1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1029 



with you that wood may be kept as warm as 

 the same cubic inches of honey (sealed), but 

 I have never seen a cluster of bees on any 

 t'ling iu a hive, except their own product. 

 They well "tight shy" of wood or any 

 foreign material in the hive, and will tear 

 to pieces and drag out any thing and every 

 thing that the}' can possibly tear down and 

 move out, except what they produce, and 

 they endure all they can not cure. 



I notice that the bees cling to the top edge 

 of the shallow bar while the comb builders 

 are at work under them, and that they cling 

 to the under side of the deep bar while the 

 same work is going on. 1 am convinced 

 that the\' object to furnishing a large num- 

 ber of extra "hands'" for the sole purpose 

 of heating up a "deep" top-bar, and I 

 think they find it easier to hold on to the 

 top edge of a shallow bar, and easier to 

 move over the shallow bar to work in the 

 super. Of course, I am aware that bee- 

 men may differ widely in their views in re- 

 gard to these as well as other matters and 

 things; but j^ou will admit, I know, without 

 argument, that the deep top-bar was made 

 for the sole benefit of the "master" to keep 

 the comb from "sagging" and breaking 

 down from any cause, without the slightest 

 regard for the convenience or welfare of the 

 bees. 



In my paper in Gleanings of Nov. 1st 

 I say, "Supers without brood would be the 

 exception instead of the rule," which should 

 read, "Supers with brood would be the 

 rule instead of the exception." 



Statesville, N. C. J, M. Gibbs. 



[It seems to me j-ou are relying more on 

 theory, and what the bees ought to do, than 

 what they really do do, in the matter of 

 their storing in the supers. What the bees 

 do with reference to the to]i bars thick or 

 thin is the question. It is what they actu- 

 ally do above them in the supers. Did you 

 ever try ten hives with thin top-bars along- 

 side of ten hives with thick top-bars, both 

 having a set of supers on top, the two sets 

 of hives as nearly alike in strength as pos- 

 sible, except in point of thick top-bars? I 

 am satisfied that you will find, as hundreds 

 of others have done, that they will store 

 honey just as readily in one set of supers 

 as in the other. We do not make thick top- 

 bars because the bees ask for them, but be- 

 cause the}' subserve the convenience of the 

 bee-keeper; in that you are correct. But if 

 their use will not decrease the amount of 

 honey in the super, why shouldn't we use 

 them, theory or no theory? 



I do not quite see the force of j-our argu- 

 ment of heating up a deep top-bar. Will 

 not sealed comb honey be as cold — yes, 

 colder — than the same cubic space of 

 wood? — Ed.] 



Bi^ES IN A soap-box; what is the best 



WAY to manage THEM? 



Will you please settle a little argument 

 between three of us here ? A bought a col- 

 ony of bees in a soap-box, having top and 



bottom nailed. He is going to wait till 

 the}' swarm next summer, and then open 

 the box and place the brood in frames in a 

 modern hive. B says, "Bore holes in the 

 toji of the box and place a deep super of 

 frames and foundation on top of the box 

 hive, and the queen and the bees go up into 

 the super — which can be removed and plac- 

 ed on another deep super, the two making 

 one hive?" C says, " Knock the bottom ofi' 

 the box hive and put a super under." Will 

 the bees bring down the stores and place 

 them in the super under the hive. The 

 subject under discussion between B and C 

 is whether the bees will breed in the lower 

 super box or upper super first; also how to 

 get the box from the bees before breeding 

 and swarming time so they will swarm 

 from a modern hive instead of a box hive. 

 Chicago, 111. W. G. Reynolds. 



[None of the plans indicated by A, B, or 

 C are really good. Perhaps B gets nearer 

 to it than either of the other two. I would 

 knock the whole bottom or top off from one 

 box, then set an ordinary hive with clean 

 combs on top. Combs should contain stores 

 sufficient to winter them. The heat will 

 naturally arise into the hive above, and the 

 bees will not be slow to go where the heat 

 is. The objection to B's plan is that it 

 would not entirely confine the heat below, 

 and the bees might be inclined to stay in 

 the box rather than go up into the hive. 

 Last winter a farmer brought in a colony 

 hived in a soap-box. We took off one side, 

 and put a hive containing some old stores 

 right over it. In about a week the bees 

 were in the upper hive. — Ed.] 



CELLAR wintering; moldy combs. 



One year ago I built a room in my cellar 

 for wintering my bees. In size it is 6x18x6, 

 and ceiled with matched pine. My outer- 

 room cellar froze ice an inch deep, but I 

 kept my bee-roim door closed during the 

 coldest weather. The hives were tiered up, 

 and in the upper ones the combs were damp 

 and moldy, although bees came out quite 

 strong. My cellar is a very dry one, but 

 cold, and I am thinking of putting two 

 inches of sawdust on the walls by nailing 

 thin lumber on studding. Is there danger 

 of my making it too warm by doing so ? I 

 have an outside door to my cellar, by means 

 of which I can cool it. Do you think it ad- 

 visable to put in this packing of sawdust? 

 or would you put in the bees the same as 

 last winter? 1 did not lose any. but I 

 thought by the moldy combs that there 

 must have been frost inside the room. 



A. B. Denman. 



Osseo, Mich., Nov. 9, 1902. 



[Moldy combs in hive wintered in the cell- 

 ar do not necessarily indicate a bad condi- 

 tion. If the mold is too pronounced it would 

 show too much dampness. I would not ad- 

 vise putting the extra sawdust protection 

 around the inside of the cellar unless the 

 temperature in that cellar goes below 30 or 



