674 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



value so highly), as we well know, was very 

 careful ill his experiments, and his conclusion 

 can not be liglitly esteemed. Unless some one 

 else shall bring some incontrovertible evidence 

 to the coiitraiy, let us consider 1% s]jaclng as 

 the right distance for the average bee-keeper. 

 Peihaps I should remark that friend Hoffman 

 preparc^d the article above in response to my 

 request made to him in person while I was vis- 

 iting at his home. In my Notes of Travel I 

 will give an account of my visit to his place 

 later. Eunest. 



ZINC QUEEN-EXCLUDERS. 



<PLKXI)II> TP:STIM<)NI.\I, FItOM A f'AIJFOIiXI.V 

 APIA HIST. 



1 have taken so much comfort with my 450 

 zinc (|uecii-excludei's this season. I am sure it 

 \\ill be doing my iiciglibors a kindness to tell 

 them how they work. My lii\es. and. in fact, 

 nearly all the hives in Ventura County, are made 

 witii a bee-space in the bottom and top of botli 

 sui)er and brood -cliamber. wliich. when the 

 supi'ris on. h'aves 'j of an inciis)ja,c(' lie t ween the 

 sup<'r and the liiood-fi-ames. I have always 

 thought tliis a mistake: but wlien I liegan to 

 think of using queen-excluders. I saw that, if a 

 plain unbound zinc excluder, the size of the out- 

 side of the hive, were laid on the brood-chamber, 

 and the super on the excluder, the bee-spaces 

 would be all right. I ordered 480 of Root's No. 1 

 unbound zinc excluders, large enough to tit my 

 hives. I think No. 1 the best, because they 

 allow the bees to pass up and down more freely 

 than the break-joint excluders. After trying 

 4."')0 of these unliound excluders one season, I am 

 satistied tliat they ;ire better ill e\-ery way than 

 the lioiind excluders. Tli(^su])eriseasi]y lifted olT 

 the zinc. and. by taking liold of one end of the zinc 

 and pulling up and out. they can be jieeled off 

 almost like cloth; and if they bend a little, just 

 turn them upside down when you jiiit- tiiem on 

 again. I bought the excluders because I had a 

 good main' drone combs in my siijiers: but I 

 would not do without them now. if my sujier 

 combs were all work(>r size. It makes a fellow- 

 feel good to o]jen a suiter just before swai'ming 

 conimences. and find about a square foot of drone 

 comb all cleaned up for tlu' (lueeii to lay in. It 

 is ever so much nicer to fool thi' bees in this way 

 than to shav<' the heads off the drones. You 

 don't always get around in time to shave the 

 drones' heads off. and what a lot of honey is 

 wasted in rearing tliem! 



When you havt' no excluder on a ten-frame 

 L. hive, the bees will till about 7 ctmibs in the 

 brood-chamber with brood, and tluui run it uj) 

 ill the su|)er instead of (illiiigtlie brood-chamber 

 clear across. This brood in the sup(>r is a great 

 nuisance when you are extracting. In ("alifornia 

 we leave our suix'is on all the year niuiid; and 

 if the super is full of honey in the spring, the 

 bees will build up fastei' than they woidd if the 

 hive were contracted, .\nother point I did not 

 <iiscover until I put excluders on all my hives: 

 When the queens are allowed to go into the 

 supers, a good many ar<' knocked off' on the 

 ground, and lost, when bnishiiig the bees off the 

 combs. I did not tiiid a fourth as many queen- 

 less colonies after extracting this season as 

 usual. I found a few queens that could run up 

 and down through the excluders. butnot(>nongh 

 to trouble seriously. If I had my choice, how- 

 evi'r. I would have the perforations iVki of an 

 inch wide, instead of i^*^. I have been experi- 

 menting by putting queens in a little box, and 



covei'iiig it overwith different sizes of perforated 

 zinc. I found but few (lueeiis tluit would crawl 

 through the j^;^-, perforations, but could not find 

 any small enough to go through the -jVn, and I 

 could not see that it made any difference to 

 workers. 



It is easier to take honey out of a super if you 

 have a qneen-exclnder under it, because the 

 bees do not build so many brace-combs below 

 the super combs. Other large bee-keepers 

 around here are experimenting with them, and 

 I think all the progressive ones, Mr. Mercer in- 

 cluded, will soon have them on all theirextract- 

 ing hives. Nearly every bee-keeper who comes 

 here and sees how they work, says, "I wish I 

 had them in my apiary." J. F. McIntyke. 



Fillmore, Cal.. Sept. 1, 1890. 



You have given us .some valuable testimony, 

 friend M.. for the perforated zinc for extracting. 

 This and the bee-escape promise to work al- 

 most a revolution in the methods of producing 

 extracted honey. You are exactly right, friend 

 M., as to the size of the perforated zinc. By 

 careful experiments which we have been mak- 

 ing, we decided that iV^ was correct. Before 

 us is some of Dr. Tinker's beautiful zinc, and it 

 is a pleasure to us to say that his zinc so far 

 stands at the head. By carefully measuring, 

 we find that the width of his perforations 

 strikes j^n'^ exactly. The fact that all three of 

 us arrived at this conclusion independently — you 

 in California, and two of us in Ohio — makes the 

 evidence almost conclusive that i^ must be 

 cori'ect. We are at work on a new set of dies. 

 They are to be gaugiKl to this size as nearly as 

 the best machinei'y can be made to do it. Mr. 

 Alvah Washburn, who made the original comb- 

 mills, and who. in fact, has done all our fine 

 work, is to make the dies, and we hope ere long 

 to have a zinc that no queen will go through. 

 Our old zinc measures about ^fa. and that is the 

 r(^ason why we change. 



t^uite incidentally, friend M.. you mention 

 anothei' point. In a Langstroth hive, you say 

 bees will fill seven frames of brood, and then 

 go into the supei- instead of filling out the 

 brood-chamber cleai' across. That is just the 

 reason why I advise everybody to use the eight- 

 frame hive. In the name of common sense, 

 why have a hive any larger than the average 

 brood-nest? We want the bees to fill the brood- 

 chamber entirely with brood, or very nearly so; 

 and then if they are able to get any honey we 

 want to compel them to put it just where u'e 

 want it— in the supers. E. R. 



GOLDENROD. 



!KKS AHK .irST " WIIOOl'ING VV 

 HONEY FUOM IT IX MICIIKJAX. 



Our aged friend . I. L. Davis, of Holt, Mich., 

 onc(^ said to me: " I am very fortunate in the 

 large marsh" which extends" for some distance 

 in front of his house. Many people would not 

 apiireciate readily the wisdom of this remark. 

 A marsh for a dociryard and constant outlook is 

 not generally among the aspirations of those 

 lesthetically inclined. But should such a one 

 visit friend Davis at this season, and look out 



