548 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



hurrah!" "expresses the idea just as clearly 

 and forcibly." Do you c—c— catch on? — Ed.] 



The plan of sending out with all supplies 

 the right kind and quantity of nails to put the 

 supplies together is one of the real comforts of 

 a bee-keeper's life. Heretofore It was always 

 a trouble to know what was the best nail for a 

 particular purpose; and then when I did think 

 I knew, likely as not I couldn't find at the store 

 the kind I wanted. 



You ASK, Mr. Editor, p. 51:^, "How would it 

 do to have smaller membership fees and a 

 larger membership?" Just the thing. Have 

 the cost so small and the gain so large that 

 every bee-keeper will want to be a member, 

 even if he never attends a meeting. [This is 

 an important question. I'd like to get expres- 

 sions from others.— Ed.] 



More supersedures are observed with clip- 

 ped queens than with whole wings, perhaps 

 two to one; for the man who has his queens 

 clipped observes every case of supersedure, and 

 the others are not noticed one time in five. But 

 the queens with whole wings are superseded all 

 the same. fWe never clip, but our queens get 

 "superseded all the same." — Ed.] 



Notwithstanding the dearth, June 8 I 

 found at the Wilson apiary two colonies with 

 queen-cells. I thought I'd settle their hash, 

 and took away all brood and honey but two 

 frames. Would you believe it? July 3 I found 

 the insane things had both swarmed. At any 

 rate, both old queens were gone, and a young 

 queen had just emerged. [You shouldn't say 

 "settle their hash," because it is slang. Eh? — 

 Ed.] 



Dr. Rambler thinks I wouldn't overeat if I 

 deserted my wife and lived on crackers and 

 cheese. I'm sure I shouldn't for long. A crack- 

 er, with its faint aroma of old grease, is one of 

 the things I abominate, and 



" Cheese is a mighty elf, 

 Digesting all things but itself." 



If you'll excuse me, Rambler, I'll stick to the 

 wife and the delicious bread she makes. [So 

 shall I.— Ed.] 



Anent that item on p. 526, Isn't it true that 

 bees always think they have a queen when they 

 swarm ? I had a queenless colony swarm, but 

 the queen was removed not more than two or 

 three hours previous, and I think they hadn't 

 missed her. How long had your bees been 

 queenless? [Some time; and that morning, 

 previously all brood was taken away. We 

 were preparing them for cell-building, and we 

 wanted to get them fairly " howling " for brood 

 and cells. — Ed.] 



How THICK is worker comb? On p. 525 Hed- 

 don calls it \^; Cowan says "about X;" Da- 

 dant's Langstroth "about 1 inch," and Prof. 

 Cook wisely says it varies. I think new comb 

 will be found Ji thick, (is it ever less?) increas- 



ing in thickness with years of brood-rearing 

 till it reaches one inch or more. The increased 

 thickness is all in the septum, the depth of the 

 cells being always the same. [Seven-eighths of 

 an inch is a fair average for brooding-combs 

 not over five years. I have measured scores of 

 brood-combs from different hives, and have 

 found them to register almost exactly seven- 

 eighths. — Ed.] 



Our Hive Symposium. 



SIZE AND SHAPE OF BROOD-CHAMBEKS. 



ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF DEEP HIVES FOB 

 BROOD -REARING; DIVISIBLE BROOD-CHAM- 

 BERS NOT A SUCCESS. 



By J. F. Mclntyre. 



Finding the ten-frame L. brood -chambers too 

 small for this locality, Mr. R. A. Holley and 

 myself have been experimenting this season 

 with the object of deepening our brood-cham- 

 bers without altering the other dimensions, so 

 we could use all the combs and hives which we 

 have on hand for supers, in case we decided to 

 make a change. Mr. Holley was one of Mr. 

 Heddon's pupils, and was prejudiced in favor 

 of a double or horizontally divisible brood- 

 chamber, so we tried two experiments. We 

 each made a number of hives with 10 frames 7 

 inches deep, and several with 10 frames 12 

 inches deep, both the same length as the L. 

 frame. After running through the breeding- 

 season we have compared notes and agree ex- 

 actly. The verdict is, that Dadant is right and 

 Heddon is wrong; and we are both very posi- 

 tive that we want no horizontally divisible 

 brood-chambers in our apiaries. On the other 

 hand, we are both so pleased with the frames a 

 foot deep outside I fear that, if some one doesn't 

 hold us, we shall change all of our brood-cham- 

 bers to that depth. 



One thing that pleased us, and was rather a 

 surprise, was the fact that the bees stored little 

 if any more honey above the brood in the deep 

 frames than they did in the shallow or L. 

 frames. This gave the deep frames nearly 

 twice the brood capacity of the L. frame, al- 

 though only a fourth deeper. The shallow 

 frames were a disappointment in every way. 

 We could not produce nearly as much brood 

 and bees in them, by any kind of manipulation, 

 as we could in the deep hives. The queen did 

 not pass readily from one section to the other; 

 and, while she was laying in one section, the 

 bees would store honey in the other. Alternat- 

 ing did no good. They would not remove the 

 honey from the lower section, and place it in 



