Jan. 15, 1912 



brads into the edge of the end-bars right 

 by the piercings. When the wire cuts into 

 that brad it can go no further, and one can 

 get them so they will sing and stay tight. 

 Of course it is some trouble to drive a brad 

 into the end-bar by thesiile of each piercing; 

 but it is much quicker and belter than driv- 

 ing nails through and then bending them 

 into a hook with i)liers, as 1 have seen some 

 bee-keepers do. Of course you have to.be 

 careful to get the brad on the jiroper side of 

 the piercing; but that is no trouble after you 

 get accustomed to the work, and you can 

 put them in much faster than you would at 

 first think. I do not mean to say that the 

 wire brads are absolutely necessary; they 

 merely help to keep the wires tight. 



To sum ui», I would say that, for a frame 

 that is square or nearly so, suchasll:?s Xll^-'s, 

 six tight horizontal wires will result in nice 

 straight combs. Five will not. No splints 

 are necessary. For a frame like the Lang- 

 stroth, where the wire has such a long 

 stretch, I shall continue to use four wires 

 and four splints until something better is 

 devised. 1 have not tried it, but 1 believe 

 that five tight wires, equally dividing the 

 space between the top and bottom bars 

 would give good combs if they were built 

 out in the brood-chamber. 1 do not think 

 we can get perfect combs built on founda- 

 tion; but we want them so nearly perfect 

 that a queen can lay a worker egg in every 

 cell if she so desires. I confess that I do 

 not like the splints, and am wondering 

 whether a little heavier wire, say 2S, would 

 not render them unnecessary. Possibly 

 some one has tried it, and can tell us about it. 



Right here I want to leave my subject 

 long enough to say that I think that what 

 we call the Madary top-bar out here is a 

 thousand miles ahead of your wedge and 

 groove. It has about a quarter of the under 

 side of the to|)-bar sawed away, and the 

 cleat is kei)t to put the foundation in with. 

 You jmt your splints in flush with what is 

 to be the top edge of the foundation, and 

 then nail it in, splints and all. My experi- 

 ence with wedge-and-groove top-bars leads 

 me to agree with that man who some time 

 back hit them such a hard smash. 



Piru, C'al. 



[You will find that H. F. Thayer has 

 been using baling-wires in place of splints 

 with very satisfactory results. See page 

 554, Sept. 1st issue for last year. 



The form of top-bar put out by Madary 

 was first advertised and sold by F. Kretch- 

 mer, of lied Oak, Iowa, some years ago. 

 There are many who prefer it. — Fix] 



OUTDOOR WINTERING IN WEST VIRGINIA. 

 Fifty Pounds of Honey Required. 



BY W. C. MOLLKTT, 



I notice that most bee-keepers in the 

 Northern States give the amount of honey 

 necessary to winter a colony, either in the 

 open air or in a cellar, as from 15 to 30 lbs. 



43 



Now, this locality is not very far south, and 

 It would be necessary to double the above 

 figures in order to be sure of enough stores 

 for successful wintering. Of course, all the 

 bees in this latitude are wintered' in the 

 open air, as the cold is neither so lasting nor 

 severe as in the Northern States. As a rule 

 bees can lly every few days through the 

 winter, and it is not common for them to be 

 kept in by cold more than 10 or 12 days at 

 a time. Very often they will begin to carry 

 in jiollen in .January or February, and be- 

 gin rearing brood. It is fouthis reason that 

 they require a much greater amount of stores 

 than in the North. I have sometimes found 

 several combs containing brood the first of 

 February; and by March 20 they are some- 

 times strong enmigh to swarm if the season 

 permitted it; and 1 have had swarms come 

 out in April. As there is no nectar to gath- 

 er until xMay, it is surprising how fast the 

 honey in the hives is used u}). I have had 

 colonies that had every comb in ten-frame 

 hives as full as they could be in October, 

 and yet they would be upon starvation in 

 April. Fstimating each comb to hold 5 lbs. 

 of honey, this would be a consumption of at 

 least 50 lbs. If it requires as much more in 

 proportion in the States to the southward, 

 it must require at least 75 lbs. in such States 

 as Alabama and Georgia; but as the honey- 

 flow would naturally come earlier there, this 

 would offset this to a considerable extent. 

 As a rule I would estimate that twice as 

 much honey is necessary in outdoor winter- 

 ing as wheii they are wintered in the cellar. 



FRAMES HARDER TO HANDLE, AND SWARM- 

 ING WORSE WHEN THE DANZEN- 

 BAKER HIVES ARE USED. 



Three years ago I was induced by the fa- 

 vorable reports to transfer my bees into Dan- 

 zenbaker hives, as they were highly recom- 

 mended for the production of comb honey. 

 I thought that, as I produced only bulk 

 comb honey, they would be just the thing 

 for my use. Of course, on account of the 

 difference in the size of the frames it was a 

 somewhat difTicult task to transfer them. 

 After 1 had them put into Danzenbaker 

 hives the tirst trouble I struck was the dif- 

 ficulty in handling the frames; and as the 

 colonies became stronger the job became 

 more and more dilTicult, until it was almost 

 impossible to handle frames without killing 

 bees. I had never realized until then the 

 advantage of the Hoffman or Langstroth 

 frame as to easy manif)ula(ion. I saw then 

 that I coukl handle the frames of two Lang- 

 stroth hives easier and quicker than I could 

 one Danzenbaker. When the honey-llow 

 commenced, the bees commenced swarming; 

 and they kept it up right along all through 

 the honey-harvest. In strict justice to the 

 Danzenbaker hive it is ordy fair to say that 

 I secured about as much honey as usu:d, 

 and it was very niic honey- -possibly a lit- 

 tle better apjiearance than usual. Hut I 

 was glad to go back to the Langstroth or 

 dovetailed hive, and did so just as soon a» J 

 could. Since then I have secured about ihe 

 same amount of honey with not half t!:e 



