1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



m: 



bell rang. We saw a very healthy youngster 

 around the place, and observt'd that, though 

 electricity may he good to control melted bees- 

 wax and hatching chickens, ihc^ youngster was 

 evidently brought up according to the good old 

 way— by hand. Mr. Bliss is quite an expert 

 with the canuira. and had souii' tine view. ■> on 

 hand. 



Our call was not a long one, and \v(> were 

 again on the move. That night wo, camped 

 pleasantly upon Baldwin Avenue, among the 

 pepper and eucalyptus trees. This largt; ranch 

 is owned by " Lucky Baldwin." Upon this 

 ranch, in Los Angeles Co., have been bred some 

 of the horses that have beaten the world's 

 records, one of them recently winning the 

 Derby in England. To show you how comfort- 

 ably we travel in this country, I give you a 

 glimpse of our first camp, which is a type of all 

 the rest. Rambler. 

 ^ I ^ 



JASTENING FOUNDATION TO THE BOTTOM - 

 BAK. 



HOW TO rUT IT IN SO AS TO FILL OUT EVEN 



TO THE END-BAKS AND BOTTOM-BAK, 



AND YET NOT SO AS TO SAG. 



By Br. C. C. Miller. 



Having a lot of new frames to be lilled I was 

 ijuite anxious that they should be built solid to 

 the frame on all four sides, without any space 

 between comb and top-bar, bottom-bar, or end- 

 bar. Of course, there is no trouble about hav- 

 ing all right at top-bar, and very little at end- 

 bars. But as a rule there will be a space be- 

 tween the comb and the bottom-bar, such space 

 varying from ^s to ^-i inch. 



There is more than one objection to this 

 space. It is any thing but pleasant, when look- 

 ing for a queen, to have her dodge back and 

 forth between comb and bottom -bar. The 

 space is in the way when it comes to shaking 

 or brushing bees off the comb. The comb is 

 more solid in the frame if built down solid to 

 the bottom-bar. In changing from "^a to%in 

 the thickness of the top-bar we have lost half 

 an inch in the depth of our comb; and if we 

 get the comb built down solid we regain that 

 half-inch. And I know of no advantage what- 

 ever in having a space over the bottom-bar, 

 however earnest the bees may be in trying to 

 secure it. 



If the foundation comes so close to the wood 

 that a bee can not crawl through, whether it be 

 at the side or the bottom, I think the bees will 

 generally join it to the wood. So all that is 

 necessary is to have the foundation come with- 

 in 3^ inch or less of the wood, and the bees will 

 leave no space. If foundation would not sag, 

 nothing further would be needed. 



But foundation does sag. If we can know 

 just how much it will sag, can we not provide 

 accordingly? Suppose it sags 34^ inch, and we 

 let the foundation come within .V inch of the 



bottom-bar, how's that? Well, that's all right 

 if we could only get the co-operation of the 

 bees. But here's what tht^y'll do. If '^ inch 

 space is left they prefer to have it more, and 

 commence gnawing away the foundation; and 

 as fast as it sags they keep it gnawed away so 

 as to leave a space of nearly half an inch. 



Not long ago 1 suggested in (Jleanings that 

 it migiit work to put a separate strip in the 

 bottom of the frame, much in the same way 

 that a bottom starter is put in a section. So I 

 thought I would try it. 



The frames were wired horizontally, and the 

 bottom wire came about an inch from the 

 bottom-bar. So I cut a strip of foundation 

 about l}4 in. wide, fastened it on the bottom 

 wire, then filled out the frame with a sheet of 

 foundation that came from the top-bar down to 

 within ^H inch of the bottom strip. Fastening 

 the wire in the bottom strip was an awkward 

 performance, as the strip seemed to want to 

 wiggle about and do anything but lie still in 

 the right place. But Emma was experienced 

 in fastening wires in foundation, and was equal 

 to the occasion. 



Then I put the frame in the brood-nest of a 

 full colony to see what they would do with it; 

 or, rather, I put in several, each frame between 

 two frames of brood. While we are waiting to 

 see what the bees will do with it, I'll tell you of 

 another thing I was trying at the same time. 



I thought I could improve on the way the 

 foundation was fastened to the top-bar, so I 

 had a saw-kerf made in each top-bar. The 

 top-bars were l>s wide and X thick. The saw- 

 kerf was ^ wide and V inch deep. The idea is 

 very old; but in all cases that I had known, 

 the kerf was much less than -J".,, and it was not 

 easy to get the foundation in; but ,% would 

 allow the foundation to go in and to go in 

 ea.^ily. Another difference was in making a 

 deeper saw-kerf, a full quarter-inch deep. My 

 idea was, that, by having it so deep, there 

 would be no need of fastening — just trust t© the 

 wires to hold up the foundation till the bees 

 fastened it; and if it did sag down a little it 

 would still stay in the saw-kerf, for it would 

 have to sink U inch before it could get out. 



At the end of 24 hours I went to see what 

 progress liad been made. The bees had fasten- 

 ed the lower piece of foundation to the bottom - 

 bar beautifully, and had also fullilled my ex- 

 pectations by fastening to the top-bar. I judg- 

 ed from appearance that they had fastened it 

 to the top-bar without its coming out of place 

 in the least. They had also made a fine job of 

 uniting together the upper and the lower strip. 



The only fault I could see was that, in some 

 cases, they had not linished uniting the two 

 parts of foundation at the outer ends. Indeed, 

 instead of uniting they had gnawed the foun- 

 dation so as to make the space between the two 

 parts about half an inch instead of the eighth I 

 had left. I think this would not have occurred 



