1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



769 



Heads of Grain 



from Different Fields 



Spacing Danzeabaker Frames Wider Apart; Glass 

 Hive-covers. 



In your answer to X., p. 597, Sept. 15, on spacing 

 closed-end frames, I was surprised that you who 

 have an answer for any thing fell down as you di-J. 

 All you have to do is to cut your metal spacers In 

 the middle, nail them on the frames, and — there you 

 are: no tilting and no waiting to get them all in be- 

 fore putting in any comb-spacer. 



My cover to hive or super I think away ahead of 

 any thing you advertise. It is a pane of glass 14x17. 

 with VA s. % rim grooved close to one edge for the 

 glass on top of this 1% piece. Breaking over the 

 joints at the corners is a rim IxYz. nailed to the oth- 

 er, giving aspace of h in., in addition to hive-space. 

 This arrangement beats the Hill device: and in in- 

 troducing a caged queen, ample room is provided 

 in which to lay her, and you can -see what is going 

 on too. Xine times out often, with this view of any 

 hive or super there is no need of opening a hive at 

 all. These glass covers cost less than your boards. 

 A box of glass with 30 panes, delivered, costs S'i.SO, 

 or a trifle over 8 cts. per gla.ss. In a box this year 

 there were no broken ones at all. 



Woburn, Mass. E. C. Newell. 



[Your plan of spacing Danzenbaker frames fur- 

 ther apart is excellent: but there is one other thing 

 we did not mention, and which you apparently 

 overlooked: namel.v, when you space clo.sed-end 

 Danzenbaker frames apart so that the bees can go 

 between them, you will encounter a serious diffi- 

 culty: and that is, the bees will glue the space back 

 of the frames to the end of the hive. When the clos- 

 ed ends of the frames come in contact, the bees can 

 only reach the crack that separates the frames, but 

 can not get at the space behind the frames. If you 

 will try your plan in a regular Danzenbaker hive, 

 we think you will be disgusted with it after you 

 have used it a couple of seasons. It would work 

 satisfactorily enough for a couple of months, per- 

 haps. 



In the same way. propolis would besmear the 

 glass covers so that they would soon be opaque. 

 The great objectien to glass is its coldness. It car- 

 ries away too much oi the heat of the cluster to the 

 outside corners and edges of the hive. Glass is a 

 splendid conductor of heat, while wood is one of 

 the very best non-conductors. Aside from that, 

 glass is too fragile for use in the cover of a hive. 

 Try a few of them before you adopt them on a large 

 scale, and we think you will see that they are not 

 very satisfactory. — Ed.] 



Beginners' Questions. 



1. Is there any objection to painting hives with 

 yellow ocher? 



2. In double-walled hives, which is considered bet- 

 ter — a dead-air space or packing? 



3. Will a full colony work as well with a queen- 

 cell as with a laying queen? 



4. Which of the following would you advise for 

 one who wishes to produce extracted honey with as 

 little swarming as possible? The Jumbo brood hive, 

 the twelve-frame Langstroth. or the ten-frame l>ang- 

 stroth, and enlarge the brood-chamber with a shal- 

 low extracted-super. 



5. What is the best way to give a colony run for 

 extracted honey an upper entrance? 



6. In supplying a colony with a cell, how long a 

 time should elapse after removing the queen before 

 giving the cell? 



7. Is there a double-walled hive with a loose bot- 

 tom on the market? 



Peninsula, O., Oct, 10. A. C. Ames. 



[1. If you never expect to paint with any other 

 paint, yellow ocher will be all right, perhaps: but 

 you could never put any other kind of paint over 

 it, as It is so hard that oil will not penetrate it 

 enough to make ordinary paint hold. Wood primed 

 with yellow ocher is unfit for ordinary painting. 



2. We have always considered the double-walled 

 hives in which packing material is used superior to 

 a dead-air-spaced hive, lor the reason that It Is diffi- 



cult to make an air-spaced hive that, after a few 

 years, will not crack, open up at the joints, etc, let- 

 ting in drafts. Futhermore, packing material serves 

 to hold the heat to some extent, and at certain sea- 

 sons of the year this is quite an advantage. 



3. A colony will not work as well with a queen- 

 cell as with a laying queen. A virgin is better than 

 a cell, but still not as good as a laying queen, so far 

 as the working of the colony is concerned, 



4. All things considered, we would recommend 

 the ten-frame Langstroth hive, either the single- 

 walled or double-walled pattern, depending on 

 whether the bees are to be wintered in a cellar or 

 out of doors on their summer stands. 



5. The best way to provide an upper entrance is 

 to slide the first super above the brood-chamber 

 forward enougn to leave a space between the ends 

 of the brood-chamber and super. If an entrance at 

 the back is not desired, a strip may be nailed over 

 it at that part. 



6. There is no reason why you could not place a 

 cell in a hive immediately after destroying the old 

 queen. By the time the young queen emerges the 

 bees will realize their queenlessness enough so that 

 they will be apt to treat the new comer kindly. If 

 the queen has been destroyed several days before, 

 however, no pasteboard need be left over the candy. 



7. Some of the manufacturers are now making a 

 double-walled chafl-packed hive with a loo.se bot- 

 tom.— Ed,] 



Wintering Over a Surplus of Extra Queens; is Pol- 

 len Needed in the Winter? 



1. Is there any possible way that queens might be 

 wintered with a colony of bees? Could not some 

 kind of cage be constructed out of excluding zinc 

 so that the bees might pass in and out as they pleas- 

 ed, and yet the queens would be confined and sepa- 

 rated from their rivals? 



2. Can drones from laying workers fertilize 

 queens? 



3. When bees carry pollen. Is It always a sign that 

 a queen is present? 



4. What are the objections to beet sugar for win- 

 ter feed? what are the methods for discriminating? 



5. Do bees carry pollen and honey at the same 

 trip? 



6. I cured my bees of American foul brood .Sept. 

 1, by the McEvoy plan, taking combs and every 

 thing away from them. I have fed them up for win- 

 ter; but what will they do without pollen? Can 

 they get enough before wint'-r? and will they be 

 able to live until spring without It? Would you 

 advise artificial pollen? 



7. Can the combs upon which the bees have died 

 In the winter from starvation or freezing be used 

 again with safety? If so, how can the bees that are 

 lodged in the cells heads foremost be gotten out? 



Florence, Xeb., Oct. 11. A. C. Hansen. 



[1. We do not believe you would find it practical 

 to attempt wintering a surplus of queens in nur- 

 sery-cages, for. somehow or other, the extra queens 

 die. probably because they are not taken care of by 

 the bees. If you have an ideal cellar, and are .bill- 

 ing to spend the time, you will not have much dif- 

 ficulty In wintering surplus queens if you form a 

 lot of nuclei and winter the queens in them. Some- 

 times the results are unsatisfactory: but If you are 

 careful we think you can succeed. 



2. It is a disputed point as to whether drones from 

 laying workers are capable of fertilizing a queen or 

 whether they are the equal of drones reared under 

 the average normal circumstances. Since there is 

 a lack of positive proof, the safest way is not to use 

 such drones. They are usually undersized any way, 

 on account of having been reared in worker-cells. 



:3. When bees carry pollen it is usually a sign that 

 there is a laying queen, but not always, as occasion- 

 al bees might bring in pollen: but usually, when a 

 colony is working vigorously bringing in pollen, a 

 queen is present. 



4. In this country we can rarely be sure whether 

 the sugar we are feeding is made originall.y from 

 beets or sugar cane: and as long as we never make 

 any effort to find out. and always have eood results, 

 we think that the beet sugar as refined and put on 

 the market In this country is perfectly safe. 



5. There is no reason why bees may not carry pol- 

 len and honey on the same trip. Whether they do 

 or not. we don't know. 



6. It would be better if you could secure combs of 

 pollen from .some other colonies, and give to such 

 colonies as have none. The bees will be very slow 



