1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



387 



EXTRACTING A WHOLE SUPERFUL OF COMBS 

 AT once; ANOTHER PLAN FORDOING IT. 



I can tell you how to overcome the diffi- 

 culty in extracting- an entire shallow ex- 

 tracting-super at one operation, or, rather, 

 two or four of them, as spoken of in your 

 footnote to the article by J. Hammond, pag-e 

 244. 



We will have our combs built on thin 

 boards, deep cells, as has been done in 

 Germany (so says Prof. Cook's Manual). 

 There will then be but half the amount of 

 uncapping- necessary, which cuts that diffi- 

 culty squarely in two. Put four such su- 

 pers in the mammoth extractor; no tin sep- 

 arators are necessary; the wood cell-base 

 answers for that. No reversing is necessa- 

 ry, as the cells are all on one side; the hon- 

 ey rains out on to the wood cell-base; then 

 turn the supers half way around, and all 

 the honey will be thrown from the wood 

 partition. I quote from Cook's Manual: 

 "In Germany it is recommended to press 

 the foundation for extracting-frames on to a 

 board so as to have the cells built out only 

 on one side, and elongated so as to hold 

 much honey. This gives strong combs, and 

 saves turning the frames when extracting." 



Seriously, what do you think of this? 

 With such combs would it not be practica- 

 ble to extract four shallow supers at one 

 operation? Tell Rambler to send on his 

 S50, for I have told him how (perhaps). 



E. F. Atwater. 

 Boise, Ida., Apr. 7. 



[The one-sided board combs have never 

 been a practical success, if I am correct. I 

 doubt whether bees would store honey in 

 them as readily, because each comb would 

 be shut off from its neighbor by a wooden 

 partition or separator, making separate 

 and distinct clusters. This has been one 

 objection to solid separators in an ordinary 

 comb-honey super. Again, these single- 

 surface combs would have very deep cells — 

 probably twice as deep as those of ordinary 

 combs. If so, the honej' would hardly rip- 

 en as well. 



If there are any of our readers who can 

 give us any information regarding these 

 one-sided extracting-combs we should be 

 glad to hear from them. — Ed.] 



winter stores; amount consumed out- 

 doors AND indoors; a reply to 



DOOLITTLE. 



After the bees in October have carried 

 the loose honey to the top of these hives I 

 have two men weigh and mark the weight 

 on all hives. I then add to or take from all 

 hives till each one has from 30 to 35 pounds 

 (net) of honey for winter. I have done this 

 way for years, and find very little differ- 

 ence in the amount consumed whether pack- 

 ed on summer stands or in cellar. No man 

 that I have ever heard of ever put 100 colo- 

 nies in the cellar or out for a five-months' 

 stay, on one ton of honey. 



The temperature of the earth below the 

 frost-line is between 32 and 34, j^et Mr. 



Doolittle has no trouble in keeping his bees 

 at about 50. How is that 10 to 20 degrees 

 of heat obtained? I need not say by the 

 consumption of honey— every one knows 

 that. 



My estimate is correct. From one-fifth 

 to one-fourth of all the honey eaten in win- 

 ter by bees is water. Other conditions be- 

 ing equal, no water above that is needed. 

 Where does the water that runs down Mr. 

 Doolittle's stone walls come from? We may 

 yet find that the dry heat of a steam-engine 

 is what we all need to winter our bees in 

 the most economical manner. 



Farwell, Mich. T. F. Bingham. 



[It has been set down as a rule that the 

 consumption of stores indoors during winter 

 was very much less than outdoors. Our 

 own experience during the past winter 

 showed us that our cellar-wintered bees 

 consumed very much less than the outdoor 

 bees — so much less that we are beginning 

 to feel that we can not afford to winter out- 

 doors, especially some seasons when we 

 have to buy sugar and feed syrup when we 

 run 500 colonies and nuclei in one place. 



There have been actual weighings of the 

 amount of stores consumed during those 

 months of confinement in the cellar, that 

 showed an actual shrinkage of from 5 to 12 

 lbs., the average being somewhere between 

 10 and 11 lbs. ; and there have been actual 

 figures to show that the actual consumption 

 outdoors, by colonies of the same relative 

 strength, was about twice as much. See 

 Gleanings, page 102, 1901. 



One of the main arguments for indoor 

 wintering has been a saving in stores. 

 Now, if stores are consumed in proporiion 

 to the amount of cold, and the temperature 

 of a bee-cellar is from 40 to 50, and the 

 temperature outdoors is anywhere from 10 

 above to 20 below zero, then it would seem 

 to me there must necessafily be a larger 

 shrinkage of stores outdoors. — Ed.] 



THE OPINION OF AN EXTENSIVE FRUIT- 

 GROWER ON THE VALUE OF BEES AS 

 POLLINATORS. 



I had hoped to handle honey as well as 

 fruit; but I am kept so busy running my 

 fruit-farm (7000 grapevines and 2000 fruit- 

 trees) that I simply have not time to give to 

 bees. In a year or so, after I train my 

 help on my fruit-farm, I may conclude to 

 try the bees. Meanwhile my neighbor's 40 

 hives of bees, and the wild insects, seem 

 sufficient to cross-fertilize my fruit. In my 

 business I consider honey-bees a great aid 

 to me, not only in fertilizing the flowers, 

 but after hornets puncture a grape the bee 

 kindly sucks out the juice, which prevents 

 that one berry from spoiling several more. 

 W. T. Lindsey. 



Tryon, N. C, April 17, 1902. 



[Among the intelligent progressive fruit- 

 growers, those who are above prejudice, the 

 bees are always considered to be friends. — 

 Ed.] 



