860 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



H. 



C 



GLEANED by ASKING 



E. R. Root 



LJT 



S., Ohio. — I 



have a lot of 



unfini shed 



s e c t i o n s 

 from goldenrod. If 

 I put these under 

 the brood - chamber 

 will the bees take 

 out the honey and 

 carry it up? or 

 would it be better 



for me to put them on top of ' the brood-chamber 

 next spring? If the bees take the honey out of 

 the sections, would they be travel-stained? 



A. We would not advise putting the sec- 

 tions under the brood-nest at this time of 

 the year. Put on an upper story; place the 

 unfinished sections, if the colony is short of 

 stores, on top of the brood-nest. Over the 

 whole, place a burlap or carpet, and then 

 pour in packing material. If the colonies 

 are well supplied with stores in the brood- 

 nests we would not advise giving the sections 

 this winter, but wait till next spring, at 

 which time they may be given in the manner 

 explained. We would not advise disturbing 

 the brood-nest or colonies at this time of the 

 year if they have sufficient stores to carry 

 them thru to next spring. The sections 

 might be soiled some if put on the hive as 

 explained but not badly. 



V. C. P., Illinois. — Kindly advise me in regard 

 to the best method to use in the manufacture of 

 honey vinegar. I am advised that vinegar made 

 of a solution of rainwater and honey is superior in 

 quality to other kinds. At what degree of concentra- 

 tion should I have the solution? I have access to a 

 commercial hydrometer for testing the specific gravity 

 of liquids heavier than water. 



A. It is true that vinegar made of honey 

 is superior to any other article on the mar- 

 ket, even cider vinegar. The one difficulty, 

 however, is that the honey vinegar costs 

 more than cider vinegar; but it is enough 

 better to warrant the extra price. How- 

 ever, a great many beekeepers will have 

 considerable honey washings from utensils, 

 especially during extracting. These wash- 

 ings can be set aside and converted into 

 vinegar. Enough water must be added to 

 the honey so that the liquid when thoroly 

 stirred will just support a fresh egg, leav- 

 ing a portion of the eggshell sticking abave 

 the water by about the size of a ten-cent 

 piece. This was the rule given by Mr. E. 

 France. Others who use the ordinary hy- 

 drometer say that the scale should register 

 at about 11. This liquid should, of course, 

 be kept in a warm room to hasten the action. 



J. M. C, Alabama.- — I wish some one would tell 

 us how to keep bees from robbing feed-troughs where 

 people are feeding velvet-bean meal. The bees run 

 the cows out and take possession — also try to take 

 possession of the mill where they grind the beans. 

 The miller has to use smoke before he can measure 

 up the meal. 



A. There is really nothing that can be 

 done except to see that the bees are liberally 

 supplied with natural pollen in the combs the 

 fall previous. A ' ' counter - attraction ' ' 

 may" help somewhat; but by the time the 

 bees get started on meal fed out by the bee- 



1 



TU 



NOVKMBES, 1917 



keeper they will 

 find natural pol- 

 len, which they 

 much prefer, and 

 ignore both the 

 feed-troughs and 

 the counter - at- 

 traction. Where 

 the bees have 

 given trouble in the past, it would be well 

 for the local beekeeper to have rye meal 

 exposed under sheds, where the sunshine can 

 get at it, and where they will find it before 

 they will go to the feed-troughs on a neigh- 

 boT's farm. The trouble will last for but 

 a short time, and the beekeeper would do 

 well to sweeten up the neighbors with a 

 dozen or so sections of honey or a gallon 

 or two of extracted. Above all things, the 

 beekeeper should see his neighbors and 

 sweeten them up before the bees get to 

 working in the feed-troughs if the trouble 

 has occurred before. 



A. L. B., Indiana. — I once had bees cluster in a 

 funnel shape in the super where there was no honey. 

 The small end of the cluster reached down into the 

 brood-chamber where there was honey. They were 

 in this position several weeks in cold weather. How 

 did the big end of the cluster get honey to live on ? 



When a colony forms three clusters between four 

 comLs, has the middle cluster any better chance to 

 pull thru a cold spell than the outside clusters? 



Sometimes there is a little cluster of live, dead, 

 or dying bees entirely away from the main cluster. 

 Why those little clusters? 



I have a full-depth super full of extracting-combs 

 on an American-foul-brood hive with queen-excluder 

 between. Is it safe to use the extracting-frames 

 and super this season without treatment? 



A. When bees cluster, the same bees do 

 not remain in the same part of the cluster 

 very long. If you watch closely you will 

 find that there is a constant changing, the 

 outside bees getting to the inside and the 

 inside bees to the outside. If the weather 

 happens to be very cold, and the cluster is 

 spread out considerably, some parts of it 

 may be cut off from the main part. This 

 accounts for a few bees found in a starving 

 or chilled condition off at one side. 



Under ordinary circumstances the bees 

 when clustered on combs are so compact that 

 they are practically one solid mass. The 

 bees enter the cells and thus conserve the 

 animal heat. There is a slow and almost 

 imperceptible changing of bees, even when 

 compactly clustered, and for this reason all 

 of them stand about the same chance. 



You run great risk in using extracting- 

 combs over a colony diseased with American 

 foul brood, for these combs may contain a 

 little honey. Furthermore, there may be 

 some dried scales of dead brood reared in 

 the combs before the excluder was put on. 

 Our advice is, not to use any such combs. It 

 is not safe. 



It would not be safe to use the brood- 

 combs from the lower story at any time. It 

 is always safer to melt those up in case of 

 American foul brood. Then scald the frames 



