1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



469 



thi'in or not, as you please. But, say; don't 

 Yiiu think you could get used to those new 

 hand-lioles. and that you would like them fully 

 us well for actual use, to say nothing of their 

 iitater appearance, if you were to give them a 

 trial without the cleats? 



Yes, the frames do slide very easily on the 

 folded tin rabbet, or " support." as you call it. 

 [Why didn't you say " rabbet"?] No, Doctor, 

 tliere Is no danger that the folded edge will cut 

 the top-bar. Even the sharp edge that we have 

 hf'on using for years seems to have but little 

 etteer. 



About that ^8 inch end play of the top-bars. 

 All we have s<ot to say. Doctor, is, we have got 

 t(i have it. We do not dare to risk making a 

 ti!J:ht fit, because the varying conditions of the 

 wi'ather throughout the United Slates would 

 be sure to make them too tight sometimes. 

 ^ Cs, the bees will chink in a little propolis into 

 our nice clean sections; but neither of them 

 can you help. So far as the top-bars are con- 

 cerned, they will make no practical trouble. 



No, we would have the top bar of the dummy 

 just a little wider than the boards, for the very 

 reason that it gives the fingers an abutting 

 edge to catch hold of in drawing out. We first 

 tried the dummies with the top-bar the same 

 width as the perpendicular sides; but it was 

 hard to pick them out. That bead on the un- 

 der side of the toobar. Your objections look 

 all right in theory; but in actual practice you 

 need have no fear. You certainly will not have 

 spacings 1'4'. 1%, 1%. If you do not intend to 

 wire your frames, and if you fasten the sheets 

 of foundation to the comb-guide by the melted- 

 wax plan, you might have the unequal spac- 

 ings you refer to. But if you will refer to our 

 catalog you will see that we recommend rolling 

 the edge of foundation— that is. pressing it 

 against the comb-guide; and this results iu 

 crowding the wax over so that it is almost 

 exactly under the comb-guide itself; that is, 

 the comb-guide and the foundation form one 

 continuous line with the top-bar. To be sure 

 that this is so in actual practice, I have just 

 been out into the other room, and measured 

 several lots of frames having foundation put in 

 with that Daisy- Hambaugh roller. The sheets 

 do not vary a sixty-fourth of an inch from be- 

 ing out of the exact center. Then, besides, the 

 ■wires themselves are threaded through holes 

 that are spaced exactly iu the center of the 

 end-bar. in a perpendicular line. 



Y'es. that wiring by electricity is the only 

 way of doing a nice job. and, to a great extent, 

 it prevents the bees from gnawing around the 

 wires when they have nothing else to do. By 

 the way. Doctor, didn't we send you a battery ? 

 We have not had any report from you In regard 

 to its workings.— Ed.] 



C. M. McC, of W. Va., would like to know 

 what to do with old moldy combs. Ans. — Put 

 them in or over a strong colony of bees. They 

 will cli-an them up and make them sweet in 

 short order. If moldy and worm-eaten, throw 

 them into the solar wax extractor. If moldy 

 and crooked, put them in the same place. It 

 does not pay to fuss with any thing but straight 

 first-class combs. 



E. W. S., of Ala., asks how long burlap cov- 

 ers shall be kept on under cushions for outdoor 

 wintering. Ans.— We usually make it a prac- 

 tice to keep the burlap covers on until settled 

 warm weather, say about the middle of May 

 with us. Sometimes we leave them on until 

 the first of June. It is not advisable to change 

 the burlap to enamel cloth very early in the 

 season; in fact, we do not use enamel cloth at 

 all nowadays with the Dovetail hive. 



E. N., of III., Sisks if the bees will not store 

 more surplus overdrawn combs than over start- 

 ers only, in the brood-frames. Ans. — No. It 

 would rather be the other way, provided that 

 the bees were hived on the starters, and honey 

 was coming in with a rush at the time. If they 

 had drawn combs below, they would pile the 

 honey into the brood-frames, and put in the sec- 

 tions what remained. E. N. also asks whether 

 Italian queens reared in a colony of black bees 

 would not be more prolific. A^is. — We do not 

 think it would make any difference. 



P. W., of N. Y., writes : " Please tell me 

 what I can put on the separators to keep the 

 bees from fastening the honey to them. They 

 spoil lots of boxes on the new boards." Ans. — 

 This is a difficulty that practical bee-keepers 

 find to a slight extent, but, so far as we know, 

 not enough t~> make any great trouble. In 

 your case it may be that the hive did not stand 

 level; that the foundation was not perfectly 

 centered in the sections, or that the sections 

 themselves did not have wide enough openings. 

 Any and all of these might combine to aggra- 

 vate comb-attaching. 



W. H. C.of Midi., asks. 1: "As I want to 

 Italianize this season. I want to know whether 

 it would be a good plan to introduce siranee 

 queens to colonies that have just sent out the 

 first swarm, previously cutting queen-cells, or 

 leave the new queen to tear thcin down." Ans. 

 — We would always advise tearing down the 

 queen cells. It is true, that the queens to be 

 introduced 7/u/j/ do it; but you always run the 

 danger of a young virgin hatching out, in which 

 case the bees af^e liable to take up with their 

 young mistress rather than with their old one, 

 and, of course, the latter is killed. In intro- 

 ducing queens it is aJfcay.s' safer to tear down 

 the old cells, because, after bees get cells nicely 

 started, they are inclined at times to lay 

 their hopes on them so strong that, when a new 

 queen is introduced, they carry out their orig- 

 inal purpose, and the introduced mother is 

 sacrificed. W. H. C. asks further: 2. Would 

 this process prevent after-swarming? 3. If I 

 order queens, and receive them before I need 

 them, how may I keep them alive till I do need 

 them ? Ans.--2. To a certain extent. 3. You 

 want to manage somehow so as not to receive 

 queens before you want them. You can keep 

 them in small nuclei, however, as explained by 

 Mrs. Atchley on page 407 of our last issue. 



