1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



rests over all. They are wedged up. making a 

 double-walled hive; and when you lift the 

 body off, the frames stay there ready to be 

 separated as you choose. The upper story is 

 made an inch larger all round, or both ways, 

 than the lower, and is shiplapped in the side at 

 the lower edge: and when it is on it fits down 

 on the lower part like a lid, and the super rests 

 on the lower story all round, and keeps the 

 bees entirely away from the joint. It has a 

 bee-space under it. and it comes off easily. I 

 use 9 brood -frames, L. size. The top or roof of 

 this hive is shiplapped on the top story, and 

 has a gable roof for the extractor. I use two 

 brood -chambers with IS frames. vSection-hold- 

 ers work nicely on this hive. 



I want to say here, that salt properly used 

 will cui'e bee-paralysis. I have done it, and 

 can do it again. It must be given to them in 

 the unsealed honey in the combs. 



Gales Creek, Ore., Oct. 14. J. H. Bekry. 



busy for a week killing them. To prevent their 



breeding, clean the stable every day, and spread 



the manure in the sun so it will dry out quickly. 



Fillmore. Cal. J. F. McIntykk. 



PRATT HIVER AND A MISSING QUEEN. 



Mr. Rnot:—Woa\d it be infringing too much 

 on your time to ask you to answer the following 

 question ? I put a Pratt hiver under a hive of 

 bees and an empty hive underneath; and on 

 the 25lh of May about a quart of bees went into 

 it. and, I supposed, the queen with them. I set 

 the under hive on a new stand, giving them a 

 frame of brood and a few empty frames, and 

 also shook about 2 quarts of bees from the orig- 

 inal hive into the new one in question. In a 

 few days T found they (the new one) were start- 

 ing queen-cells, indicating the absence of a 

 queen. Yesterday, May 31st, I examined the 

 original hive and found queen-cells with the 

 sides eaten out. as though a queen had been de- 

 stroyed by a rival, and also sealed queen-cells 

 and a number half built, containing larvas. 

 What, in your opinion, does the condition of 

 that hive indicate, taking the foregoing facts 

 into consideration — I mean in regard to a queen. 

 There are no eggs in either hive, but the origi- 

 nal one has plenty of small larvae. 



Philadelphia, Pa. E. Brubaker. 



[It would be hard to give a' satisfactory 

 answer. We would suggest that the original 

 stock did not cast a swarm and that the surplus 

 of bees simply went into the lower hive, as they 

 will be quite sure to in the event of no swarm. 

 The queen — there is the puzzle. She may have 

 been superseded in the upper hive; she may 

 have been injured in trying to pass the zinc: she 

 may have done a dozen other things. As to the 

 presence of a rival in the lower hive, it may 

 have been the incoming of a queen just fertiliz- 

 ed. Instead of going into her own hive she 

 went into the wrong one. and, of course, com- 

 menced to seal (or, rather, unseal) the fate of 

 her would-be rivals.] 



HOUSE-FLIES ; AVHERE DO THEY COME FROM ? 



How often do we hear people complain, day 

 after day. about the troublesome house-fly I 

 and yet they never take the pains to find out 

 where they are bred. Most ])eople seem to think 

 that flies just come — that they have no power 

 to prevent their coming, and spend their ener- 

 gies the year round in trying to kill them as fast 

 as they come. The truth is, the fly does not go 

 far from where it is bred; and if you live on a 

 farm, say half a mile from a neighbor, at least 

 95 per cent of your flies are bred in your own 

 stable. If your horse-stable has not been clean- 

 ed for a few days, the mnnure. packed solid by 

 the horses' feet, will be found full of maggots 

 about half an inch long. They are the larvcV of 

 the house-fly; and you may depend upon it, if 

 they are not destroyed you will soon have a 

 swarm of flies sufficient to keep the good wife 



A DAIUV HIVE RECOKD OF INCREASE IN CAL- 

 IFORNIA. 



On the morning of April Kith I took 1(3 lbs. of 

 honey out of a super of a colony of hees near my 

 rustic seat under tlie shade of a juniper-tree, 

 and placed a second super on it. as most of the 

 combs in lioth hive and super were full of brood. 

 I then opened up a daily record of increase in 

 weight, a copy of which is given below: 

 Apr Increase May Increase .Juu. Increase 

 16 7 11 11 .5 7 



n 4 12 30 6 7 



18 4 13 10 7 7^ 



19 7 14 13 8 Wi 



20 8'/2 15 10 9 4 

 31 4 16 6 10 6 

 92 1 17 13 11 ,5 

 23 1 18 12 12 3 

 34 3 19 18 13 4 

 2h 5 20 21i/2 14 .5 



26 8 21 12 1.5 .5 



27 4 22 13'4 16 4 



28 23 10 17 3 



29 .T 24 6 is 4 



30 4 2.5 13 19 4 

 May 26 16 20 2 



1 8 2T 13 21 3 



3 13 28 1.5 22 1 



3 17 29 17 23 2 



4 10 30 10 24 2 



5 10 31 8 25 3 



6 10 Jun. 26 314 



7 13 1 7 27 



8 (I 2 6 28 2 



9 3 10 29 1 

 10 13 4 10 30 



I extracted as follows: April 16, 16 lbs.; April 

 30, 44 lbs.; May 9, 73 lbs.; May 16, 75K lbs.; 

 May 34, 88 lbs.: June 3.91; June 15,863<$' lbs.; 

 June 30, 38 lbs. Total. .503. 



The record was not kept properly for a few 

 days in May. as the scales were balanced in the 

 morning, which gave the gross increase with- 

 out taking into account the decrease in weight 

 from night until the next morning, which 

 varied from }., to 43a lbs., which will account for 

 the 50 pounds of increase more than was ex- 

 tracted. 



July 1st this colony was found decreasing 

 rapidly in strength: and upon examination the 

 queen had almost ceased laying, and capped 

 queen-cells were found. Further examination 

 showed young queens laying, and Sept. 12th 

 there was found brood in five frames, with 

 abundant stores for winter, one super having 

 been removed July 1st. This colony of bees 

 was selected to place on scales on account of its 

 "location, and proved to be the best one in my 

 apiary, as my average was 300 lbs. per colony, 

 and I made an increase of 65 colonies from 140. 



Thompson, Cal.. Sept. 20. J. G. Corey. 



A SUGGESTION ON TRANSFERRING. 



In a recent issue I noticed an article about 

 '"transferring bees at the beginning of clover, 

 as there is less honey to transfer." May I sug- 

 gest letting it swarm first, then putting it on a 

 weak colony with second story full of frames? 

 I'ut the box into the third story, with a Porter 

 escape between, which will let the bees go down 

 and build up the weak colony as fast as they 

 hatch. Of course, this plan will work only 

 where the old box hive will go into the mova- 

 ble-frame hive; but as a rule the old boxes will 

 go in. or can be torn away until they will. In 

 this way there is no brood at the end of three 

 weeks, and also no honc^y exc(!pt what is left — 

 usually a few pounds. There are no bees, no 

 honey, "no nothing," except the combs, to 

 transfer. I use the Langstroth hive. 



