280 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1, 



It just occurs to us that the bees do say 

 something quite positively on the 8 us. 10 frame 

 hive question by Taylor and Miller, in another 

 column. It is this: P'or this locality, and it 

 seems to us for most northern localities, the 

 bees say that, if you give us a ten-frame hive 

 we will fill eight of the combs with brood, and 

 put honey into the two outside combs. Their 

 manner of sayinu it is by doing that very thing 

 — not invariably, but generally. Of course, they 

 do not say that they want an eight-frame hive; 

 but the bee-keeper says, at least most of 'em, 

 "I'd rather have the honey in those two combs 

 in the supers. But another may say, "I irnnt 

 that extra honey in the brood-nest for a reserve, 

 while the first mentioned will assert, " I don't, 

 because there will be enough honey scattered 

 among the brood." Then, again, the average 

 Italian queen does not usually lay more than 

 the capacity of 8 Langstroth frames. The point 

 Is here: If the bees do certain things in a cer- 

 tain way, different bee-keepers will adopt their 

 appliances to meet those certain ways. 



EXTRACTORS CONTAINING REELS HOLDING TWO 

 PAIRS OF COMBS, ONE BEFORE THE OTHER. 



Some time last fall we constructed a Cowan 

 reversible extractor, made so that the two pock- 

 ets could be revolved on one pair of hinges, 

 thus making a four-frame extractor with a can 

 only 24 in. in diameter. The combs were thus 

 made to revolve in pairs— one comb in front of 

 the other. A sheet of tin was put between each 

 pair of pockets so as to prevent the honey from 

 the inner comb from being thrown on to the 

 next. We sent the machine to our neighbor, 

 Mr. Burt, who had some more honey to extract. 

 A day or so later we went down on the wheel to 

 witness the result. When we came to extract 

 we found we could throw out the honey, but we 

 could not do it nearly as nicely and rapidly as 

 with machines having each a comb - pocket 

 swinging on separate pairs of hinges; worse 

 than all, the side of the combs next to the sheet 

 of tin would have perceptibly more honey ,in 

 the cells than in the sides of the combs next to 

 the circumference of the can. There is no get- 

 ting around the fact; extractors having two 

 pairs of combs in the reel — one comb in front of 

 the other — can not do the work of extractors 

 arranged so that each comb will be equally dis- 

 tant from the center of the extractor. Centrif- 

 ugal force, at the same speed of revolution, will 

 be always greater on combs furthest from the 

 axis of revolution, and hence theory and prac- 

 tice say that one side of every comb in extract- 

 ors of the type mentioned at the outset will be 

 extracted cleaner than the side that comes next 

 to the center of the can. 



THAT " BAD FIX." 



We are sorry to refer again to the subject of 

 golden Carniolans, about which Mr. Alley has 

 taken up of late in the Ainculturist some four- 

 teen columns of matter to refute three or four 



short parasraphs of onrs. Well, he thinks he 

 has us at last in a " bad fix." He refers to an 

 old editorial of ours, years back, wherein we 

 mentioned that one of our imported Carniolan 

 queens showed yellow blood; but Mr. Alley, in 

 his quotation, leaves out the very point in that 

 editorial that wonld weaken his whole argu 

 ment; viz., that we did not think this queen was 

 pure. At all events, Mr. Alley does not deny 

 that his original yellow Carniolans were pro 

 duced in an apiary but a little over a mile from 

 an apiary of Italians^yes, he admits all this in 

 American Bee Journal, page 3.30, Vol. XXVIII 

 (Jrantiug for a moment that there is yellow 

 blood in the Carniolans, the proximity of that 

 apiary of Italians completely upsets his whole 

 array of arguments. No reasonable authority 

 disputes that queens and drones may fly much 

 further than a little over a mile, and hence it is 

 perfectly easy to account for at least a part and 

 probably all of the yellow blood in his golden 

 Carniolans. Lastly, Mr. Alley has put quota 

 tion-marks around sentiments attributed to us, 

 with the wording slightly twisted from what 

 we actually wrote. This is not the first lime ho 

 has done this. 



WINTER VIEW OP OUR OWN API/^RY — P. 270. 



In the garden department A. I. R. has told 

 something about the picture on page 270 so fai 

 as it relates to horticnliure. It remains for us 

 to tell you of the bee side. 



As you will notice, the bees are either ii 

 chaff hives, one and two story, or in single- 

 walled hives protected by winter-cases. Tin 

 last mentioned are shown clear in the corner 

 The one and two story chafl:' hives appear ir 

 the foreground. There are more of the two- 

 stories, because we had those in the first place: 

 and as they have done us most excellent service 

 we did not, feel like throwing them away foi 

 the lighter and more convenient one-story chafl 

 hives, such as we now recommend. This pic 

 ture was taken on a cold, blustering day, at a 

 time when some snow was tailing. A few 

 hours before, the evergreens were loaded down 

 with snow; but a thaw in the morning, before 

 the camera shot in the afternoon, disposed of a 

 large part of it. With the exception of last 

 winter, and the one of 1881, we have wintered 

 bees with almost no loss so far. in this inclosnre 

 of evergreens; and these form a very important 

 feature of the wintering problem at the Home 

 of the Honev-bees. As Mr. Boardnian well 

 says in another column, referring to those 

 about his place, they afford great protection. 

 These trees were set out in 1879, and now most 

 of them are from 20 to 2n feet high. Near the 

 ground the branches are tightly interwoven, so 

 that it is almost impossible for one to make his 

 way through, even if he were to crawl on his 

 hands and knees. The factory buildings on the 

 east and south shut off the wind from those 

 directions, making the inclosure complete. 



