286 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



following year they swarmed three times, and the 

 first swarm also cast a swarm. Almost everybody 

 here prefers black bees because they do not swarm 

 so often. 



CROSS BETWEEN ITALIANS AND BLACKS DESIRABLE. 



I try to keep a cross between Italians and blacks, 

 as I think they are superior to the Italians, and 

 they seem to be the best all-around bee for this lo- 

 cality. 1 have a black queen three years old that 

 was mated with an Italian drone, and 1 never saw 

 better hustlers than her bees are; and as to their 

 disposition, they are the quietest ones I have. 



Webster Springs, W. Va. L. S. Weese. 



Mr. Editor: — Will you please answer these ques- 

 tions for me? 



1. Is it necessary to wire the brood-frames when 

 starters are used? 



2. I wish to make an increase this summer. Will 

 you give me the best method? What month is best 

 for this? 



3. I bought three hives of bees during the past 

 winter. The supers are on them, and they contain 

 some honey. Should I take them off now, or will 

 the bees use the honey this spring in brood-rearing? 



4. What time should supers be put on the hives ? 

 White clover begins to bloom about May 10 to 15 in 

 this locality. 



5. I have some transferring to do during fruit 

 bloom. At what time of day should this be done ? 

 Could I take the virgin queens that I catch at the 

 second drive and introduce them to a frame of 

 brood from some other hive to make increase ? 



6. Do you think I could produce comb honey 

 without the use of separators? 



7. When is a good time to paint hives ? 



8. Should the hives stand perfectly level or slant 

 to the front? 



Boreing, Ky., March 22. Jesse Woodward. 



[1. It is almost as necessary to have wires when 

 starters are used as full sheets. In fact, we do not 

 see how any up-to-date beekeeper can get along 

 without wiring his frames. The cost of the wire is 

 insignificant when compared with the saving in 

 the breakage of combs while handling or doing ex- 

 tracting. Without wires, combs (whether from full 

 sheets or only starters) have a tendency to sag aft- 

 er they are drawn out, even though all the cells are 

 worker at the start; and this sagging renders them 

 unfit for worker brood. 



2. In this issue you will find several pretty good 

 methods for making increase explained. The Al- 

 exander plan has been spoken of very highly. It 

 is as follows: When your colonies are nearly full 

 enough to swarm naturally, and you wish to divide 

 them so as to make two from one. go to the colony 

 you wish to divide. Lift it from its stand and put 

 in its place a hive containing frames of comb or 

 foundation, the same as you vrould put the swarm 

 in providing it had just swarmed. Now remove 

 the center comb from this empty hive and put in 

 its place a frame of brood, either from the hive you 

 wish to divide or some other colony that can spare 

 one, and be sure to find the tiueen and put her on 

 this frame of brood in the new hive: also look it 

 over very carefully to see that it contains no eggs 

 nor larva? in any queen-cells. If it does, destroy 

 them. Now put a queen-excluding honey-board on 

 top of this new hive that contains the queen and 

 frame of brood with their empty combs, then set 

 your full queenless colony over the excluder. Next 

 put in the empty comb or frame of foundation, 

 wherever you got your frame of brood, and close 

 the upper hive except the entrance they have 

 through the excluder into the hive below. Now 

 leave them in this way about five days, then look 

 over the combs carefully, and destroy any larvae 

 you may find in the queen-cells unless they are of 

 a good strain of bees that you care to breed from, 

 for they frequently start the rearing of queens 

 above the excluder very soon after their queen has 

 been placed below the excluder. If so, you had 

 better separate them at once: but if they have not 

 started any queen-cells above, then leave them to- 

 gether ten or eleven days, during which time the 

 queen will get a fine lot of brood started in the low- 

 er hive, and every egg and particle of larva that 

 was in the old hive on top will have matured, so it 

 will be capped over and .sored,- then separate them, 

 putting the old hive on a new stand. It will then 

 be full of young bees mostly, and capped brood, and 

 in about twenty-four hours they will accept a ripe 



cell, a virgin, or a laying queen, as they will then 

 realize that they are hopelessly queenless. We 

 would advise you to give them a laying queen, as 

 we never like to keep our full colonies for even a 

 day longer without a laying queen than we can 

 help. In this way you have two strong colonies 

 from one, as you have not lost a particle of brood 

 nor checked the laying of your queen; and with us 

 it almost wholly prevents swarming. This is the 

 way we have made our increase for several years, 

 and we like it much better than any other method 

 we ever tried. In doing so you keep all your colo- 

 nies strong during the whole summer, and it is the 

 strong colonies that count in giving us our surplus. 

 As to when is the best time to make increase, it 

 all depends on conditions. If you desire a honey 

 crop, make increase ujter the honey-flow. At such 

 time it will usually be necessary to practice stimu- 

 lative feeding. If increase without reference to a 

 honey crop is sought, then we would start dividing 

 along about the last of May. When increase is be- 

 ing made in the spring or early summer, it is usual- 

 ly not necessary to feed. 



3. If the supers contain sections partly filled, take 

 them off. If they contain extracting-combs, and 

 stores are scant in the brood-nest, leave them on. 

 Better still, select out the light combs in the brood- 

 nest, and put in their stead heavy combs from the 

 super and then confine the bees down to one hive 

 body. 



4. Supers should be put on the hive about the 

 time the bees begin to whiten the tops of the combs 

 after the honey-flow begins. Honey does not begin 

 to come in until about a week after the first clover 

 begins to come out, so that you will need to put on 

 supers somewhere from the 20th to the 25th in the 

 average season: but better not go by the calender 

 but by the season. 



5. We would select any hour in the day between 

 ten and two o'clock. If possible, do the work in 

 a sheltered location away from the wind, as some 

 brood is liable to be chilled while being transferred. 



Yes, you can catch the virgin queens at the same 

 time, as explained. 



6. You can produce comb honey without separa- 

 tors, but it is very unwise to do so. When separa- 

 tors are used, comb honey will bring anywhere 

 from one to five cents a pound more. It is never 

 economy to try to get along without them. If there 

 could be a general law to compel all producers to 

 use separators, it would be much better for the 

 comb-honey market. 



7. Usually after the honey-flow when work is 

 slack. 



8. Hives should slant to the front, so that water 

 will run out of the entrances after a beating raia. — 

 Ed.] 



Ohio Convention Report 



The annual convention of the Ohio Beekeepers" 

 Association was held at Springfield, Feb. 21. The 

 association was favored with the presence of Dr. E. 

 F. Phillips, of the Hureau of Entomology, Washing- 

 ton, and Chief Inspector N. E. Shaw, of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, Columbus. Mr. Shaw deliv- 

 ered a very able address on bee diseases in Ohio, 

 which was highly appreciated. 



Mr. E. R, Root and Dr. Phillips at the evening 

 session gave addresses illustrated by the stereopti- 

 con, which were very instructive and interesting. 



Mr. Henry Keddert'read a paper during the day 

 session on sweet-clover forage in and around large 

 cities, which provoked considerable comment. 



Mr. E. R. Root's talk, entitled "Recent Develop- 

 ments on the Wintering Question," was well re- 

 ceived and discussed, as was Inspector Beard's pa- 

 per entitled "What has been Accomplished by In- 

 spection."' 



The following officers were elelected to serve dur- 

 ing 1912; 



President, D. H. Morris, Springfield, O. 



Vice-president, J G. Creighton, Harrison, O. 



Secretary, N. E. Shaw, Columbus, O. 



Treasurer, C. H. Weber, Cincinnati, O. 



The following is the Executive Committee: 



A. N. Noble, Springfield, O. 



Glenvi'ood Heard. Magnetic Springs, O. 



E. R. Root, Medina, ft. 



J. W. Arthur, Springfield, O. 



C. PJ. Leavitt, Mechanicsburg, O. 



Fred W. Hammerle, Hamilton, O. 



The next meeting will be held in Columbus. 



A. N. Noble, Se«. 



