August, 1917 



G L ]-: A N I N G S IN BEE CULTURE 



either from the fields or from sources where 

 the bees are robbing, will invariably make 

 them cross. Bees are apt to be cross when 

 buckwheat stops in the middle hours of the 

 day; cross when the noetar has been washed 

 out of the blossoms; cross on a cool or chilly 

 (lay; cross when the basswood flow suddenly 

 gives out; cross right after a rain when the 

 nectar has been washed out of the blossoms; 

 cross on a cool or chilly day following a day 

 of warm sunshine when plenty of nectar was 

 coming in. A cool atmosphere is apt to 

 check the supply of nectar. 



W. C. F., Michigan. — How much Iioncy doos it 

 take to make a pound of wax? 



A. Experiments show that it requires 

 anywhere from 5 to 20 pounds of honey to 

 make a pound of wax. The latter figure is 

 altogether too high, and the first one is 

 probably too low. Seven or eight pounds 

 would be, perhaps, a fair average. The bees 

 consume the honey; and when they eat 

 lavishly the wax is secreted in the form of 

 thin scales on the under side of the bee's 

 body. It has not been definitely decided 

 whether the secretion of these scales is in- 

 voluntary or not; but whether voluntary or 

 otherwise, they are doubtless used at the 

 time of the year when they are secreted in 

 comb-building. 



G. C. C, Connecticut. — I find that some of my 

 baby nuclei are robbing from each other. For in- 

 stance, one nucleus will be brought to the verge of 

 starvation, and the other one will have an abundance 

 of stores so that there will hardly be room for the 

 queen to lay. It does not seem to be e.\actly like 

 robbing, but what it is I do not know. 



A. In the A B C and X Y Z of Bee Cul- 

 ture you will see mention made of what is 

 called "borrowing." It is in reality steal- 

 ing. Sometimes the bees of one hive will go 

 into another one without any resistance on 

 the part of the other bees, fill up with 

 stores, and carry it to their hives. There is 

 no fighting, but just a sort of peaceful 

 transfer of stores from one hive to the other. 

 Sometimes some seasons this quiet way of 

 robbing, stealing, or bori-owing is very 

 troublesome among a lot of baby nuclei; and 

 it is not confined entirely to the very small 

 clusters of bees. 



J. L. P., Pennsylvania. — I have read somewhere 

 that feeding e.xtracted honey to fill out unfinished 

 sections can be practiced to advantage. Would you 

 advise me to feed back at the close of the season? 



A. At the present price of extracted 

 honey it probably would be moTe advan- 

 tageous to extract the honey in sections, and 

 hold the drawn-out combs till the following 

 season. But if your market shows that comb 

 honey will sell for about twice the price of 

 extracted you will be warranted in feeding 

 back to a certain extent. To do this work 

 it should be taken up right after the main 

 honey-flow. Use white honey the day it is 

 extracted, thinned down, by adding about 

 25 per cent water by bulk. Very thick honey 

 may need a little more. 



Some colonies are much better in finishing: 



sections than others and you will have to 

 select those that do the best work. The 

 brood-chamber must be contracted so that 

 the queen will keep every comb filled with 

 brood, as otherwise a great deal of fed-back 

 honey will go into the brood-nest. The 

 thinned-down honey should be given just be- 

 fore sundown to avoid too much uproar in 

 the apiary. Not more than two supers of 

 sections should be on a colony at a time. As 

 soon as the top super is full it should be re- 

 moved and a fresh super placed next to the 

 brood-chamber. 



It is always well to remember that fed- 

 back honey always granulates quickly. It 

 should, therefore, be sold where it will be 

 consumed at once. It should never be sent 

 to a distant market. 



J. E. B., New York. — We do not hear so much 

 about the smoke method of introducing now. Has 

 it gone out of vogue? 



A. Generally speaking, we recommend 

 the cage method; but in the hands of an 

 expert the smoke method has the advantage 

 that queens are introduced at once; and in 

 the case of virgins, three or four days old it 

 is the only method that can be employed 

 successfully at times. For particulars re- 

 garding this plan see ' ' Introducing, ' ' in the 

 ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture. 

 % 



L. H. W., Ohio. — This has been a year of ex- 

 cessive rains, chilly and backward weather, but 

 white clover is very abundant. It has been in 

 bloom since the last of June; and at this date, July 

 16, it looks as if it might last till autumn. I should 

 like to know if white clover will continue to bloom 

 as long as it continues tO' rain almost every day. 



A. Yes and no. During a season like this 

 one, white clover is cropped down by mowing 

 or by feeding in a pasture. But usually 

 clover does not yield much after the middle 

 of July, altho it will probably do so this 

 year, as the season is anywhere from a 

 month to six weeks late. 



M. B. L., Indiana. — Do ordinary honeybees get 

 honey from red clover ? 



A. Eed clover will yield more honey dur- 

 ing a dry season than during a wet one. The 

 reason for this is that the drouth stops the 

 growth of the flower-tubes so that they are 

 shorter. We remember distinctly one season 

 our bees at the Harrington yard were getting 

 considerable red-clover honey, while those at 

 the north yard, also in the vicinity of red 

 clover, were doing nothing. There had been 

 some local showers at the north yard, but 

 none at the Harrington yard. The result 

 was that the growth of red clover was stunt- 

 ed at the Harrington yard. All Italian 

 honey-bees will gather nectar from a second 

 growth. 



Some seasons red clover would be the 

 most valuable honey-plant we have, provided 

 we could lengthen the tongues of the bees or 

 else shorten the flower-tubes. Not very 

 much advance has been made either way, 

 altho we have had bees with tongues at least 

 a half longer than the average. 



