100 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



rid of a lot of moisture with a minimum loss 

 of heat 



Those who know Mr. Aspinwall believe 

 him to be one of the most careful and thor- 

 ough apicultural investigators the world has 

 ever known. The revolution which has 

 come about by his invention of automatic 

 potato machinery alone entitles him to be 

 heard with a measure of confidence. Mr. 

 Aspinwall reported at the convention that, 

 owing to rheumatism, he was unable to give 

 his bees in his " non-swarmer " all the super 

 room they should have. Many colonies had 

 built brace and burr combs, being so crowd- 

 ed; yet, even under these circumstances, only 

 one colony out of thirty-one had swarmed. 



COOPERATIVE EXPERIMENTS. 



After an address by the writer it was de- 

 cided that members would undertake coop- 

 erative experiments. Mr. K. L. Taylor sug- 

 gested that the first work be to learn to 

 what extent, if any, the following conditions 

 would cause the bees to fill and cap the sec- 

 tions in the outside row of the supers as soon 

 as the more central rows. 



The conditions were, to have two bee- 

 spaces divided by a separator between the 

 last row of sections and the side of the hive; 

 also to raise the brood-chamber i inch at the 

 front from the bottom- board closing the 

 opening (made at the side) by means of a 

 wedge, the object being to compel a larger 

 percentage of bees to go up the sides of the 

 hive and thus reach the outside sections first. 

 Mr. Elmore M. Hunt, Redford, Mich., the 

 hard-working secretary of the association, 

 was elected director of the work, and any 

 one desiring to join in this experiment should 

 write Mr. Hunt. 



THE BEST SPEED FOR RUNNING AN EXTRACT- 

 OR. 



Mr. E. E. Coveyou, Petoskey, Mich. , wished 

 to see some tests conducted to ascertain 

 the best speed at which to run extractors, 

 also to find out the best temperature of the 

 combs to be extracted. He heated his combs 

 artificially after hauling them to a central 

 slation from out-apiaries. Work as to speed, 

 etc., is all haphazard at present, and often 

 five to ten per cent of the honey is returned 

 to the hive. It was pointed out that bees 

 could not store honey in the extracting-combs 

 returned to the hive until the combs had 

 been cleaned up by the bees; and the more 

 honey that adhered to the combs, the longer 

 it took the bees to prepare them. When ex- 

 tracting during a honey-flow this might re- 

 sult in a loss of honey. 



A STRAINER INSIDE OF AN EXTRACTOR. 



Mr. Coveyou is very enterprising, and is 

 not only willing to adopt any good sugges- 

 tion given in bee- journals, etc., but has the 

 ability to improve on them or originate ideas 

 of his own. He is using the system of strain- 

 ing inside of the honey-extractor, invented 

 by Holtermann. Like myself he heats, when 

 desirable, the unstrained honey on the bot- 

 tom of the can between the cone side and 

 the side of the can, but has improved the 



method by using a double bottom to the ex- 

 tractor and having water between. He has 

 also improved the rubber tube I used to con- 

 duct honey from the strainer to the barrels 

 and 60-1 b. cans by having at the mouth of 

 the tube a stop like those used at the mouth 

 of a syrup-jug. 



He thinks, as I do, that the strainer is made 

 much less valuable by having it reach across 

 the can where the unstrained honey can not 

 be warmed, and where all refuse rests on 

 the cloth when the honey is strained. Mr. 

 Coveyou washes the cloth on the cone strainer 

 with warm (not melting hot) water, and then 

 brushes with a whisk any particles on the 

 cloth. In this way he never removes the 

 cloth. Messrs. Coveyou and Holtermann ex- 

 pressed in no terms of doubt their opinion 

 that the strainer is a desirable feature in an 

 extractor, and that any one who has once 

 used it will not want to do without it. 



Mr. Coveyou pointed out a weakness in 

 honey-gates, as made at present. They will 

 not stay open at a desired point, but either 

 fall down, closing the gate, or, when opened 

 until the handle is thrown back more than 

 above the point of attachment, they fall clear 

 back and hang down, falling into the issuing 

 stream of honey, resulting in many objec- 

 tionable features. He thought bee-keepers 

 should find out what would be desirable 

 features in goods, and then compel the sup- 

 ply dealer to give it. 



VALVELESS SMOKERS RECEIVE ENDORSE- 

 MENT. 



The Root valveless smoker, recently in- 

 troduced, received unstinted praise. A valve 

 in the bellows was pronounced unnecessary — 

 often a source of loss of air when using it. 

 The new hinge connecting the barrel and 

 nozzle, having a measure of play to it, was 

 pronounced a great success. Mr. Holtermann 

 stated that he had four makes of smokers, 

 and that this new smoker was the first one 

 to be used. 



COMB HONET SUPERS. 



Mr. E. D. Townsend advocated a drawn- 

 out comb for each side of the comb-honey 

 super. This prevented a large percentage 

 of swarming, and tended to give greater uni- 

 formity of finish of sections. 



Mr. Aspinwall advocated continuous pas- 

 sageways between brood- frames and sections 

 — that is, the passageway between the sec- 

 tions should be directly above the passage- 

 way between the brood-combs. In this way 

 the ventilation is better, and the bees can go 

 up in a straight line to reach the sections. 



QUEEN-CATCHER. 



Mr. Aspinwall showed a queen-catcher 

 consisting of a 14-gauge wire bent in a circle 

 I inch in diameter inside, dipped in wax, 

 with a handle. He had not caught a mated 

 queen in his Viands for five years. He put 

 the circle about the queen on the comb, and 

 with very little effort she could be induced 

 to step on the wire, when she could be lifted 

 up. 



