162 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



is given ; this may be repeated so long 

 as warm weather continues. 



This method is simple and practical, 

 and will produce high quality queens. 

 It has been ascertained that the food 

 given to all larvae during the first three 

 days of their life is the same whether 

 said larva is cradled in the gilded cell 

 of royalty or in the humble cell of a 

 common worker, also that during these 

 days of grace a larva in a worker-cell 

 is given more food than it can con- 

 sume ; therefore, to all external appear- 

 ances it could not fare better if hatched 

 in a queen-cell ; therefore, it is claimed 

 that if a larva less than three days 

 old is grafted from a worker-cell into 

 an artificial queen-cell it will produce 

 just as good queens as though the 

 larva had hatched in the queen-cell. 



At first sight this seems like sound 

 logic, but there is an abnormal side to 

 the grafting problem, that cannot be 

 ignored. Under natural conditions a 

 queen-cell containing a larva three 

 days old is a perfect queen-cell in form 

 and feature, and is nearly full size; 

 therefore, bees are not pleased with 

 three-days old larva in an open mouth 

 wax-cup bearing little resemblance to 

 a queen-cell with a royal larva at any 

 age, and such a poor counterfeiter is 

 viewed with disfavor and robbed of the 

 food so skilfully (?) provided by the 

 grafter, and the neglected larva is left 

 with no visible means to sustain life 

 until such time as the bees see fit to 

 accept the intruders. On an average, 

 half of the grafted larva; perish out- 

 right from starvation and neglect, and 

 certainly the survivors are not bene- 

 fitted by their period of semi-starva- 

 tion. The weak point in grafting is the 

 period of fasting immediately follow- 

 ing, at a time when the royal larva 

 should be floating in a superabundance 

 of food. Bees are more competent to 

 select larvae of the proper age to rear 

 good queens, than the most expert 

 grafter. 

 Birmingham, Ohio. 



Certain Hive Fixtures 



BY F. GREINER. 



TO practice economy in bee-fixtures 

 at the expense of efficiency or 

 neatness is a poor way to save 

 or reduce expenses. I am afraid many 

 of us are making mistakes along this 

 line, some here, others there. For in- 

 stance, the use of No. 2 sections cannot 

 be generally recommended. Perhaps 

 they may be admissible when honey is 

 to be cartoned in sealed enclosures. I 

 know of beekeepers who use old 

 stained, yes, even dirty boxes of pre- 

 vious years use. I have found them 

 time after time in country stores. How 

 bad they look! How much better a 

 clean white box of honey appears by 

 their side ! 



One o^ the things of great impor- 

 tance in the production of comb honey 

 is that we produce honey which does 

 not leak. Any fixture producing or 

 accomplishing this object is to be pre- 

 ferred even if it should cost a little 

 more than the one having a tendency 

 in the opposite direction. 



For half a life time I have used dif- 

 ferently constructed section supers 

 alongside with another; not one kind 

 one year, another kind another year ; 

 no, I tested them in the same seasons, 



in the same yards; even different su- 

 pers on the same hive at the same time, 

 and, while I have found several differ- 

 ent supers to give reasonably good re- 

 sults, nothing has given me the satis- 

 faction that a real wide-frame super 

 affords. This, however, is not what I 

 started out to say. I intend to confine 

 myself to the greater detail, the sepa- 

 rator; for whatever the style of super 

 selected might be, the divider or sep- 

 arator remains' the same almost in all 

 cases. I am referring hereto the wire- 

 screen separator and the old tin or 

 plain metal separator, otherwise the 

 wood separator has long become the 

 popular fixture. 



It is all right even from the stand- 

 point of the bee which does not take as 

 kindly to metal as wood. The latter is 

 more congenial to the nature of the 

 bee because of its being a better non- 

 conductor of heat and cold than metal 

 is, the material the bee has adapted 

 itself to during untold unknown ages. 

 This wooden separator has from time 

 to time been changed. Some have used 

 a simple plain thin board and are con- 

 tinuing its use ; others have perforated 

 it, some cleated it, and still others have 

 made a cleated fence. As long as a 

 plain board was used all went well pro- 

 viding same was of proper width. I 

 have used them as wide as the section 

 was deep, and thus produced perfect 

 non-leaking honey combs, but in this 

 case the sections had a deep beeway. 

 When the beeway is only /s of an inch 

 deep as in case of the no-beeway sec- 

 tion when the thickness of the cleat 

 represents the beeway, the separator 

 must be narrower than the section is 

 deep by % inch in order to give the 

 bees free access to the sections. 



When first using separators we were 

 not so very particular about this mat- 

 ter, and some sve made were about % 

 inch narrower than the outside dimen- 

 sions of the boxes. The result was that 

 the cells in the lower row as well as 

 those in the upper row were drawn out 

 and extended beyond the wood, neces- 

 sitating trimming them down before 

 crating, producing a leaky mess. It 

 has been a dear lesson to us to find 

 that separators should not be percepti- 

 bly less than 4J^ inches for the 4x5 tall 

 section. When we adopted fences the 

 tendency to produce leaky section 

 honey was also increased in as much 

 as the bees sometimes start little legs 

 from the edges of the little fence boards 

 to the face of the combs; besides the 

 honey produced with fences has not 

 unfrequently a washboard appearance, 

 particularly so when they have been in 

 use for a few years. For these reasons 

 I prefer the solid smooth board as a 

 divider to the fence or even the per- 

 forated separator. The smoother the 

 surface of the separator the surer we 

 are of good results. 



The cleat was added to the separator 

 in order that we might use no-beeway 

 sections. It was a delicate matter to 

 decide what the width of this cleat 

 should be. They were tried quite wide, 

 X and % of an inch, I think. I have 

 them in use today. Finally the other 

 extreme was adopted, viz: ,V inch wide. 

 Many thousand fences with these nar- 

 row cleats are found in the bee yards 

 of today. Do they give satisfaction ? 

 What do we find anyway? In good 

 honey seasons, when clover and other 

 blossoms yield nectar profusely, and 

 when the combs are sealed clear to the 



wood, as it seems desirable, the sealing 

 becomes attached along the edges 

 where the cleat is, not merely to the 

 wood of the section, but also quite 

 often to the cleat, too. When the filled 

 section is removed from the holder this 

 capping is torn loose and we have a 

 bad leak. When the wide cleat is used 

 the bees respect it and build around it, 

 never attaching the capping to it. 



The surface of the comb shows a 

 slight depression to match the cleat. It 

 might appear as though the edge was 

 beveled off, which is not nearly as 

 much of a disadvantage as the effect 

 the narrow cleat produces. This dis- 

 advantage, this depression of beveling 

 may be reduced to a minimum by re- 

 ducing the width of the cleat, but we 

 must not go beyond a certain limit. A 

 cleat 9-16 inch wide gives good result 

 and at the present I considerthat width 

 the limit. 'Possibly the J^-inch cleat is 

 safe to use, but this I do not know ; we 

 will do more experimenting on this 

 point, for we want the cleat as narrow 

 as possible. I have decided to drop the 

 beeway section entirely, and I have 

 been asked, "Why use the no-beeway 

 section at all ?" 



Briefly I will answer this question: 

 " On account of economy." We save 

 time in cleaning or scraping the sec- 

 tions when filled ; we save money when 

 buying the sections ; we save one-sev- 

 enth of the shipping-cases. There is no 

 difficulty in handling honey in no-bee- 

 way sections, not in practice anyway. 



Naples, N. Y. 



Nanipulation of Bees 



BY L. HASEMAN. 

 (/"or beg^inners.) 



TO the beginning beekeeper, his 

 first attempt to open the hive and 

 handle the combs and bees may 

 be beset with some difficulties, but in 

 time this becomes the most fascinating 

 part of beekeeping. He must study the 

 bees, their habits, nature, likes and dis- 

 likes, and then accustom himself to 

 their ways. The honeybee is not a 

 vicious creature, and if given anything 

 like the consideration it deserves it will 

 not fight. 



While handling bees, avoid jarring 

 them or making any quick nervous 

 motions. These two mistakes will 

 start trouble in any bee colony. Always 

 wear a veil to protect the face, and use 

 cool smoke sparingly at the entrance 

 and under the cover as it is being 

 gently raised. Use smoke to induce 

 the workers to fill their stomachs with 

 honey, after which they are less likely 

 to sting. Avoid pinching bees between 

 your fingers, as they resent such care- 

 less treatment. For best results select 

 the warm part of the day when the 

 workers are actively gathering nectar 

 or pollen, for at such times there are 

 fewer bees in the hive, and those pres- 

 sent are more docile. Never open the 

 brood-chamber when the weather is 

 cold, if it can be avoided, for you are 

 apt to chill the queen and the brood. 



These are few of the do's and don'ts 

 which the beginner beekeeper in par- 

 ticular should keep in mind. A little 

 careful study of the bee and its life and 

 habits, and a little effort to adjust one's 

 actions to those of the bees will soon 

 make^beekeeping;,both an interesting 



