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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1922 



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GLEANED 



Geo. S. 



QUESTION. 

 — I have a 

 market f o r 

 more chunk 

 honey than I can 

 produce. Would it 

 be all right to buy 

 some extracted 

 honey to feed back 

 to the bees in or- 

 der to be able to 

 produce more chunk honey? 



Illinois. Frank Van Hooveheke. 



Answer. — -Feeding back extracted honey 

 to produce chunk honey or comb honey is 

 difficult to accomplish at a profit. When 

 everything is just right the bees will some- 

 times store from two-thirds to three-fourths 

 as many pounds as you feed them, but when 

 things are not exactly right they will some- 

 times store only one pound for every two 

 pounds fed. There is a great difference in 

 colonies in this respect and weather con- 

 ditions have much to do with this. Former- 

 ly many comb-honey producers practiced 

 feeding back extracted honey to cause the 

 bees to finish the sections that were unfin- 

 ished at the close of the honey flow, but this 

 practice has been given up by most pro- 

 ducers on account of the losses which came 

 about and the inferior product resulting 

 from feeding. When honey is fed back in 

 this way, the comb honey thus produced 

 usually granulates early in the season. Per- 

 haps you can purchase chunk honey from 

 some other beekeeper to supply your trade. 

 If so, you will find this much more satis- 

 factory than to try to produce it by feeding 

 back. 



Honey from Corn. 



Question. — Do bees commonly put corn honey 

 • into sections which are left on a few days too 

 long? Is not corn honey a very dark or sooty- 

 colored honey? Arthur S. Hill. 



Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — Corn is not a nectar-bearing 

 plant. It is wind-pollinated, i. e., the pol- 

 len that fertilizes the corn is carried by the 

 wind instead of by insects. Wind-pollinated 

 plants usually are not nectar-bearing. The 

 dark honey which the bees stored at the 

 close of the season must have been gath- 

 ered from some other source. It may not 

 have been floral honey at all but honeydew, 

 in which case, of course, it would be gath- 

 ered from whatever plant the aphis which 

 produces it lives on. 



Bees Do Not Cap the Honey. 



Question.- — -Why does one of my colonies fail 

 to cap its honey, while the others cap theirs ? 



Pennsylvania. Edwards McCluro. 



Answer. — There are several conditions un- 

 der which the bees hold open the colls after 

 they have been filled with honey. (1) When 

 combs are very tliick so that the cells are 

 quite deep, the ripening process is slower 

 than in combs having shallower cells, and, 

 since the bees do not seal the honey until 

 it lias been ripened, tlie combs having deeper 

 cells are sealed later than those having shal- 

 low cells. (2) During a good honey flow, if 

 tlic bees become crowded for room, they are 



BY ASKING 



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inclined to hold 

 the cells open 

 even after the 

 honey is ripen- 

 e d, apparently 

 for the purpose 

 of crowding in a 

 little more hon- 

 ey by further 

 ripening. In such 

 cases, giving an additional super usually re- 

 sults in the honey being sealed promptly as 

 soon as work is begun in the new super. (3) 

 If there is an opening in the super, the bees 

 usually fail to seal the honey near the open- 

 ing. For this reason it is not practical to 

 have ventilators in comb-honey supers as 

 some do in extracting-supers. (4) At the 

 close of the season the bees usually leave 

 some of the latest-stored honey unsealed. 

 There is no way known to induce them to 

 seal the last few pounds they store. 



Looking Through the Hives for Moth Larvae. 



Question. — Is it necessary for me to look 

 through the hives for moth larvae? I found two 

 of these inside of one of the covers. 



New Jersey. Ruth French. 



Answer. — No. Let the bees do the work 

 of looking for moth larvae and carrying 

 them out if any get into the hive. Strong 

 colonies of Italian bees are able to defend 

 themselves against the larvae of the wax 

 motli. If you should find any moth larvae 

 in the combs within the hive, this would 

 indicate that there is something wrong 

 with the colony (especially if Italians), 

 such as queenlessness or one of the brood 

 diseases, which has caused it to become 

 weak. 



Velvet Bean as a Honey Plant. 



Question.- — Is the velvet bean a good honey 

 plant? I can. find nectar in the flowers but have 

 never seen any bees working on them. 



Alabama. J. M. Sturtevant. 



Answer. — The velvet bean is reported as 

 a good honey plant where it is grown in suf- 

 ficient quantities. The fact that nectar was 

 visible in the flowers indicates that it was 

 yielding freely at the time. The bees must 

 have been finding plenty of nectar elsewhere 

 since none were seen working on the flow- 

 ers. Sometimes during a heavy honey flow 

 the bees seen working on the flowers are not 

 .so numerous as one would expect, but when 

 the honey flow slackens the bees appear on 

 the flowers in greater numbers. This is 

 probably because the bees spend but little 

 time in gathering a load of nectar when it 

 is abundant, visiting fewer flowers, while 

 many flowers must be visited to obtain a 

 load when nectar is scarce, making it neces- 

 sary for the bees to spend more time search- 

 ing. 



Treatment for Foul Brood. 



Question. — Please give instructions for getting 

 rid of foul brood. Is it necessary to destroy all 

 the combs and honey, too? U. R. Gentzell. 



Pdnnsylvania. 



Answer. — If you refer to American foul 

 brood it is necessary to destroy the combs, 

 but the honey can be saved if desired and 



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