Ai'RIl.. 19 If) 



(i 1, E A N T N (i S IN BEE O U L T IT U E 



245 



c 



FEELING the 

 need of 

 scientific in- 

 vestigation con- 

 cerning many of 

 the problems 

 that confront 

 beekeepers, the 

 Texas beekeep- 

 ers, so states the 



Beekeepers' Item, are asking the passage of 

 an experimental-apiaries bill. In speaking 

 of the need of such a bill, reference is made 

 to the fact that Texas has about 600,000 

 colonies, and produces about 15,000,000 

 ]iounds of honey annually; also that this 

 State has more colonies than any other; 

 that one-fifth of all the bees west of the 

 ^lississippi are in Texas; and yet that near- 

 ly two million dollars' worth of honey is 

 iini)orted into Texas annually, notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that twenty times the number 

 of colonies could be kept, and twenty times 

 the amount of honey produced, if Texas 

 beekeepers were educated to take advantage 

 of their opportunities. 



* * * 



LAKGS AXD SMALTj HIVES. 



The large and the small hive is discussed 

 by Miss Emma Wilson and Frank Pellett 

 in the March number of the American Bee 

 Journal. Mr. Pellett 's view of the question 

 is hardly to be questioned. In fact, he 

 makes the same argument as does Dr. Miller 

 in January Gleanings. However, inasmuch 

 as he has somewhat misquoted me, I will re- 

 peat what I stated in Dr. Miller's depart- 

 ment — that for those who neglect their bees 

 there is little doubt that the ten-frame hive 

 is preferable to the eight-frame for winter- 

 ing; but for those who attend to supplying 

 their colonies with stores in the fall (which, 

 it is to be hoped, the great majority of our 

 readers do) I believe colonies may be win- 

 tered warmer and cheaper in an eight-frame 

 hive or in a ten-frame contracted to eight. 

 And now I might add that all the colonies 

 I own are in ten-frame hives; and, if I ever 

 change the size, it will be to get a larger 

 hive, or at least a larger brood-chamber. 



The points Miss Wilson makes, however, 

 in favor of the lighter supers are very well 

 chosen. She rather takes E. R. Eoot to task 

 for advocating thirteen-frame hives. (It is 

 quite certain that Mr. Root had no intention 

 of recommending the thirteen-frame hive 

 for general adoption. He will doubtless 

 state his position more fully in the near 

 future.) She says that even if the thirteen- 

 frame hive were piled five high, and the 

 eight-frame eight high, which would give 

 the same capacity, it would still be about as 

 easy to remove the supers from the eight- 

 frame as from the thirteen-frame; for, tho 

 it would be handier to lift the three supers 

 from the high eight-frame hive than the 

 two top supers of the thirteen-frame hive, 

 still this extra work would be offset by the 

 greater ease in removing the remaining five 

 of the eight-frame supers than the three of 



THE BEST FROM OTHERS 



lona Fowls 



LJ 



1 



LJ 



1 li e th i I'teen- 

 liame supers. In 

 1 he second place, 

 ]\1 i s s Wilson 

 thinks that in 

 the majority of 

 cases the supers 

 are not piled as 

 high as this. She 

 further- calls at- 

 tention to the times the brood-chamber must 

 be moved to a new stand or down cellar and 

 out again. In these cases, she says, the lifting 

 is 621/4 per cent harder with the large hives 

 than with the small. Last of all, she says 

 all discussion along this line is quite idle 

 for those women who simply can not lift 

 a thirteen-frame hive at any height. 



A great many of us would not care to use 

 an eight-frame hive at all; and yet these 

 same arguments that hold in regard to the 

 thirteen-frame and eight-frame hive will 

 hold also, tho in less degree, to the thirteen- 

 frame and the ten-frame. Those who wish 

 to save themselves too much heavy lifting, 

 and yet are interested in a large brood- 

 chamber may find themselves quite content- 

 ed with a two-story ten-frame brood-cham- 

 ber in the spring. Others may perhaps like 

 to try out a few colonies on Harry Hewitt's 

 plan, as given in the last issue of Gleanings. 



INTRODUCIXG VIRGINS. 



Virgin queens even eight or ten days old 

 may be easily introduced, claims Ray Moore 

 in the American Bee Journal for March. 

 He takes two frames of bees from several 

 colonies and shakes them into a cage and 

 places them in a cool dark cellar and leaves 

 them about 24 hours. Then he prepares 

 small six-inch cubical boxes with 1 by %- 

 inch screened entrances, each box contain- 

 ing a section of honey and the two empty 

 sections. Into these boxes he shakes about 

 half a pint of bees sprinkled with water, 

 and also shakes in one of the virgins and 

 closes the hive. The next day the screen 

 is removed, and in about a week the queen 

 is laying, when she is introduced to a 

 stronger nucleus. 



[Mr. Pritchard introduces virgins up to 

 four or five days old in about this way; yet 

 he prefers to get the bees to make up the 

 nuclei from an outyard, for otherwise some 

 of them return. He would not care to keep 

 them in the cellar for 2-1 hours, preferring 

 to use them as soon as convenient after 

 making up; for hungry bees, he finds, are 

 more apt to ball a queen.] 



VALUE OF DOrULE WALLS. 



In discussing the double-walled hive in 

 the February issue of the Canadian Horti- 

 culturist and Beekeeper, G. A. Deadman 

 says: "By using two boards % inch thick 

 and a dead-air space of about % inch or 

 two quarter-inch thick and a dead-air space 

 of % inch, you have a hive that will be of 

 the same dimensions as the single-walled, re- 



