1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



379 



have used in the center of the super are very 

 small, and of such a nature that the queen 

 can not use them. From two to four bait 

 combs in the center of the super, without an 

 excluder between, makes a little nest for the 

 queen just to her liking. C. B. Palmer. 

 Bradshaw, Neb. 



[Ordinarily the queen would not lay drone 

 eggs in these baits if they contained nothing 

 but drawn worker comb. In most localities 

 bees would pay no attention to baits placed 

 in the cold corners. If you are troubled 

 much with queens going above you had bet- 

 ter use queen-excluding honey-boards; then 

 put your baits where they will do some good. 

 —Ed.] 



can the doolittle method be used for ex- 



TRACTED-HONEY PRODUCTION? 



Mr. Doolittle, I have read your book, "A 

 Year's Work in an Out-apiary," with much 

 interest and will ask you for some advice. 

 Can I use this method for extracting combs 

 by tiering up the supers and then extract in 

 the fall? I use divisible brood-chamber hives 

 and only one size in frames six inches deep 

 inside. 



I would like to know how many visits you 

 must make in winter for controlling bees in 

 the cellar, and how this farmer's cellar was 

 constructed according to fresh-air ventila- 

 tion, size, etc. Further, if you use the en- 

 trance two inches high in the winter, is it 

 not too much air for the bees? 



This spring I shall build a hill-cellar for 50 

 or 60 colonies; and as lumber is very cheap 

 in my country, 1 had thought of using this 

 material for roof, walls, and floor by prevent- 

 ing the wood from rotting. 



I would be pleased to near if you will ad- 

 vise me to use lumber or not, and how to 

 construct this cellar according to size and 

 ventilation. Ewald Omdahl. 



Drammen, Norway. 



[Mr. Doolittle replies:] 



Yes, you can use the plan given in my 

 book for extracting, either at the close of the 

 season, in the fall, or extracting after each 

 flow of honey, so as to keep the different 

 kinds of honey separate. But if I were you, 

 or any other who wished to run an apiary 

 (or a single colony i for extracted honey, I 

 would simply add story after story of combs 

 as the bees needed, and do nothing else; for 

 all of my experience, observation, and ex- 

 periments tell me that, if empty combs are 

 added to any and every colony as needed, 

 not one colony in 50 will try to swarm. The 

 plan as given in "A Year's Work in an Out- 

 apiary " is for comb or section honey, and 

 the work necessary for the production of 

 comb honey is not required in producing the 

 extracted. 



2. The farmer's cellar is just like any farm- 

 er's cellar, and he uses it as he pleases dur- 

 ing the winter. For the 30 to 50 colonies I 

 wmter there, I provide no extra means of 

 ventilation, nor ao I go there from the time 

 the bees are set in till I go in the spring to 

 take them out. If 100 or more were to be 



wintered, probably special ventilation would 

 be needea. As a cellar built of lumber in 

 this country would surely rot, I do not feel 

 competent to advise in your last question. 

 Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. 



A SMOKER BELLOWS PROVIDED WITH A HAN- 

 DLE; A SCHEME FOR WINTERING. 



I have one of your smokers on which I have 

 put a wire handle that I think is very handy 

 m carrying the smoker about. 



I should hke to have you see the way I 

 pack my bees for winter. I use mulching 

 from my horse-barn, and I pack my bees on 

 their summer stands. In very cold weather 

 the mulching freezes and does not thaw out 

 until quite late in the spring, thus giving an 

 even temperature. I have been very suc- 

 cessful in packing my bees in this way. 



Victoria, 111. C. E. Coleman. 



TO STOP BEES FROM WORKING AROUND CAT- 

 TLE-FEEDING TROUGHS. 



I have been troubled by bees working on 

 cattle-feed for the last six or eight years, 

 but have found a way to overcome it partly. 

 There are two large cattle-feeders within a 

 mile of my yard. When they are finishing 

 their cattle tor market, from Feb. 15 to Apru 

 15, they feed ground corn. The feeding is 

 done in open feed-bunks, or troughs out in 

 the yard. I have seen the corn in these 

 blanks black with bees; and, because of the 

 cattle fighting them, they sometimes become 

 cross. 



The only prevention seems to be to have 

 a large bunk or two at home, and have plen- 

 ty of ground corn in it whenever the day is 

 warm enough for the bees to fly. My yard 

 is in a large grove, well sheltered, and the 

 bees prefer to work at home, and do not lo- 

 cate tne neighbors' feed-yards if I have feed 

 out the first few warm days. The bees work 

 best where the feed-troughs are set on a 

 slant, raising the north end of a fourteen- 

 foot trough about three feet. This puts the 

 corn in the warm sunshine, so the bees can 

 keep it rolling down hill. They want only 

 the finest flour or dust, and work best where 

 the corn has not been ground too fine, but 

 just crushed into pieces the size of rice. In 



