Mar. 7, 1907 



American l^a Journal 



<;epted as readily as laying (juecns; indeed, a 

 virgin just out of the cull will be accepted 

 more readily than a laying i|ueen ; but a vir- 

 gin several days old is not easily introduced. 



4. No more liKely than any other virgins, 

 for you must remember that whether in a nu- 

 ■cleus or full colony, every virgin must leave 

 the hive before she is a nurtiia! laying queen. 

 It is the general belief that in some cases the 

 bees go out with the virgin on her wedding- 

 flight. 



5. According to general t)elief the bees in 

 such case may cluster and then return to the 

 hive, in very rare cases never returning. 



6. She is likely to begin laying when about 

 10 days old, although it may be a day or two 

 less, and it may be several days more. 



7. I am not sure that there is a great ad- 

 vantage in keeping nuclei just for the sake of 

 having virgins hatch out in them without 

 being fertilized. Why not just as well have 

 them in any hive with a laying queen i l''or 

 In the protector with cage they will hatch out 

 in any hive, whether it has a queen or not. 

 Only if there is a laying queen in the hive 

 there must be food in the cage or the virgin 

 might starve. 



If I understand the plan correctly, a virgin 

 is to be hatched in the nucleus, and then 

 given to a full colony where it is to be ferti- 

 lized. The main thing for which nuclei are 

 used in queen-rearing is to have the virgins 

 fertilized, saving the time of a full colony. 

 Even with the best care a number of cases 

 will be failures, and it a failure occurs in a 

 full colony, there is a serious loss of time be- 

 fore another queen can be got to laying. 

 Either plan will work all right; the only 

 point is that in general it is economy to take 

 the time of a nucleus rather than a full colony 

 to get a queen to laying. 



Bottom and Top Starters In Sections 



On page 96 you say, " Have the sections 

 filled full with worker foundation;" and on 

 page 85 I read: " Dr. Miller has for years de- 

 scribed his method of using bottom starters 

 (as well as top ones) in sections of comb 

 honey." Kindly explain this method, as I 

 have never seen it in the papers. I have the 

 Daisy foundation-fastener, and would like to 

 try bottom and top starters. Would you 

 make them meet in the center? or how much 

 space between the starters? When they are 

 fastened only at the top, they twist and do not 

 hang true. Ontario. 



Answer. — The matter is very simple, and 

 your Daisy fastener is just the thing to fasten 

 bottom as well as top starter. It wouldn't do 

 at all to let the two starters meet in the cen- 

 ter, for in that case the bottom-starter would 

 be certain to fall down and make a mess. 

 When you buy foundation for sections, you 

 are likely to get it in sheets 15}.>x3% inches. 

 This is just right to make four starters of each 

 kind. The top-starters are 3>4 inches deep, 

 and the bottom ones ;';,'. For a section that is 

 four inches deep inside, you will see that 

 would leave a space of ',,-inch between the 

 starters. In reality the space will generally 

 be more than that, for the hot plate melts a 

 little of the edges of the starters. First fasten 

 the bottom-starter, turn the section over im- 

 mediately, and put in the other starter. If 

 your bees are like mine, the first thing they 

 do on being given the sections will be to fasten 

 the upper and lower starters together. 



Cleaning Sections for Market 



On page 786 (1906) "Colorado " asks, ques- 

 tion No. 2 : 



" How many cases of 24 sections does your 

 best hand clean in a day?" And, also, " What 

 should be an average iluy's work for an aivr- 

 age hand .^" etc. 



Now, permit me to say that I underscored 

 the your and also average day's work and aver- 

 age hand so &s lo a&W your attention to these 

 words. Of course, it can not be either pleas- 

 ant or interesting to go into a longer con- 



troversy about thi^ matter, and I think neither 

 you nor I are of ih. ■ hair-splitting " variety. 

 I will then admit ilmt when I tirst read these 

 questions, and yi.ur answers to them that I 

 had not paid any !.{>('. -ial attention to the word 

 your. For years 1 have known very well 

 that you work wiih the T-supers, and, there- 

 fore, I should bavi- thoughtof that. The sec- 

 ond part of the query, viz — average day's 

 mark and aivru,/, hand — that's where the 

 trouble comes from, for, unfortunately, for 

 years I have not seen any T-supers in this 

 part of California, and, worse still, my apiary 

 also is furnished with the unfortunate section- 

 holder style of supers. Around here there 

 are not many genuine bee-keepers —mostly 

 " farmers who keep bees," and who still 

 work them on the "know-it-all," "rule of 

 thumb" principle, as their forefathers did it. 

 VVell, it has happened that once in a while I 

 have met, and do meet, persons who are a 

 trifle above the average "Ignoramus .Jake'' 

 class, and with whom I can have a genuine 

 " bee-talk," and it, nearly always has culmi- 

 nated in this: " Yes, it only this infernally 

 slow scraping were not therel" (I am, my- 

 self, of a mechanical turn; can work very 

 neatly in wood ami metals, and be it cranki- 

 ness, or what, I generally make all contri- 

 vances myself; and there is an extractor, 

 section-presses, foundation-fasteners, frames, 

 queen and drone traps, etc., all of my make, 

 and in use in my apiary.) 



Now, then, you will better understand that 

 my brains have been at work to rig up some- 

 thing to facilitate the scraping performance — 

 save time and labor— and when I read the an- 

 swers given by you, they stunned me. 



1. But why did you not answer that part 

 about average a tritie more to the point? For 

 instance, if you had said, " With T-supers, as 

 in my apiary. Miss E. M. Wilson cleaned — ; 

 but for section-holder supers only so-and-so 

 much should be the average," etc., would 

 not that have been the better answer? For 

 there are many bee-keepers who do not work 

 the T-super. But enough of this, and kindly 

 excuse my frankness about the matter. 



2. I am, unfortunately for myself, the happy 

 (?) owner of an apiary of about 60 colonies, 

 present count (lost only 4 colonies during the 

 terrible spell of 3 weeks' rain, snow, and ice 

 that has visited us), all with the section- 

 holder supers, and a good number of them 

 there are. If the T-super, as you advocate 

 and work it, allows such wholesale scraping 

 and cleaning of sections — well, that one item 

 alone would be an inducement for me to 

 change to the T-super. But, last year was a 

 sad failure for us all, and 1, like many of the 

 crowd, am " in it," with lots of material, but 

 a rather small amount of cash at my com- 

 mand. How can I effect a change in a ra- 

 tional and economical way? and when and 

 how should i proceed? 



3. Are queen-excluding zincs absolutely 

 necessary for T-supers? 



4. Could I use the supers on hand? 



5. What are the dimensions of the supers 

 (tight) as you use them by preference? 



6. If I can find the answers to these (and 

 other) questions in your book of "Forty 

 Years Among the Bees," please let my know, 

 and I will procure it at once. California. 



Answers. — 1. I am painfully aware that I 

 do not always make entirely satisfactory 

 work in replying to questions. Sometimes it 

 is diflicult to understand just what is asked 

 for. Sometimes I may not fully understand 

 the conditions attendingthe question. Some- 

 times I don't know enough to answer cor- 

 rectly. Yet with all these limitations it is 

 my constant effort to try to put myself in the 

 place of the questioner and answer the spirit 

 of his question. 



It I understand you correctly, you think it 

 would have been more to the point if I had 

 answered about sen ions taken from section- 

 holders. Yes, mori' to i/omc point, but would 

 it have been to il:e point for "Colorado!" 

 Please remember that besides section-holders 

 and T-supers thti\ are othersurplus arrange- 

 ments, and if 1 ii.,'l answered about section- 

 holders, then I <'u:;Lit to have answered about 

 wide frames, and other kinds. But "Colo- 



rado" didn't ask about any of these, and 

 please remerrjber that I was trying to answer 

 "Colorado" and not some one else. As 

 nearly as I understood It, I tried to answer 

 the letter and the spirit of his question, and 

 there was nottiing to inilcate that he wanted 

 to know about section-holders. Perhaps sec- 

 tionhoders are not so universally in use as 

 you may suppose, and perhaps there are more 

 T-supers than you suppose. T-supers are in 

 use in Colorado to a considerable extent— per- 

 haps to as large an extent as section-holders. 

 At any rate, tnat was what I understood him 

 to be asking about, and what you understand 

 him to be akiiig about in the first part of his 

 question, and I do not yet see that he re- 

 ferred to anything else in the second part. 



If it had occurred to me thatany one would 

 misunderstand, it would have been better to 

 have si)ecified that my answer was referring 

 to T-supers; but I do not think it would have 

 been the better answer to have answered some 

 other question that some one else might have 

 asked, for if I should follow that plan there 

 would be hardly any end to answering each 

 question. Besides, the way is always open 

 for any one who wishes answers to those 

 other questions to ask them. 



I think, although I can not be entirely sure, 

 that the question you want answered is some- 

 thing like this: 



" What would be an average day's work for 

 an average hand in cleaning such sections as 

 I have, and in the conditions that I have?" 



Frankly, I don't know the answer to that 

 question. Sections in section-holders are not 

 all alike, but I don't think that would make 

 much difference. Conditions may be very 

 different in your place from what they are 

 here, you not having the cool weather we 

 have. That might make a very big difference. 

 When it is cool enough for propolis to be 

 brittle, it separates from the wood readily. 

 When warm and soft, instead of coming off 

 easily, each stroke seems to drive some of the 

 glue into the wood. It is impossible to say 

 just how much difference this would make, 

 but from what you have heretofore said it 

 would be nothing strange if it would take five 

 times as long, or longer. I wonder if you 

 couldn't make a difference by taking some 

 special means to cool off your sections, at 

 least taking them in the coolest part of the 

 day. 



We have never done enough at cleaning 

 sections in section-holders here to say what a 

 day's work should be, but when we used 

 wide frames 1000 sections was not too much 

 for a day's work. Probably section-holders 

 would be much the same. 



2. I would hardly advise going too fast in 

 the matter of changing to T-supers. While 

 some think them the best, others think them 

 the worst. Better make a trial on a small 

 scale till you know how you like them. 1 am 

 just a little afraid that you have an exagger- 

 ated idea of the gain to be had in the matter 

 of cleaning sections by using T-supers, and I 

 doubt whether that alone would warrant your 

 changing. It will be a simple matter to make 

 a few of them — possibly some of your old 

 supers can be changed— and you can get the 

 T-tins from supply-dealers for about a cent 

 apiece. 



3. I doubt that excluders are necessary with 

 any kind of section supers. Certainly, I've 

 never used them with T-supers. But it is 

 probably important that the sections be filled 

 with foundation if the queen is not wanted in 

 them. For if small starters are used then you 

 may expect the queen to go up to lay in the 

 drone-comb that will be sure to be built there. 



4. It is entirely possible. I had a lot of 

 Heddon supers that I changed into T-supers. 



5. My supers measure inside l"', inches 

 long, 121s inches wide, and 4'5s inches deep. 

 Being made of Jg stuff, of course that makes 

 the outside measure 191^ and ISJ^'. They are 

 for S-frame hives, and take sections 414x4}^, 

 no matter what the, width of the section, for 

 different widths can be used in the same super, 

 and, for that matter, at the same time. Mine 

 were made years ago, when 3, was generally 

 accepted as a bee space. If 1 were having 

 them made again, I would have them 1-16 or 

 'rs inch shallower. But I should want to be 



