864 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



gave any trouble I could still extract by hand. 

 Some may think that extractors seldom break; 

 but I have not yet seen a season when, for 

 some reason or other, some part was not 

 broken when it was most wanted. 



In the matter of power, the Gilson gasoline- 

 engines have given me little trouble. One 

 would suppose that the eight-frame power 

 extractors would break the combs; but I have 

 not found it so. The Cowan extractor run 

 by hand was the worst comb-breaker I ever 

 handled, because of the method of reversing. 



The worst trouble that I have found with 

 the Root extractors is that the baskets and 

 hangings are too light. I used to make a 

 regular business of dropping the combs into 

 the baskets of the Stanley extractor. An 

 old comb that has not been uncapped will 

 stand a lot of such handling. Such usage 

 knocks the bottom out of any of the Root ex- 

 tractor-baskets, that I ever seen, in less than 

 half a day. A broken comb or two amount 

 to little, for the bees can generally patch 

 them up easily; but a broken extractor at 

 such a time is a serious matter. 



Sloansville, N. Y. 



[Wider pulleys are now used on the power- 

 driven extractors, and the baskets and 

 hinges are also now made stronger. — Ed.] 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF SUPERS ON A 

 HIVE. 



The Darkest Cappings in Supers Nearest 

 the Brood. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



The following is from my friend Adrian 

 Getaz: 



Your last article on the placing of supers has interest- 

 ed me very much. My honey-flow is quite different 

 from yours, and of course that must make a difference. 

 Otherwise my experience is the same. 



Permit me to call your attention to a method that has 

 on certain occasions sriven me very sfood results. It is, 

 simply, to place the new super below the others; and 

 when the work is well stairted remove it and place it 

 above. 



I too have practiced to a considerable ex- 

 tent what is probably the same thing. My 

 idea was that, if the oldest super were kept 

 next the one latest given, it would be finish- 

 ed sooner, and I could the sooner reduce the 

 number of supers. Suppose there are 6 su- 

 pers on a hive. If the oldest super be next 

 to the lower one, it seemed it ought to be 

 finished much sooner than if it were put in 

 the topmost place. I must confess that, in 

 actual practice, I did not find the difference 

 I expected, and I am not really sure that 

 there was any difference in the time of com- 

 pletion. 



There is no denying that it makes work 

 heavier to have four to six supers on a hive 

 at the same time; but there are not lacking 

 compensations. Generally speaking, the 

 further a super is from the brood-combs the 

 whiter will be the capping of the sections. 

 Years ago, when I used wide frames holding 

 eight sections each, I raised a brood-frame 

 from below and put it between two wide 



frames to bait the bees into the sections. It 

 worked to a charm. But if I did not remove 

 the brood comb before the bees started at 

 capping, they made sorry work, invariably 

 carrying bits of black wax from the brood 

 comb to the sections. I think you will find 

 darker sections over thin top-bars than over 

 thick ones. And, in general, the nearer the 

 brood combs a section is when the bees are 

 capping it, the more danger of the cappings 

 being dark. Don't forget that there's more 

 travel over a lower super than over an up- 

 per one. 



Then there's another consideration that 

 alone reconciles me to the heavy work of 

 handling so many supers. It is, I think, 

 agreed that the longer honey is in the care 

 01 the bees the richer and better it is, the 

 object in hurrying it off being to prevent the 

 darkening of the combs. Suppose that col- 

 ony No. 1 is never allowed more than two 

 supers, and No. 2 is allowed five or more, or 

 as many as it can occupy. No. 1 will be 

 crowded into finishing its sections sooner 

 than No. 2. But No. 2 will have twice as 

 much honey on at the same time as No. 1, 

 which is only another way of saying that 

 honey is twice as long on No. 2 as on No. 1. 

 Just stop and think over that. I believe it is 

 a matter of no small importance. 



THE CHOICE OF LARV^ FOR QUEENS; THERE 

 SHOULD BE ROOM FOR LARGE CELLS. 



Mr. Getaz also says: 



Your discussions with Messrs. Taylor and Hutchinson 

 concerning the choice of larvae to raise queens is anoth- 

 er point of high interest to me. My experience has in- 

 variably been like yours, that the bees will not choose a 

 too old larva unless there is no other at their disposal. 



But there is a point that has escaped your attention 

 and theirs as well. That is, the space between the 

 combs. Give a cwnb of young larvae or eggs to a queen- 

 less colony; push the others sufficiently far to leave the 

 necessapf space, and you will find good big queen-cells 

 protruding away from the combs; and in such queen- 

 cells you will find good big queens. But let the opposite 

 comb be too close, and also occupied by some brood or 

 sealed honey, then the queen-cells, instead of being of 

 full size, will be more or less stunted. Stunted queen- 

 cells produce stunted queens. These queens, so far as 

 the appearance to the naked eye goes, look just like 

 those raised from the too old larvae. That's what has 

 probably misled Messrs. Taylor and Hutchinson. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



So far as I know, that's an original view, 

 although it is not altogether new to say that 

 bees must have room for a queen-cell. I sus- 

 pect Messrs. Taylor and Hutchinson will re- 

 ply to you, "But when these stunted cells 

 are taken away, and fresh brood given, cells 

 are started that are not stunted, although 

 the combs are crowded just as close as be- 

 fore." I may say that I use self-spacing 

 frames; and when I give brood from which 

 the bees are to rear queens, the frames are 

 always crowded together just as close as they 

 can be, and I have no trouble with stunted 

 queens. That, however, is only part of the 

 truth; and when I tell the whole truth you 

 will say, and say rightly, that my experience 

 only confirms your view. The whole truth 

 is tnat the frames I give the bees to rear cells 

 in contain freshly built comb, and the frame 

 is only half or three-fourths filled with comb. 

 I cut away the outer edge of the comb to 

 where just hatched larvae appear, allowing 



