424 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



ArK. 1 



shove it into place with the end of your nip- 

 pers. But after a little practice you'll drop 

 it in the right place first time, and do it very 

 rapidly. As soon as you put it in place* an 

 assistant presses it slightly into the founda- 

 tion with the edge of a thin board kept con- 

 stantly wet. That's all; the bees will do the 

 rest. 



By the aid of these splints I can show you 

 beautiful combs built clear down to the bot- 

 tom-bars — not a pop-hole anywhere. But I 

 can show you lots in which the bees have 

 more or less gnawed away the foundation so 

 as to make a passage between the comb and 

 bottom- bar. That's because the frames were 

 given when they ought not to have been giv- 

 en — in a poor year when bees were doing lit- 

 tle or nothing. If you want combs built 

 down to the bottom, get theui built and fin- 

 ished at a time when the bees are storing. 



"Do the splints interfere with the laying 

 of the queen? " Not in the least. When the 

 brood is sealed, with the comb in the right 

 light you can see a slight ridge where the 

 splint is, but it can do no pos^ble harm. 



I think that is all; but if any one has fur- 

 ther questions I'll be glad to answer them. 



The same correspondent asks, "What is 

 your plan for controlling increase iu produc- 

 ing extracted honey?" I work altogether 

 for comb honey. But if I tried for extracted 

 I'd have large hives with abundant ventila- 

 tion at each story. With room enough and 

 ventilation enough I should expect swarm- 

 ing to be pretty well controlled. I might al- 

 so try the Demaree plan: Just before swarm- 

 ing time raise all brood into an upper story 

 over an excluder, leaving the queen in the 

 lower story with empty combs or foundation. 



Marengo, 111. 



[It is said that "confession is good for the 

 soul." We are frank to acknowledge that 

 we did not take kindly to Dr. Miller's wood- 

 en splints when he first wrote about them 

 some years ago; but in view of the com- 

 plaints of a slight sagging due to horizontal 

 wiring, resulting in the building of drone- 

 cells at the top of the comb, and in view of 

 the further fact that vertical wiring with 

 thick top- bars is not practicable, we are now 

 inclined to look with favor on the Miller 

 wooden splints. Dr. Miller has improved 

 his method of applying them, and the difli- 

 culty of manufacturing them in the first 

 place has been largely overcome, so that now 

 the two main objections which we originally 

 offered have disappeared. The wooden 

 splints are cheap, and easily applied, if we 

 may judge from the description given by Dr. 

 Miller. We have seen a good many of Dr. 

 Miller's combs stayed as he recommends; 

 and a finer lot, filled clear out to the wood, 

 without pop-holes or drone cells, can not be 

 found in this country. 



The very argument that Dr. Miller pre- 

 sents in favor of foundation cut to fit brood- 

 frames applies with equal force- to founda- 

 tion cut to fit sections. Why? If a neatly 

 fitting sheet prevents pop-holes and passage- 

 ways in the one case, why should they not 



in the other? G. J. Yoder, in this issue, ex- 

 plains how in the ordinary section one can 

 fasten foundation and cut it to fit so it will 

 not buckle. If there is any thing in this 

 scheme, or in that of Mr. J. E. Hand, it goes 

 without saying that by either plan we shall 

 be able to secure a much larger percentage 

 of No 1 and fancy comb honey. When we 

 remember that the fancy always sells at a 

 good price, and that a really fine article of 

 No. 1 follows next, it is apparent that foun- 

 dation making contact with all sides of a sec- 

 tion probably means dollars and dollars to 

 the bee-keeper, with practically no extra 

 cost in foundation, and with perhaps a little 

 extra time. — Ed.] 



■ ■ » < •<«»♦-»-> 



PRESERVING HIVES. 



HoAV and When to Paint; What Paint to 

 Use; Metal and Paper Covers. 



BY F. GREINER. 



To justify US in saying very much about 

 painting hives it must be conceded that cov- 

 ei'ing a hive with paint does no injury to the 

 bees within it, and that, at the same time, it 

 is a paying investment. The latter question, 

 I believe, we could as well dismiss without 

 argument. With the price of lumber as it 

 was 85 years ago there might have been rea- 

 son for not painting hives and houses, for it 

 was cheaper to replace than to keep con- 

 stantly painting, providing we cared nothing 

 for looks; but with lumber at from $30 to 

 $45 per 1000 we can well afford to keep hives 

 and houses painted. 



As to the first question, I have come to the 

 conclusion that bees do not suffer in painted 

 hives any more than in unpainted ones. I 

 have watched the cellar-wintered bees in the 

 unpainted hives and in those painted; and 

 with the amount of ventilation they have in 

 my rather dry cellar the combs and bees 

 come out as dry and as well otherwise in one 

 as in the other. As I have settled on winter- 

 ing outdoors with upward ventilation through 

 a thick packing, there is never an excess of 

 moisture nor an uncomfortable condition on 

 this account in my hives, painted or not 

 painted. So far as I am concerned I want 

 to keep my hives painted, and 1 believe a 

 large majority of bee-keepers concur with 

 my conclusion. 



The larger part of my work along this line 

 has been repainting rather than painting 

 new work, and I will more explicitly deal 

 with this in my article. 



As to the color, a light one is to be pre- 

 ferred. Dark draws the heat to an undesir- 

 able degree, although with chaff hives the 

 difference is not so marked. A very smooth 

 glossy surface is not to the liking of the bee, 

 perhaps in more than one way. For this 

 reason I never give more than two coats of 

 paint to new work — the first a very thin coat, 

 the next a rather heavy one. I also practice 

 covering the fresh newly applied paint with 

 fine sand or cement, particularly the front 

 of each hive, and slanting alighting- boards 



