THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



177 



apiaries arc concerned, the bees are uo[ 

 compelled to pass through the openings 

 in the excluder, as we have a 15^ -inch 

 hole, protected with a Hanson ventila- 

 tor, in each extracting super, and with 

 many colonies, a large part of the gath- 

 ering force goes directly into the super. 

 We put such a ventilator in every body 

 as they are very useful in queen-rearing 

 on the Alexander plan, and to give 

 extra ventilation in hot weather with- 

 out lifting bodies and reversing bottom- 

 boards. In wintering outdoors without 

 protection, as practiced almost univer- 

 sally in our western country, we leave 

 the ventilator open 5/16-inch, so mois- 

 ture can escape, and if the lower en- 

 trance is clogged with snow or dead 

 bees, the bees can still fly on a warm 

 day, when such a flight may be the 

 saving of the colony. The hive shown rep- 

 resents the "hole-in-the-bottom-board" 

 plan of swarm control, and shows how 

 the ventilators are made and used. 



ABOUT QUEENS. 



Now, in regard to queens. We rear 

 as many as wc can without much inter- 



Cut A. 

 Atwater's queen-excluding honey-board. 



CltB. 

 Atwater's queen-excluding honey board. 



ference with our regular work. We 

 sometimes buy in large lots with goooi 

 results. One lot of about two dozen, 

 introduced in the fall of 1908, produced 

 last summer at least $1 per colony 

 more than the remainder of the yard, 

 with honey at 6 cents. We bought 130 

 Banat queens from Texas and they are 

 fine queens, seldom a dead one. Don't 

 give your orders all to one breeder, no 

 matter how good his stock, or you may 

 be delayed in getting all that you have 

 ordered, and so lose in a few days more 

 than the value of the queens. Divide 

 your order among two breeders of repu- 

 tation, and you stand a better chance of 

 getting what you want, when you 

 want it. 



Meridian, Idaho, Feb. oth, 1910. 



[I have never used an entrance to the 

 extracting super. A great many bee- 

 keepers have condemned it as being 

 useless, or at least not worth the ex- 

 pense and trouble of having it there. 

 And yet often a discarded plan is pick- 

 ed up and found practical. I wonder 

 how many are using upper entrances?] 



