262 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Am. 



the foundation as fast as drawn. Your seven 

 frames are so depleted (with yet enough bees to 

 care for the brood) that they will not swarm one 

 time in ten, and your honey will all come from the 

 parent hive, and you will have fewer unfinished 

 sections, unless you get a fall flow, as we did the 

 past season when I had to extract the brood-nests 

 to ixive the young queens room to lay. In my lo- 

 cality I save all the first swarms up to Aug. 1, and 

 have never yet failed to have them in good condi- 

 tion for winter. 



When I read of some of the methods used in 

 manipulating the single-walled hives in securing 

 honey, and in the preveniion of second swarms, I 

 fear that I should need a book-keeper to keep 

 things Straight. With me it is all done at one 

 operation, and I have no further thoughts in the 

 matter. It is a success, both in the production of 

 honey and the prevention of second swarms. 



Fremont, Mich. 



Geo. E. Hilton. 



Why, friend II., it seems to me a little 

 funny to have you indorse the chaff hive in 

 the vehement way in which you do. Your 

 ideas are mine exactly when 1 invented our 

 present method of making chaff hives ; and 

 my experience in all these years agrees ex- 

 actly with yours. Now, it seems to me that 

 those who have been so vehement— yes, and 

 I might almost say bitter — in denouncing the 

 chaff hive should remember there are quite 

 a few who think just as you and I do. 

 Some have objected to the chaff hive be 

 cause it is inconvenient for handling the 

 combs ; and it surprised me when I heard it, 

 for I find the chaff hive the most conven- 

 ient, even for queen-rearing, of any hive I 

 ever had any thing to do with ; and it is be- 

 cause I can lean against it when handling 

 the combs, and support myself without 

 pushing it over or off its foundation. When 

 working with the Simplicity hives I am 

 obliged to lean, over the hive and work in a 

 leaning position, without any thing to sup- 

 port me ; and I have always found that, 

 when I go from a Simplicity hive to a chaff 

 hive, especially when I am tired, that the 

 chaff hive rests me just because I can lean 

 my whole weight against it while I lift out 

 the combs ; and I want the old-fashioned 

 two-story chaff hive, just as I first made it. 

 In your method of working you do not say 

 what you do with the combs and adhering 

 bees that you lifted out ; but I suppose they 

 are taken away to make another colony. 

 We have not found this very good economy 

 unless we get some working bees from some 

 other new swarm to put with them ; other- 

 wise there will not be any pollen or honey 

 brought from the fields for nearly a week. 



THWARTING BOBBERS. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE BHOOU- 

 CHAMBEH. 



"Ifc AST August I received a letter from H. L. 

 |||) Jeffrey, of New Milford, Conn., in which he 

 ^I^T said, " I must send you a trick that I have 

 ""■ tried many times at this season of the year, 

 or I should say this time of honey-dearth. 

 Several years ago I was handling a stock that was 

 being robbed. The bottom-board to the hive pro- 

 jected about 4 or 5 inches in front. The stook was 



quite demoralized, and were all over the ground, 

 and the robbers were going in and coming out like 

 mad demons. I looked at them for a moment, then 

 around, and, seeing some sticks half an inch thick, 

 and a shingle about 6 inches wide that had been 

 used over the combs the previous winter, I just put 

 the half-inch sticks at each end of the alighting- 

 board, then the shingle on top. and pushed it tight 

 to the front of the hive; and, wasn't it fun to see 

 those robbers try to go through the front of the 

 hive? the robbers inside coming out from under the 

 shingle, and unable to find their way back, and at 

 the same time the demoralized bees belonging to 

 the hive were quietly crawling back and leisurely 

 walking under the shingle, as cool as though en- 

 joying the sight of the acrobatic exercise their de- 

 feated plunderers were taking." 



Mr. Jeffrey found the plan to work equally well 

 in subsequent trials. I was so unfortunate (or, 

 rather, so fortunate > as to have no case of robbing 

 last season after getting his letter; but from the 

 well-known habits of bees, I think the plan well 

 worth trying, even if Mr. Jeffrey's long experience 

 did not give me confidence in his decision. The 

 whole affair is very simple. The entrance from the 

 outside is closed, and a new entrance made, while 

 the exit remains practically unchanged. The rob- 

 bers remain, frantically attempting to force an 

 entrance at the one spot, while the bees belonging 

 to the hive are more inclined to hunt for another 

 entrance. 



HIVE FOR COMB HONEY. 



A correspondent writes : "Please answer through 

 Gleanings what size of frame, size of super inside, 

 and size of hive inside, also how many frames to 

 hive, and what size of section you would use if you 

 were going to adopt a hive for comb honey. 

 Would you want it larger for extracted honey if 

 two stories are used? " 



The frame I am now using and have been using 

 for a good many years is 18 x 9. I do not know that 

 any different size would give better results, al- 

 though it must be remembered that for a long 

 time I have used no other size, and am likely to be 

 prejudiced. I would not adopt that size, however, 

 if I were beginning anew, for the simple reason 

 that I don't want a size different from every one's 

 else, unless there is strong reason for it. The size 

 of the Simplicity-Langstroth frame is only f inch 

 shorter and % inch deeper — so nearly the same 

 that, for practical purposes, there is no difference, 

 and so I should prefer that which is used by many 

 others, instead of having an odd size. I think I 

 should prefer a hive to take eight of these frames, 

 thus making a hive 18 inches long and 11 V6 inches 

 wide, inside measure. I would use the common 

 1-lb. section, 4% x l^. to go in a T super measuring 

 inside 11% x I2JJ x i%. 



I am not authority on extracted honey, but I do 

 not think I would have a different size of hive, if I 

 expected to use some hives for comb and some for 

 extracted. If, however. I intended to raise no comb 

 honey, but extracted altogether, I should do some 

 pretty heavy studying or experimenting to see if a 

 ten-frame hive might not be best. 



Marengo, III. C. C. Miller. 



The idea of a shingle or other thin board, 

 supported on narrow strips over the en- 

 trance, is quite old. and a pane of glass in 

 place of the shingle seems to answer still 

 better. If robbers are acting very bad, the 



