348 



October, 1916. 



American Vae Journal 



'ng fever." However, many other fac- 

 tors which enter into swarm control 

 such as the age and strain of the queen, 

 the question of hive ventilation, etc , 

 must be considered. 



The adaptability of the sectional hive 

 for wintering is a much debated point. 

 Many claim that this hive has proven 

 to be poor for wintering while others 

 strenuously insist that it is the best 

 wintering hive ever devised. Defenders 

 of the divisible hive claim that when 

 one brood chamber is put on top of 

 another, the bees can form a perfect 

 sphere when clustering; and the space 

 between the upper and lower set of 

 frames makes a passage through which 

 the cluster can move and hence be 

 within easy reach of stores without 

 going clear around the combs. This 

 principle is given support by Doolittle 

 and Danzenbaker when they advocate 

 an opening through deep combs for 

 winter passage. 



In extracted honey production the 

 sectional hive beekeeper finds it possi- 

 ble to remove all finished honey e rlier 

 than it can be removed with deep 

 combs, as it takes longer to cap or 

 ripen the deep ones entirely. This fea- 

 ture shows a particular advantage 

 when the honey flow slackens up sud- 

 denly, as it reduces the amount of ripe 

 honey on the hive. Of course, using 

 shallow supers would accomplish the 

 same purpose on the regular standard 

 depth brood-chamber, but special su- 

 per accommodation would have to be 

 provided. The narrow combs of the 

 sectional hive may be uncapped with 

 one stroke of the knife. The same is 

 true, however, of the regular Lang- 

 stroth frames, where they are properly 

 bulged and a long knife is used. How- 

 ever, the firm attachment of the combs 

 in the shallow frames permits less 

 careful handling than is required with 

 deeper frames. Many sectional hive 

 beekeepers state that there is no need 

 of wiring the frames and that thinner 

 foundation can be used. Nevertheless, 

 it is a common practice in Ontario to 

 wire the shallow frames even more 

 carefully than the standard size frames 

 because of the thinness of the top-bar. 



The difficulty of finding the queen 

 in a divisible hive may be objected to, 

 but the queen need only be seen once 

 in the season, generally in the spring, 

 to note her age and see if she is clipped. 

 The general condition of the colony 

 will tell the experienced beekeeper how 

 the queen is doing. An easy method 

 of finding the queen, which is very 

 effective, is to take a l.ottom board, 

 tack a piece of cloth or canvas on same 

 and paint the canvas with crude car- 

 bolic acid. Substitute this bottom- 

 board for the bottom-board of th • hive 

 in question and place a queen excluder 

 over the brood-chamber. In about 30 

 seconds the queen will be found on 

 the underside of the queen excluder, 

 having been driven up by the carbolic 

 fumes. 



The aim of the divisible hive advo- 

 cate is to cut every unnecessary manip- 

 ulation, and it should not be necessary 

 to handle frames if the proper system 

 of management is followed. In a local-' 

 ity where foulurood exists the divisible 

 brood-chamber proposition is not one 

 that will permit economical handling 

 of all its frames. 



The cost of the divsible hive owing 



to the accuracy neccessary in the con- 

 struction of its various parts is an ob- 

 jection often put forward against its 

 use. Especially in those types where 

 closed end frames are used the work- 

 manship needs to be much more exact 



FiG 7 —Comparative Sizes of Langstkoth 

 AND Heddon Frames 



than that required by other hives. It 

 is due to lack of care in' this respect 

 that some beekeepers have been trou- 

 bled with bur-combs. With ordinary 

 care hives last a life time, and the ex- 

 tr? trouble and expense involved at the 

 outset may be amply repaid by the 

 other advantages. 



The reader will see for himself that 

 the value of the sectional I'ive depends, 

 firstly, upon the man who is going to 

 handle it and, secondly, upon the dis- 

 trict in which he is going to keep his 

 bees. No hive can claim perfection, 

 and what is suitable for one set of con- 

 ditions is very often unsuitable for an- 

 other. In every case it is essential to 

 know the system of mangement which 

 is the most practicable in the individ- 

 ual case and then choose the hive 

 which is adapted to the system. 



Distance Bees Fly 



BY C. F. BUCHER. 



THE writrr has read, with interest 

 the editorial on page 49 of the 

 American Bee Journal, " Distance 

 Bees Will Fly," also Mr. Baldwin's 

 article in Gleanings in Bee Culture, and 

 Editor Root's remarks on the subject, 

 as well as the opinions of other noted 

 writers. The distance at which bees 

 can profitably work probably depends 

 largely upon conditions and locality. 

 In this locality when weather condi- 

 ions are favorable the bee goes out on 

 a hunt, and when she finds a rich spot 

 she somehow acquaints the others in 

 the hive with the fact. 



The senses of sight and smell are 

 no doubt very acute in the bee. Who 

 has not seen them nose from flower to 

 flower without alighting because a 



the time there was no nectar present ? 



If in the spring when the weather is 

 warm enough for bees to fly but not so 

 warm that they will naturally fly a long 

 distance from the hive, you start feed- 

 ing th 'm, say 50 yards more or less 

 from the hive, either diluted honey or 

 sugar syrup, then set the same kind of 

 feed 100 yards farther away, the bees 

 may not find it for days, but if vou 

 carry some bees while they are filling 

 up, whether it be 100 yards or 1000 

 yards away just so you get one or two 

 bees there, they will note the place, go 

 home and report, though some writers 

 say bees are entirely void of intelli- 

 gence. In a very short time there will 

 be a crowd of bees where the feed is, 

 neither sight nor scent has taken them 

 there, but some one of the family has 

 found it and told them. 



My bees are located near the center, 

 on the south side of a strip of timber 

 nearly three miles long, standing on 

 both banks of a stream. For about 

 two weeks in August, 1914, in the fore- 

 noons the bees worked rapidly; they 

 would rush out of the hive, circle up- 

 ward in a northeasterly direction di- 

 rectly over tall oak trees, and if they 

 continued in a straight course they 

 flew over forest trees for a mile or 

 more. At that time there was little for 

 bees to find except about 2% miles 

 away, exactly in the direction the bees 

 were flying, there were two patches of 

 buckwheat in bloom ; there were many 

 bees working on the buckwheat. I have 

 no proof they were my bees, but cir- 

 cumstances point strongly that way, 

 the bees could not possibly have seen 

 those fields without going many hun- 

 dreds of feet up in the air; and as for 

 smelling back of more than a mile of 

 timber land, with the wind almost 

 never from the northeast at that sea- 

 son, it seems to me very doubtful. 



Littlestown, Pa. 



Wintering in tlie Barn Loft 



BY O. H. L. WERNICKE. 



MY colonies are in two story 8- 

 frame Langstroth hives with H- 

 inch full width openings; by in- 

 serting a J^-inch frame between the 

 bottom-board and hive-body, a space 

 \% inches high was provided between 

 the frames. 



My city apiary is in the loft of a 

 wooden barn unheated. The hives are 

 placed on benches. 20 inches above the 

 floor, close to and facing the walls. 

 There are 4x16 inch openings through 

 the walls of the barn in front of the 

 hives, and each opening is provided 

 with a generous alighting board. Dur- 

 ing the coldest weather these openings 

 are partially closed. 



In packing I replace the hive covers 

 with a hive-body, having a queen ex- 

 cluder tacked on the bottom, and tightly 

 stuffed with dry grass; this insures 

 against dampness and makes a warm 

 cover. In addition, the four sides of 

 my hives are covered with five thick- 

 nesses of corrugated straw board, 

 pasted together with silicate. This 

 makes a slab about one inch thick, and 

 I cut them into two sizes, one to fit the 

 ends of the hives. The end pieces are 

 somewhat wider than the hive itself 

 so as to lap the side pieces; all 



