120 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



BY S. V. VEEDER. 



What is the best material to fasten 

 comb foundation in sections so that it 

 will hold the best? 



Please have this answered in "Qnes- 

 tions and Answers" of "American Api- 

 culturist" by your correspondents. 



Pattersonville, iV. Y. 



Ans. See " Apiculturist" for April, 

 page 89. 



BY CAUPENTER AND NELSON. 



We reserved some three pounds of 

 honey from our last year's crop which 

 has been in the warehouse since last 

 summer with only a piece of cloth over 

 the bung. We find on examination 

 that it has candied but still continues 

 to ferment and run out of the barrel. 

 Can you assign any cause for it and 

 suggest any remedy ? 



.Eldorado, Florida. 



ANSWER BY L. C. ROOT. 



If honey is extracted when first 

 Stored in the comb before being at least 

 partially cured, and phiced in a wooden 

 cask or vat which has not been first 

 coated with wax it will often ferment. 

 Another cause of fermentation is when 

 honey is placed in casks that have been 

 used for the same purpose previously 

 and have not been thoroughly cleansed 

 and recoated with was. If held in tin 

 cans until well cured, I have never 

 beeu troubled with fermentation. 



BY A BEGINNER. 



1. What is the best way to take off 

 surplus honey? 



2. Can swarming be prevented and 

 how? 



3. Would you advise the use of Al- 

 ley's queen-trap on all hives or would 

 it be as well on each alternate hive or 

 not at all? 



4. Is the reversible hive going to 

 revolutionize beekeeping? 



By answering the above you will 

 oblige. 



ANSWERS BY "OLD BKEKKEPER." 



1. If the honey is stored in sections 

 and a section-rack used, we would ad- 

 vise one to blow a little smoke in at 

 the entrance and then over the top of 

 the sections to drive the bees out of 

 them as much as possible ; then raise 

 the section-case and direct the smoke 

 under and immediately remove the hon- 

 ey to some dark room or cellar, leaving 

 a small place for th(^ liglit to enter and 

 for the bees to pass out, which they 

 will readily do. 



2. Yes, swarming can be prevented 

 but it is avast deal of trouble to do it. 

 It requires more room to reply to this 

 question than we can devote to it here. 

 Read the back numbers of the "Api," 

 also the latest bee books. Swarming 

 can be much better controlled than 

 prevented. 



3. Of course we advise the use of 

 Alley's drone and queen trap, what 

 other is worth the mention? Why we 

 so advise : 



First. If it is swarming time and one 

 desires to save all swarms with the 

 least trouble, we advise the use of the 

 trap. Second. If desirable to destroy 

 the useless drones in the apiary use 

 the trap, and, third, if pure queens of 

 any race are to be reared in an apiary 

 where there are several races or where 

 there are impure bees, the trap should 

 be used on all hives but the one whose 

 drones you wish to mate to the queens. 



4. No, sir; no hive will revolution- 

 ize beekeeping. The Langstroth hive 

 did that thing twenty-five years ago 

 and it never will be repeated by any 

 man. We have as near perfection in 

 the L. hive as it is possible to attain. 

 Old father Langstroth will never be 

 bereft of the credit of inventing the 

 hive that revolutionized beekeeping 

 by any one to come hereafter. It is an 

 easy matter to arrange the Langstroth 

 hive so the combs can be reversed and 

 we have done that but it is the Langs- 

 troth hive all the same. The one to 

 revolutionize beekeeping will be the 

 person who can control the weather 

 and make it favorable at all times for 

 all beekeepers. We are willing to pay 

 a fair sum for even a patent right to 

 any man who can tell us how to do it. 



QUESTIONS BY A SUBSCUIBER. 



1. How often do you open a hive 

 during the building-up period, in spring 

 and during the honey flow? 



2. How many brood frames do you 

 leave in a ten-frame " Simplicity" after 

 putting one honey box on, or do you 

 take any out? 



3. In contracting brood chambers 

 to drive bees into sections, wiiat pro- 

 vision do you use to prevent the bees 

 building comb in the empty space? 



4. In a district where forage is pre- 

 sumably scarce, where beekeeping 

 farmers of many years' experience say 

 there is no honey stored after the ap- 

 ple blossom (though we get twenty- 

 flve pounds after that date) how many 

 boxes (one-pound) would you give a 



