1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



611 



ing the bell. The weicht that closes the honejf-erate 

 is drawn up and hooked by means of the triirper. 

 When it is released it falls four or five feet with a 

 hard jerk, and closes the gate every time. 

 Lytle, Texas. Carev W. Rees. 



FILLING ALEXANDER FEEDERS WHEN ROBBERS ARE BAD. 



My bees annoyed me by rushinjr out when I lifted 

 the cover boxes from the Alexander feeders. Further- 

 more, when no honey was coming in, and robbers 

 were prying around, it made trouble to do much feed- 

 ing. I made a block, C, as shown in the illustration ; 

 ijored a hole through it, through which I put one end 

 of a two-foot piece of '-i-inch rubber tubing. I slipped 

 the other end of the tube over the snout of a small tin 



r; ...r-it:;:-' 



teapot, and then my troubles ceased. I put the proper 

 dose in the pot, shut the cover, and set it down by the 

 hive. Then with the feeding-block, C, I slid the feed- 

 er-cover aside until the finger holding C touched the 

 side of the feeder; then with one hand I could keep 

 the blocks in place, while with the other I poured in 

 the feed through the tube. No bees are disturbed, 

 and the feeder cover is slid back where it belongs, 

 without any trouble. 

 Florence, Ala. H. A. Moody. 



THE BEST PLACE FOR BAITS IS IN THE CENTER OF THE 

 SUPER. 



As to the best place in the super to put bait sections, 

 I will say that my practice this season is different from 

 Mr. Townsend's, page 475, Aug. 1. Last year I put the 

 baits in the corners; but the results were not satisfac- 

 tory. Some were untouched when the rest of the super 

 was finished, and many were left with some of the cells 

 uncapped. The two sections with starters of founda- 

 tion between the corner baits at each side of the hive 

 would be filled and capped before much if any work 

 was done in the baits. I use top and bottom starters, 

 filling the section nearly full of foundation. 



This year I had baits enough so that I put from four 

 to twelve in every super; put on the hives, and the 

 baits were all put in the center of the supers. 



My objection to baits in corners or anywhere else is 

 that they divide the working force too much. Bees 

 naturally begin work in the center of the super, and 

 that, I believe, is the best place for baits. When these 

 are filled, and considerably more work is done in 

 the super, I take off the super and remove all the fin- 

 ished sections; then fill up other supers with "go- 

 backs," and give these to strong colonies for comple- 

 tion. 



Mr. Doolittle, in his book, " A Year's Work in an 

 Out-apiar>'," says that he puts twelve baits in the cen- 

 ter of each super first put on the hive after shaking. 



Leon, Iowa, Aug. ,3. Edwin Bevins. 



BEES ENTER SUPERS READILY WHEN THE BAITS ARE 

 IN THE CORNERS. 



I can endorse the statement made by Mr. H. B. Pal- 

 mer, page 378, corroborated by Mr. E. D. Townsend, 

 page 475, Aug. 1, as to the results from bait sections 

 placed in the corners of comb-honey supers. In my 

 modest little bee-yard at Florence I have practiced 

 this corner-bait-section scheme this year, and it has 

 met with prompt and generous recognition by the 

 bees. When possible I give a super provided with a 

 row of unfinished bait sections on each side, placing 

 sections with -inch bottom starters and top sheets 

 coming to within ' a inch of the bottom starters in the 

 four middle section-holders. Under these conditions 

 I have not had a single case of sulking, the bees read- 

 ily entering the supers and pushing forward the work 

 so that the entire super is completed practically at the 

 same time. In cases where I have not been so liberal- 

 ly supplied with these bait sections, however, I have 



given supers with two such sections, each placed in 

 diagonally opposite corners, and in other cases with 

 four sections— one in each corner. In every instance 

 my bees have promptly gone above and commenced 

 work. Locality possibly has some bearing on the 

 Question. During the heaviest honey-flow my bees 

 have had warm nights, with no chilled super space to 

 discourage them. Lately, however, the nights have 

 been cooler, but I have noticed no difference in the 

 willingness of the bees to accept these outside baited 

 supers. 



DEEP SPACE UNDER BOTTOM-BARS. 



There is another vexed question— the use of a deep 

 space under bottom-bars as a preventive of swarming. 

 I have used a 2!'2-inch space under my strongest col- 

 onies this summer by placing either blocks at tbe 

 corners or continuous strips at the sides, in every 

 case leaving a clear opening at the rear of the hive, as 

 described by J. B. Blunk, p. 229, April 15. There has 

 been no building down. We have had nights warm 

 enough, I should think, to encourage comb-building 

 outside if the bees had been inclined to indulge in this 

 vagary. Unless I have a different experience in the 

 future my hives go up, with bottom-racks only as a 

 last resort. LUCIAN W. McLemore. 



Florence, S. C, Aug. 5. 



BAITS PREFERRED IN THE CORNERS. 



It has always been my practice to put bait sections 

 in the corners of supers instead of in the middle, and 

 I have had the very best results. Possibly the use of 

 double-walled hives may have had something to do in 

 making the practice a success with me. 



Evanston, 111., Aug. 12. W. M. Whitney. 



HOW THE LAW IN CANADA TAKES CARE OF THE FRUIT- 

 GROWERS WHO SPRAY THE TREES. 



On p. 327, June 1, O. B. Metcalf mentions losing his 

 bees by poison on sprayed trees. In Canada, fruit- 

 growers are compelled by law to flavor their spraying 

 mixtures with crude carbolic acid when spraying 

 trees in bloom. 



HONEY INJURED BY BEING MELTED WITH WAX. 



On page 399, July 1, on separating melted wax and 

 honey, is there any way by which wax and honey can 

 be melted together without injuring the flavor of the 

 honey? We were taught to drain out what we could, 

 then put the rest of the cappings in a press, and 

 squeeze the rest of the honey out. We lose very little 

 honey that way, and none of the flavor. I should hate 

 to offer my customers honey that has had wax melted 

 with it; but then, I am an old fogy, and got my train- 

 ing with D. A. Jones, of Beeton, in 1883. 



Campbellford, Ont., July 20. B. W. HARRINGTON. 



[It has been suggested before that honey melted with 

 wax is injured in flavor, especially if the wax is allow- 

 ed to cool on the honey; but we have never been able 

 to find any discoloration or loss of flavor except when 

 the heat was too high or the outlet obstructed in some 

 way so that the honey could not escape from the heat 

 fast enough. Certain kinds of honey may, of course, 

 be affected more than others. We should be glad to 

 hear from others. 



In relation to the use of carbolic acid in spraying 

 mixtures, the reader is referred to an editorial in this 

 issue. — Ed.] 



BEE-KEEPING IN TURKEY. 



Mr. N. J. Nicolaidis, of Constantinople, Turkey, has 

 asked me to answer several questions relative to his 

 location which I will endeavor to do to the best of my 

 ability. 



1. I see no reason why one could not make a success 

 of honey-production in Turkey, especially extracted 

 honey. I hardly think it advisable to produce comb 

 honey in such a location, owing to the short honey- 

 flows interspersed with dark flows. 



2. I consider my sectional hive well suited for such a 

 location; however, I doubt if it v/ould be any better in 

 the hands of the average bee-keeper than any of the 

 standard hives. , ^.,, , 



3. The plan of removing the partly filled sections 

 and having them finished off during a later honey- 

 flow or by feeding back extracted honey is the one I 

 would pursue, and the sectional hive would be better 

 suited for this purpose, owing to its rapid system of 

 expansion and contraction. 



4. Perhaps the best time to requeen would be at the 

 close of the basswood flow. 



5. Young queens introduced after the basswood flow 

 would undoubtedly keep up brood-rearing during 



