644 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



OCTOfeER. 1921 



c 



GLEANED 



Geo. S. 



LJf 



QUESTION. 

 — Is the skin 

 of peaches 

 o r i g i 11 a lly 

 broken or punc- 

 tured by some 

 other agency when 

 bees work on them ? 

 D. A. Moran. 

 Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — Yes. 

 The bees are unable to puncture the skin 

 of sound fruit but work on it only after the 

 skin has been punctured by some other agent 

 or becomes broken because of being over- 

 ripe or because of some fungus disease. 



WINTERING DISE.^SED COLONIES. 



Question. — Would you advise treating colonies 

 having American foul brood this fall or would they 

 probably last until another honey flow? 



Kentucky. Thomas Kennedy. 



Answer. — By all means the colonies should 

 be treated this fall. Disease is spread about 

 every year by attempting to winter colonies 

 having American foul brood. If the colony 

 has been greatly weakened it is almost sure 

 to die, and the bees from other colonies 

 rob out the honey that remains, thus car- 

 rying the infection to other colonies. If 

 you have some combs filled with honey you 

 can treat diseased colonies, after brood-rear- 

 ing has ceased, by shaking them from their 

 combs into an empty hive, leaving them a 

 few hours, and then giving the combs filled 

 with honey. The combs from which the 

 bees were shaken should, of course, be de- 

 stroyed as soon as free of bees. 



TRANSFERRING IN THE FALb. 



Question. — Is it too late to transfer a colony of 

 bees from a prostrate tree trunk to a hive? 



New York. Charles E. Robbins. 



Answer. — You can transfer the bees even 

 this late provided you have combs of honey 

 on which to hive the bees when j'ou take 

 them out of the log. It will be better, how- 

 ever, to leave the bees in the log until spring 

 before transferring. You can saw off that 

 portion of the log which contains the col- 

 ony and take it home for winter. 



BLEACHING TRAVEL-STAINED COMB HONEY. 



Question. — How can I bleach travel-stained comb 

 honey so it will be white? Mrs. A. K. Bradley. 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — You can improve the appear- 

 ance of travel-stained honey by placing the 

 sections in a window in direct sunlight for 

 several days, but the stains cannot be 

 bleached out completely. Some travel-stain 

 will bleach but little even when exposed to 

 the sun for a long time. 



WRAPPING HIVES IN BUILDING PAPER FOR WINTER. 



Question. — Will a good grade of roofing paper 

 wrapped around the hives give ample protection 

 for winter? T. J. Hughs. 



Texas. 



Answer. — Koofing paper wrapped around 

 the hives without any packing material be- 

 tween does not add materially to the thick- 

 ness of the hive walls and therefore cannot 

 be of much value in preventing the escape 

 of heat thru the walls of the hive. If there 



BY ASKING 



Demuth 



1 



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are c rack s in 

 the hive or be- 

 tween the cover 

 and the hive- 

 body that are 

 not filled with 

 propolis, the pa- 

 per would, no 

 doubt, be of 

 considerable ben- 

 efit in preventing the escape of warm air 

 thru the cracks; but, if the cracks are well 

 filled with propolis, the paper would be of 

 no benefit in this respect. The greatest in- 

 fluence the building paper can have is thru 

 its color. The black paper would absorb 

 more heat from the sun than the surface of 

 a hive painted white. While this may be 

 beneficial in some cases, a violent warming 

 up of the hive every day the sun shines, 

 may cause the bees to be too active. It 

 would be better to put packing material be- 

 tween the paper and the hive. 



HONEY STORED JUST BEFORE COLONY BECOMES 

 DISEASED. 



Question. — I have a super full of honey that 

 was stored and sealed before the colony contracted 

 American foul brood. It is still on the hive but 

 separated from the brood-chamber by two shallow 

 extracting supers. I need this honey for stores. 

 Will I run a great risk by using it? 



Ohio. Dorothy Lewis. 



Answer. — It would not be at all safe to 

 use this hoiiej' to supply stores for your 

 other colonies. No doubt this disease was 

 present in the hive for some time before you 

 discovered it, and there may be plenty of 

 spores of this disease in the honey now 

 stored in the super. 



WINTERING IN TWO STORIES. 



Question. — Will it be all right to pack my bees 

 just as they are with a full-length super of honey on 

 top and leave them packed until late next spring to 

 save labor? N. H. Wilson. 



Vermont. 



Answer. — You will, no doubt, be pleased 

 with the results of wintering your bees in 

 two stories provided you give them suffici- 

 ent protection. The only objection to this 

 plan is that of the increased amount of 

 room in the hive during the winter, but you 

 can overcome this to some extent by in- 

 creasing the thickness of the packing. When 

 colonies are prepared for winter in this man- 

 ner they should need no further attention 

 until just before your main honey flow next 

 season. 



QUBENLESS COLONIES FOR WINTER. 



Question. — What can I do with a colony that 

 has been queenless all summer? It seems to have 

 lots of be«s. Jennie Ballinger. 



Ohio. 



Answer. — If the colony has been queenless 

 all summer there is nothing you can do now 

 to make a good colony out of it, because 

 the bees are all too old to survive the win- 

 ter and it is now too late for them to rear 

 enough bees to make a winter colony, even 

 if you were to give them a laying queen. 

 Are you quite sure that this colony is queen- 

 less? Or are you assuming that they are 



