346 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 2. 



Good Wintering. — According to Schweizerische Bienen- 

 zeitung, colonies bave the fewest deaths in winter that are 

 well surrounded with honey, sealed being better than unsealed, 

 itffe feeding is bad. If compelled to feed, crowd the bees on 

 few frames, give warm feed rapidly, and keep the bees warm. 



Moist or Dry Heat in a Hive.— Referring to page 123 of 

 the Bee Journal, Hasty, in Review, thinks there's a chance 

 for a fight as to whether the air in a hive is moist or dry. On 

 the one hand, so much evaporation of nectar must make things 

 wet, and on the other hand unless the air was pretty dry there 

 couldn't be evaporation. 



Young Queens to Prevent Swarming. — One year Gra- 

 venhorst, early in May, removed 20 old queens, replacing 

 them with queens that had just begun to lay ; 1 'J of the 2(i 

 colonies swarmed. But when the young queen is reared in 

 the colony, he has never known such young queen to swarm 

 that year. — Deutsche 111. Bztg. 



Finisht Sections— are they Desirable ?— Editor Hill says 

 this has been developt as a new question in connection with 

 plain sections — whether sections should be filled and finisht 

 to the wood on all sides — and he votes yes. But he thinks the 

 projecting side-pieces of the section are a valuable protection 

 to the comb in handling. — American Bee-Keeper. 



Age of Queens.— Experiments at Flacht showed that in 

 fall and winter 10 per cent, of two-year-old queens disap- 

 peared and no one-year-olds. Of colonies with two-year-old 

 queens, 30 per cent, began breeding early in the last mild 

 winter, and 60 per cent, of the colonies with one-year-old 

 queens were already stronger than the preceding October. — 

 Centralblatt. 



Painting Hives is vetoed by Doolittle, but J. H. Martin 

 says in Gleanings, that while such a view may be all right for 

 York State, in hot climates honey will melt down in a hive not 

 kept well painted and white. To which Doolittle may reply 

 that the same rule holds in York State if hives have no pro- 

 tection from the sun, but in the shade a white hive will melt 

 its honey as quickly as a black one. 



Sometliing Against Fall Feeding.— E. E. Hasty, in Re- 

 view, refers to the interesting report of " Iowa," in American 

 Bee Journal (page 122) and thinks the colony that lost 24J^ 

 pounds after having been fed, might have lost only four if it 

 had not been disturbed by feeding. He says : " In my oppo- 

 sition to fall feeding, except when absolutely necessary, I have 

 been pretty lonesome in this generation ; but a hundred years 

 hence there'll be more of me." 



Wintering on Sealed Honey.— F. A. Gem mill united two 

 normal colonies about Nov. 5, and put them on four Lang- 

 stroth frames of sealed honey. Tbey remained perfectly quiet 

 when other colonies flew Feb. 10; and March 11, after :i}.i 

 months' confinement, they showed no more need of a flight 

 than if they had only been confined a month. Pretty good evi- 

 dence that empty cells are not absolutely essential for winter- 

 ing. — Canadian Bee Journal. 



r:' The Ideal Super is the rather imposing name applied to a 

 super that has won Editor E. R. Root from his loyalty to the 

 section-holder, and seems to be in a fair way to secure the al- 

 legiance of Dr. Miller to the abandonment of the T super, )/ 

 fences and plain sections are to be used. The Ideal takes tail 

 sections, the super having a strip of tin as a support at each 

 end at the bottom, the same as the T super, but in place of T 

 tins it has plain wooden bottom-bars running lengthwise, the 

 sections resting on these bottom-bars. Evidently the doctor 

 cannot resist the temptation to poke a little fun at Editor 

 Root, with whom he has for a long time been at sword's points 

 regarding the matter of supers, and he reaches after him in 

 the following style : 



"And I've thought that, if he'd handle a lot of T supers 

 for a single season a.s they ought to be tinndlcd, he might change 

 his tune. First he believed in wide frames — wide frames with 

 top-bar, bottom-bar, end-bar. For a time, if I'm not mistaken. 



he believed in T supers, and then he went back to wide frames 

 just a step nearer T supers than the old wide frames by leav- 

 ing off the top-bar, and he called them section-holders. Now 

 he's gone another step toward the T super, left off the end- 

 bar, and dubs it Ideal. If he'll go still another step and leave 

 off the bottom-bar, perhaps he'll stand square in line with 

 me." — Gleanings, page 386. 



Carbon Bisulphide for Fumigating Honey is recom- 

 mended by J. S. Woodward (National Stockman) in preference 

 to sulphur, as the latter makes him sick. Put the honey in a 

 place that can be closed tight — for the size of a flour-barrel 

 put two tablespoonsfuls of carbon bisulphide in a saucer or flat 

 dish on top, then cover up. Leave over night, and treat again 

 in two or three weeks. But be careful in handling it, for its 

 fumes are poisonous, and it is inflammable and explosive. 



Honey vs. Sugar. — In Stray Straws (Gleanings, page 

 378,) a case is mentioned in which physicians have forbidden 

 the use of starch and sugar, but allow pure honey. The Stray 

 Straw man uses honey instead of sugar in hot drink, and likes 

 it as well as sugar if the honey is of best quality. The editor 

 is very positive that there is a decided difference in his own 

 case, as he is able to eat a certain amount of honey without 

 inconvenience, but cane sugars, maple sugars, candy, and all 

 such stuff, he is obliged to let alone. 



Flights in Wintering. — D. W. Heise, in Canadian Bee 

 Journal, referring to the statement "that the bees that have 

 the greatest number of winter flights in cold, hard winters, 

 are the ones that come out best in the spring," wonders 

 whether that's the whole truth, and thinks if he could control 

 the matter he'd have just one flight a month. But there is 

 probably no conflict of opinion, for remember, Mr. Heise, it's 

 "cold, hard winters" that are spoken of, and in "cold, hard 

 winters" the bees are not likely to fly more than once a month. 



Bate of Storing Honey. — To many who have been accus- 

 tomed to hear of the large yields of honey in California, the 

 natural supposition probably is that more honey is secured 

 there in a day than farther north and east. But W. A. H. 

 Gilstrap (Gleanings, page 3t)l) says : " I am convinced that 

 it is not common for bees to store honey as rapidly here as in 

 the east. Your bees store perhaps over half as much in 30 

 days as ours do in 100. An apiary storing three pounds of 

 alfalfa honey per day for each colony would be a good run. I 

 have never been able to extract so much." 



Well-Finisht Sections for Shipping. — R. C. Aikin thinks 

 there would be little trouble about combs breaking out of sec- 

 tions when shipt if they were well fastened to the wood all 

 around (Gleanings, page 381.) Poor attachments are likely 

 to be made in slow flows, with weak colonies, or when too 

 much super room is given. He is strongly in favor of bottom 

 starters, and has a large per cent, of sections better fastened 

 at bottom than at sides. There is trouble with bottom start- 

 ers curling over when too deep, but he finds they will answer 

 the purpose nearly as well if only h or ^^-inch deep, and when 

 thus narrow will not curl over. 



Time of Mating and Laying. — Doolittle gives some fig- 

 ures (Gleanings, page 396.) The first young queen emerges 

 from her cell in about seven days after the prime swarm is- 

 sues. Queens which have their own way fly to meet the drone 

 when about five to seven days old, and begin to lay two or 

 three days later ; 17 days is the shortest time a young queen 

 is likely to be laying after the prime swarm issues. But eggs 

 are so scarce that it is hardly worth while to look for them till 

 three or four days later. If after-swarms issue, then the time 

 is lengthened several days. Mr. Doolittle's practice is to look 

 for brood or eggs the 23rd day from swarming if there are no 

 after-swarms, and four days later if there are after-swarms. 



Getting Big Prices for Honey seems to be a specialty 

 with Chalon Fowls (Gleanings, page 384.) Last season he got 

 an average of 12 cents a pound for his comb honey, and 10 

 cents for extracted, ?( of his crop being extracted. An article 

 in a former number of the American Bee Journal gives his 

 plan of selling, but that alone will hardly account for this fact, 

 which he states : " It is a significant fact that in the town of 

 Elyria, a town of about 10,000, every one of the grocers 

 handles my extracted honey, paying cash on delivery, and 

 they will not buy of others, even when offered at a lower 

 price." Perhaps the chief secret lies in this sentence : "The 

 extracted honey is ripened in the hive, and always weighs 12 

 pounds or mora to the gallon." 



