222 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apr. 1 



and drug act of June 30, 1906, passed by Con- 

 gress, has brought Hawaiian honeys into 

 prominence because of the chemical compo- 

 sition of some of the honeys elaborated by 

 our bees from honey-dew, and we assisted 

 in adjusting these matters by sending Mr. D. 

 L. Van Dine, Entomologist of the Hawaii Ex- 

 periment Station, to Washington. Our asso- 

 ciation also has had as its guest, recently, 

 Dr. E. F. Phillips, in charge of the office of 

 apiculture at Washington, who has made an 

 examination of bee-keeping in Hawaii, and 

 whose report thereon is awaited by us with 

 interest. 



We appreciate the opportunity afforded by 

 Gleanings to get in touch with the industry 

 on the mainland. We are open to sugges- 

 tions for improvement. Any thing that can 

 improve the honey-bee and its products is 

 eagerly sought for by us. 



NOTES ON TRANSFERRING. 



Tools and Appliances for the Same; the 



Direct vs. the Indirect Method 



of Transferring. 



BY F. DUNDAS TODD. 



In the past two years I have been concern- 

 ed with tne transrerring of over three dozen 

 frame hives and one dox hive to the style 

 that I favor, so that I have had a chance to 

 improve a little on the procedure that I de- 

 scribed in an article two years ago. I have 

 worked both the direct and the indirect sys- 

 tems; but after taking into consideration all 

 the factors, methods, and results I can not 

 make up my mind which is better. 



Direct transferring is an occupation I would 

 not of choice care to follow up day after day 

 for a few months; but, on the other hand, it 

 has ceased to have any terrors for me, as, 

 with suitable arrangements and the aid of an 

 assistant, 1 have handled three hives per 

 hour for several hours in succession. 



In direct transferring one gets through 

 with the job at once; the hive is speedily at 

 work in a normal condition, and, best of all, 

 the proposition is off one's mind. My ex- 

 perience with indirect transferring (or what 

 IS known as the Heddon method*) was in a 

 poor season, and so I saw it at its worst; but 

 it took over three months to get rid of the 

 last of the odd-sized frames, and all the time 

 I felt I was hindering the work of the bees. 



In transferring direct I feel I have made 

 some new deparUires that are advantageous. 

 The slop of honey annoyed me greatly, but I 

 hit upon the idea of doing all the cutting of 

 the combs and all the fitting of them into the 

 frames in a tray whose dimensions are 12 X 

 20x2 inches; in fact, one of my feeder trays, 

 whenever it got sloppy it was a simple mat- 

 ter to turn the hose pipe on it when such 

 was handy, or to rinse it out with a pailful of 

 water. In actual practice I found it neces- 



* For a description of this method see the ABC and 

 X Y Z of Bee Culture, under the head of "Transfer- 

 ring." 



sary to wash' the tray after a hive was treat- 

 ed, and no oftener. On my left hand I had 

 a similar tray for reserve bits of comb; on the 

 right was a pail into which the scraps were 

 dropped, these being made up principally of 

 drone comb. 



In transferring my own hives I had the use 

 of a barn with a screen door so I could carry 

 in two frames at a time, and work without 

 being bothered by the bees. Of course, I 

 wore a veil; but my lingers were uncovered 

 from the knuckles down, and I can not re- 

 call having received a sting. When helping 

 a friend with nine hives I worked in a barn 

 without a screen door. He carried the combs • 

 I did the cutting and fitting; but it was not 

 until we got to the last hive that I began to 

 get my fingers stung. By that time a steady 

 stream of bees was working all around, so I 

 had to select the spots before I touched a 

 comb. Occasionally I guessed; and when- 

 ever I guessed wrong— well, I quickly found 

 out the difference between bee and no bee 

 When the job was finished, there was not a 

 bit of slop on the bench or floor to indicate 

 that about 80 combs had been cut to pieces; 

 and this, too, in August, when combs were 

 heavy with winter stores. 



Using the shallow extracting-frame I have 

 rarely any call for string. Wire nails about 

 two inches long are good enough. When 

 the comb neatly fits the frame, all that is 

 necessary is to insert nails in each of the 

 four wire holes at the ends of the frames; 

 then with an awl bore a hole through the 

 middle of the top-bar; push in another nail 

 and the frame is ready for the hive. To get 

 an exact fit, I find the best thing to do is to 

 have a piece of board the exact size of the 

 inner dimensions of the frame, and use that 

 as a guide, for one gets perfectly square cuts' 

 but if we use the frame itself, the cutis gen- 

 erally on the angle— at least that is my ex- 

 perience. 



With pieces of comb smaller than the frame 

 area I find it best to work to square- corner- 

 ed shapes, trying always to get pieces reach- 

 ing from top to bottom of the frame. Extr;< 

 nails in the top and bottom bars within an 

 inch of the joining of the pieces of comb gen- 

 erally keep all in shape. There is much vir- 

 tue in a tight fit, so I never hesitate to 

 squeeze a scrap of comb into a solid mass 

 and force it between the side of the frame 

 and the comb. The bees remove these in 

 due time. 



In the season of 1909 I tried indirect trans- 

 ferring with over a dozen hives— some of 

 them Gallups, with frames about a foot 

 square; some almost Langstroths; others, 

 Jumbos. The spring had been backward, so 

 It was not until the end of May that I could 

 start the campaign. As opportunity offered, 

 I transferred the empty combs and placed 

 them in a two-story divisible hive; then the 

 old frames were added. The Gallup frames, 

 being short, had to be provided with extra 

 top-bars, which were screwed to the old ones 

 while some other frames that were too long 

 had to be shortened. Any way, bit by bit 1 

 got all the frames into divisible hives, always 



