100 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



filling empty comb before they will build 

 new." 



"Thanks again. This is something that I 

 never knew about before, and I often wished 

 I knew of some way of getting the bees to 

 work in the surplus arrangement sooner. But 

 having the wide frames all filled and in readi- 

 ness, what next ? " 



" The wide frames are to be keyed together. 

 I have tried almost all ways of keying these 

 wide frames together, using in clamps, etc., 

 all of which I did not like, as I wished for a 

 plan that would allow of my using as few or as 

 many wide frames on a hive as I pleased, ac- 

 cording to the season and the strength of the 

 colony, from two up to twelve. By most of 

 the other plans we must give just so much 

 room or none, no matter what the season or 

 what the strength of the colony." 



" But what keeps the bets from going out 

 at the sides of the wide frames and sections, 

 whether keyed or otherwise ? " 



" A thin board is gotten out the same size 

 as the wi le frame, outside measure, this board 

 having a cleat nailed at either end, so as to 

 keep it from warping or twisting away from 

 the sections or wide frame. In each end of 

 this cleated board a wire nail is driven, and 

 two of these boards are used with each sur- 

 plus arrangement " 



" I see. These boards are to come flat up 

 against the outside of each outside wide 

 frame." 



" Exactly. And to hold the number of 

 wide frames together, pressed right up tightly 

 to each other, as in a vise, a coiled wire spring 

 is used, prepared by tying a suitable length of 

 string to one end of the spring. The spring 

 is now hooked over the nail in the end of one 

 of the boards, and, after stretching the spring 

 sufficiently, the string is wound around the 

 nail on the other board on the opposite side, 

 when, with a spring fixed in the same way on 

 the other end, we have the number of wide 

 frames we wish to use, all tightly clamped in- 

 to a surplus arrangement, which can be han- 

 dled as a whole, no matter whether the wide 

 frames number two, three, four, or a dozen. 

 And they give all the lateral movement re- 

 quired, so as to use the number to the hive 

 which the apiarist may desire. And they can 

 be taken off as one surplus arrangement, or 

 each wide frame separately, tiered up, revers- 

 ed, interchanged, etc., according to the views 

 of the most exacting." 



"Well, this is quite a scheme, and I am 

 glad I came over, for I now understand better 

 how to work for what I want. But allow me 

 one more question before I go." 



" Certainly." 



"Do you use anv honey-board with this 

 surplus arrangement? " 



" When not enough wide frames are on to 

 cover the top of the hive, something must be 

 used to cover the rem lining portion. Other- 

 wise I use no honey-board of any kind, uidess 

 I contract the hive so that the queen is liable 

 to enter the sections and fill them with brood. 

 In this case I use a queen-excluding honey- 

 board, which keeps her below, no matter how 

 small the brood chamber." 



" What do you use to cover the remaining 

 portion of the top of the hive, when only a 

 few wide frames are used ? " 



' ' Where a cap or hood is used over all, I use a 

 piece of enameled cloth, or an old bee quilt; and 

 where no hood is used I have pieces of board 

 of different sizes, to suit a certain number of 

 wide frames, these pieces covering that por- 

 tion not covered with the number of frames 

 used. But the quilts and the hood are best 

 for this arrangment." 



" Well, I must be going. Good night." 



" Good night." 



POLLEN IN THE SECTIONS OF SHALLOW 

 BROOD CHAMBERS. 



Mr. Editor : — Will you kindly permit me 

 to reply to Messrs. A. J. S. & Bro., of Virginia, 

 who write me they have decided to use the 

 Dinzenbaker super arrangements but say 

 there seems to be trouble about the story of 

 pollen in the sections, with shallow brood- 

 chambers ? If I can guarantee there will be 

 no such trouble they will reduce their old 

 hives to fit my fixtures. I infer this "trouble" 

 has been brought to their notice, as it has to 

 that of others, by Dr. Miller's S' raw in Glean- 

 ings ; and I desire to say to them and others 

 whom it may concern, that there is nothing of 

 the kind with proper or even ordinary man- 

 agement. The 10 frames, 7>^ inches deep, of 

 my hive, contain a trifle more comb surface 

 than the eight frame Dovetailed hives, which 

 gives ample room for pollen, and brood of aver- 

 age queens during the honey-flow. 



Bees naturally store pollen at the side of and 

 beneath the brood-nest in the coolest part of 

 the hive, and the honey above the brood in 

 the warmest part of the hive, but never store 

 honey beneath the brood or in cells that have 

 a drop of honev in first, but will store honey 

 in cells partly filled with pollen. In case the 

 brood-nest becomes gorged with honey before 

 the supers are put on, or they are put on too 

 long before the flow begins, there might be a 

 few cells of pollen stored in the sections ; but 

 I have not lost a dollar on that account in ten 

 years. I have in that time raised and sold 

 thousands of sections from my hives, without 

 any show of pollen in the sections. 



Bees gather very little pollen during the 

 while-honey flow. If supers are put on at the 

 right time, and made nearly air-light by 

 waxed-paper mats or enameled sheets, with 

 ample covering to retain the bee heat, and 

 render the super the warmest part of the hive, 

 the bees will store their honey there, where it 

 ripens soonest, and store pollen in the cooler 

 part of the brood-nest. 



Thousands of shallow seven-inch frames 

 were used with full satisfaction, before I ever 

 tried them, by such men as Dr. G. L Tinker, 

 New Philadelphia, O.; Dr. Geo. W. Brodbeck, 



