MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

262 DR. miller'sVinegar.—Q. I am told that good vinegar can be made fromhoney or cappings. Will you give how much honey or cappings toeach gallon of water and how to proceed to make it?A. Use one to one and one-half pounds of honey to each gallonof water. Dissolve the honey and place in a barrel with thebung removed, so as to give as much air as possible. The warmerthe place it is stored the better, as this will hasten fermentation.If you use capping washings for making vinegar, a good way totest if the water is sweet enough is by the use of an egg. If theegg comes to the surface of the liquid, then it is about right. Tohasten fermentation, you may also add a little vinegar mother, if}Ou have it, to your sweetened water. Full instructions may befound in most beebooks.When you test honey water with an egg the egg should showonly the size of a dime out of the water.Waste Places.—Q. Does anyone know of something that couldbe sown in waste places where irrigating water runs, or whereBermuda grass now grows that would produce honey and also begood for the farmer? There are several places here where Bermudagrass grows, when it gets the waste water from the ranches.A. Sweet clover has been very successful in such cases.Water for Bees.—Q,get in the mud-holes?What do the bees do with the water theyA. The same as they do with water from any other source;they use it for drink and to thin their honey, for feeding thebrood.Q. We have an apiary where an irrigating ditch runs rightalong in front of the hives, but the bees go over to our neighbor's,about 80 rods away and get water from their watering trough,and they annoy them very much, as the stock can hardly get anywater to drink on account of the bees. What could we do to helpout our neighbor?A. When the bees have formed the habit of going to a certainplace for water, it is a very hard thing to get them to change tosome other place. If the trough is not too large, it may be coveredup by boards, sheets, or otherwise, opening it only at certaintimes in the day to let the stock drink. After a few days the beeswill give it up. Possibly you may be able to make the placeoffensive for bees while still all right for the four-footers. Putcarbolic acid or kerosene on the edges of the trough where thebees stand to get the water. Of course there is the danger that indoing this you will get some of the stuff in the water, so the stock