1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



411 



HEADS OF Grain 



From Different Fields 



INCREASE BY SHAKING; WHAT TO DO WITH THE OLD 

 QUEEN. 



I wish to tret a moderate increase and as much comb 

 honey as possible. I thoutrht I had found just exactly 

 what I wanted in GLEANINGS, June 1, paee 334, but I 

 found a difficulty in the eighth paratrraph, second col- 

 umn of that patre, as I have no nuclei. What I con- 

 template doine is this: Move the old hive to one side; 

 place a new hive, with full sheets of foundation, on the 

 old stand. Place the super of the old hive on the new 

 hive on the old stand; brush or shake the bees off on 

 the alitrhtintr-board in front of the old stand, and place 

 the brood-comb in the old hive on the new stand. 



I have made arranirements to procure untested ciueens 

 for these divided hives. Now. where am I eointr to set 

 bees to feed my brood in the old hive on the new stand, 

 and to protect my new queens which I shall place in 

 the old hive at time of dividing-? Should I place one 

 frame of brood with the bees on it in the old hive on 

 the new stand? If so, should my old queen or new 

 queen be on these frames of brood in the old hive? 



I may add that, in the " Conversation with Doolittle," 

 pape 334, the questioner states, "I have no nuclei pre- 

 pared. Would a frame with bees and queen from a 

 weak colony do as well?" I have no weak colonic.?. I 

 do not think it is necessary for me to state the great 

 oblication I shall be under to you for the courtesy of a 

 reply to this letter. 



Mr. Markham advised me to divide the hives about 

 June 15. I shall have queens ready at that time. 



Ypsilanti, Mich. L. E. C. Thorne. 



[The plan of procedure as outlined at the close of 

 your first paragrph is entirely feasible -indeed, the 

 one that we would recommend under the circum- 

 stances; but you must not brush or shake all bees off 

 from the brood-combs, because there must be some 

 left to take care of the brood that is put on another 

 stand. If you prefer, you can put a frame of brood 

 and bees with the queen in the new hive on the old 

 stand. Asa matter of fact, that is where the queen 

 should go. The parent hive that is made queenless by 

 the procedure, and now on another stand, may be now 

 iriven one of the queens you are expecting to receive 

 through the mails. 



Referring to your next to the last question about tak- 

 ing brood from weak colonies, we may say it does not 

 make any difference whether the colony from which 

 such brood is taken is strong or weak. The querist's 

 idea doubtless was to avoid weakening a strong colony 

 at the ver>' time of the year when it is verj' essential 

 for it to have every element of strength that it can pos- 

 sess. For that reason he suggested taking the brood 

 from a weak colony that would not be able to do much 

 in the way of getting honey. — Ed.] 



SHIPPING BEES IN CARLOAD LOTS. 



We shipped a carload of bees to Greenville, Miss., 

 early in April, and over half of the time the weather 

 was favorable. The shipment went through in 39 hours. 

 Screens were placed over the entire tops of the hives, 

 and those hives that were crowded with bees were sup- 

 plied with an empty super between the brood-chamber 

 and screen. Mr. Johnson, the one who owned the bees, 

 and who went with them on the car, had previously 

 placed a drawn comb filled with water in each hive. 

 The car left here at 9:30 P..M., all of the hives having 

 been loaded that same day except 35 which were put in 

 the previous evening. 



The hive-bodies were fastened to the bottoms with 

 staples, and the entrances closed with slats. There 

 was an aisle through the row of hives in the car, and 

 there was no straw on the floor. New supplies and ex- 

 tra supers were between each row of hives. 



There was some leakage at destination because of 

 the strip at the back of the bottom pulling loose in 

 some of the old hives. Mr. Johnson thinks it better to 

 nail this strip into the hive to make it stronger for 

 shipping. 



We were caught in a heavy rain at night with six 

 wagonloads of bees; and the covers not being on hand, 

 some of the bees drowned. One week later we shipped 

 them to Kankakee River in a stock-car in which there 

 was a plentiful amount of hay on the floor. We had 

 hot weather while loading. One layer of empty hives 

 was put over the entire bottom of the car, and over 

 these was a layer of hives containing colonies. These 



were screenedjover the tops, and strips were fastened 

 over the entrances in front. The weak colonies were 

 put at one end and strong ones in the other. We 

 sprinkled well before shipping. An extractor, and su- 

 gar and water for feeding the weak ones on the trip 

 and after arrival, were included in the car. We pro- 

 vided extra clustering space over the strong colonies 

 by fastening on a super, screened over the top, allow- 

 ing the bees to come up through a hole cut in the first 

 screen that was over the hive-body. 

 Evansville, Ind. ViCKERY BROS. 



WHY DID ALL THE BEES OF A STRONG COLONY LEAVE 

 THE HIVE IN MIDWINTER? 



I had one colony that I transferred from a box into a 

 Danzenbaker hive. This was done at the beginning 

 of white-clover bloom, and the bees were put directly 

 on foundation in the Danzenbaker hive. They filled 

 the brood-chamber with new comb and honey, and 

 finished one super of sections. When this super was 

 removed the colony was very strong. This colony 

 was wintered close to two others in a barn. During 

 the last of January or the first part of February I found 

 that the bees in this hive had left, leaving the combs 

 full of nice white honey. There was not even a dead 

 bee left in the hive. What would cause this? The hive 

 was in a dry protected place, and there were no mice or 

 wax-worms at any lime. 



Since the above incident I have found that another 

 bee-man had the same thing happen to several of his 

 colonies. The hives were not robbed of honey, for the 

 honey is still in the combs, but there are no bees. 



Findlay, Ohio. Clyde L. Green. 



[If you moved the bees last fall from their summer 

 stand and put them in the barn where there was more 

 or less light, many bees on bright days would fly out in- 

 to the barn, escape through openings, and never return. 

 If the desertion was gradual it is easy to explain how 

 and why the bees left. If a hive of bees is put into a 

 barn its entrance should communicate directly out- 

 doors.— Ed.] 



TAKING OFF HONEY' QUICKLY TO AVOID ROBBERS. 



Mr. Scholl certainly has won the medal for taking 

 honey off the hives rapidly— 1000 lbs. in 23 minutes. 

 That is going some, page 1493, 1908. I can not com- 

 pete with him; but I will give my method of taking off 

 honey. I have the shallow frames, and I use no brush. 

 With the hive-chisel I loosen the cover, raise it a little, 

 and blow a little smoke under it to start the bees down. 

 When they get well started I remove the cover and 

 give them a thorough smoking; then with my chisel I 

 quickly pry the frames loose. I draw a frame out, 

 holding it with my left hand. I give it a quick blow 

 with my right, according to the plan I saw illustrated 

 by Dr. Miller. I hold the frame over the hive so the 

 bees fall on the combs below. I pass the combs to my 

 helper, my daughter, who puts it in the comb-box. 

 I have another one ready for her by the time she has 

 the first one in the box. When all are out she covers 

 the box or super while I remove the super and place 

 the cover on the hive. The combs are removed so fast 

 that the bees have no time to take in the situation. 

 Before the honey is off and the hive covered, we have 

 gone to the next colony. The work is done so rapidly 

 the robbers have no time to get started. The honey is 

 stacked in the extracting-room until all is off, when 

 we do the extracting. In taking off the honey, the 

 first super taken off holds combs from the second col- 

 ony, and so on. When the combs are extracted they 

 are hung in the supers and put back on the hives 

 about sundown. T. W. Morton. 



El Dorado, Missouri. 



splints all right if used RIGHT. 



On p. 320 Swan Anderson speaks against Dr. Miller's 

 splints. He is at fault, not the splints. He should 

 know that the bees would gnaw the splints if they 

 project below the foundation. Dr. Miller has founda- 

 tion enter the bottom-bar. I have had excellent re- 

 sults with splints. I do not split the bottom-bar, but I 

 wax the foundation to the bottom-bar the same as to 

 the top-bar. If foundation is cut just the width to fit 

 the frame from top to bottom, and the edges are then 

 fastened with melted wax to both top and bottom bars, 

 the bees will not do much gnawing of splints. 



Splints, like many another good thing, will prove 

 useless in the hands of those who will not use them 

 properly. I am using a large number of splints this 

 year, and I feel greatly indebted to Dr. Miller for 

 bringing out so useful an article. 



Norwich, Ct. ALLEN Latham. 



