:.'; I 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apk. 1. 



fact that the shake-out function Is and has been 

 practiced successfully by the Carniolan bee- 

 keepers, and was also employed by Mr. Benton 

 in making successful catches of queens, goes a 

 long way toward establishing its practicability. 

 By the way, is it not a fact that Carniolans are 

 better adapted to shaking out of a hive than 

 Italians are ? The latter don't " shake worth a 

 cent." 



TH15 BICYCLE AS A NECESSARY ADJUNCT FOR 

 THE OUT-APIARY BUSINESS. 



On page 260 of this issue, our old correspond- 

 ent J. A. Green has a valualile article on the bi- 

 cycle—its probable future and its value to the 

 bee-keeper. We Indorse every word of it. and 

 we wish to emphasizeespecially what he says to 

 the effect that a wheel is not an expensive lux- 

 ury, but one of the " most practically useful in- 

 ventions ever produced." We would no more 

 think of managingaseriesof out-apiaries, with- 

 out a bicycle, than we would think of going 

 without an overcoat during winter. They are 

 both comforts in their way. and. as we view it. 

 equally necessary. You doii'l believe it, do you? 

 May be you will some time. But you say you 

 can not carry luggage to the extent of .50 or 100 

 lbs. Our own experience, as expressed in these 

 columns, has shown emphatically that this is a 

 mistake. As we said in our essay at the Michi- 

 gan State Bee-keepers' Association a year ago. 

 by a little forethought and a little head work one 

 can arrange matters so that the iieavy carting 

 can bo done a good deal with a livery team in 

 the spring and fall: and in the meantime the 

 apiaries can be visited, and 25, 50, or even 100 

 lbs. can be carried back and forth quite easily 

 on the wheel. The bicycle will nearly if not 

 quite take the place of a light horse and buggy. 

 It will cost only half as much, and the cost of 

 maintenance is practically nothing. The bees 

 maysti-.g like hornets, but the wheel pays no 

 attention to it. It is uever obstreperous, and 

 can be run for all the life there is in it. without 

 being inhumane to it. Our last trip last fall 

 was a run of 42 miles in three hours and a half. 

 If you are not a bicycle-rider you'll not believe 

 this. [ 



TAYLOR S METHOD OF FASTENING SHEETS OF 

 FOUNDATION TO SECTIONS. 



R. L. Taylor describes a very simple and 

 practicable method of putting foundation into 

 sections, in the last Bee-heepers'' Review. As the 

 editor has boiled down the description of the 

 modux operandi, and the tools, we reproduce it 

 here : 



It works upon the hot-iron-melted-wax plan. At- 

 tached to the upper sui'face of a Ijoai-d are perhaps 

 twenty little, nearly square, blocks of wood, each 

 exactly larg'e enough for a section to slip down over 

 it and leave a % space at one side. We may be get- 

 ting a little ahead of our story, but we may as well 

 say, right here, that, when a set;tion is placed over a 

 block, it is so placed that the V space cdmes next to 

 tlie top-bar. The upper surface of tliese blocks is not 

 level; one side of each block being peiliaps half an 

 inch higher than the opposite side. Upon tlie upper 

 surface of each block is a little sliding platform I4 

 of an incli in thickness, and neaily as la7-ge as the 

 block. When one of these little platfoinis is slid, it 

 " slides down hill " upon the slanting surface of the 

 block underneath. To keep these little platforms in 

 place, a % square strip of wood is tacked to the bot- 

 tom of each. Each strip of wood extends nearly the 

 whole width of a platform, and tits into a corres- 

 ponding groove cut into the block beneath: 



The work of fastening foundation into sections is 

 performed as follows: Upon each of these platforms 

 is placed a square piece of foundation that will near- 

 ly till a section. After putting on a piece of founda- 

 tion, a section is slipped on over the block; and the 

 height of the block and platfoi'm combined is such 

 at the lower edge that, when the fingers are placed 

 upon the foundation, and the foundation and plat- 



form " slide down hill," the lower edge of the foun- 

 dation c(jmes in contact with the center of the under 

 side of the top-bar of the section. Before the sliding 

 operation is performed, however, a piece of hotiiou, 

 shaiictl something like a broad, thin chisel, or a 

 square-pointed tiowel, is slipped down between the 

 top-bar of the section and the edge of the founda- 

 tion; then the latter Is in-cssed against the ii-on, and, 

 as the iron is quickly witlidraM^n, the melted edge of 

 the foundation is lirougbtin contact with the top- 

 bar of the section. Hy the time the twentieth piece 

 of foundation is fastened, the operator can begin at 

 No. 1, ;ind remove the sections in the same order 

 that the fovi\idation was put in, i)lacingthem in the 

 supers. The irons for melting the edge of the foun- 

 dation are two in number, one being heated over a 

 gasoline-stove while the other is being used. Each 

 iron is nearly }■& of an inch thick, as wide as the in- 

 side of a section, and furnished with a handle. To 

 each iron is also added, upon the back side, a stop 

 that strikes the edge of the top-bar of the section, 

 thus preventing the iron from being pushed down 

 too far, which would keep the wax in contact with it 

 for too great a length of time during its withdrawal. 



This plan is a modification of the idea con- 

 tained in our Daisy foundation-fastener— with 

 this difference, that the Daisy is a machine and: 

 his is a tool. It has this advantage, that the 

 edges of the sheets have an opportunity to cool 

 and make good contact. We have no difficulty 

 in this line with the Daisy foundation-fastener, 

 except in full sheets, and then we work a little 

 more slowly. Mr. Taylor uses the hand imple- 

 ment very much as a tinner would u.se a solder- 

 ing-iron— when one becomes cool, the other one 

 is used. 



R. L. TAYLOR'S CHITICISMS ON THE SELF-HIVER. 



In the last Bcc hecpcrs' Review, R. L. Taylor 

 has an interesting article on self -hivers versus 

 queen-traps. He has been accustomed, he says, 

 to look upon the struggles of the half-dozen in- 

 ventions of self-hivers as a source of amuse- 

 ment; and he can not see that, so far, they even 

 promise any thing. The queen-trap, he thinks, 

 will accomplish all that can be expected of the 

 self-hiver. be mtich cheaper, and easier of in- 

 spection of what has been actually accomplish- 

 ed: and he adds: 



If there has l)een swarming where traps are used, 

 the apiarist, by walking rapidly along the rows of 

 hives, discovers at a glance where it has been, but 

 how is it with the hivers? Suppose you have an out- 

 apiary of 160 colonies, you must raise at best 1.50 cov- 

 ers to determine where the swarming has occurred; 

 or if the Pratt hiver, the one that seems to be in the 

 lead, is used, you must lift 250 old liives with the su- 

 pers, heavily laden, as they are likely to be, to deter- 

 mine from which hives swarms have issued, for the 

 hiver is put under the old colony; and tins every 

 time tlie apiary is visited, if justice is done. The ed- 

 itor of Gleanings says of Pratt's tiering-up hiver: 

 "The lifting of the upper story is no great objec- 

 tion." Whew! I feel exhausted at the very thought 

 of it. And then suppose three or four or five swarms 

 had come out at the same time and had united, as 

 they would surely do if they were at all like mine, 

 and had goim into one of the hives together, you 

 would be sure the hiver was a great success, but 

 you would be quite oblivious of the three of four 

 queens hid away in the corners of as many other 

 hives with a teaspoonful of bees each. 



This looKs as if our friend R. L. had rather 

 "laid us out," and perhaps he has; but when we 

 spoke of •'lifting'" the upper story, we remem- 

 ber we did not say just what we meant. What 

 we have been in the habit of doing is, not to lift 

 but to slide the story around " cat-a-cornered,'" 

 and a glance down one of the corners shows 

 what has been going on. Not desiring increase, 

 we let 'em alone whether they swarmed or not. 

 But our expei'ience last summer taught us that 

 we do not need to do even the sliding act. The 

 Pratt hivers that we used catight the bees— yes, 

 the whole colony — and, in a majority of cases, 

 we just simply left them alone for a week, for 

 it niade no difference to us whether the bees had 



