It may be set down as a rule that bees 

 will be cross immediately following a sud- 

 den stoppage of the flow of honey. It does 

 not make any difference whether it is at the 

 close of the honey-flow or whether a hard 

 summer rain has washed the copious supply 

 of nectar out of the blossoms. In the same 

 way, bees will be cross along about ten 

 'clock after they have been gathering all 

 the honey out of the buckwheat blossoms. 

 They will be fearfully cross when the sun 

 dries the honey-dew or aphid secretion from 

 the leaves of certain shade and forest trees. 

 The dew of the morning softens the saccha- 

 rine matter; and wlien the sun dries it down 

 to a hard varnish the bees will often be very 

 cross. In the same way bees will be very 

 cross after robbing if the sweets they -are 

 robbing be suddenly cut off. 



V. H. B., New York. — Why is it that basswood 

 is so often a failure? 



A. No one knows. It very often happens 

 that when clover is almost a failure basswood 

 will come in strong. As a rule it will be 

 the other way. The same causes that oper- 

 ate to make fruit-trees fail some seasons to 

 yield probably operate on basswoods. In 

 most localities basswoods do not yield more 

 than once in two or three years, and some- 

 times only once in five years. 



E. B. P., Pennsylvania. — I have (Some colonies 

 that are fair, some that are strong, and some that 

 are vi^eak. I wish to produce both comb and ex- 

 tracted honey. How shall I proceed ? 



A. Use strong colonies for the production 

 of comb honey. Those of fair strength may 

 be used for producing extracted, giving them 

 combs as fast as they will take them. Where 

 a weak one. happens to be by the side of a 

 fair one as to strength, the two may be 

 united, moving the united colony to a point 

 midway between where the other two stood. 

 If there is no choice of queens let the bees 



