1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



069 



His home being within half a mile of Lake Cham- 

 plain, and about opposite Ticonderoga, there is a 

 fine view of the lake, with its passing boats, the old 

 fort on the further shore, and the Adirondack 

 Mountains in the background. 



Pawtucket, R. I. Samuel Cushman. 



In your opening paragraph you hint at an 

 idea i have often longed for, but did not 

 know that it had ever been made practical ; 

 namely, having crates holding an exact 

 number of pounds. -lust think of telling 

 your grocery or commission man that your 

 load contains 50 cases of honey, with 120 lbs. 

 in a case, just 1000 lbs.! and you might add 

 that, as the agreed price was 15 cts., he 

 could just hand over his check for $150, and 

 that would be all of it. Now think of the 

 other plan of having every one of the 50 

 cases have odd pounds and ounces, to be fig- 

 ured and added and blundered over! It 

 seems to me, however, that it would need 

 quite a little assorting to make them come 

 out right. With an expert hand, however, 

 I^do not know but that it might be done. I 

 think that Dr. Miller might do it without 

 very much trouble, especially if he had his 

 wife and sister to handle the sections, with- 

 out bumping them or making any of them 

 leak. — We remember friends Crane and Lar- 

 rabee as progressive bee-keepers for many 

 years past. 'We are glad indeed that you 

 dropped down on them and let us know 

 what they are up to. We are glad to know 

 that they have not been letting the grass 

 grow under their feet, even though they 

 have not given us very much for the jour- 

 nals of late. 



WIRE TOP-BARS. 



QUEEN-TRAPS, ETC. 



TrorOTIClNGyour foot-notes following A. L. Kil- 

 |\| do's letter on page 633, 1 wish to say that I 

 "¥^1 began making the Langstroth hive from di- 

 •*■ t rections given in father Langstroth's old 

 edition of " The Hive and Honey-bee." In 

 that book you will find that the top-bars are to be 

 made 1} 8 inches wide; aud you will see that, by put- 

 ting them in a 14J-4 space, they will be pretty close to- 

 gether. I was very glad to change to one inch, and 

 from that to 7 i , aud found each change beneficial. 

 While it may be true that a few less brace-combs 

 maybe built between the top- surface of the top- 

 bars, and any honey-board or surplus receptacle 

 above, it is a fact that it by no means prevents a 

 good many brace-combs being built there; but then 

 the worst of it is, they plug in hard combs, or more 

 properly wax plugs, between the edges of the top- 

 bars when put so close together, which makes the 

 frames well nigh immovable. I am very sure that 

 whoever makes any top bars to frames more than 

 7 « wide will regret it. Some 12 years ago I experi- 

 mented quite largely with making top-bars so thick 

 that the right-angled sides ran down toward the 

 bottom of the hive % or % of an inch before the V 

 began. I liked these bars very much because they 

 were stiff, and bees were less inclined to build 

 brace-combs either between or above them. Still, 

 they would build more or less. I should use such 

 bars now were T not using frames wired with full 

 sheets of foundation which 1 consider preferable to 



every thing else, and % is the right width for the 

 Langstroth frames, and ,' less for the Heddon 

 frames. 



QUEEN AND DRONE TRAP. 



This subject has interested bee-keepers to no 

 small extent. On page 22 of my book is illustrated 

 and described the best trap of the kind which, to 

 my notion, has yet been devised, and yet 1 have 

 abandoned it. On page 637, last Gleanings, in 

 your foot-notes to Query No. 137, you pen the fol- 

 lowing: " With the Dovetailed hive we have lately 

 been using an ordinary queen - excluding honey- 

 board between the bottom-board and the brood- 

 chamber. Unlike the ordinary drone-excluders and 

 queen-traps attached to the entrance itself, it 

 causes no obstruction to the bees passing in and 

 out." And you should have added, "To the ven- 

 tilation of the hive or the air passing in and out." 

 But to show you that I have experimented laigely 

 with this principle, and, I believe, ante-dated all 

 others in writing about it, let me refer you to page 

 104 of my book, written in 1884, and from it I quote 

 the following regarding the " New" hive: 



I believe that, by virtue of the style and method 

 of adjustment of the bottom-board, cases, and hon- 

 ey-board, by using the latter, made queen-exclud- 

 ing, we can place them in such a way as to control 

 swarming and flight of drones, without the serious 

 objections realized by the use of entrance attach- 

 ments, which we have enumerated on pages 22 and 

 23. 



If you place one of the queen-excluding honey- 

 boards on the bottom-board, and the brood-cases 

 upon it, you will preserve proper bee-spaces 

 throughout, and force all bees to pass through the 

 honey-board, in leaving or entering the hive. The 

 drones and queen can not leave or enter the cases. 

 By experiment we found that this arrangement did 

 not retard ventilation, nor in any way disturb the 

 normal tranquility of the colony; but further than 

 this we have not experimented. What shall we do 

 with our imprisoned drones? How can we catch 

 our queens, when they attempt to go out with the 

 swarms? 



I have faith in a simple arrangement for catching 

 and holding them imprisoned, in a movable box, 

 adjusted to the side of the brood-chamber, near the 

 front end, but not in front of the entrance; thus in 

 no way retarding ventilation, or egress and ingress 

 of the workers. As soon as perfected and tested, 

 it will be publicly described, and attached to the 

 New hive, if proven a practical success. 



I will add, that further experiments with the 

 queen - excluding honey-board below the brood- 

 chamber prove very satisfactory in some cases; 

 yet there is some trouble with it which I will not 

 take space to detail here. However, it is far ahead 

 of any entrance arrangement, in my estimation. I 

 will further add, that it is better to have the honey- 

 board which is used in this position all metal, such 

 as I wrote you about when father Langstroth was 

 visiting me a year ago last spring. 



Now, as to the " simple arrangement " for catch- 

 ing and holding drones and queens at the side of 

 the hive near the front, mentioned in my book as 

 above quoted, it is a perfect success; and although 

 any one skilled in the art could go on and success- 

 fully make it after simply giving the above hint, I 

 will, if you desire, describe it in a future ax-ticle. 

 That this arrangement is far ahead of any entrance 

 arrangement for the purpose, there is no doubt. 

 Still, I do doubt whether or not, in rapid and cheap 

 honey-production, any of it is of much value; and, 

 further, I wish to add that, in the production of 

 comb honey, queen-excluding is of very little value 

 —perhaps not enough to pay bee-keepers at large 

 for using queen-excluding metal, provided they 

 use the bee-space break-joint honey-board, which 



