c 



574 



QUESTION. 

 — What size 

 would y o u 

 advise me to 

 build a cellar to 

 hold 125 colonies 

 of bees in Jumlio 

 hives? 



A. K. Karsburg. 

 Minnesota. 



Answer. — In 

 computing the size of the cellar to ac- 

 commodate a given number of colonies a 

 good rule is to allow two square feet of 

 floor space for each colony. According to 

 this rule a cellar that is to contain 125 colo- 

 nies should have about 250 square feet of 

 floor space, or, in other words, should be 

 about 10 X 25 or 12 x 20 feet, inside meas- 

 urement. Of course, a larger number of 

 colonies can be put into a cellar of this size- 

 Some beekeepers winter successfully by al- 

 lowing but one and one-half square feet of 

 floor space for each colony, or even less- but 

 it is better to build the cellar too large in- 

 stead of too small. 



TWO COLONIES IN EACH HIVE FOB CELLAK. 



Question. — My bee-yard has increased to 78 colo- 

 nies, too many to go into my small cellar. Would 

 it be well to put two colonies in each modified Da- 

 dant hive with a thin partition between, so that I 

 would need only the room of HS hives in the cellar? 



Ohio. C. J. Appeldoorn. 



Answer. — Yes, you can do this if your cel- 

 lar does not get too warm. The bees will 

 probably winter better than where there is 

 but a single colony in each large hive if the 



GLEANINGS IN R E K C U L T U R E 



GLEANED BY ASKING 



Geo. S. Demuth 



3 



September, 1921 



by submerging 

 the bottles in 

 hot water is the 

 ]ilan usually 

 used when only 

 n small lot is to 

 1.0 bottled- The 

 latter plan is 

 useful also when 

 r e 1 i q uef ying 

 honey that has granulated while standing 

 on the grocers' shelves. \Vhen using tliis 

 plan the bottles should rest upon a screen 

 a half inch or more from the bottom of the 

 tank, to permit a free circulation of water 

 under them. 



MAINTAINING PURITV OF ITALIANS. 



Question. — How can I keep pure Italians when 

 I have but one colony and there are black bees in 

 another apiary only 40 rods away and wild bees in 

 the woods? J. E. Steen. 



Ohio. 



Answer. — The only sure way to prevent 

 >our bees from becoming hybrids is to pur- 

 chase a purely mated Italian queen from some 

 reliable queen-breeder about every two years 

 to supersede tlie old queen, for if bees are 

 permitted to supersede their own queen, or 

 if they rear young queens in swarming, the 

 young queen will probably be mismated 

 since there are no other colonies of Italians 

 near you. 



LABELING HONEY PRODUCED BY ANOTHER. 



Question. — My honey labels read "Guaranteed 

 Pure. From Vreeland Apiaries." Can I buy honey 

 in 60-lb. tins after mv own crop is sold, put it up 



temperature of your cellar is inclined to in small packages, and use the same label, or must 



run too low, as most cellars do during se- I ^ate expressly that the honey was put up and 



vere winters. The greatest objection to ""* produced by myself? Everett E. Vreeland. 

 this plan is the labor and the disturbance 



involved in transferring the bees to the 

 double hives in the fall, and back into sin- 

 gle hives again in the spring. 



CRACKING NOISE IN SUPERS. 



Question. — What is the cracking noise that one 

 hears in a super when the cover is removed? 



Michigan. Norman Shaw. 



Answer- — You probably heard the bees 

 gnawing the edges of the wood of the new 

 sections or separators if in comb-honey su- 

 pers. The same kind of noise can be heard 

 when frames of foundation are given in ex- 

 tracting-supers. 



PREVENTING GRANULATION IN BOTTLED HONEY. 



Question. — If honey is slightly heated immedi- 

 ately after being extracted, then run into heated 

 glass ,iars and sealed, is it likely to granulate? 

 Could the jars be filled as the honey is extracted, 

 then later put into warm water for a certain time 

 before seahng tight to prevent granulation? 



New York. Raymond Jenkins. 



Answer. — Either plan will retard granula- 

 tion, but the honey should be heated to 

 about 150 degrees F. (never higher than 160 

 degrees F.), then sealed while hot to pre- 

 vent granulation long enough for the re- 

 quirements of the ordinary retail trade at 

 the grocery- Heating the honey in a large 

 tank before bottling is the plan usually 

 used when a large quantity of honey is to 

 be bottled, and heating it after it is bottled 



pr( 



Massachusetts. 



Answer. — The words ' ' From Vreeland 

 Apiaries" should be omitted from the labels 

 used on honey which was not produced in 

 your apiaries, since otherwise your labels 

 would be misleading- It is not necessary to 

 state on the label where the honey was pro- 

 duced. You can use the words ' ' Put Up 

 By," "Packed By," or simply use your 

 own name after the word ' ' (^iuaranteed 

 Pure. ' ' 



CELLAR TEMPERATURE TOO LOW AND VARIABLE. 



Question. — I have a bee-cellar 12 x 16 and four 

 feet in the ground, with concrete walls six feet 

 high, thus extending two feet above the ground. 

 Last winter the temperature would go as low as 32 

 degrees and sometimes as high as 3S degrees, but 

 no higher. What can I do to make my cellar of 

 a more uniform temperature of at least 40 degrees 

 to 45 degrees? .Tames Dearmin. 



Minnesota. 



Answer. — You can raise the temperature 

 of your cellar and make it more nearly uni- 

 form by filling in with earth to the top of 

 the wall on the outside- During the winter 

 it may be necessary to pack straw against 

 the lower part of the outside of the build- 

 ing, so that the wall is completely covered 

 with two feet or more of straw. An expo- 

 sure of two feet of wall above the ground 

 would make a very poor bee-cellar, for it 

 would be influenced too much bv outside 



