1910 



GLEANWGS IN BEE CULTURE 



735 



some of them having three or four supers, 

 others only one or two, while a few colonies 

 got none at all. Now, bees with us are a 

 side line; and as we were very busy gather- 

 ing other crops we gave our colonies little 

 attention until about the middle of October, 

 when, as we were passing through the yard, 

 we heard the "busy hum" that, to the 

 practiced ear, speaks louder than words. 

 Kneeling down be^ide a strong colony, a 

 pleasing sight met our eyes. There was the 

 long line of "ventilators " reaching clear 

 across the entire entrance, while a perfect 

 stream of field bees were tumbling down on 

 the alighting-board, loaded with honey and 

 pollen. This lasted with little cessation 

 until into November. The colonies having 

 plenty of empty conibs filled something like 

 two supers each, while others, whose combs 

 had been cut out for bulk comb honey, did 

 hardly half as well, as no foundation had 

 been jmt in the frames. 



By Nov. 15 every brood-chamber was fill- 

 ed with brood and honey to its fullest capac- 

 ity, the bees working and the queen laying 

 as in the spring. Therefore the winter of 

 1909 had no teirors for the bee-keepers of 

 our section. 



Trenton, Texas. 



HOWELL'S IMPROVED COMB-HONEY SUPER. 



LACK OF HIVE VENTILATION CAUSES 

 FOAMY HONEY. 



BY I. T. SHUMARD. 



In the July 15th issue, p. 440, a discussion 

 on ventilation is invited. From past expe- 

 rience 1 am convinced that good ventilation 

 not only retards swarming but that it has 

 considerable to do with the quality of hon- 

 ey. I don't remember that any writer has 

 advanced that theory; but if so, I think it 

 of enough importance to mention it again. 



Some twenty years ago in Missouri I let 

 our minister have some bees. He built a 

 small tight bee-house with quite a small en- 

 trance. ^Vhen full of honey he called on 

 me to rob them. The unsealed honey was 

 frothy and blubbery, with a sour taste, and 

 the sealed was very dark and inferior. We 

 wondered at the time why it was, when 

 ours, only two miles away, was so nice. 



Occasionally I have seen a little foamy 

 honey since then; but this summer I cut a 

 large bee-tree near one of my out-apiaries. 

 The entrance was small, and right at the 

 ground, and up through rotten wood two 

 feet to the cavity; the tree was what is call- 

 ed lighted — that is, dead, hard, rich pine. 

 It was a very solid tree, and about four 

 inches thick to the hollow. I got a small 

 wash-tub full of honey, and not a pound fit 

 to eat, and that within half a mile of where 

 I had taken thousands of pounds of nice 

 honey. Still, I couldn't think why it was. 

 Since then I came across a hive with some 

 of that foamy honey. I noticed the en- 

 trance was almost closed; then the idea 

 struck me, it was all for want of ventilation. 



Osprey, Fla., Sept. 15. 



BY CHAS. HOWELL. 



During the field meeting held at my place 

 on June 29, several of the prominent bee- 

 keepers of the lower part of New Jersey pro- 

 nounced my super a good thing, and, for 

 my own part, in all my twenty years' expe- 

 rience I have never been able to remove 

 honey from a super as rapidly as I can from 

 this one, although I have tried almost every 

 form of super brought out. 



The advantages of this style of super are 

 plainly shown by the illustration. It is a 

 regular deep dovetailed super for 4X5 plain 

 sections, using plain bottom slats 16 inches 

 long, and fence separators, the same length, 

 made to order, also one plain follower. The 

 bottom slats are supported by tins nailed on 



the lower edge of each "compression board," 

 which boards are Ji inch thick, and sup- 

 ported by wire nails driven into each end 

 through the saw-cuts in the sides of the su- 

 per. This sliding supporting nail allows 

 the boards to be forced up against the sec- 

 tions by means of the ordinary flat springs 



Another good feature of this super is the 

 bee-space all around the sections, which the 

 bees use freely, especially when supers are 

 tiered up. The super costs no more than 

 any other. 



Hackettstown, N. J. 



[An idea similar in principle has been sug- 

 gested before. We believe the idea is a good 

 one, however, and we do not know why it 

 has not come into general use. It is really 

 a super within a super, the walls of the in- 

 ner one made capable of being spread apart. 

 —Ed.] 



♦ « ^ ■ ♦ 



AN IDEAL CELLAR THAT DOES NOT GIVE 

 GOOD RESULTS. 



[The following letter was rather a puzzler; and, 

 although we believed the quality of the winter stores 

 had something to do with the failure, we decided 

 to submit the question to a number of experts on 

 cellar wintering. We have not received replies 

 from all to whom we wrote; but those which have 

 come in up to date are appended. — Ed.] 



I am very much disappointed with results 

 of wintering bees in my cellar, which I 

 thought was an ideal repository for that pur- 

 pose. The cellar is under my residence, 

 built of stone, has a cement floor, and keeps 

 a temperature of near the 45 mark; but with 

 all this my bees are restless. Last winter 



