March, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



C(l up on tho hive. "Now for the queen," 

 said T, and began pawing the bees over, get- 

 ting a few more stings to help out. At last 

 I caught her. It was easy to recognize her. 

 I put her in the hive, but did not know 

 enough to clip her wings. I thought that 

 all I had to do was to put her in and the 

 rest woukl follow. No. I gathered up all 

 that I could and put them into the hive and 

 went to supper and then to bed. Next 

 morning I did not look at them before going 

 to work. At night I hurried home and 

 went straight to the new hive and lifted the 

 cover very carefully, and, lo! there was not 

 a bee inside. All were gone. 



Well, I took up the blanket and felt very 

 wretched over the loss. I kicked the hive and 

 then sat on it and began to think. My soap 

 boxes were working with a will . Would I 

 try to put them in the new hive? I would 

 not. They would stay where they were. 

 In fact, I did not know what to do, and so 

 I hunted up another beeman. Now, do not 

 think badly of these beemen in this neck 

 of the woods. Maybe they are all right. 

 This one advised me to let the bees fill the 

 box with honey and then kill them. 



Kill those bees after they had filled the 

 box! Well, I guess not! This beeman went 

 away without my blessing. When he told 

 me to kill those bees I took my jackknife 

 and worked around the cover of that soap 

 box, and when I got it open I found that 

 those bees had a comb started diagonally 

 across the box hive. I lifted it a little more 

 very gently, when one slammed a sting into 

 my nose. So I let the lid down and got my 

 saw and cut into that cover very slowly and 

 carefully. Not a bee made a move. It took 

 me 20 minutes to do the sawing; but I was 

 well paid for my time. I took the inside 

 measure and made three frames and slipped 

 them into the box. Three weeks later those 

 frames were solid comb and honey. 



Kill my soap boxers, Mr. Beeman? I 

 guess not. 



I like to get advice, but I do not always 

 take it to keep. I am now making some 12- 

 frame hives for next year. I now have five 

 colonies, but one of them is hybrid. 



In this locality bees work on maple blos- 

 soms, fruit bloom, bull thistles, and fire- 

 weed. There is some clover here, but not 

 much. Ed. C. Hemp. 



Snoqualmie Falls, Wash. 



WHAT KIND OF BIG HIVE_IF? 



A Californian View of the Tendency Toward Big- 

 ger Hives 



The hive question, it seems, is one that 

 will never down. Beginners are prone to 

 seek a hive that will prevent swarming, but 

 it is doubtful if any such hive will ever be 

 found without encountering greater incon- 



veniences than swarming itself. The be- 

 ginner who tries a new hive will have about 

 999 chances out of 1,000 to be wrong. 



It is claimed that there is a tendency 

 in the direction of the twelve- and thirteen- 

 frame Langstroth hives. Now, I have 200 

 20 x 20 or thirteen-frame hives in my api- 

 ary, and I wish that I did not have one of 

 them. They are too big — too large to han- 

 dle, and too large for the average queen. 

 Three years ago I got these hives and put 

 100 of my best colonies in them, and found 

 that only four or five queens were capable 

 of keeping such hives filled with brood. 

 None of these queens was two years old. 

 Moreover, I selected the best 100 out of 300 

 colonies to transfer to the large hives. A 

 few of the queens used only eight combs, 

 the average number of combs being from 

 9% to 10. Of course these combs were all 

 worker. The queens will use more if there 

 is much drone comb in the hive. With these 

 large hives, supers the same size, and a 

 queen-excluder on, but with suitable arrange- 

 ment for ventilation and plenty of empty 

 comb above and below, about 25 per cent 

 of those colonies swarmed. They also after- 

 swarmed as much as colonies in small hives. 

 The size of the hive, however, does have 

 something to do with swarming, for they 

 will swarm worse from eight-frame hives 

 than from hives of ten or twelve frames. 



The eight-frame hive has lost out entirely. 

 I would not accejit eight-frame hives 

 as a gift if I had the money to buy 

 the ten-frame size. But while we have gone 

 from the eight-frame to the ten-frame hive, 

 I think there is much doubt whether the 

 twelve-frame is better than the ten-frame. 

 We can prevent swarming to a great ex- 

 tent by using the ten-frame hive three high 

 in operating for extracted honey, provided 

 we work without queen-excluders — at least 

 the excluders must be out of the way until 

 the approach of the harvest. I know to a 

 certainty that bees are much more given to 

 swarming with the queen-excluders on in 

 the early spring; and, so far as swarming 

 is concerned, it would be advantageous to 

 use no queen-excluders. But I prefer to 

 use them except in early spring, for I think 

 their value outweighs their disadvantages. 



It is quite possible that the Jumbo ten- 

 frame hive has advantages over the stan- 

 dard ten-frame size, but the regular Lang- 

 stroth frame seems to be about right. 

 Nevertheless, if we ever change to another 

 style, it certainly should be larger and not 

 smaller than the Langstroth. Small frames 

 are an absolute nuisance at the time of ex- 

 tracting. It is my belief that we should be 

 very careful about changing from the stan- 

 dard ten-frame Langstroth hive; but if we 

 do change it should be to the Jumbo ten- 

 frame hive, with the frames wired about 

 every 1% inches to hold the foundation. 



Piru, Gal. Chas. A. Brown. 



