1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



607 



son why it should not give the same result 

 as that secured by our arrangement. —Ed.] 



ALL IN THE TASTE; IMPORTANCE OF SELLING 



HONEY IN A LOCALITY WHERE THE 



FLAVOR IS KNOWN. 



I should like to give a little experience of 

 mine that corroborates the remarks of Mr. 

 R. A. Burnett, page 491, in regard to giving 

 to each person the kind of honey he has 

 been accustomed to. Last fall I shipped 25 

 cases of honey to Alliance, in the north- 

 western part of our State. They had been 

 accustomed to Colorado honey; and those 

 persons who had known no other, or those 

 who had acquired the taste for Colorado 

 honey, thought my honey very poor. One 

 poor man declared he could not eat it, and 

 said it made his little girl sick. On the oth- 

 er hand, those who had known white-clover 

 honey in the East were delighted with it, 

 one man exclaiming, " That's honey! If I 

 could always get such honey as that I would 

 not mind buying honey." And another one 

 said it made him "think of home." So, I 

 think too that there is much in the kind of 

 honey the particular individual has been ac- 

 customed to. One who has always been 

 used to the white alfalfa honey would natu- 

 rally think the thicker, darker honey adul- 

 terated, while those who have been accus- 

 tomed to the white-clover honey would find 

 the alfalfa insipid, and lacking the qualities 

 that he naturally associates with good hon- 

 ey. G. A. Wetherell. 



Dorchester, Neb., May 11, 1905. 



SUPERSEDURE IN COLD WEATHER. 



In Gleanings, page 318, March 15, was 

 an article which I sent you about " Super- 

 sedure in January." One warm day I look- 

 ed in the colony in which I found the dead 

 virgins, and found two cells that had not 

 hatched because of the contraction of the 

 cluster when another cold spell came on. 

 There were also three cells that had hatch- 

 ed. The old queen was on the bottom-board 

 at the back part of the hive. The young 

 queen that was victorious was there and 

 alive, though dark, showing, I think, she was 

 reared in cold weather. There were no eggs 

 in the hive, which proved that she was not 

 mated. I found one or two drones in the hive 

 also. The colony is of fair size, and in a ten- 

 frame hive. I have taken particular pains to 

 watch this colony on warm still days to see 

 when the young queen comes out. I am 

 certain that this colony superseded its queen 

 in January. H. A. Ross. 



Evansville, Ind., March 22. 



[It is not possible, as I explained on page 

 318. March 15, that your queen was super- 

 seded in midwinter. All the conditions go 

 to show that she died, or was superseded in 

 the regular way in the fall, but not so late 

 but there were eggs or young larvae from 

 which the bees could rear queens. It is not 

 an uncommon thing for virgins to be hatch- 

 ed out so late in the fall that they live until 



the following spring; but if they go on that 

 long without fertilization they will either 

 disappear or turn out to be drone- layers in 

 the spring. —Ed.] 



HONEY ACTUALLY TOO THICK TO EXTRACT; 



conditions DIFFERENT FROM THOSE 



IN AMERICA. 



We have at times and at certain seasons 

 much trouble in extracting honey. It seems 

 too thick and sticky, and won't come away 

 from the combs without breaking them. I 

 think our principal honey-producing plant 

 (titree) is the cause of this. The honey 

 from it has a splendid flavor, but seems too 

 thick, as I have already said. I thought 

 you might suggest some plan of steaming 

 the combs and honey before extracting, or 

 something of the kind to do away with this 

 great trouble. We don't seem to be able to 

 remedy it here. I thought some of the hon- 

 ey-producing plants in your locality might 

 have the same disadvantage, and that, per- 

 haps, some of your folks have had experi- 

 ence with the same. R. S. Douglas. 



Fairview, New Zealand, Feb. 16. 



[So far as I know, there is no honey so 

 thick in this country but that it can be ex- 

 tracted in a warm room— that is, in a tem- 

 perature of 70 or 80 degrees; but the cele- 

 brated heather honey of England and Scot- 

 land is said to be so thick that it can not be 

 extracted. It is, therefore, left in the comb 

 or sold in bulk. In your case I would advise 

 putting up the honey the same as the bee- 

 keepers in Texas do, and sell it as " bulk " 

 or "chunk " honey in tin pails, or even in 

 square tin cans with large screw caps. This 

 is the common mode of disposing of a great 

 deal of honey in Texas, and there is no rea- 

 son you could not pursue the same plan to 

 advantage. Indeed, I do not know what 

 else you can do unless you run exclusively 

 for comb honey in sections. —Ed.] 



DEEP ENTRANCES FOR CELLAR WINTERING. 



Please tell me the objections to a g-inch 

 entrance for both winter and summer. 



I placed my bees out the 25th of March 

 for a fly— the first since Oct. 20, and all came 

 through in very good condition. Two out of 

 sixty died of starvation, with entrances |- 

 inch deep, and sealed covers. I intend win- 

 tering in the cellar with deep space below 

 the frames, for I think it very important. 



Bobcaygeon, Ont. J. D. Olver. 



[The i entrance would be too large in the 

 spring and fall, and altogether too large if 

 the colony wintered outdoors. The large 

 opening should be used only during the hot- 

 test part of the summer when honey is com- 

 ing in freely, and the bees need plenty of 

 flight room, or we may say elbow room, to 

 go in and out of the hive. Nor is this all. 

 The wide doorway makes it easier to keep 

 the hive cool, thus permitting all the bees 

 to be doing some useful work both in and 

 out of the hive, when with a small entrance 

 half of them might be loafing. But when 



