AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



561 



When a hive is discovered in which 

 the bees have died, the dead bees should 

 be brushed from the combs, and out of 

 the hive, as well as possible, and the 

 hive closed up so that bees cannot get 

 into it. If you have room in your honey- 

 house, or in any other dry place where 

 bees cannot go, it is better to arrange 

 the combs so that there is a free circula- 

 tion of air around them, as the honey is 

 very apt to absorb moisture and dete- 

 riorate very rapidly if left shut up in 

 hives out-of-doors at this season. This 

 honey may be extracted, if desired, but 

 often it is notof salable quality. Usually 

 I prefer to feed it to the bees. 



If any colonies are short of stores, 

 combs of honey may be exchanged for 

 those containing little or none, care be- 

 ing taken to disturb the arrangement of 

 the brood-nest as little as possible. 

 Honey that is not used is this way may 

 be fed to the bees by being placed in 

 hives out-of-doors, with the entrance 

 -contracted so that only one or two bees 

 can pass at a time. In this way the 

 honey wilj be carried off quietly, with no 

 danger of robbing. I would wait until 

 about the tenth of May for this, as I do 

 not think it pays to stimulate brood- 

 rearing too early in the season. If you 

 have any box-hives, or any in which the 

 combs are too crooked to remove, this is 

 a good way to dispose of the honey. 



After the combs are empty, they 

 should be carefully looked over. If any 

 of them have been injured in any way, 

 such as by being gnawed by mice, or if 

 they have patches of drone-comb, they 

 should be trimmed out smoothly, and 

 the holes filled with good worker-comb. 

 It is not safe to leave the holes for the 

 bees to fill with comb, as they will al- 

 most invariably fill them with drone- 

 comb, unless they already have an abun- 

 dance in the hive. 



If combs are very crooked, they may 

 be bent into shape or cut out and trans- 

 ferred so as to make straight combs. As 

 a rule, I would not keep any combs in 

 the brood-chamber that are not straight 

 and even, as the perfect combs that may 

 be had by the use of wired frames and 

 full sheets of foundation are so much 

 better in every way. For extracting 

 combs, crooked and patched combs are 

 as good as any, if properly handled, and 

 for this purpose it pays to save and 

 transfer all pieces of comb in good con- 

 dition, that may be cut four or five 

 inches square. 



In a future article I will write of ex- 

 tracting-combs, and how to properly 

 utilize scraps of comb. 

 Ottawa. 111., April 12. 



Somettiiiig Alioiit tlie T Super. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



I received the following letter from 

 Mr. S. Cornell about the middle of 

 March : 



Lindsay, Ont., March 9, 1894. 

 Dr. C. C. Miller. — 



Dear Sir : — I've been taking a full 

 dose of T super. While I think of it, 

 allow me to suggest that you take a file 

 and cut a mark on that wire hook for 

 taking out sections, instead of tying a 

 string on it, or painting a mark on it. 

 Has any one thought of turning the folds 

 of the T tins downward? I don't see 

 anything of that idea in the papers. 

 Nail the T tins to the underside of the 

 super, folds downward, and tack on 

 pieces the depth of the folds on the 

 lower side of the rim. This gives the 

 bee-space below. The cover may have 

 a rim J^ inch deep tacked on to make a 

 bee-space above the sections. 



I feel inclined to ask you to make one 

 in this way. One of the features of the 

 present plan, which you will, I think, 

 lose without regret, after trial, is the 

 movable feature of the present T tins. 



It is not much of a trick to make a 

 "follower" to remove sections from 

 wide frames, when no separators are 

 used, but when they are used, it is more 

 diflScult. I have been using one for 

 several years, which I saw in the work- 

 shop of Geo. Neighbour & Sons, of Lon- 

 don. I have never seen anything about 

 it in the bee-papers. I think I shall 

 make a sketch, and send paper patterns 

 to the Roots, as wide frames are their 

 favorite section-holders. 



By the way, I forgot to say that the 

 separators for my suggested case must 

 be make of 4J^-inch stuff. Cut insets to 

 correspond with the sections ^-inch 

 deep. They must be made of tin, unless 

 there is special machinery for taking 

 them out, in wood, in right shape. 



Do you know what number galvanized 

 iron would be strong enough for the T's 

 running lengthwise of the super ? Do 

 you use a follower ? If not, have you 

 any trouble in keeping the sections up 

 to their place, so as to have the comb 

 built within the frame of the sections ? 

 Yours truly, 



S. CORNEIL. 



It is only a matter of reciprocity that 

 Mr. Corneil was asking me about the 

 T super. Something more than ten 



