810 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Exhibit of honey and fixtures at the Madison County Centennial, September, 1912. 



is only fair to add, however, tliat last season 

 was a very peculiar one, and very cold win- 

 try weather alternated with nice summer 

 weather, so it is fairly safe to blame the 

 weather rather than the plan for the failure. 



I intend to give this plan another trial 

 this coming season, but will use wire cloth 

 instead of the excluder under the shaken 

 brood-chamber on top of the hive, and thus 

 force the shaken bees to remain below with 

 the queen. 



I also intend to try the wire-cloth plan 

 for treating any cases of foul brood I may 

 have. I will treat them practically the same 

 a.s outlined by W. W. Case in GfLEANiNGS, 

 June 5, 1913, p. 406, with the exception 

 that I will fasten wire cloth under the old 

 brood-chamber and place it on top of the 

 new hive, using an escape for the bees to 

 leave the old combs and find the lower en- 

 trance. My reason for doing this is to give 

 the maturing brood the benefit of the warmth 

 rising from the cluster in tjie liive below, 

 and to avoid all risk of chilled brood by a 

 sudden cold change. If this plan proves 

 successful it would do away with all risk of 

 combs melting down from want of ventila- 

 tion during hot weather. 



In regard to the swarming problem, I 

 would say that our season here extends for 

 six or seven months, and the plans that 

 work well in preventing swarming in the 

 short seasons in most parts of America are 

 hardly suitable here unless, perhaps, they 

 were used repeatedly. I have just about 

 decided that it pays me best to allow prime 

 swarms to issue naturally, or to practice 

 shaken swarming (keeping the queens clip- 

 ped, of course), and hive on the old stand. 



shaking all bees from the brood-combs along 

 with tiie swarm, and giving the old brood- 

 chamber to a weak colony as a super. 



I use excluders on all colonies, and pro- 

 duce chiefly extracted honey. 



My purpose in writing this letter is cer- 

 tainly not to decry the plans and sugges- 

 tions of experienced beekeepers in America, 

 but rather to give a warning to beginnei-s 

 in various climates to go easy with any plan 

 they may fancy, and avoid paying too dear- 

 ly for their experience. A beginner is very 

 apt to jump to the conclusion that, if prom- 

 inent beekeepers' plans work well in his own 

 locality, they are bound to be successful in 

 every locality. This false idea can not be 

 corrected too often. 



Canterbui-y, New Zealand. 



HONEY DISPLAY AT THE MADISON COUNTY 

 CENTENNIAL 



BY LOUIS WERNER 



The honey display shown in the illustra- 

 tion was made at our Madison County Cen- 

 tennial, Sept. 14 to 21, 1912. The celebra- 

 tion was like a street fair. There were ex- 

 liibits of cattle, poultry, and farm produce, 

 as well as old-fashioned relics 100 years old. 

 They said, of course, we must have our bee- 

 man make an exhibit. 



The display was 16 feet long, 8 feet high, 

 and contained comb and extracted honey, 

 live bees, one full colony, two one-frame 

 nuclei, and comb foundation. All the fix- 

 tures that are used in a first-class apiary 

 were shown. Everybody thought it was the 

 best exhibit on the centennial grounds. This 



