1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



931 



KII.I.ING HONKV-CANS TOO FULL. 



J. C. R , Onf.iCaf. — Cans designed to hold 

 extracted honey should never be tilled quite 

 full. When hone}' candies it expands; and 

 if the receptacles be filled level full there 

 is quite a liabilit}' of leakag-e, due to the 

 cans bursting- from the expansion of the 

 honey when cand3'ing-. Your honey is 

 doubtless just as j,^ood as it ever was. The 

 same can be restored to its original condi- 

 tion by putting the cans in warm water, or 

 a temperature not hig^her than 160. Better 

 empty out some of the hone^' from each can. 



CURING LOAFING AROUND THE ENTRANCE. 



y. (/. B., N'. J. — Loafing around the en- 

 trance is often caused bj' too small an open- 

 ing during the hot part of the season. En- 

 larging it or lifting' the hive off from the 

 bottom-board, and separating it from the 

 hive with two blocks, will ver}' often cause 

 the bees to g-o back into the hive and begin 

 work. But if they still loaf while all the 

 rest of the bees are working-, it may be that 

 thej' are preparing to swarm. But if that 

 is not the case, and the bees are profession- 

 al loafers, you had better kill the queen, 

 and introduce some new and better stock. 

 It does not paj' to keep such bees when oth- 

 er blood that j'ou can introduce may earn 

 you possibl}' several dollars for the season. 



BEES STINGING HONEY (?): HANDLING BEES 

 TOO MUCH. 



W. D. C. Ohio. — The clipping- j'ou send, 

 about bees stinging- their honey, is so ridic- 

 ulous and absurd that we never pay any 

 attention to it; for such nonsense seems to 

 be g-oing the rounds of the press while sober 

 facts and truth about the bees, just as 

 startling, are verj' seldom given to the pub- 

 lic. See Picking^s. 



Referring to your questions, I would say 

 it would do no harm to handle the colonies 

 as often as you like; but there is no advan- 

 tage in opening a hive oftener than two or 

 three times a season if you desire to get 

 honej', and do not care about the pleasure 

 of watching and handling the bees. 



It %ery often happens that there is a poor 

 queen in a hive. 



A COLONY THAT REFUSES TO ACCEPT A 



QUEEN. 



IV. H. S., Pa. — We do not quite under- 

 stand what the trouble is j'ou are having in 

 introducing. If you have one colonj' to 

 which you are trying to introduce a queen, 

 and that seems disposed to kill all jou give 

 to them, you may rest assured there is some 

 cause for it. The probabilities are that 

 they have something the^' call a queen — a 

 virgin or a fertile worker; and so long as 



either is present yovi will never succeed in 

 introducing a fertile queen, especially one 

 that comes through the mails, and bears 

 the odor of outside objects. Rather than 

 lose another queen >ou had better introduce 

 her on a frame of brood with a few bees, 

 then build the colony up for winter. But 

 do not attempt to introduce a queen to a 

 colony that has already killed off several 

 queens, for when Ihey once start out in the 

 killing business they will keep it up. Give 

 them a cell or a virgin from your own stock. 



WHEN TO TAKE OFF SUPERS, ETC. 



R. W. /., Jnd. — Supers should be taken 

 oft" the hives just as soon as the honey-flow 

 stop^. If you are a beginner, and do not 

 know just when this is, you will see the 

 bees are inclined to rob; and if they have 

 any drones, kill them off. If the sections 

 are left on they will be travel stained and 

 soiled. 



No, do not give the bees empty combs for 

 winter unless you intend to feed them up. 

 A better way is to reserve out a few of your 

 go^A combs of sealed stores; then along- in 

 the fall, give colonies (that are not suffi- 

 ciently supplied) a few of these combs. 

 The colonies that are wintered indoors or 

 in the cellar should not have less than 15 

 lbs. Colonies wintered outdoors ought to 

 have from 20 to 25. 



The Danzenbaker hives should be put in 

 the cellar as soon as you have cold weath- 

 er. The cellar should be darkened, and 

 ventilated occasionally. You can winter 

 them outdoors if you have regular Danzen- 

 baker winter-cases. 



WHY WOODEN CELL CUPS ARE BETTER THAN 

 DOOLITTLE CUPS ALL OF WAX. 



J. L., Texas- — You ask why we use 

 wooden plugs instead of the wax queen cell 

 as used by Mr. Doolittle. In answer we 

 will say that it takes so long to form these 

 heavy wax cells, which must be strong and 

 thick enough to bear handling, that we 

 prefer to have the wooden plug made to re- 

 ceive the small delicate cell which we can 

 press out at the rate of 1000 an hour. 

 These cells, after they have been used 

 once, are simply picked off the wooden 

 plug, and another one inserted in about a 

 quarter of a minute. It takes time and 

 skill to dip the Doolittle cell cup, and it is 

 only a matter of convenience that we prefer 

 the wooden plug. In our own yards, as a 

 rule we do not use the Tinker zinc form of 

 protector around the cell. We tried this 

 only to test the invention of Mr. Stanley 

 as described in these columns. The object 

 of this protector is to allow the bees free 

 access to the cell and hatching queen with- 

 out allowing the queen to escape. In this 

 way they can be kept for some time in the 

 hive where they hatch. We prefer a pro- 

 tector of the cylindrical shape we have al- 

 ready described, but having merelj' small 

 holes — too small to allow the bees to pass 

 through them. We see no special advan- 

 tage in having the slots so large that the 

 bees can get to the confined queen. 



