634 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 1 



Heads of Grain 



from Different Fields 



A Hook Worn on the Finger to Help in Pulling 

 Out Frames. 



I have a little tool that I have found very useful 

 in removing frames from hives, especially when 

 they are filled and there are a lot of bees in the 

 way. I take a piece of telegraph wire or other stiff 

 wire and bend a ring to fit over the first or second 

 finger sufficiently close so it will not fall off (over 

 the glove if used). Bend a liook to reach under the 

 end of the frame. It may pass through the small 

 staple, which secures it from slipping off. After 

 hooking securely the frame is easily raised an inch 

 or two, when it inay be grasped by the thumb and 

 finger, and pulled out. The hook slips down be- 

 tween the ends of the frames quite easily: and 1 

 find it a great help when 1 wish to handle bees 

 quickly, naore especially if there is a strong colony 

 and a lot of propolis. One great convenience is, it 

 may be left on the finger without in any way intei-- 

 fering with the operator while at work. Thus there 

 is no danger of its getting lost. 



This is an ideal spot for bees— perpetual summer 

 with a constant supply of wild flowers: but 1 find it 

 difficult to keep them working. They are Inclined 

 to knock off as soon as they have accumulated a 

 small supply, and take things easy. There is an 

 abundance of wild bees found in small swarms in 

 all sorts of places — crevices in rocks, ant-heaps, and 

 even mole-hills in the ground. They often shift 

 from place to place as the season changes — to the 

 mountains in summer and to the valleys in winter. 



R. Roving. 



Caledon, Cape Colony, South Africa, July 10. 



Full Sheets of Foundation in Frames Fastened to 

 the Bottom-bar. 



I have trouble in getting my combs b\iilt down to 

 the bottom-bars. I have been using full sheets of 

 foundation, wired in, for a year or two, and now the 

 combs are beginning to stretch, and cells toward 

 the top-bar are becoming oblong on account of it. 

 As early as possible I wish to get rid of these combs 

 and put new ones in their place. I understand 

 that the Miller plan is to have larger sheets of 

 foundation than are regularly supplied for Hoffman 

 frames— large enough to come to the outside of the 

 bottom of the frame, and using a bottom-bar made 

 of two parts, allowing the foundation to go between 

 the two halves of the bottom-bar. -With this I un- 

 derstand that Dr. Miller uses splints. With this 

 arrangement does honey-comb usually stretch as it 

 otherwise does? How would It do to have comb 

 arranged as above, but wired instead of using the 

 splints? 



This year I tried this arrangement: Instead of se- 

 curing the full sheet at the top, as is supposed to be 

 done. I dropped the full sheet to the bottom-bar, 

 wired it as usual, cut a narrow strip, and secured It 

 at the top in the usual manner with wedge. The 

 results so far are all that could be desired. I think 

 there must be some objection to this, however, or 

 it would probably be in general use. I should like it 

 if you would point out the objection to this method. 



In the frames with which I experimented I used 

 the sheets of foundation regularly supplied for the 

 HoflFman frame. Instead of securing the sheet at 



the top, as usual, I dropped it to the bottom of the 

 frame, imbedded the wires as usual, and also used 

 two or three splints. In top of the frame I placed a 

 narrow strip of foundation to fill out the frame. 

 There was no buckling whatever, somewhat to my 

 surprise. It is just possible that the sheet expand- 

 ed upward. 



Rocky Mount, Va., July 27. S. Preston. 



[Dr. Miller will please answer this in a Straw. - 

 Ed.] 



Black Bees and Moth-worms; a Hen 11 Years Old. 



On p. 565, Sept. 1, I noted a communication from 

 J. D. Thomas, of West Virginia, entitled '" Moths do 

 not Molest Strong Black Colonies," which I am not 

 going to contradict, as I am not informed to the 

 contrary. What I wish to know is this: If J. D. T.'s 

 bees are what he claims them to be, will he please 

 rear queens from this superior stock, so that we 

 less fortunate bee-keepers may secure a start with 

 bees that are superior to those which we now have? 

 I have never had the pleasure of seeing the blacks 

 surpass the Italians in superiority. 



If J. D. T. will rear his queens and advertise them 

 ill Gleanings, and if they will do for me what he 

 claims they do for him, he may count me as a cus- 

 tomer as long as I handle bees. If he does not wish 

 to rear queens, will he send one of his breeders to a 

 reliable queen-breeder so that he may put them on 

 the market? 



I wish to tell A. I. Root that we have a hen that 

 was hatched May 5, 1899, having passed her elev- 

 enth birthday. She laid a few eggs during the sum- 

 mer of 1909, or after she was ten years old. 



Montpeller, O., Sept. 12. G. W. JoiCE. 



Some Strains of Bees Immune to Foul Brood. 



I have had both American and European foul 

 brood in my apiaries for the last four years, and I 

 find that shaking is an expensive proposition. 

 Then it all depends on the strain of bees whether 

 the shaking plan is a success. Some strains of 

 Italians and the black bees that I have had can not 

 be cleaned by the shaking process. 



Two years ago I bought 25 I^^alian queens, and I 

 find that they are nearly immune to disease; in 

 fact, I put some of the queens in slightly diseased 

 hives and have never found over three or four cells 

 of disease at a time in those hives. Not all of the 

 queens were as good, for some colonies showed the 

 symptoms badly ; but when I shook them they 

 stayed clean. 



I shook several colonies at my home yard on clean 

 combs this spring, as Mr. Stewart described in his 

 articles, pages 415 and 445. I did this just for an ex- 

 periment, before I knew any thing about Mr. Stew- 

 art's experience. I put the brood above, over a 

 queen-excluder, and the colonies are all clean now. 

 I have good Italians of a strain that resists disease. 



Trumansburg, N. Y. E. L. Lane. 



[See Editorial in this issue. — Ed.] 



A Good Showing for Montana. 



I have been in the bee business some six or seven 

 years: and after my experience and what I have 

 read I have come to the conclusion that different 

 climates require different methods of handling. I 

 have never yet read of average yields that have 

 quite come up to what I have got here in Montana. 

 My crop has never fallen below 100 lbs. average 

 since I have handled bees. This year I have taken 

 over 8000 lbs., extracted, from 29 colonies. 



There are many things in beekeeping that I 

 know very little about: but I do know that when I 

 go after it myself I get the yield: and I have learned 

 that it will not do to trust it all to hired help, no 

 matter how much they claim to know about the 

 business. 



Laurel, Mont., Sept. 5. A. G. Rich. 



Eggs that will Not Hatch. 



Last spring I had a queen that was a drone-layer. 

 Her eggs hatched nothing but drones: so when I 

 got my first swarm. May 2, I killed the queen and 

 put in her colony a ripe queen-cell. In a few days 

 after, they had a nfce queen that was soon laying. 

 Now, not one of her eggs has hatched. They seem 

 to be of good size, and are deposited evenly over 

 the combs. I have given them young bees two dif- 

 ferent times to keep them going. The bees were in 

 a starving condition by the middle of June. Clo- 



