1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



133 



to that of lard. Is this true, or have I been 

 misinformed? MICHIGAN 



Answer. — Spinning honey is something I 

 never heard of before, and I must confess ig- 

 norance. If extracted honey is stirred oc- 

 casionally as it begins to candy it helps to 

 make it smooth and fine-grained, and what 

 you say at the last may refer to this. 



(To kill the moths, burn brimstone under 

 the crates of honey a few days after they 

 have been taken from the bees. — Editor.) 



3. It will 



many cases. 



Granulation of Honey — Decoy Hives 



1. I had some extracted honey last fall which 

 I took from the bees in August, and after the 

 weather turned cold it turned to sugar. Ii was 

 pure honey; no water mixed with it. and it 

 remained sweet. After allowing it to stand in 

 warm water it would receive its natural color 

 and form again. What caused it to turn to 

 sugar? Do you suppose the honey the bees 

 have stored in the brood-frames for winter 

 use has turned to sugar? If so, what effect 

 would it have on the bees? 



2. The moths got after my comb honey last 

 fall. They started their destructive work at 

 the bottom of the sections, working upward. 

 What is the best way of storing tomb honey 

 to keep the moths out of it? 



3. One of my prime swarms that I had last 

 summer came out in the morning and settled 

 on a bush. It did not remain very long, and 

 it went hack into the hive. So I thought it 

 would perhaps come out in the afternoon again. 

 So I took a hive with full sheets of founda- 

 tion in the frames and set it on a step-ladder 

 near the place where the swarm had settled in 

 the morning. In the afternoon the swarm 

 came out again and settled on the cover of 

 the hive which I had on the step-ladder and 

 then crawled into the hive. This gave me an 

 idea ot putting empty boxes with an entrance 

 into them and a removable bottom and set 

 them on posts and in trees and try my luck- 

 on having swarms go into them. How do you 

 think it will work? ILLINOIS. 



Answers. — 1. Oh, no; your honey didn't 

 turn to sugar; it was honey still, granulated 

 or candied honey. L T nder ordinary circum- 

 stances you will find your extracted honey will 

 always granulate in the course of a few 

 months, following a law of nature. What the 

 bees have stored in their brood-combs usually 

 does not granulate, and if a little of it does 

 granulate no great harm comes from i'. 



2. It is easy to store section honey away from 

 moths. Just store it in any room or box with 

 no crack big enough for moths to crawl 

 through. For all that you may find your sec- 

 tions becoming "wormy," for the moths lay 

 eggs in the sections before the sections are 

 taken from the hive. The most important 

 thing to prevent this is to have Italian bees. 



Bees Dying in Winter 



I have' lost four colonies so far this winter 

 from no cause that I am able to figure out. 

 They are being wintered outside; hives are 

 anked up and covered with hay, front en- 

 trances open. They stood the extreme cold 

 weather of January O. K.. ami since then the 

 temperature has not been below 20 above zero. 

 The hives are full of honey and when I opened 

 them to look them over I found all the bees 

 dead in clusters. The weather has been un- 

 usually warm for this time of season. 



Can you tell me, through the columns of 

 the American Bee Journal what is causing 

 them to lie. so I can save the balance' There 

 are no moths or foulbrood. IOWA. 



Answeb. — I don't know, and I can't even 

 make any decent guess what the trouble is. If 

 it were in a very cold locality it might be 

 that the bees were stranded on one side of the 

 hive, all stores within reach consumed, and 

 too cold for the bees to reach the stores in 

 the- o'her combs; but from what is said it can- 

 not be cold enough for that. As a forlorn 

 hope, one might guess poison or poisonous 

 stores, in which case matters might be im- 

 proved to take away the stores and give sugar 

 syrup. But somehow it doesn't look like 

 poison. Queenlessness and death from old 

 age might lie suggested, hut that would hardly 

 be so much by wholesale. 



(We are all puzzled to know wdiat is the 

 matter. Can any reader explain the trouble — 

 Editor.) 



Queens at Swarming Time 



When a ■warm comes out with the old 

 queen and is put in a hive and when the same 

 hive casts the second swarm, can I take out 

 the old queen and put in the young queen 

 with the first swarm without introduction- 1 

 NEW YORK. 



Answer. — You might do so; but you can go 

 about to have the two swarms together and 

 have the young queen in a different way that 

 you might like better. When the prime swarm 

 issues, take away the old queen and return 

 the swarm. Then a week or so later the young 

 queen will issue with a swarm, which you can 

 set on the old stand and move the old hive 

 to a new stand, and then there will be no 

 more swarming. 



C. A. Taylor, in a few pointed intro- 

 ductory remarks expressed his desire 

 to aid the beekeepers in every way 

 possible to solve their problems. 



Geo. H. Rea, of the United States 

 Bureau of Entomology, spoke on the 

 advantages of organization for the 

 beekeepers. Beekeepers need county 

 associations for the purpose of the 

 control of bee diseases, the co-opera- 

 tive purchase of bee supplies and the 

 sale of bee products. The educa- 

 tional and social side of such meet- 

 ings should be emphasized, also. After 

 the beekeepers had discussed their 

 problems, such as wintering and bee 

 diseases, they, organized the Herki- 

 mer County Beekeepers' Association, 

 and the following persons were elect- 

 ed to office : 



President — Lewis J. Elwood, Fort 

 Plain, N. Y. 



Vice President— Geo. P. Walrath, 

 Ilion, N. Y. 



Secretary-Treasurer — C. Gardner, 

 Herkimer, N. Y. 



A campaign for membership will be 

 carried on immediately, with the 

 hope that every beekeeper in the 

 county will avail himself of the 

 opportunity to join. The following 

 membership committee was appoint- 

 ed to take charge of the work : Oscar 

 Bronner, Mohawk, N. Y. ; Clyde Ran- 

 som, Little Falls, N. Y., and George 

 1'. Walrath, Ilion, N. Y. 



Death of Louis Werner 



We regret to announce the death 

 of a beekeeper who was a familiar 

 figure at the Illinois and Chicago 

 meetings, Mr. Louis Werner , of 

 Wood River, 111. Mr. Werner had 

 many mishaps. He suffered for years 

 from rheumatism. On August 21, 

 1915, his home and apiary were in- 

 vaded by a flood and he lost his 

 honey crop and the greater part of 

 his 75 colonies. This was mentioned 

 in the American Bee Journal for No- 

 vember, 1915. 



Mr. Werner was 65 years old and 

 leaves a wife, four sons and two 

 daughters. He died February 12. The 

 sympathy of the Bee Journal family 

 is extended to them. 



duction of virgins has always been a 

 difficult matter to you. Please try this 

 plan: If you remove the laying queen 

 from the mating nucleus, say in the 

 afternoon on Monday, go to the nu- 

 cleus again on Friday afternoon, de- 

 stroy the cells, a half hour later 

 push the cover of the nucleus hive a 

 little to the front and let the virgin 

 run in. I have introduced hundreds 

 in this way and don't remember of 

 one failure. The point which must 

 be observed is that the bees receiv- 

 ing the virgin must be at least 4 days 

 queenless. I generally give the vir- 

 gins when they are less than 24 hours 

 old. F. W. LUEBECK, 



Knox, Ind. 



Extension Work on the Pacific Coast 



The extension work in beekeeping 

 is rapidly coming to cover all sec- 

 tions of our country. In the north- 

 west, Ward H. Foster and H. A. 

 Schullen are doing some effective 

 work. In these States little has been 

 done along these lines until recently, 

 and these men should find a fertile 

 field for effort. 



Another Texas County Organized 



The Dallas County, Texas, beekeep- 

 ers have recently organized, with 

 W. E. Joor, President; John R. Han- 

 cock, Vice President, and Win. L. 

 Peacock, Secretary-Treasurer. With 

 so many county organizations co-op- 

 erating with the State Entomologist, 

 the Texas beekeepers should do some 

 effective work. 



Three-Day Bee Schools in Wisconsin 



Wisconsin has long been in the 

 forefront of the beekeeping States, 

 since it was the first to provide state- 

 wide bee inspection. The State Uni- 

 versity is undertaking some extend- 

 ed work in beekeeping under direc- 

 tion of Prof. H. F. Wilson. Two 3- 

 day bee schools have been held, one 

 in December and the second in Feb- 

 ruary and March. 



Introducing Virgins 



In the last issue of the American 

 Bee Journal you say that the intro- 



Herkimer County Organizes 



The beekeepers of Herkimer Coun- 

 ty, N. Y., gathered in the Farm Bu- 

 reau office January 28. County Agent 



Good Short Course 



From January 14 to 24 was held 

 the annual winter course in apiculture 

 at the Ontario Agricultural College, 

 Guelph. The 47 men and women 

 students represented three-fourths of 

 the counties of the Province. The 

 enthusiasm shown argues well for 

 the future of the honey industry of 

 Ontario. The course was in charge 

 of Doctor Burton N. Gates, formerly 

 of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College, who is now Provincial Api- 



