5:-!S 



(iLl'LVJVlNGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



July 



are quiet on the comb, but I don't know about the 

 crosses. I g'ot a dollar Carniolan of Dr. Morrison, 

 and her bees are the worst to run and clu.ster and 

 drop oH' that I ever saw. If I have to use much 

 smoke they will all boil out of the hive. 



KEVEKSIHLla FKAMKS. 



You ask if 1 still like reversible frames as well as 

 1 did a year or so ago. 1 will answer, Yankee like, 

 by askinji' if you have ever heard of any one who 

 has given reversing a fair trial who did not like it 

 better. To use them for only a Swarm or two, I do 

 not think a fair trial. I hived forty swarms on 

 them two years ago, besides the few we had last 

 year; and were it not for the fact that I can get the 

 brood well up toward the top-bar by contraction I 

 would use them, even if they cost ten cents extra 

 instead of one. T have over 500 reversible frames, 

 and wish every comb in my apiary were reversible. 

 With new swarms I have reduced reversing to a 

 practical system. I give new swarms five or six 

 frames filled with foundation. If more frames are 

 given them than the queen can occupy, the cen- 

 tral ones will be solid with biood and the outside 

 ones solid with honey, provided they are reversed 

 at the right time. The jiioper time to reverse the 

 first time is altout the twelfth or thirteenth day aft- 

 er hiving. At that time the frame will have honey 

 at the top, sealed br-ood in the center, and eggs and 

 larvM" near the bottom. If any of the honey is cap- 

 ped in the top of the frame it should be lightly 

 mashed down with the flat side of a knife. In nine 

 or ten days more they should be reversed again, 

 when the combs will be solid with brood; but they 

 need to be reversed now so as to throw the larva- 

 and eggs above and the sealed brood below, where 

 the bees are not inclined to store honey, and the 

 queen will till up the comb with eggs as fast as the 

 bees hatch, so that in nine or ten days more the 

 capped brood is all replaced by eggs and lavva^, 

 when they are to bo reversed again, and so on as 

 long as honey is coming in fast enough to crowd the 

 queen. The object is to reverse just often enough 

 so as never to let any brood hatch in the upper pai't 

 of the frames. 



I will try to answer your other questions more 

 briefly. 



I use theold-style Hcddon super; wide frames are 

 out of date with me, and I don't use separators, 

 but put full-sized starters In the sections and get 

 combs straight enough when there is a good flow of 

 honey. I think it might pay to use separators when 

 honey is coming in slow ly, but my supers will not 

 admit of their use any wa,\ . 



The white clover began to " give down " the 18th. 

 The bees are whitening the combs along the top- 

 bars now, whi<'h tends to make the apiaiist " feel 

 good." 



rtll.HOOI.Y'S VISIT. 



I was just putting on the supers when along came 

 neighbor Gilhooly. 



"Hello, Fowls, you are shifting about, I see. 

 Now, what are you trying to get that big swarm 

 from that big chaff hive into that little Heddon 

 hive for?" 



" I am going to run them lor comb honey, and my 

 supers fit this hive." 



"But you can't put ten frames in an eight-frame 

 hive, and you have two frames in there now." 



" No, they are dummies, made to fill the place of 

 each outside frame. Thei-e, you see here are six 



frames well filled with brood, and that just fills the 

 hive." 



" But here are four left covered with bees." 



"Yes, and I will just Shake them down here In 

 front." 



"But they'll hardly find room in there between 

 those six frames of brood." 



" Well, then they can go up in the super." 



"I suppose you have that row of old sections in 

 your super with comb in for bait; but why didn't 

 you put them in the middle instead of the end? 

 They would work at them more readily right over 

 the center of the brood-nest." 



" Yes, but they will occupy them promptly any 

 way; and as they will be finished before the others, 

 I would rather give the empty sections the most de- 

 sirable place over that part of the frames contain- 

 ing the most brood." 



"Why, look here, Fowls; here are eggs and larva^ in 

 these four frames you have left in the chaff hive." 



" Well, I'll put them in here. You see I have a lot 

 of nuclei here, and their queens are not mated 

 yet." 



" What! are you raising queens for market too?" 



"No; but I am starting nuclei as fast as I can 

 get the cells, so as to have their queens laying by 

 swarming time. I wish I could have a nucleus with 

 a laying queen ready for every swarm that comes 

 out." 



" What now? some new hobby?" 



" Why, that's the way I prevent after-swarms. I 

 hive the new swarm on the old stand, so as to get 

 all the flying bees, and set the old hive to one side 

 till evening, when I carry it, with the comb of 

 brood and young bees, and unite with one of these 

 nuclei. In a few days the nuclei will be a powerful 

 swarm lor business." 



" But, won't they swarm?" 



" Not usually. The nucleus with a laying queen 

 stops all that for at least the time being; but if they 

 do, it will be a prime swarm any way." 



"Why, Fowls, what does this mean? You must be 

 crazy to saw new brood-frames in two." 



" Oh, no! that's the way I make half-depth brood- 

 frames." 



" A'n't you going to have any bottom-bar?" 



" No; they are only 4^4 inches deep." 



"Well, what's your object in using them any 

 way?" 



"Oh! I just want to try Hutchinson's new de- 

 parture, hiving new swarms in empty brood-cham- 

 bei'S." 



" Well, why don't you use your regular Simplicity 

 frames? " 



•' I tried that last year, and it didn't work well. 

 His directions are, to contract the brood-nest; and 

 if you contract on the side, it makes it too narrow." 



" But I don't see your hives to fit these little bot- 

 tomless frames." 



"Well, they are easily made, .lust make a box 

 half an Inch smaller all around than the Simplicity 

 or chatf hive; drop it in the bottom, put in the lit- 

 tle frame, then the queen-excluding honey-board 

 and super, and you are all right." 



" Well, neighbor Fowls, it seems to me your new 

 swarms treated in this way will be in mighty bad 

 shape this fall for wintering." 



"Perhaps so, if I were to leave them so; l)ut 1 

 can easily shake them off the little combs, and let 

 them have some old black combs for wintering." 



" What will you do with the brood?" 



