84 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



Lastly, with the running of the bees out 

 from these supers, and the storing of them 

 away for the next spring's using, comes an 

 invitation to a sumptuous feast for the wax- 

 moths and larva3, or else a continual fight to 

 save these combs from being destroyed by 

 the ravages of these pests. Of course they 

 can be fumigated at the proper time, and 

 then put in a moth-proof room; but all of 

 this is extra work at a time when minutes 

 and hours are of great value, and the results 

 obtained would in no way compensate for 

 this or any other of the disadvantages. 



The answer to the second question about 

 putting this extracting super of filled combs 

 on in the fall would be the same as that giv- 

 en above, with the additional thought which 

 Mr. Miller suggests with his question of 

 ' ' Would the extra space to keep warm be a 

 detriment?" All unnecessary room during 

 winter and early spring is always a detri- 

 ment, and against the best interests of the 

 bees and their keeper. 



His third question and proposition only 

 add to the disadvantages through its giving 

 additional empty space, either in taking the 

 heat from the cluster of bees, or in the time 

 and material for packing the space not occu- 

 pied with combs, or in the building of drone 

 comb in this space should a little honey come 

 in from fruit-bloom before it was time to put 

 on the supers of sections, and in running the 

 bees out from these supers of extracting- 

 combs. As I said at the start, the disadvan- 

 tages of these proposed plans much more than 

 offset any advantage which may be gained, 

 and I am sure if Mr. Miller tries these things 

 he" will find the results as outlined above. 



But, friend Miller, if you will make a 

 change in your plan according to the follow- 

 ing suggestions you will see all swarming 

 stopped, and the bees will go to work in the 

 sections as you never saw them before. In- 

 stead of the extracting-super, provide a 

 Danzenbaker hive-body containing worker 

 combs that are from one-fourth to two- 

 thirds full of honey. When your colony be- 

 comes strong enough to need more room in 

 March or April (possibly May, in your local- 

 ity) put a queen-excluder on the hive, and 

 place this filled hive-body on top leaving it 

 there till it is time to put on the sections, and 

 then put this upper story down on the bottom- 

 board where the brood-chamber has been up 

 to this time, putting your super of sections 

 on top. Shake and brush all of the bees from 

 the combs of brood and out of the brood- 

 chamber, allowing them to enter what has 

 previously been the upper story, now on the 

 bottom-board. 



If you tier this hive of beeless frames of 

 brood over a weak colony, using a queen- 

 excluder between, you will not only over- 

 come the wax-moth nuisance but have your 

 hive and combs filled with honey in the 

 right shape for using again the next spring, 

 and so on year after year. In fact, you will 

 have just what you are looking for in your 

 proposed plans, with all of their advan- 

 tages, and much more added, and that with 

 iione of their disadvantages. 



PICKINGS FROM OUR 



Keighbors fields 



0S:- 



by "STENOG 



!Slt& 



After having been buried up for a whole 

 year, like a mouse under a haystack, here 

 we are again Such a flood of material for 

 the use of the editor has come to his sanctum 

 that Pickings has stood aloof simply from 

 motives of modesty. In the stack alluded to 

 there have been Stray Straws, Notes from 

 the Southwest, Mr. Crane's department, that 

 of J. A. Green (a rare visitor, however), that 

 of R. F. Holtermann, the crispy articles from 

 J. E. Hand, E. W. Alexander, E D. Town- 

 send, Prof. Cook, Doolittle — more than I can 

 name. These men, in the short space of a 

 year, have completely transformed the old 

 plan of getting out Gleanings, and, as a 

 matter of course, the hand-car has been re- 

 moved from the track to make way for the 

 Cannon ball express. Besides, Mr. Morrison 

 has devoted all his time to an examination 

 of exchanges during the past year, and he 

 has squeezed the lemon pjrfectly dry. But 

 for all that, the manager of this department 

 has been busy on every page and line of 

 Gleanings during the absence of Pickings, 

 in the endeavor to have this journal main- 

 tain as high a degree of typographical ac- 

 curacy as possible under the circumstances. 

 With the help of a friend I have prepared 

 the following, which may be of interest to 

 some: 



SUBTLE DIFFERENCES IN COLONIES. 



To help explain why some colonies do so 

 much better work than others, even though 

 the conditions of all seem to be equal, the 

 editor of the Bee-keeper's Review, in the De- 

 cember issue, republishes a translation of an 

 article by C. J. H. Gravenhorst, who worked 

 out the problem to his own satisfaction about 

 twenty years ago. Briefly, the reasons given 

 by the celebrated German authority are as 

 follows: 



1. The ideal colony must have a faultless queen; 

 hardy, sound of body, and, above all things, fertile, 

 and her progeny distinguished by diligence. 



2. Nevertheless, such a queen alone does not make 

 an ideal colony. At the right time, that is. when hon- 

 ey is coming in freely, there must be plenty of empty 

 comb that no time nor honey be lost in building comb. 



A. Our ideal colony must swarm at the right time 

 or not at all. It swarms at the right time when it 

 swarms so early that the queens of the after-swarm, 

 if such are allowed, become fertile, and the first or 

 prime swarm has its combs completed before the 

 opening of the main harvest. 



4. The ideal colony must not be over-populous, A 

 hive is over-populous when its working force is too 

 great in comparison to the dimension of the hive and 

 to the number of wax-building bees. 



Such a condition is intolerable to the bees and they 

 try to help themselves by loafing. Their instinct 

 teaches them to begin this loafing even before the 

 hive is over-populous. The bees seem to see the combs 

 are filled and capped, that bees are daily hatching, and 

 that they will soon be crowded. A colony in such a 

 condition will never perform the wonders in gather- 



