NOVEMBER 1, 1912 



and filled the upper story with a chaff 

 cushion, and 1 found by experience that a 

 good colony so arranged would pull through 

 ninety-nine times out of a hundred. Talk 

 about condensed moisture! A strong col- 

 ony so eared for has no room for any thing 

 like that. In some of my weaker colonies 

 I found some condensed moisture, but not 

 enough to hurt i\uy thing. 



The new double-walled liives are an im- 

 provement, I believe, over the old two-story 

 chats hives and will answer just as well; 

 but let me explain that Mr. A. I. Root 

 used to insist on oat chaff. Take a box 

 of oat chaff and another of wheat chaff, 

 and on a zero day thrust your hand down 

 into each and see which hand feels the 

 more comfortable. 



Here in the Salt River Valley our bees 

 keep up brood-rearing through October 

 and commence it again in February. I gen- 

 erally divide my bees toward the last of 

 February. I am speaking now of the Salt 

 River Valley. There is not a day through 

 the Avinter when our bees can not fly about 

 if they wish to, although in mid-winter 

 there are sometimes two or three days of 

 rainy weather which confines them. 



Apjoarently, there is no foul brood in 

 this valley, but no one should imagine that 

 we never have any troubles. I divided my 

 colonies on the 23rd of February last 

 spring, and at just the time for the young 

 virgin queens to fl}', countless thousands 

 of bee martins filled the air, and but a 

 small per cent of the young queens ever 

 came back. This year I intend to buy 

 what few queens I need. These martins 

 were here twelve or fourteen days, and 

 all of my colonies suffered, some of them 

 becoming very weak in field bees. But 

 even if there are no bee martins to catch 

 the young queens, I tliink it is more profit- 

 able to buy queens than to try to raise them 

 here, as there are so many drawbacks to 

 a successful mating. 



Phoenix. Ariz. 



A NEW WAY TO SIFT THE BEES TO FIND 

 THE QUEEN 



BY B. KEEP. 



Among all the methods proposed for 

 finding the queen, there is none more near- 

 ly certain than "sifting." The method of 

 doing it is about as simple and easy as 

 can be. Fix up a wood-frame zinc queen- 

 excluder, with a thin three-inch wood strip, 

 to be attached under one long side of the 

 frame so as to close that much of the 

 perforations, measuring from the outside 



of the frame. This is the only extra 

 preparation necessary. Now lift the hive 

 body (containing the colony to be sifted) 

 off its bottom-board, and set an empty 

 body in its i:)lace. Lay the prepared ex- 

 cluder on this empty body, having the 

 edge of the three-inch strip against the 

 outside of the body. This leaves an open 

 space along the opposite side wide enough 

 to pass a brood-frame through easily. Set 

 the hive body containing the brood-frames 

 and bees u^Don the excluder exactly. Re- 

 move the outside frame from each side, 

 shaking and brushing the bees back upon 

 the remaining frames. Set one of these 

 frames aside, and put the other into the 

 body below through the opening before 

 mentioned, and push it along on tlie rab- 



bets out of the way. Now move the brood- 

 frames in a mass over to the hive side next 

 to the opening before mentioned ; then, 

 beginning with the frame furthest from the 

 said opening, shake and brush the bees, 

 off and down on the excluder, one frame 

 after another, putting each, as cleared, 

 down into the under body, pushing each 

 and the preceding frames along out of 

 the way to admit the next. Last of all, 

 put in the frame previously set aside. If 

 care is used, the brood-nest will be trans- 

 ferred from one body to the other with- 

 out in any way changing the arrangement 

 of the frames. 



The smoker should now be used very 

 moderately to drive the bees down suf- 

 ficiently to see the queen, if she is there. 

 It is not necessary to shake, diive, or smoke 

 the few remaining bees. Just set the body 

 to one side, and they will soon leave. If 

 there is any simpler way to sift for the 

 queen, let us know it. 



Hoboken, N. J., April 24. 



