1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



871 



be so I can just bare my hand in it and no 

 hotter, or the combs may be melted. 1 keep 

 the water at the right temperature. The pan 

 should be deep enough so the water comes 

 up close to the top of the pail. We have 

 melted lots of honey this way, and the combs 

 were just as nice as ever. A thermometer 

 would be a good thing for this. 

 Velpen, Ind. W. T. Davidson. 



[Although we have never tried liquefying 

 bulk comb honey, it would seem to us that 

 the warm-air method mentioned on page 145 

 of the Feb. 1st issue would prove very satis- 

 factory. There would be no danger, certain- 

 ly, of melting the combs at a temperature of 

 100°. See "Bee-keeping in the Southwest," 

 in this issue. — Ed.] 



HOW TO PUT A NEVT SPRING ON AN OLD 

 SMOKER-VALVE. 



Get a piece of old watch-spring, about 

 three inches long, which can be obtained from 

 almost any jeweler. Lay this spring flat on 

 the outside of the bellows-board, with the 

 bend at d projecting into an awl-hole at a; 1 



and 2 are staples; 3 is a staple or small bent 

 wire nail driven only part way down. Prop- 

 erly put on it will bring the valve up with a 

 snap. If the opening in the board were cov- 

 ered with a piece of wire cloth well tacked on 

 it would keep little fingers from spoiling the 

 valve in the first place. S. S. Lawing. 

 Ozark, Mo. 



[We believe this idea is a good one; but 

 we think that the solution of all valve trou- 

 ble is no valve. The time is past when such 

 a nuisance as a valve is considered necessary 

 in a smoker bellows. — Ed.] 



COMB HONEY PRODUCED WITHOUT SEPARA- 

 TORS; BEES WORK MORE READILY IN 

 THE UNOBSTRUCTED SUPERS. 



In the Dec. 1st issue, page 1503, is an arti- 

 cle from J. E. Hand which I wish to endorse 

 in regard to the question, "Are separators a 

 hindrance to the bees?" From my experi- 

 ence of several years I answer most emphat- 



ically, yes. I learned by using hives with 

 separators alongside of those without them, 

 and I obtained more honey from the non-sep- 

 arator supers than from those with them; i. e., 

 in many instances the bees refused to work 

 in the separator sections, while those without 

 filled every section. The hives of equal pop- 

 ulation with shallow extracting-frames pro- 

 duced more honey than those with the4iX4J 

 sections with or without separators. This 

 proves to me that, the more the bees can 

 work all in a cluster, the better. I have a 

 few hives of some old pattern, the super of 

 whicn takes a section 5X5^, and the bees 

 seem to like these better than a smaller sec- 

 tion. I use no separators, and have but few 

 ill-shaped sections. Of course, I use full 

 sheets of comb foundation or three-cornered 

 starters. In fact, I get so much more honey 

 from these old hives than from the new ones 

 with the 4^X41^ sections that I have conclud- 

 ed to discontinue the use of the latter. 

 Lorena, Texas. D. F. Marrs 



FRAME-HANDLING; CLIPPING; INTRODUCING 

 THROUGH THE ENTRANCE. 



I read the article on page 835 of the June 

 15th issue, 1907, on handling Danzenbaker 

 frames, and wish wet cloths had been men- 

 tioned to spread over the top of the hive, as 

 described in Danzenbaker's book This I 

 consider almost as valuable as the smoker. 

 As you lift one frame after another, the cloth 

 can be turned back, keeping the bees practi- 

 cally out of the way. A very little smoke 

 blown under one of these covers goes a long 

 way. When ready to close the hive, lift the 

 cloth quickly, and before the bees are much 

 in the way you can have the cover on. 



I notice considerable discussion of hive- 

 stands. I use what I saw described in an 

 old number of Gleanings — simply three 

 pieces of inch board nailed together in the 

 form of a letter H. This is the cheapest, 

 most portable, and convenient stand I have 

 seen described; keeps the hive dry, up out of 

 the way of toads, etc. The objection might 

 be made that hives could not be tipped up 

 on the bottom- boai'd; but on the rare occa- 

 sions when this is desirable it can easily be 

 done by shoving the hive forward a few inch- 

 es on the bottom-board. This gives only 

 four square inches of contact with the bot- 

 tom-board, doing away with moisture and 

 rotting as nearly as it is possible to, which 

 should make it appeal to Dr. Miller. 



I notice many elaborate descriptions of the 

 proper way to catch and hold a queen for 

 clipping. Why catch her at all? I take in 

 the left hand one end of the frame, rest the 

 opposite corner on some solid support, fol- 

 low her quietly and carefully around with 

 the point of a pair of scissors in the 

 right hand, and, as she pauses, nip off the 

 wing — right wing for even years, left for 

 odd. If a person's hand were not steady 

 enough for this, I imagine a small rubber 

 band lightly stretched between the prongs of 

 a stick would hold her against the comb sat- 

 isfactorily. 



Here is a method of introducing queens I 



