1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



139 



ALFALFA CAN NOT BE PLOWED UNDER. 



Don't assure anybody that lucerne (alfalfa) can 

 \)e plowed up as readily as clover. The roots are 

 much harder, and will grow after being plowed un- 

 der. They are carefully picked out of each furrow 

 us it is plowed, and carted off. Kev. I). Peebles. 



Bountiful, Utah, Feb. 1. 



bees fighting among themselves, and the 

 remedy. 



I see in January 1 Glej* ntngs (page 'Z:l), that D. D. 

 Buriows speaks of his beer ighting among: them- 

 selves. I have, at three diiVeieiit times, had a colo- 

 ny of bees become queenless when there were nei- 

 ther eggs nor larva' to raise a queen from, and 

 they would fight till the ground was covered with 

 dead and dying bees, when a frame containing eggs 

 and brood put a stop to all the trouble, and they 

 went to work all right. N. A. E. Ellis. 



Rail, Mo., Jan. 16. 



WIDE TOP-BARS AND NO HONEY-BOARD. 



I have never used a slatted honey-board nor sep- 

 arators. I ship my honey to a city market, and it 

 always brings the highest price. The top-bars of 

 my frames are '■'•» thicK and one inch wide, spaced 

 is in. apart, with a beespace above the frames. 1 

 use a chaff hive, and set the super on the brood- 

 chamber, without any kind of honey-board be- 

 tween it and the frames. There are a few brace- 

 combs built between the frames and super, but 

 only a few. There has never been a section with 

 brood in it. William Withrow. 



Paint Valley, O., Jan. 33. 



[If your top-bars were a little thicker you would 

 have no brace-combs.] 



0a^ QaEg3Fie]\i.g@;)[, 



With Replies from our best Autliorities on Bees. 



All queries sent In for this department should be briefly 

 stated, and free from any possible ambiguity. The question 

 or qu.estions should be written upon a separate slip of paper, 

 and marked ," For Our Question-Box. " 



QaESTiOM 154.— a. What >>izi: of hvood-nott do you 

 prefer! Is it material whether the Jirouil-nest is cidiic- 

 al or not? h. Oive your reasons hriclly for odoiMng 

 the, hrood-nest you are usimj. 



a. 1 use a 10-frame Simplicity - Langstroth. b. 

 Because the majority use it, and I am anxious to 

 see a standard frame used by all. 



Louisiana. E. C. P. L. Viallon. 



Seven to eight of our frames in the spring; six 

 afterward; not material, b. Experience. In the 

 spring, give as many as the queen will fill; after- 

 ward, as many as she will keep full. 



New York. C. P. H. Elwood. 



a. About 3000 cubic inches. For the purpose of a 

 brood-nest alone, without any other consideration, 

 I do not think the shape of the brood-nest is materi- 

 «,1. b. Because I think it is about the right size, 

 and because it suits me. 



Illinois. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



a. 13?4Xl3?£ inches inside the^frames; 8 frames to 

 a hive. I think it is of less importance than some 

 of us imagine, b. I could not do it. I presume it 

 was a matter of accident with me at first, as it is 

 ■with most bee-keepers. 



Ohio. N. W. H. R. BOARDMAN. 



Eight Langstroth frames. Twelve Gallup. New 

 Heddon. I think the latter best for comb honey. 

 The others are good also for comb honey, which I 

 believe pays best here. 



Michigan. C. A. J. Cook. 



a. About 1600 cubic inches, or nearly a foot cube, 

 b. Because bees can be managed so as to secure the 

 largest cash profit from such a brood-nest, id my 

 opinion. 



New York. C. G. M. Doolittle. 



a. Ten or more Langstroth frames. If I worked 

 for comb honey I should prefer 8 or 10 such frames, 

 b. The first reason is, because it was the one almost 

 exclusively used in this locality when I came here, 

 and I bought my first bees, on coming here, in such 

 a hive. If I make any more they will be larger. 



Ohio. N. W. A. B. Mason. 



a. Langstroth. I suspect cubical might be a little 

 better for bees, but not for the bee-keeper. I adopt- 

 ed it because Vandervort, the foundation-mill man, 

 when he left Marengo, sold out his hives to me, and 

 it is so nearly the Langstroth size I have never 

 changed, although I may yet. 



Illinois. N. C. C. Miller. 



a. An 8-frame Langstroth hive. Other things be- 

 ing equal, I should prefer a round or cubical brood- 

 nest as being the best shape to economize the heat 

 of the bees; but the advantages are only slight, b. 

 I prefer the shallow frame, on account of greater 

 ease of manipulation. It makes the hive more 

 spread out, and less likely to be upset; there is less 

 oscillation of the combs in moving the hives about. 



California. S. W. R. Wilkin. 



a. One holding 13 Gallup frames. Probably bees 

 would cluster to better advantage in a hive ap- 

 proaching the cubic form; but a slight variation 

 from this form, such as the Gallup or L. hives, have 

 given satisfactory results in wintering, b. My rea- 

 son, first, for using the Gallup hive, was, that I 

 bought a lot of bees in them; and my reasons, last, 

 are, that I have tried nothing that suits me as well. 



Wisconsin. S. W. S. I. Freeborn. 



Seven Simplicity frames. I think the shape 

 which this gives is better than the same space in 

 cubical form would be. A small and nearly globu- 

 lar nest in one end, in early spring, seems to be a 

 little better located than it could be in a cubical 

 hive; and expansion endwise is simpler than taking 

 possession of new frames. Same of the winter nest, 

 b. I grew into it in the course of work from year to 

 year. 



Ohio. N. W. E. E. Hasty. 



a. 16M long by 13 V wide by 11 deep. I believe the 

 nearer cubical the better, b. Because I prefer a 

 short frame; and as 11 frames require the proper 

 length of box to take on my clamps holding 1-lb. 

 sections; and this brood-box seems to contain just 

 about the proper amount of comb surface for the 

 queen to fill with eggs and keep full by the time 

 clover blooms here in this locality. Other localities 

 might require larger or smaller brood-nests. 



Vermont. N. W. A. E. Manum. 



a. I prefer a large single-story hive, allowing the 

 bees themselves to size the brood-nest. This ap- 

 plies, of course, to the production of extracted 

 honey. It would be difficult to give brief reasons 

 for my preference, and I do not think it necessary. 



