262 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



rarely found brood chilled by being handled 

 in cold weather, unless the frames were care- 

 lessly put in different places, so that the 

 cluster would be unable to cover tlie brood 

 that had by this means been pushed out of 

 the cluster. We did make a thorough ex- 

 amination March 10th, and found brood in 

 perhaps one-third of the whole number of 

 colonies ; and, by the way, I believe 1 would 

 rather that bees should not commence brood- 

 rearing very much, before the middle of 

 March or toward the first of April. This 

 matter has been much discussed, I presume 

 you remember, in our back volumes. 



DRONE COMB. 



FOUNDATION, EMPTY FRAMES, ETC. 



"T THINK Mr. Dadant is entirely correct in his 

 (^ views about the buildng- of drone comb; i. e., 

 ^r if the brood-nest is so large that the bees in the 

 "■■ first-built cells hatch before the brood-nest is 

 filled with comb, and the queen returns to the 

 center to refill the cells with eggs, then the comb that 

 is built will, quite likely, be drone corah, because the 

 Sees are hidkUng it for storing surplus. You will see 

 that I have no trouble from this source, because I 

 contract the brood-nest to such an extent that it is 

 filled before the bees in the first-built cells hatch, 

 hence the queen is always close upon the heels of 

 the comb-builders. If the honey-flow should sud- 

 denly cease before the brood-nest is filled with 

 comb, and comb-building- should be stopped as the 

 result, until bees were hatching- in the central 

 combs, and the comb-building- should be resumed at 

 exactly this time, it is quite likely that drone comb 

 would be the result. 



You say, friend Root, that you are loth to g-ive up 

 the axiom that " empty combs are the sheet-anchor 

 of bee-keeping." I do not ask you to give it up; 

 only not to use them in the hrood-nest when hiving 

 swarms. This question of when, where, and how, 

 to use empty combs; when fdn. is preferable to 

 combs; and when it is better to allow the bees to 

 build comb than to use either, is one I have tried to 

 make as clear as possible in the little book that I 

 have written the past winter. The book is"nowin 

 press, and will soon be out. 



Friend Root, 1 am just a little puzzled by your re- 

 marks on page 174, about 8 and 10 frame hives. 

 Heretofore you have approved of 10-frame hives; 

 and your remarks on page 174 are, apparently, in 

 their defense; yet you close by saying, that so far 

 as the amount of bees is concerned you don't see 

 that there is much ditterence. If we can raise as 

 many bees in an eight-frame hive as in a lai-ger one, 

 why not give it the preference, and thus save the 

 expense of the extra combs ? W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich., March 9, 1887. 



I will try to make my meaning clear, 

 fiiend H. Early in the season, before the 

 colony has increased or enlarged sufficiently 

 to have any use for more than 8 combs, the 

 bees and brood in an eight-frame hive are 

 worth just as much as the bees and brood 

 from a ten-frame hive; in other words, for 

 quite a spell in the spring of the year we find 

 most colonies with two or more unoccupied 

 combs that do the bees no good whatever, 

 and I prefer the ten -comb hive, because, 

 when the time comes that the 10 combs are 



needed, there they are, right at hand. If 

 they contain sealed stores, they are also 

 right at hand for the bees when they want 

 them. Were I purchasing bees and brood, 

 however, as we do purchase almost every 

 spring trom our neighbor Rice and others, I 

 would just as soon have the bees and brood 

 from an eight-frame hive as from a ten- 

 frame hive. In buying bees, we stipu- 

 late to get combs enough with them so as 

 to take all the brood and v)ollen and no 

 more, for we do not want to purchase any 

 more extra combs than are al)solutely nec- 

 essary, preferring to have bees build them 

 in wired frames, for our special use. I 

 think that, when neighbor Rice brings us 

 bees the first of May, it requires only from 

 five to eight combs to contain all the brood 

 and pollen in a good colony. 



THE T SUPER-THE BEST ARRANGE- 

 MENT. 



HONET, HIGH AND LOW PRICE OF. 



AM glad to see in Gleanings, p. 156, that you 

 (filt' are giving the public a good description of the 

 ^t T super, for it is by far the best arrangement 

 yet made for holding sections. The first one 1 

 ever saw was made by my brother, and used in 

 our apiary in Front Royal, Va., in the spring of 

 1883. Since that time we have made hundreds of 

 them for the eight and ten frame L. hive, also for 

 chaff hives. It works nicely with or without sepa- 

 rators. But we always use them with, as we like 

 to have our sections of uniform weight, and built 

 so they can be crated without damage to combs. For 

 the eight-frame L. hive we make the cases 1378 inch- 

 es wide, inside measure, and run the tins the long- 

 way of the case, thereby putting in three rows of 

 sections, the sections running crosswise of the 

 brood-frames. We are convinced that the bees do 

 not fasten bits of comb to them nearly as much as 

 when they run the same way as the brood-frames. 

 By using the T-tin bearings for sections they are 

 brought down to a bee-space from the frames, and 

 the cases are more easily cleaned of propolis than 

 any other we have tried. We use a follower at the 

 back end of the case, to hold the sections and sepa- 

 rators snug, either with a wedge or thumb-screws. 

 As we use nothing but4i4x4i4 sections, we have the T 

 tins fastened at fixed distances in the case, so that 

 they are always in the right place. The case can be 

 made so as to have a bee-space over the sections or 

 not, as desired. We use them without, and slide 

 the cases on from the side of the hive when tiering 

 up. 



HONEY A STAPLE .\RTICLE OF FOOD. 



I shall have to side with Mr. Dadant as regards 

 the prospect of honey competing with sugar and 

 syrup. I am convinced that, when honey is placed 

 in the hands of the consumer, at a fair price as 

 compared with the wholesale prices now obtained 

 for it, there will be large quantities of it used, 

 where now it is hardly known. While stopping in 

 New York and Philadelphia on my trip to my old 

 home here in New Hampshire, I saw tons of comb 

 honey in the hands of commission men, that could 

 be purchased all the way from 9 to ]3cts. per pound. 

 The same honey in the retailers' hands was being 

 ottered at 313 cts. A large part of this honey was dark, 

 and of light weight, so the consumer bad to pay 



