1898 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



487 



books take them up and answer them, id most cases more fully 

 than they can be answered in a department like this. It Is 

 much better for the begiuner to have all these questions an- 

 swered in bulk in a book, available at any time, and more 

 easily referred to than if scattered in the pages of a bee-paper, 

 and after you've well mastered the contents of any or all of 

 the best text-books, you will still find plenty of things to 

 ask about. 



The matter of the distance bees will go for stores has been 

 very thoroughly discust, and it would be space wasted to have 

 much room taken up with its discussion ; but that you may 

 cot have to wait till you get your bee-book, I'll say that there 

 are some differences of opinion as to the distance bees will go 

 to gather stores. Some think that bees will go from choice 

 three miles or more. Some think they do not often go more 

 than IK or two miles. There are cases on record in which 

 bees have been known to go seven miles under favorable cir- 

 cumstances. So you see there is some chance for difference of 

 opinion, and while the matter has been fully discust in the 

 past, it is quite possible you may gel some new light, and any 

 facts that may come to your knowledge as helping to settle 

 the question will be gladly welcomed. If you consult the act- 

 ual practice of those who have out-apiaries, you will probably 

 find that they are pretty well content to have their apiaries 

 three or four miles apart, in which case they seem to think 

 that bees do not work generally much more than two or three 

 miles from their hives. 



Looking at a text-book, I find that the question of shade 

 and ventilation (it's hardly a "burning question," rather a 

 cooling one), occupies as much as perhaps two pages like this. 

 I may say in a nutshell that If you have trees for shade, you 

 have the very best kind. If you have no trees, and must have 

 shade without time to grow anything, one of the ways is to 

 have any kind of a covering of boards with a space between 

 the covering and the cover of the hive, and a big stone or 

 something else by way of anchorage. An easy way, if tall 

 grass is easily obtainable, is to put on top of a hive an armfull 

 of green-cut slough grass or other tall-growing grass, and lay 

 upon it two or three sticks of fire-wood. It dries to its place 

 nicely, and will last throughout the season. 



Use of Acid in Rendering Wax. 



1. What kind of acid is sometimes used in rendering wax, 

 and what is the process? 



2. Is wax rendered with acid just as good for foundation- 

 making? 



3. Can acid be used to any advantage on residue from 

 rendering old combs in a sun extractor ? 



4. Can any more wax be obtained from such combs by the 

 use of acid ? Arkansas. 



Ansvpees.--!. Sulphuric acid is the kind used. I have no 

 practical knowledge of the process, having never used acid in 

 that way, but I believe the plan is to mix the acid with the 

 wax while hot. 



2. There seems to be a difference of opinion. Probably 

 the wax does not have quite so much of its peculiar, agreeable 

 odor after being subjected to the acid. 



3. Yes, it is on that sort that it is used to the best 

 advantage. 



■i. Yes, if I am not mistalien, you can get wax from re- 

 mains that otherwise would be thrown away. 



Keeping Down Increase. 



If I do not desire any more increase of my apiary, and my 

 bees are swarming, is it not a good way to prevent increase of 

 colonies by returning the swarm to the old hive, provided I 

 take all frames with sealed brood out of it, and divide this 

 among weak colonies in the apiary, and give the new swarm 

 empty combs or frames with full foundation ? My idea is that 

 I could leave the old queen with it, or if I do not want her, 

 kill her, and leave one old comb with one or two sealed queen- 

 cells in it. Of course, when I give the old combs with sealed 

 brood to other colonies, I brush off all the bees to the old stand. 

 What do you think about it ? Louisiana. 



Answer — Your plan will work all right. Leave the old 

 ■queen with the colony, and you have the same as any natural 

 swarm, with the added advantage that It is consideral)ly 

 stronger than when managed the usual way. You will hardly 

 be so well satisfied with leaving them a comb with queen-cells. 

 If you leave more than one cell they may trouble you with 

 swarming. If you leave only one, that one may not be the 

 very best one, and there is more possibility of its entire failure 



than where the bees have several to choose from. Moreover, 

 if there is only a queen-cell left, it will be, perhaps, two or 

 three weeks longer before young workers will be emerging, 

 than if you had left the old queen. Your colony will be badly 

 depleted before recruits come on the field of action. 



Uniting Colonies. 



How would you unite two colonies without their fighting? 

 I tried it and did not succeed very well, as they did a great 

 deal of fighting. Pennsylvania. 



Answer. — There isn't room in this department to give all 

 that should be known and is given in the text-books. In gen- 

 eral, It may be said that much depends upon the condition of 

 the bees, pasturage, etc. If one of the colonies to be united 

 has its queen removed a day or more before uniting, there will 

 be less trouble. Bees unite more peaceably at a time when 

 pasturage is plentiful. If you shake all the bees off the combs, 

 letting them run into an empty hive thoroughly mixt up, and 

 afterward give them their combs, there will be little trouble. 

 If you alternate the frames, putting into an empty hive a comb 

 from one of the hives with its adhering bees, then a comb with 

 its bees from the other hive, thus alternating throughout, 

 there will generally be no trouble. If the colonies are so small 

 that one of them can be put in one side of a hive and the other 

 In the other side, with an empty comb between, they will gen- 

 erally unite peaceably. 



Bees and Horticulture.— G. Kimbrell planted musk- 

 melons close to his bees, and also ?! mile distant, surrounded 

 by timber, where no bee was ever seen to visit them. They 

 grew alike, bloomed alilte, but the vines near the bees set four 

 melons to every one on the other vines. — Busy Bee. 



Removing Honey from Hives. — Don't use much smoke 

 in this process, as honey often has a slight, smoky tinge from 

 injudicious smoking, says C. P. Dadant, in Busy Bee. An es- 

 cape is a good thing, either for comb or extracted honey, but 

 if the weather is very hot the combs may break down for lack 

 of free ventilation if an escape is used. 



Space Between Two Surfaces of Sealed Honey is a mat- 

 ter of dispute between J. E. Crane and the editor of Glean- 

 ings. The latter says he measured a number of lots coming 

 from different parts of the country, and nine out of ten of the 

 spaces would measure 14-lnch. Some went 1 H-t under, some 

 1/16 over. Mr. Crane found the spaces varying from 3/16 

 to M. the average being somewhere from 20/U6 to 21/96. 

 Mr. Root thinks it may be that blacks make closer spacing, as 

 Mr. Crane's honey was from blacks. 



Specific Gravity of Different Honeys.— R. Wilkin had a 

 glass tumbler I4 full of white honey. He filled it with dark 

 amber sun-extracted honey. In a few hours the white honey 

 was on top. Then he filled the tumbler '}i full of white 

 honey, and put two tablespoonfuls of dark on top. The next 

 morning the dark was In a distinct stratum at the bottom. 

 He suggests having 12 pounds of honey specially colored, then 

 a small quantity, by staying on top or sinking to the bottom, 

 would show whether a lot of honey was above or below the 

 12-pound mark.— Gleanings. 



Some Bee-Lore.— Editor Abbott quotes a paragraph from 

 the Youth's Instructor, but some remarks he makes rather im- 

 ply that he does not fully endorse It. The paragraph is as 

 follows : 



"After a time the grubs shut in the big cells turn into 

 queen-bees, and they begin to sing a song. The queen-bee 

 hears it, and she knows that more queen-bees will come out. 

 That makes her angry. She runs at the cells to try to kill the 

 new queens. The workers prevent her. But there can be 

 only one queen In a hive at a time. So the old queen says, 

 'Come ! I will go away !' Many of the old bees say, 'We will 

 go with our queen.' Then with her they seek a new home." 



