1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



637 



pound of honey, I wish he would just go ahead 

 and tell us how to prevent the bees puiting a 

 little more than a pound into the section during 

 a good honey-flow; and, vice versa, during a 

 scant flow of nectar. My bees are now putting 

 17 or 18 oz. of honey into the Alix\% section; 

 later they will put less than a pound into the 

 sections. How can we help it ? A. B. Mellen. 

 Acton, Cal., July 13. 



CULLING OUT UNDESIRABLE QUEENS. . 



In kindness to those who can not afl'ord to 

 lose a good honey-flow by poor stock. I urge 

 that Gleanings "continue to insist upon my 

 motto: Supersede any queen that will swarm 

 out from under empty sections, and raise no 

 daughters from her, provided the super is all 

 right. To learn this, cost me some dollars in 

 years gone by. This year I have a daughter of 

 an imported queen to supersede (a magnificent 

 queen) on account of contrariness in comb- 

 building. Another daughter Is a splendid comb- 

 builder, but she does not finish her sections 

 until a long time on the hive, and always leaves 

 a few uncapped cells, with unfinished spots 

 around the edges. 



Another daughter of the same imported 

 queen built but few burr-combs, even with the 

 old saggy frames; finished her sections neatly 

 all around the edges as she went along; swarm- 

 ed once; left just one queen-cell behind her, 

 went to work like tigers in the new hive, draw- 

 ing out my brood foundation: worker-cells 

 clear to the" bottom -bar. I need not tell you 

 I am taking eggs from that queen for all super- 

 seding. Of course, when I speak of the queen 

 doing work I mean her bees, her household, her 

 army, the same as Grant took Vicksburg. 



Ingram, Pa. Philo S. Dilvv^orth. 



FLAT C0VP:RS WARP. 



In a late issue of Gleanings you ask if the 

 flat covers of the Dovetailed hive warp. They 

 do in early spring, here. I have 20 of the first 

 you made, and 40 you made the next year. 

 Many of the end-cleats are cracked so that I 

 will use them for bottom-boards, as they are 

 unfit for covers now. Warping causes but little 

 trouble during the summer months; but in the 

 early spring it allows the heat to escape, and 

 sometimes the robbers get in. As a remedy I 

 would suggest that you use a cutter-head in 

 grooving these end-cleats, cutting them smooth. 

 Before nailing them, give the end of the cover- 

 board and groove in the cleat a good coat of 

 paint; this will keep the water from swelling 

 the joints, which, in my opinion, is what cracks 

 the end-cleats and weakens them, allowing the 

 board to cup. If I use any more flat covers I 

 will test this. E. F. Quu;ley. 



lUnionville, Mo., July 37.; 



[Any one can. just before putting the cleats in 

 the covers, paint the groove and the end of the 

 cover. This, doubtless, would be quite an im- 

 provement in localities where there is trouble 

 from warping.] 



THE FERGUSON QUEEN-CAGE — IIOW DO THE 

 BEES GET TO IT ? 



I do not understand how the bees are to get 

 into, or the queen get out of, Ferguson's cage, 

 pictured on page 506. Please explain it. From 

 the picture, I think it a tight wire box with 

 cover. E. D. Howell. 



New Hampton, N. Y., Aug. 1. 



[We had not noticed, until friend Howell 

 called our attention to it, that our engraver 

 made a mistake in sliowing th(^ F'erguson cage 

 on page .566. The blocks A A should have 

 conif^ up flush with the wire cloth, and an open- 



ing should have been made through the wire 

 cloth at B. The space between the two blocks 

 should then be filled with candy. The bees 

 enter between the two points A A, and eat out 

 the candy up as far as the perforated zinc C. 

 Here they gain access to the queen. After the 

 bees have become acquainted with her in small 

 squads at a time, the candy will, in the mean 

 time, have been eaten out, so the queen can 

 pass between the sticks and escape from the 

 cage.] 



THE JENKINS CAGE FOR INTRODUCING. 



We wish to call your attention to one thing. 

 We have been using a little queen-cage made 

 by J. M. Jenkins, Wetumpka, Ala., for an in- 

 troducing-cage, for three seasons, and have 

 never lost a queen with it. Can you account 

 for it? We believe it is because the queen will 

 not come out of this cage as readily after the 

 candy is eaten out as she will most of the other 

 cages in use. You know with the Benton cage, 

 and almost all others, that, when the candy is 

 eaten out, the bees are out. It is not so with 

 this cage (the Dixie), with the hole in the wire 

 screen. With this cage the candy is eaten out, 

 and the bees enter the cage; but there is no 

 danger of their hurting the queen while she is 

 in the cage, and she can not find the hole in the 

 center of the wire very easily, and she will re- 

 main in the cage so long as there is any danger. 

 If that is not, the secret, we do not know what 

 it is; but we do know that, when we put queens 

 in with this cage, we are just as sure to find 

 them laying in five or six days as that we put 

 them there. Cleveland Bros. 



Decatur, Miss. 



PUTTING IN STARTERS BY HAND. 



I saw a novel way of putting starters in sec- 

 tions, descnbed by Rambler, and I thiuk I have 

 a way that is as good, or 

 better, for small fry. as 

 one does not have to fit 

 up any thing. Just place 

 the sections on a table in 

 the flat, groove side up, 

 and cut starters the de- 

 sired size, and place at 

 the left hand. Take a 

 piece of wood in the right 

 hand, made as in diagram, and kept wet. Place 

 a starter on one .section, and press down with the 

 paddle; then put a starter on No. 2. and press; 

 go across them all in this manner. Then be- 

 gin at the last one and fold up the section, 

 placing in a super .so the starter will hang 

 down: and the weight of the wax, if the room 

 is warm, will bring it into place. I find this 

 very rapid, and it does not require a perfect cut 

 of the edge of the starter, as it does when glued 

 in. M. C. Di.MiCK. 



Bowling Green, O., July 29. 



r\. 



A L_. 



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the tomlinson closed -end- fr.a. me hive; 

 questions answered. 



A. I. Root:— I fe(>l like returning you many 

 thanks for your notice of my " Ideal " hive in 

 your Trade Notes. It would destroy, in a great 

 measure, the utility of the hive to have the 

 rods put in the other way— to press the frames 

 together. To loosen the frames sidewise re- 

 quires a good deal more room or loosening 

 capacity than endwise. Only a very few turns 

 of the nuts loosen the sides— say V, or, at most, 

 li of an inch: while, to renu)ve the frames 

 apart easily, re(iuires j.j to 1 inch or more. 

 Wedges close the frames together much more 

 rapidly than screws, and are equally ef'ticient. 



Youdo not see how the end-board is wedged 

 up against the frames left in the hive alter 



