THOUSAND ANSWERS 



35 



stir two or three times as much sugar, and let it cook until a bit of 

 it dropped into cold water appears brittle; then pour it out into 

 greased dishes so as to make cakes half an inch to an inch in 

 thickness. These cakes may be laid on top of the frames and then 

 covered up any way to keep snug and close, so the bees will go up 

 to them; for if too cold the bees will not leave the cluster to reach 

 them, and starve with abundance in the hive. Then promise 

 yourself you'll not be caught that way again, but will have plenty 

 of combs of sealed honey each fall to meet any emergency. 



Q. How can I make queen-candy for introducing cages? 



A. Heat a little extracted honey (don't burn it), and stir into 

 it some powdered sugar. Keep adding all the sugar you can until 

 you have a stiff dough. Even after you seem to have it quite stiff 



Fig. 9. 



"Campanula Blanca" and a sealed frame of its honey. 

 "The famous honey of Cuba" 



you can still knead in more sugar. Then let it stand a day or so, 

 and very likely you can knead in a little more sugar. No danger of 

 getting it too thick. You will notice that no definite quantities 

 are given, but you will use several times as much sugar as honey. 

 At a rough guess I should say that if you begin with one spoonful 

 of honey you will have five spoonfuls of candy. Of course, if at 

 any time you should get in too much sugar, you can add honey. 

 It is not really necessary to heat the honey, only it hurries up the 

 work a little. Government regulations require that honey used in 

 candy for mailing cages be first boiled in a covered vessel, to kill 

 germs of bee diseases. 



Q. Why is it that hard sugar candy is used as winter feed while 



