1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



967 



swarming' season it will produce the very 

 same condition of strength, and attendant 

 propensity to swarm which you desire to 

 obviate. My advice to you is to shake j'our 

 swarms again — a little later this time — and 

 make a success of it. — Ed.] 



WINTERING IN TENEMENT HIVES. 



I am preparing to pack my bees in a ten- 

 ement hive, and write to ask: 



1. Is it best to leave a space between the 

 hives, and pack them with leaves, or set 

 hives close together? Will a case 28X24X 

 96 inches in the clear be ample for four 

 hives, or large enough for five? 



2. Will it not be better to put small colo- 

 nies, covering four frames, in nucleus hives 

 rather than have them in full-sized hives 

 with division-boards to contract the same ? 



(Rev.) C. Gallimore. 

 Mt. Vernon, O., Oct. 10. 



[1. In wintering bees on the tenement 

 plan, the colonies inside of the tenement it- 

 self should be put as close together as pos- 

 sible. It would be desirable to have thi7t 

 boarding separate them. Years ago, when 

 we wintered in tenement hives, four colo- 

 nies in a tenement, we observed that the 

 clusters of bees worked over to the corners 

 of each hive, making one big cluster divid- 

 ed oft" b3' the partitions of y% boards. 



A case of the size you mention would be 

 ample; but a tenement hive will not take 

 care of an odd number as well as an even 

 one. Four, six, or eight can be bunched 

 in a little more compactly, as you will 

 readily see. I would not advise making the 

 tenement hive larger than to accommodate 

 four colonies. While tenement hives are 

 verj' g^ood thej' are heavy and unwieldy, 

 and are not generally used. If j'ou have a 

 good drj' cellar and onlv a few colonics, I 

 would advise you to winter indoors, for the 

 saving in stores vrill be sufficient to amount 

 to quite a little. Outdoor- wintered colonies 

 require from one fourth to one-half more 

 stores than indoor. 



2. You ask whether it would not be better 

 to put small colonies covering four frames 

 in nucleus hives rather than in full-sized 

 ones with division-boards. I would re- 

 ply in the negative, if the bees are to be 

 wintered outdoors ; but if they are to be 

 wintered in a tenement hive, nucleus-boxes 

 in which the bees could be put compactly 

 together would be better. There must be 

 as little empty air-space for the bees to 

 warm up as possible in any case. —Ed.] 



THAT NON-SVVARMING STRAIN OF BEES — 



MORE ABOUT IT; SEE PAGE 935, LAST 



ISSUE. 



Mr. A. I. Root: — In answer to your in- 

 quiry I will say that the season of 1901 was 

 the best I have experienced in this section 

 for honey. I had 60 colonies — 42 in my 

 home apiary and 18 in an out-apiar^'. 

 These latter were hybrid bees. I took them 

 away on that account. Those left at home 



were pure stock, nearly all reared from a 

 selected queen of the Doolittle stock — the 

 one I showed you, whose bees went over 

 three miles to find the black-sage white 

 honey while most of the other colonies were 

 storing- darker honey. During that season 

 I had no natural swarms from that strain, 

 and secured 400 lbs. per colony of extracted 

 honey. The native strains swarmed ex- 

 cessively, and I g-ot a much smaller yield 

 of honey in proportion. The seasons of 

 1902 and 1903 were poor for honey, and 

 there was rriuch less swarming- with the na- 

 tive strains; but with the Doolittle strains 

 I have not had more than two natural 

 swarms in the three seasons. 



Since you were here I have examined my 

 out-apiary, which has both strains. The 

 colonies reared from my home queen are 

 heavy in honey, while the others have used 

 most of theirs up in late breeding. Our na- 

 tive strains are a mixture of Italians, Cyp- 

 rians, and Holy Lands. Mr. Harbison 

 says the latter predominate. He introduced 

 them here quite a number of years ago. 

 They are excessive breeders, and in poor 

 seasons use up all the early surplus honey 

 for that purpose; and the result is, neglect- 

 ed apiaries die from starvation. If they 

 had been the other strain of bees they 

 would have had sufficient stores to carry 

 them over. I am not sure but that some of 

 the Cyprian or Carniolan blood mixed with 

 the Italian, in the hands of an intelligent 

 manager, may be a good thing; yet for the 

 average California bee-keeper I think the 

 pure strain the best. 



El Cajon, Cal. G. M. Ha-wley. 



[Well, you see, friends, I did make the 

 matter a little stronger than friend Hawley 

 puts it; but, notwitlistanding this, it is a 

 tremendous testimonial in favor of using 

 queens reared from a very choice breeder. — 

 A. I. R.] 



WHY THE HONEY SOURED. 



W^hy did my two jars of white-clover hon- 

 ey sour? I put it up in pint Mason jars 

 with a small chunk of comb honey in it. 

 When I -was extracting- it the last time I 

 noticed, in uncapping, bubbles in the hon- 

 ej'. Was it souring then? If so, why? 



I put up 500 pints of white clover, and 

 two were returned by the merchant sour. 

 I am afraid I shall lose his trade, and he 

 is my best customer. J. J. Burke. 



Pittsburg, Kan., Oct. 8. 



[I am not able to explain why the honey 

 you describe soured. You evidently took 

 every precaution necessary if the honey was 

 sealed in the combs; but it sometimes hap- 

 pens that honey from certain sources will 

 sour for reasons that we can not explain. 

 The bees might gather just enough honey 

 from some plant that would cause all the 

 other good honey with which it was mixed 

 to ferment and finally sour. I certainly 

 should advise taking back all samples that 

 are not first quality, and the honej' should 

 be boiled after extracting. If it is very 



