36 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE 



Ventilated Coat Sleeves 



In the sketches herewith I illustrate a ventilated 

 wristlet, or cuff, made of wire fly-screen, connecting 

 the gloves to the sleeve of the coat, or connecting the 

 gloves with gauntlets, to enable the wearer, when 

 handling vicious bees, to enjoy cool arms and hands 

 in consequence of the free circulation of air about 

 the bare wrists. The wire-screen wristlets protect 

 from the stings of the bees by being held away from 

 the bare wrists half an inch or more by the half-inch 

 spiral coils of wire soldered or substantialUy fasten- 

 ed to the wristlet, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. 



If he participates in the last mentioned he is in- 

 clined to run the bees for increase and not for 

 honey. He will, therefore, keep the increase down 

 as much as possible and run the whole for honey. 

 For fuller particulars you are referred to " Bees on 

 Shares " in our ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture. — 

 EI..1 



Fig. 3 shows the wristlet straightened out flat with 

 the half-inch spiral coils of wire attached in the 

 best shape for sending through the mail. 



Fig. 1 shows a work coat fitted with ventilated 

 wire-screen wristlets or cuffs. Fig. 2 shows a 

 gauntlet glove similarly fitted. 



I have used a coat fitted with wire-screen wrist- 

 lets or cuffs as shown in Fig. 1 for the past several 

 years when handling vicious bees during hot dry 

 weather after the end of the honey-flow, and find it 

 immensely more comfortable than a coat without 

 them, having the gloves sewed directly to the sleeves 

 of the coat. 



Dehesa, Cal. R. J. Krause. 



An Outdoor Colony Put in a Hive Nov. 15 



A man wliile Ininting, Nov. 4, near my apiary, 

 saw four pieces of comb on an oak-tree, and found 

 a swarm of bees on a little bush about 30 feet away 

 from the oak. It was a cold night, and the tree 

 stood by itself in an open field. The bees left the 

 combs to go to the bush, no doubt to get out of the 

 wind. 



On Nov. 5 I hived the bees and gave them combs 

 of honey. The combs on the limb of the tree were 

 about eight inches across, while one was smaller. This 

 is the first time I ever hived a swarm in November. 



Last season, which was very dry, with 17 colonies 

 of bees I secured about 800 pounds of honey, mostly 

 extracted. My apiary is at Remington, Va., and I 

 work in Washington, D. C, 57 miles away, so that 

 I do not see my bees in the summer oftener than 

 once in every three or four weks. I had no swarm 

 in 1914. I keep my queens clipped. 



Washington, D. C. F. Taylor Thompson. 



Bees on Shares or for Rent 



I desire some information concerning what is con- 

 sidered as a fair and safe proposition to make to 

 the owner of an apiary for its rental. 



Houghton, N. Y., Nov. 28. H. R. Smith. 



[When bees are put out on a rental basis, or on 

 shares, the party who furnishes the bees receives 

 half the honey and beeswax and all the increase, 

 while the party wlio furnishes the labor receives 

 half the honey and the beeswax, but no increase. 



A 20 X 20 Thirteen-frame Hive as Standard 



A subject of especial interest is that of a larger 

 liive, under discussion in the last two numbers of 

 Glkaxixgs. I believe that honey-producers quite 

 generally are arriving at the 

 one opinion that the ten-frame 

 o hive is too small. The eight- 



frame is not worthy of men- 

 tioning as a beehive. It may 

 do for a home for a nucleus 

 for a short time. I believe 

 that the eight-framo hive is 

 the direct cause of excessive 

 swarming in this locality. I 

 believe that a standard size 

 should be agreed upon, and 

 manufactured as a standard 

 by the supply-houses. This, 

 perhaps, would be hard to 

 agree upon, as at present 

 there seems to lie a great 

 diversity of opinion. To my 

 mind it seems that the square hive, 20 x 20 inches, 

 containing 13 L. frames, would make an ideal stan- 

 dard hive. True, many of our best queens under 

 proper care would fill a larger hive ; but with this 

 hive it would not require any great amount of man- 

 ipulation to keep ahead of the most prolific queen. 



In the past few years more than half of my queens 

 under stimulative feeding (one-half pint warm sugar 

 syrup each evening from the close of fruit-bloom 

 until the opening of clover bloom) have filled from 

 fifteen to twenty L. frames with brood before the 

 clover bloom opens. What we want is a hive that 

 V ill provide plenty of room for breeding to the limit 

 of their strength, assist in curtailing swarming, 

 provide a good honey-producing hive, and at the 

 same time prove a good winter hive without excessive 

 manipulation. This 20 x 20 square hive, it seems, 

 will strike a happy medium for breeding, honey 

 production, and summer. 



For winter, furnish it with a telescope top ten or 

 eleven inches deep, and large enough to allow half- 

 inch packing on all sides and a heavy packing on 

 top under cover. This, I believe, will make an ideal 

 hive for outdoor wintering. While brother Hand 

 makes a good plea to cut out excessive manipulation, 

 it seems to me that his sixteen-frame hive with an 

 eight-frame inside for winter, with sixteen-frame su- 

 per added, requires about as much manipulation as 

 any plan I know of in use or advocated by any one 

 else. 



Removing the queen together with two frames of 

 brood at the beginning of the honey-flow, to prevent 

 swarming, works very sucessfully in preventing 

 swarming, giving a good honey yield and an increase 

 of 100 per cent with a ten-frame hive. 



IJrbana, Ohio. O. .7. Janes. 



Sections Stamped with Too Low a Weight 



We were much interested in reading the article 

 on page 221, Dec. 1, on the net-weight law as 

 applied to the comb-honey business. Both your 

 comments and those of Mr. R. A. Burnett, of Chica- 

 go, meet our views. We think that if the beekeep- 

 ers would take a little more pains and very little 

 r.i:irc labor they could comply with the law, and the 

 results would be more satisfactory to them and to 

 the dealers. As Mr. Burnett says, " make the sec- 



