GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



FOURTEEN-FKAME HIVES ; THE PROPOLIS QUES- 

 TION. 



My bees have done nicely on sumac, which 

 seems to be the best honey-plant that we have 

 in this section, and the honey is better than 

 clover, if any thing. It has given me a good 

 chance to try the Hoffman frames. I find one 

 trouble with them; and that is. they stick so 

 you can not manipulate them quick enough, or 

 as easily as you should. I have been interested 

 lately in reading the various discussions in re- 

 gard to the size of hive, and would say, for the 

 benefit of those who use ten-frame hives, that I 

 use those that will take 13 Hoffman frames in 

 the lower story and 14 in the upper; and that 

 the queen will use all of the frames in the low- 

 er story, except the outside of the two outside 

 ones. Of course, I use division-boards, and do 

 not let the bees occupy all of the room except 

 when I want to build them up for the honey 

 season. I do not find my hives as handy as I 

 wish in the honey season, but they are good to 

 winter with. I contract, and pack with leaves 

 on the sides and in back. I have used over 50 

 such hives for over ten years, and have been 

 very successful in wintering and springing. I 

 use in the upper story a fine feed-bag filled with 

 leaves. I am of the opinion that the ten-frame 

 Dovetailed hive with two division-boards and a 

 winter-case like the one for the eight-frame 

 hive, and that can be knocked apart and packed 

 up in summer, out of the way, using the covers 

 for shade-boards, would be about the thing. Of 

 course, I use dummies when tiering up. 



Pomfret Landing, Cl., Aug. 1. J. L. Hyde. 



[Propolis-sticking of the Hoffman frames will 

 be the worst the first season when the propolis 

 is new; and it will give more trouble in late 

 summer and early fall than at other times. 

 After the first season's use. or when the old pro- 

 polis is well smeared over, the ?(cw' propolis 

 will give little if any trouble. — Ed.] 



DO QUEENS GET BACK THROUGH THE EXCLUDER? 



On page 587 M. W. Shepherd asks, '• Was a 

 queen ever known to get back (through the ex- 

 cluder) alone?" Yes, most decidedly. On June 

 21st I hived a swarm on full sheets of founda- 

 tion, with queen-excluder and full-depth ex- 

 tracting-super above. On looking over that 

 colony three weeks later, I found one frame in 

 the brood-chamber, with a few eggs and the 

 queen on it, the other seven empty, so far as 

 brood or eggs were concerned. On opening the 

 super there were three frames full of brood, 

 with patches in three more ; also two sealed 

 queen -cells. That hive was not opened from 

 the time I saw the queen go into the entrance 

 until the time mentioned above. 



Another case somewhat similar, were it but 

 known to your readers, might save some novice 

 like myself a dollar, besides a little vexation. 

 The biggest-looking queen in the yard had got 

 into the super — whether through the excluder 

 or not is uncertain; but the colony was pro- 



nounced queenless, and a fine queen introduced. 

 Three days later she was found dead. On look- 

 ing " upstairs" I found the old queen, and the 

 super full of brood. Wm. Russell. 



Minnehaha Falls, Minn., July 21. 



[Yes, queens have been known to go through 

 excluders of the very best makes. It is not 

 possible to make the metal exclude all queens, 

 else it would hinder greatly the passage of the 

 workers. But there is not one queen in a hun- 

 dred that succeeds in getting through. As the 

 metal as now made practically excludes, the 

 rare instances in which a queen does succeed in 

 passing are not worth considering. You will 

 find this subject very fully covered on page 830, 

 Nov. 1st, and 888 for Dec. 1st. 1893.— Ed.] 



We (the apiarist and I) have been using the 

 Cornell smoker, with much satisfaction. It 

 seems to have nearly as strong a blast as the 

 Crane— perhaps strong enough for all practical 

 purposes. It is used largely in Canada, I un- 

 derstand. 



Dr. Peiro has written a valuable article, 

 under " Our Doctor's Hints," in the American 

 Bee Journal, entitled "Something about Kiss- 

 ing." It is not trashy or sentimental, but good 

 sound advice that every mother, and, in fact, 

 every one, might do well to heed. He points 

 out how insidious diseases are conveyed from 

 one to another by this indiscriminate social 

 custom. 



Recent experiments are confirming my im- 

 pressions, expressed a short time ago, to the 

 effect that I thought it was quite probable that 

 we would have to go back to the old-fashioned 

 plain granulated sugar in order to get a satis- 

 factory food for queen-cages— one that would 

 not behave so irregularly. Our bee-candy is 

 now made of the best granulated sugar and 

 honey, with a very little pulverized sugar added 

 in order to help solidify the dough. 



Quite a pressure was brought to bear upon 

 your humble servant when it was learned that 

 he was not expecting to attend the St. Joseph 

 convention. But I have felt for some time that 

 my big brother-in-law Calvert ought to get out 

 and be known a little better by the bee-keepers 

 at large; so he will go in my place, and I will 

 stay at home and " keep house." He has been 

 doing this for me, while I was away, and I see 

 no reason why I should not return the compli- 

 ment. 



Elsewhere I refer to the fact that we are 

 now using granulated sugar for bee-candy. We 

 have been testing some of the confectioners' 

 sugar lately used for making queen-cage candy 



