732 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Sept. 



ing the upper part ol the rack separate, is that it ia 

 easier to put on the first part of the load with the 

 upper rack off. After the lower rack is filled, then 

 set on the upper one and fill it. When hauling the 

 filled supers of honey home, there will be no need 

 of the upper rack. The rack is short enough not to 

 interfere with the wagon-seat. 



While talking about hauling sections, I may as 

 well speak of starters dropping out. If you use 

 narrow starters you are not likely to have any trou- 

 ble. Probably, however, you fill the section with 

 foundation, in which case, unless very securely 

 fastened, the starters may drop out in hauling. I 

 used a Parker fastener, and turned the sections up- 

 side down when hauling. It was some trouble, but 

 not so much as to have the starters fall out. Then 

 I got a Clark fastener; and since using that, I haul 

 the sections without inverting, and it is a rare thing 

 for a starter to fall out. The Clark, however, must 

 be used correctly, or I wouldn't have it. Simply 

 press the foundation with a kicking motion of the 

 feet, using no sliding motion of the foundation; 

 and if the edge of your foundation is soft enough 

 you will make a very secure job. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



Why, friend M., when you went around 

 to the house-apiaries when I was there, you 

 had a nice easy-riding buggy, with a top to 

 it to keep off the sun. Was that only be- 

 cause I was along ? I supposed it was the 

 regular programme. I noticed, however, 

 that you did not carry very many supplies 

 in the buggy. We have quite a variety of 

 top boxes for farm work, but none, perhaps, 

 quite as light as yours. On our big lumber 

 wagon, the front-board is permanently 

 higher than the rest of the box ; then to 

 make the box higher we have some very 

 thin light side-boards permanently attached 

 to an end-board. This sits over the edge 

 of the box, and catches fast to the front end- 

 board. The idea of having a top-box in sec- 

 tions, so you can take oft' a part of it at a 

 time, is a very good one. I suppose bee- 

 keepers with out-apiaries will need some- 

 thing of an assortment of vehicles. Where 

 you make a hurried trip alone by yourself, 

 the common road cart, 1 should think, would 

 be very nice, for you can make great speed 

 without fatiguing the horse. Next would be 

 a bug^y or spring wagon, that would carry, 

 say, 1000 lbs.; but when honey, hives, or 

 bees are to be moved, weighing several tons, 

 then I should think that two horses with a 

 big stout wagon would be the best economy ; 

 and perhaps it would pay to have springs. 

 By slow driving, however, one can get along 

 without them. The number of out-apiaries, 

 and the amount of business one does, would 

 probably have to decide somewhat in regard 

 to vehicles, and the number of horses also, 

 for that matter. 



NON-SWARMERS. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE I'liOPOSES A I'LAN. 



C5| ¥ page 031 of Gleanings for the present year, 

 IV I see that Dr. Miller is still desirous of know- 

 fH| ing how to keep bees from swarming, Hiid 



■^"^ quotes " Doolittle " quite largely in his arti- 

 cle on that page. Doctor, please accept 



thanks for kind words found on the page above 



quoted; and now I wish to lead you and the readers 

 of Gleanings out in a new direction along this 

 line of non-swarming, for Doolittle has been ex- 

 perimenting a little more the past summer on this 

 vexatious question— vexatious to those who have 

 all the bees they care for. Why I wish to give my 

 experiment at this time is, so that you can prepare 

 a hive or two the present winter to try the plan, and 

 then with me, next summer, help perfect it to a 

 greater extent than I have been able to do with all 

 my cares. We have all heard of non-swarming 

 hives during the past, yet none of these ever prov- 

 ed capable of doing what their inventors claimed 

 for them, for which reason no one has any faith in 

 a non-swarming hive. Well, I do not claim a non- 

 swarming hive as any part of my plan, but I do 

 claim that hive preparation and manipulation may 

 yet be made the very item which is to do away 

 with swarming, only as the owner has a desire for 

 swarms. Now, after reading what is to follow, I 

 want every reader of Gleanings to set his or her 

 mind to work to see how they can improve on what 

 I have done, hoping that each one may take a dif- 

 ferent line of thought from mine, or from any oth- 

 er person, and next season work out what they 

 think, when, according to my belief, some of us will 

 have a sure way of keeping all colonies from 

 swarming, even if the plan I tried this year does 

 not work as satisfactorily another year as it has 

 this. What I did was as follows: 



Last winter I cut three hives in two, so as to 

 make two half-depth hives of each. I now made 

 half-depth frames to fit these hives, which gave me 

 a frame 5 inches deep and 10% inches long, inside 

 measure. That your frames should be like mine is 

 not at all important. To cut your hive through the 

 center the up-and-down way, and make the frames 

 to fit the hive, is all that is necessary to try the 

 plau. I made the bee-space at the top of each part, 

 but I do not know but it would work equally well 

 with this space at the bottom. To get the bee- 

 space at the bottom, I nailed ft strips on the bot- 

 tom-boards, for the hives to rest upon. When 

 spring arrived I transferred colonies into these 

 hives, using only one part of the hive at first till the 

 bees became strong enough to want the whole hive, 

 when the other half was put underneath that part 

 which the bees had occupied till this time. In oth- 

 er words, these half depth hives were tiered up as 

 soon as they became strong enough to work to ad- 

 vantage in both parts. For this purpose I used the 

 standard Gallup hive, rather than the hive holding 

 only nine frames, which I use the most largely in 

 my apiary, for my object was to get the largest 

 force of bees possible at or just before the time of 

 swarming; and by using the standard Gallup hive I 

 could use 20 half depth frames, in both parts, when 

 all were in the hive. 



A little before swarming time, say a week, and as 

 soon as honey began to come in so that the bees 

 were building little bits of new comb, the part of 

 the hive having the most sealed brood in it, or, in 

 other words, that part having the least unsealed 

 brood in, was raised off the other part, being sure 

 that the queen was in the lower part, a queen-ex- 

 cluding honey-board put on, and on top of this a 

 case of sections, while on top of the sections was 

 placed the upper half of the hive which had been 

 taken iff. This was done to start the bees in the 

 sections at once, on a plan somewhat similar to D. 

 A. Jones's idea of putting the sections in the middle 



