586 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



The raised edge has the same outside dimen- 

 sions as the eight-frame dovetailed bodies, and 

 therefore the ordinary eight-frame stories and 

 supers will fit on this hive. The cushion occu- 

 pies the space as shown and indicated by the 

 dotted line. The ends of the Hoffman frames 

 appear just under the Hill device, that part of 

 the cover being broken away. The cover will 

 telescope over the whole an inch or two, de- 

 pending upon the thickness of the cushion, and 

 whether or not air-space above said cushion is 

 desired. In this case, small cleats can be nailed 

 on inside of the cover, at the right positions, so 

 that the cleats will rest on the water-table, 

 and support the cover high enough to leave the 

 air-space above the cushion; but in actual 

 practice we find it just as well to let the cover 

 come in contact with the cushion. The venti- 

 lator at the ends, just under the ridgeboard, 

 affords sufficient ventilation for the escape of 

 moisture. 



Our colonies, under such covers and in such 

 hives, wintered perfectly last winter. 



EIGHT V. TEN FRAMES. 



I notice by Gleanings that Dr. Miller is " on 

 the fence "in regard to using the eight- frame 

 hive instead of the ten-frame. One objection 

 to the eight-frame hive, as he puts it, is, that 

 the bees don't like to raise brood in the two 

 outside frames. My hive is a little larger than 

 the eight-frame; but the bees of nearly every 

 hive use one or both of the outside frames for 

 brood. My frames are paiallel with the en- 

 trance (not the best way, however), and it is the 

 exception when I don't find brood next to the 

 back side of the hive. The secret of it is this, if 

 it is a secret : Have the same spacing between 

 the outside frame and the side of the hive that 

 you have between the frames. I use little 

 pieces of heavy tin, ^4 in. wide and about 3 in. 



long, bent in the shape here shown: /\ 



My father began using them something over 16 

 years ago. I use four on each frame, putting 

 them on diagonally opposite sides — two on the 

 top-bar about 3 in. from the end, ancJ one on 

 each bar, about 2}4 in. from the bottom. I nail 

 four to the hive also. I don't think they are as 

 good as the Stephens spacer, and I prefer the 

 Hoffman V edge to either. That could never 

 dull the honey-knife in extracting. 



I have something over 100 hives. Two of 

 them are eight-frame Dovetailed hives which I 

 got last year. Both were strong colonies this 

 spring, and one of the queens — a two-year-old 

 one — was especially prolific; but in neither was 

 there any brood in the outside half of the out- 

 side frame. In my regular hive, ten frames oc- 



cupy li% in.; so perhaps strips ^^ in. thick, 

 nailed to the side of the Dovetailed hive and to 

 the follower, wouldn't be thick enough to ac- 

 complish the desired end. Incidentally, such 

 "olfsets" prevent the bees from gluing the top- 

 bar to the side of the hive or follower. 



John S. Callbreath. 

 Rock Rift, N. Y., July 3. 



QUEENS CHANGING. 



Mrs. Atchley's article on page 453 brings to 

 mind an incident in my early experience with 

 bees — about eighteen years ago. I had bought 

 a swaim from a neighbor, and, during the sum- 

 mer and fall, the queen produced nothing but 

 nicely marked Italians. The next spring I was 

 surprised to see a considerable number of hy- 

 brids in that hive; and when I opened the hive 

 and found the old queen, which had produced 

 nothing but nice Italians the preceding year, 

 had a clear case of a queen changing. The old 

 queen was marked so that there could be no 

 doubt that she was the queen which had pro- 

 duced nice Italians; and there was the host 

 of hybrids present to prove that she had 

 changed. A clear case, wasn't it? It proved 

 conclusively that Quinby, Langstroth, Root, 

 and the other fellows who wrote bee-books, 

 didn't know every thing about bees. It was a 

 good, clear, incontrovertible case of a queen 

 changing ; but my curiosity led me to open the 

 hive again in a few days, and that time I found 

 another queen, liwas a case of mother and 

 daughter living through the winter in the 

 same hive, but it ivasn't a case of "queens 

 changing." In a case like this, Mrs. Atchley's 

 " mark of identity " would prove a failure. 



East Springfield, O. R. M. Reynolds. 



LAYING workers; WILLIE ATCHLEY S IDEA IN- 

 DORSED. 



On page 506 Willie Atchley has given Ram- 

 bler an answer as to where the egg came from 

 that was found in the super. There is no doubt 

 that Mr. Atchley is right, and no doubt many 

 will remember having seen eggs in supers, and 

 wondered how they came there. I think we 

 have all read of bees stealing eggs, and many 

 honestly thought they did so. and possibly in 

 i-unie cases it has been done. For some years I 

 have wondered how it came that i could find a 

 few drones in worker-cells in the supers. Three 

 years ago I became fully satisfied that it was 

 the workings of a laying worker. We know 

 that laying workers are in the hives at all 

 times, or, at least, during the honey season, 

 and they will get in their work when we least 

 expect it. Cyprian bees and their crosses are 

 much the worst, and I found quite a little 

 trouble with them because a laying worker 

 would set up business within a few hours after 

 the queen went out with a swarm. Then why 

 should not a worker, when above a queen-ex- 

 cluder, deposit a few eggs once in a while ? We 



