r,18 



GLKANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



After a trial ot queens as nature endowed them 

 with wings, during the swarming outburst of this 

 season, I am about satisfied there is a better way 

 for large apiaries, and shall henceforth resort to 

 clipping. By curtailing her majesty's ancient 

 privilege of flight we are quite as likely to save 

 herself, and we certainly save time, trouble, and the 

 bees belonging to the swarm. Of the many occasions 

 that try that most patient of men, the apiarist, one 

 I have found to be when three or more swarms 

 issue simultaneously, and alight on the leafy pend- 

 ant limb of an elm, forty feet from terra firma, the 

 thermometer meanwhile registering 90° in the 

 shade. Then is the time to wish for a dozen of the 

 invalid old gentlemen and delicate ladies who are 

 so often advised (in the cool retreat of the editor's 

 sanctum, perhaps) to try bee-keeping as an easy 

 pursuit, requiring no particular work, no capital, 

 little brains, not much of any thing, you know, as 

 bees ask " no wages and board themselves." 



As to hives, we are, I am persuaded, on the eve 

 of some very great improvements — notably the 

 adoption of the reversible frame, and cases of sec- 

 tions; and subsidiary to this, a practice I am now 

 trying with satisfaction so far (not original). I re- 

 fer to contracting the brood-nest of the hive by 

 withdrawing all frames but five or six, substituting 

 eases or division-boards twenty days after swarm- 

 ing, and also hiving the swarm on the same number 

 of frames of fdn.; then put on section cases, and 

 the bees will proceed to work. 



In conclusion I would advise those having honey 

 to sell in Canada, not to let it go at the bottom pric- 

 es of last year. All we are now likely to raise will 

 be inquired after before honey comes again. 



J. C. Tho.m. 



Ptreetsville, Ont., Can., July 2.3, 188.5. 



QUEEN-EXCLUDEHS AND HONEY-EX- 

 TRACTOBS. 



USING THE QUEEN-EXCLUDING HONEY-BOARD UN- 

 DER A BOTTOMLESS HIVE. 



GAIN we have put to test quite a number of 

 queen-excluding honey-boards. I now feel 

 quite confident that they are a practical suc- 

 cess. I know that some of my brother bee- 

 keepers will say that they knew that before. 

 Well, I did not; and it took me two years to find it 

 out. Many claim that entrance-guards and queen 

 and drone traps are also practical; but I think they 

 are not. Again this year we have tested them also, 

 and we are of the opinion that they are not to come 

 into general use. Where we deem it necessary to 

 prevent the flight of drones temporarily, or till they 

 tan be let out and left out, we have succeeded by 

 placing a queen-excluding honey-board under a 

 bottomless hive, the entrance being under the hon- 

 ey-board (all our honey-boards contain a bee-space 

 in one side). We like metal better than wood for 

 these excluders, only because we find that such 

 narrow passages through a sheet as thick as vood 

 will be so clogged up with wax that most of the 

 passage-way will soon be filled. With the thin met- 

 al, the passages remain open. But here comes the 

 difficulty— cost. Can't we cut a corner somewhere, 

 and get these metal (jucen-excluders cheaper";' 

 How much cheaper is galvanized iron, and will that 

 do? I have the Jones size of passages, and also 

 yours, Mr. Editor; and through cither of them the 



bees apparently store as readily as though it were 

 not there. I am, however, in favor of having the 

 passages as large as we can, and yet exclude queens. 

 Now, what are the reports regarding this point? As 

 far as the production of comb honey is concerned, 

 in my practice with the sink honey-board I can see 

 almost no advantage to be gained by the use of the 

 queen excluders; but for extracted honey I want 

 them. I have also discovered that two queens can be 

 kept in the hive, one on each side of the excluder. 

 In fact, whet-ever 1 have used the excluder, as soon 

 as I put eggs and young larvae above it (where the 

 queen could not go), (jueen-cells were started in 

 quantity. In several instances last season, young 

 queens were hatched. In two such, where we had 

 put the queen above (to test the excluding powers 

 of the board) she remained above, and a young 

 queen was reared, hatched, and fertilized, below. 

 This point is going to be of value to us in future. I 

 think it is one of the valuable features of the honey- 

 hoard. Is it Mr. D. A. Jones whom we owe for this 

 invention? Let us not be guilty of omitting to give 

 credit to whom it justly belongs. 

 Who will give the specialist a 



HONEY-EXTRACTOR? 



I know we have some very good cheap extractors 

 on the market— some that perhaps pay a greater 

 dividend on their cost, to the small apiarist, than 

 would a better and higher-priced machine; but the 

 specialist can not aftord to squeeze along from year 

 to year with such machines. Now just think of a 

 shirt-knitting machine. If it were made as care- 

 lessly as our extractors, would it take one stitch? 

 Of course, not. Once make a machine accurate 

 and good enough, and it can be made to reverse 

 its combs without touching them; never wriggle 

 around wfcen running with one comb; and by 

 all means it should have a slip-gearing so that, 

 when once started, it will run independently of the 

 crank, and whirl out the honey from one side of 

 each comb while theoperator is uncapping the next. 

 It must have a foot-brake that will stop it almost 

 instantly, and be made durable, and be attached 

 firmly to the building containing it. Who can give 

 us such a machine? 



For your next issue I will give you my method of 

 " modern transferring," which we like so well, and 

 which you call for on page 484. James Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



Friend II., your plan of using the queen- 

 excluder is, s»i far as I know, new. I never 

 heard or thought of it before, and 1 think 

 the suggestion does you credit. (Galvanized 

 iron is no cheaper, all things considered, 

 than the zinc, and it is so much harder to 

 perforate that much more expensive ma- 

 chinery would be required. Thanks, also, 

 for your report in regard to the two kinds of 

 perforated zinc. — The matter of raising 

 queens in the same hive where a laying 

 (piecn presides is (piite an item. But, how 

 would a young {pieen get out to be fertilized, 

 unless she passed though the domain of the 

 old one? From what you say, I presume 

 she would be treated as a daughter, or an as- 

 sistant, if you choose, in the egg-laying bus- 

 iness.— Such an extractor as you mention, 

 it seems to me, would be almost too com- 

 plicated for practical work. AVe have made 

 some experiments in regard to a "brake," 

 but we gave it up. 



