390 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



less, a space of 5000 to 6000 inches will do no 

 harm, if there be no difficulty in partitioning 

 off the superfluous space." Quinby thought 

 2000 was enough for the brood -nest. An eight- 

 frame dovetail has 1579 inches; a ten-frame, 

 1964. 



Gravejjhokst advises thus with respect to 

 after-swarms. Wait till the first after-swarm is- 

 sues; cut out all queen-ceils, and return the 

 swarm. Friend GravenhorsT. I believe some 

 who desire no increase mi^ht carry the plan 

 still further. Kill or remove the queen of the 

 prime swarm, letting the swarm return, then 

 treat the second swarm as you advise. 



Overeating shortens a man's days in more 

 ways than one. It shortens the number of 

 days, and it shortens the number of waking 

 hours in each, for he must sleep off the effects 

 of the surfeit. [I wish this same sensible good 

 advice had been given me years ago. All the 

 same, I am syid have been profiting by it for the 

 last six months. Better? Of course, I am. I 

 believe at least half the ailments are indirectly 

 traceable to this one thing. — Ed. J 



Uniting. " A colony having a laying queen 

 will accept without any trouble any colony 

 which has been queenless for at least 24 hours. 

 Consequently, if you want to unite two colonies 

 standing side by side, deprive one of its queen; 

 and the next day, or the day following, hang 

 the combs with adhering bees of the one colony 

 in the second story of the other colony, im- 

 mediately above the bees below, and remove 

 the empty stand."— C. F. Muth, in American 

 Bee Journal. 



" Separating swarms when two or three 

 cluster together.— If for three swarms, tier up 

 three hives with an entrance to each on a 

 stand; raise the bottom hive an inch from the 

 board to give the bees room to go in; shake the 

 bees in front of the hives, stop the entrances to 

 the two upper ones, and let them settle for half 

 an hour; then take the top hive and put it on a 

 stand; put the second on another, and let the 

 bottom one remain, and your three swarms and 

 queens are separated."— P. D. Wallace, in the 

 American Dee Journal. 



" We boomed the T-super arrangement in 

 our 1895 catalog harder than ever, putting in a 

 nice wood-cut."— Gleanings, p. 394. Yes, and 

 right under that nice cut you say, " We consid- 

 er the section-holder superior." How's that 

 for booming the T super? No wonder your 

 packers "hardly know what it is." And then 

 you want to make out an old stove fits me! I'll 

 fit you in an old stove if you don't look out. 

 [The quotation taken alone as above doesn't 

 boom the T super very much. But in the same 

 paragraph we refer to others, including your- 

 self, who think the T super the better. The 

 paragraph as a whole gives it a good promi- 

 nence. Perhaps "boom" was too strong a 

 word.— Ed.] 



FEEDING BEES. 



FEEDING BACK TO HAVE UNFINISHED SECTIONS 

 COMPLETED. 



By H. R. Bijardman. 



The last few years have brought to the sur- 

 face considerable discussion in regard to this 

 kind of feeding, and a diversity of opinion still 

 prevails among very good bee-keepers in regard 

 to it. About the only important thing left yet 

 unsettled is, whether it pays or not. There 

 Lave been some figures given the public, upon 

 this question. It is said that figures will not 

 lie. I can not deny it; but they are sometimes 

 manipulated so as to be misleading. I will give 

 you the benefit of my experience and opinions, 

 without figures. 



The object sought is, to follow some plan by 

 which the feed will be stored in the sections as 

 much as possible. This the bees are not dis- 

 posed to do so long as they have room in the 

 combs near the brood-nest. I have tried two 

 plans. One is, to deprive the brood-hive of 

 combs as far as possible, and thus compel stor- 

 ing in the sections. The other is, to deprive 

 the colony of a brood-nest, making them queen- 

 less, with only enough brood to raise a queen. 

 In the first place, I put a swarm upon empty 

 frames with starters only, by shaking them out 

 (or drumming out) from a populous colony, 

 leaving the old colony to raise a young queen. I 

 feed immediately; and as soon as the queen be- 

 gins laying in the newly started combs I put on 

 the sections and continue feeding rapidly for 

 35 days. This gets most of the feed into the 

 sections, excepting that used for brood and 

 comb-building, and a little stored outside of the 

 brood nest in the new combs. These combs 

 will be nice worker-combs mostly, and will, I 

 think, be worth all they cost. 



QUEENLESS COLONIES. 



The second plan — that of depriving the colo- 

 ny of a brood-nest by making it queenless — 

 throws the bees all, or nearly all, into the sec- 

 tions, where there is comb already built, and 

 they will continue the work there mostly, as 

 there seems to be no inducement to build comb 

 in the brood-chamber. The plan I have fol- 

 lowed in my experiments is the same as already 

 given, except that I remove the queen back to 

 the old colony as soon as a few eggs appear in 

 the newly started combs, sufficient to hold the 

 bees and enable them to build queen-cells. I 

 had great hopes for l\\\< plan, and, indeed, it 

 has some advantages. But it must be borne in 

 mind, that, although the bees build but little 

 comb in the brood-chamber, being queenless, 

 the combs will be imperfect, and filled with the 

 feed. To remedy this I cut them out as fast as 



