492 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



July 



Unsealed brood is ordinarily only I inch 

 thick and requires more care, attention, and 

 warmth than does sealed brood. The aver- 

 age unsealed brood is i in. thick. There- 

 fore, in l|-inch spacing there is i inch be- 

 tween the surfaces, and plenty of room for 

 the bees to back in and out of the cells. 

 After it is sealed, I in. is enough, I think. 

 Now, while I would admit the facts about 

 the thickness of comb and brood, I would not 

 quite agree with the conclusions you draw 

 therefrom ; If spacing I should still think is 

 enough. Some of the bee-keepers in New 

 York, using standing frames and fixed dis- 

 tances, and having had their frames spaced 

 H inches apart, have now abandoned that 

 spacing, and have adopted, instead, at con- 

 siderable expense. If spacing. D. A. Jones 

 argues for If and li inch spacing. Frank 

 Cheshire says scant If is correct, because it 

 results in the exclusion of drone brood ; 

 1-angstroth, years ago, allowed that dis- 

 tance— If. Now, I never heard that these 

 authorities or their large following could 

 not rear as much brood as those who used 

 wider spacing. In our apiary we used to 

 use nine frames, and this gave us about li- 

 Inch spacing. The result was, that we had 

 crooked and bulged combs. Latterly we 

 have been using If, and like it better. It is 

 true, as you say, that the combs in box 

 hives are H inches apart in the center. A 

 number of correspondents have reported 

 this to be true ; but because Nature does so, 

 is it any reason why the bee-keeper who 

 wishes to properly control the hive should 

 adopt this spacing ? Nature sets out trees 

 promiscuously, scatt^ed here and there ; 

 but the fruit-grower >nkes to have his trees 

 in rows ; and so do all of us who like to have 

 shade-trees, and wish to adorn our homes. 

 While we must pay some regard to nature 

 and her methods, yet there are improve- 

 ments that necessitate changes. Nature 

 spaces combs for both winter and summer, 

 and for drone and worker brood. Is it not 

 desirable to have these things under con- 

 trol V In winter we want wide spacing ; 

 and when honey is coming in, I believe that 

 closer spacing helps very materially to force 

 the bees into supers, although I may be 

 mistaken. In the sections we want combs 

 over 2 inches apart from center to center. 

 Now, friend D., it may seem a little like 



E resumption in me to reply to you before 

 >r. Miller has had a chance. The fact is, I 

 have studied this matter a good deal ; and 

 after a good deal of investigation I have 

 formed some conclusions. I will not say 

 positively that If-inch spacing is right ; but 

 there is an awful big following who are 

 using it, get big crops of honey, and lots of 

 brood. I am aware, also, that there are per- 

 haps as many using li-in. spacing. The ma- 

 jority of our " Question-Box "' respondents 

 vote for H inch, but it seems to be because 

 they happened to use this distance at first, 

 and have continued it since. Perhaps Dr. 

 Miller will now be better able to decide 

 which is right— li or If. Ernest. 



Ernest has covered the whole groiind so 

 thoroughly that I hardly need add any 

 thing. I will call attention, however, to 

 the fact that most of the remarks above 



take it for granted that the combs are pret- 

 ty accurately spaced ; whereas, in real prac- 

 tice the combs are never accurately spaced. 

 The only way in which accurate spacing can 

 be preserved, that I know of, is to nave 

 frames at fixed distances, and always put 

 them into the hive in the same order. Then 

 you have it. If, however, they are swapped 

 about, the distances are being continually 

 varied, and, as a consequence, the bees do 

 more or less tearing down and building up 

 every time the frames to the hives are re- 

 moved ; therefore I should say that, in the 

 light of the facts given by friend Doolittle, 

 we certainly need a little more than If inch. 



WORKING ON ALFALFA. 



WONDERFUL KESOURCES OF THE LOCALITY OF 

 GARDEN CITY, KANSAS. 



I ARRIVED here the 25th of April, with 60 colo- 

 nies of bees, for the purpose of securing honey 

 from the great alfalfa fields. The bees did moder- 

 ately well from the prairie blossoms before alfalfa 

 came in, which was perhaps two weeks ago. They 

 are now becoming strong, and some have swarmed. 

 I think most of the honey comes now from alfalfa, 

 although I find the bees thicker on the prairie flow- 

 ers. If there should be plenty left for seed of the 

 first crop, I shall probably get a good yield from it. 

 They get seed generally from the second, although 

 some try for two seed crops. There seems to be lit- 

 tle honey in the first blossoms. The only serious 

 obstacle in the way of success with bees here is the 

 wind, which is often strong, and comes pretty near 

 being constant. I believe there is a great future in 

 this country for the farmer and horticulturist. I 

 never saw such healthy-looking fruit-trees before. 

 They have the conditions of Cole's " New Agricul- 

 ture " to perfection here— an underflow from 4 to 

 15 ft. from the surface near the river, say two miles 

 wide, and on higher land 60 ft. Also in some val- 

 leys back from the river It comes near the surface. 

 It is inexhaustible. There are wells here four feet 

 deep which can not be drawn dry. It is like dip- 

 ping from the river, with a fall of seven feet to the 

 mile. A way to irrigate, independently of the river 

 and the dams, which may wash out, will readily sug- 

 gest itself. J. B. COLTON. 



Garden City, Kan., June 16. 



COVERS TO HIVES ; SAQQINQ OP TOP- 

 BARS, ETC. 



DB. MILLER DEFENDS HIMSELF LIKE A MAN. 



Don't you think it's a little rough for you Roots 

 to come at me as you've done on page 466, and the 

 whole crowd of you to jump on to me? Well, let 

 me take you one at a time. First, the old one. You 

 think the Simplicity cover warmer than the flat 

 cover. Yes, and so are the telescope ones I former- 

 ly used better and warmer than the Simplicity; but 

 there's more simplicity about the flat cover than 

 either of them, and on that account I prefer them. 

 You must use a quilt of some kind with the Sim- 

 plicity cover, and the most of the flat covers are all 

 right with no quilt. It's the exception when a flat 

 cover doesn't fit right, but I don't like the excep- 

 tions. 



As to diagonal wires and tin bars preventing sag- 



