386 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



used for years ; and the question is even 

 raised whether there is not an advantage in 

 it. In verj- hot weather, when bees hang 

 out at the entrance in clusters, if the super 

 be shorter tlian the hive, so as to allow a 

 space of i inch at the back end for ventila- 

 tion between the hive and super, the tees 

 in such a hive will not be found hanging 

 out. A curious thing is, that the bees nev- 

 er use this ventilating space as an entrance. 

 If desired, this space can be closed by lay- 

 ing upon it a little pine stick, or the stick 

 can be nailed upon the super by any one 

 who prefers never to have the space open. 

 Whether it be desirable or not to have the 

 super shorter than the hive, the advocate of 

 the T super says : " There are two things 

 settled upon as standard— the L. frame and 

 the -4i section. Both of these I must have, 

 and I must have the best thing to hold each ; 

 and if they are not exactly of the same 

 length, I'll adapt them to each other the 

 easiest way I can. I have used T supers by 

 the hundred, shorter than the hive, with no 

 difficulty, and just for the matter of looks I 

 do not propose to be satisfied with any infe- 

 rior surplus arrangement in place of what I 

 believe to be the best at present known, the 

 T super.'' 



PAGE 274.— PREVENTION OF SWARMING. 



As mentioned in Dool ttle's comment No. 

 SO, Hetherington, Elwood, and some others, 

 have practiced caging or removing the 

 queen during the honey harvest. Of course, 

 no swarm will issue regularly without a 

 queen in the hive; and if no cells are allow- 

 ed to hatch, the i)revention is accomplished. 

 When the harvest has commenced, bef' re 

 giving the bees a ctiance to swarm, the 

 <iueen is caged in the hive, or, perhaps, 

 preferably given to a nucleus. If queen- 

 cells are not already started they will cer- 

 tainly be started on removal of the Cjueen ; 

 and if the queen i-; caged they will just as 

 certainly be started iu a short time. In any 

 case they must be cut out before any possi- 

 ble danger of hatching out. If all cells are 

 destroyed at the time of removing the 

 queen, then a second time, eight days later, 

 and a third time eight days later still, there 

 will be no possibility of any swarming. The 

 advocates of this plan claim that the bees 

 that would be raised from eggs laid at the 

 time during which the queen is caged or re- 

 moved would be too late to be of any ser- 

 vice in gathering the harvest, hence only 

 consumers. 



On the other hand, tliere are those who 

 question whether the bees work just as in- 

 dustriously without a laying queen in the 

 hive. One difficulty about the ])lan is, that 

 it is about impossil)le to be sure that no 

 queen-cell has been missed ; and a missed 

 queen cell gives rise to very undesirable 

 complications. 



PAGE 276.— AUTOMATIC SWAKM-HI VING. 



Henry Alley has invented an arrange- 

 ment tiiat is intended to hive a swarm of 

 bees in an empty hive, and set them to worlv 

 iill right, esen if no one i-i within a mile of 

 them. A properly shaped (lueen-excluder 

 connects the entrance of the hive contain- 

 ing the colony with t!ie entrance of the hive 



to receive the swarm. When the swarm is- 

 sues, the (lueen can not get through the per- 



THE ALLEY AUTOMATIC SAVARMER. 



f orated zine, but can easily get into the 

 empty hive, where she will be found by the 

 returning swarm. 



AVOODEN BR00D-C03IBS. 



Brood combs of wood have been invented 

 and manufactured by a Mr. Aspinwall, of 

 Three Hi vers, Mich. Cells of the proper 

 width and depth are bored by a nicely ad- 

 justed gang of drills, and the whole coated 

 with beeswax. The claim made for such 

 combs (and they have been sufficiently tried 

 to show that bees will accept and use them) 

 is, that it makes a sure thing of liaving the 

 brood-nest entirely tilled with worker comb, 

 there being no possibility of raising any 

 drones, and tliat without drones no swarm- 

 ing will occur. It is asserted, however, by 

 others, that absence of drones will not pre- 

 vent swarming, and that drones may be ad- 

 mitted from other hives. As yet these 

 combs have not been tested by a great 

 many, and the difficulty of making any but 

 one size stands in the way of any general 

 testing. 



PAGE 72. — RIDDING THE SUPERS OF REES. 



The Dibbern bee-escape, an engraving of 

 which appears below, i)romises much. The 

 cones, instead of being perpendicular, as in 

 the Reese, are horizontal, so that they do 

 not stick out in tlie way of the sections. 



THE DIBI'.EUN BEE-ESCAPE. 



The horizontal escape is now being made so 

 that it will drop down into a hole in an inch 

 board, leaving both surfaces flat. We have 

 tried it to a limited extent, and find that it 

 will work very nicely. Its chief advantage, 

 howdver, will be found in extracting. The 

 esc ii)e is put between the body of the hive 

 and super in such a way tliat the bees will 

 pass downward into the brood-nest. If the 

 escape be put on at night, the next morning 

 there Avill be no bees, or, at most, very few, 



