338 



April 18, 1907 



American Hee ^Fournal 



right, and then some; but I will confess that 

 I do not try to take off the stains. I have 

 found that a great deal of the stains on my 

 sections penetrate consideiably into the wood, 

 and 60 I content myself with making them 

 smooth and unsticliy. Missouri. 



Answers. — I am glad of the prelude, for it 

 gives me a better idea of just what you want 

 answered. 



1. I think you have an idea that I credit 

 to the T-super more than I actually do give it 

 credit for in the way of shortening the work 

 of cleaning sections. I don't for a minute 

 think it makes all the difference between 

 cleaning 2000 and 500 or more. The most 

 Important particular is the opportunity of 

 handling the sections in a block. If I think 

 the next 9 answers do not bring that out 

 clearly, I'll return to it in the 11th question. 



2. Yes, and no. Depends upon what you 

 mean by the question. One of the beauties 

 of a T-super is that it adapts itself to a sec- 

 tion of any kind. Indeed, you can use sec- 

 tions of 6 different widths in the same T- 

 super at the same time. Can you do that 

 with any other kind of super? I have used 

 in the same T-super at the same time plain 

 sections and bee-way sections, plain sawed 

 separators and fences. If that's what you 

 mean by the question, then my answer is yes; 

 and I may say that the T-super used with 

 plain sections and fences gives the same ad- 

 vantage over other supers, as when used with 

 the bee-way sections and plain separators. 

 But if you mean to ask whether I can work as 

 rapidly with a Tsuper filled with plain as 

 with bee-way sections, my answer is no. I 

 can't say about others, but in this locality it's 

 slower work taking out fences than plain 

 separators, and slower work cleaning plain 

 sections than bee-way sections. 



3. I tried them when they first came out, 

 many years ago, and at this distance I can 

 not give particulars, but I did not find ad- 

 vantage enough in them to adopt them. 



4. It is not eaey to answer without the op- 

 portunity to try the two side by side; but it 

 may be said in general that there ought to be 

 very little difference in emptying two supers 

 if the entire contents of each super comes out 

 in a mass. 



5. Yes. Even if a T-tin were no more 

 easily removed, there are only 3 in a super. 



6. Yes. A knife will slice right through at 

 one stroke between the sections and the 

 sawed separators. With fences you must 

 hesitate at each post or you'll cut into the 

 post. Whether you have plain separators or 

 fences, it's easier to get them out of sections 

 from a T-super than from any other super 

 that allows the sections to be close together 

 endwise. For in the T-super the sections are 

 about 'i, inch apart endwise, and when at the 

 proper temperature you can strike with the 

 ball of each hand at the two ends of a row of 

 4 sections, and the single stroke will loosen 

 all 4 sections from the fence. That trick Is 

 in constant use in this locality, and I think 

 it's possible only with a T-super. 



7. One ought to scrape about as well as the 

 other, provided there be a perfect adjustment. 

 But in clamping together a superful, it would 

 be nothing strange to find a good many places 

 where one section was 1-16 inch or more 

 higher than its next neighbor where the two 

 joined; this would make more trouble with 

 the plain than with the bee-space sections. 

 Bee-glue has the better chance to fall through 

 the bee-spaces, but in this locality that is not 

 a serious trouble. 



S. It doesn't stick, because it isn't sticky. 

 It's merely dry powder or larger pieces of en- 

 tirely unsticky glue. 



9. We don't have anv trouble of that sort. 

 The secret of it is that we don't work with 

 sticky propolis, and I don't believe you need 

 to either, if you wait till it's cool enough to 

 be brittle. 



10. If there be honey on a section it will be 

 on the top. If there is any considerable 

 quantity it is first lifted off by sliding under 

 it a case-knife and scraping the honey from 

 the knife into a dish. Where there isn't 

 enough to scrape up thus, or after it has been 



scraped up, a cloth quite wet mops off the 

 honey, and a drier cloth wipes it off. 



11. This is the hardest of all to answer, but 

 I'll not attempt to answer all I can think of. 

 I feel like first asking you a question : Don't 

 you think you ought to be a bit ashamed to 

 shirk off upon the other fellow the task of 

 asking all your questions heretofore? Never 

 mind about that, but let's go back to the first 

 question. You may possibly not have caught 

 the idea from what has been said that when a 

 superful of sections is emptied out, all you 

 have to do is to lift off 3 T-tins, and you have 

 full chance at the whole top and bottom of the 

 superful, and when you have the tops and 

 bottoms of the seclions cleaned you have the 

 job pretty much done. If there is any other 

 super with which that can be done, it does not 

 now occur to me. You are quite right that 

 you can assemble in the same way the sec- 

 tions from any super; but you must first take 

 them apart and then put them together again. 

 The T-super saves this. 



When you say you take out 4 sections at a 

 time and then get the bees off, I can't help 

 wondering whether you would not get along 

 a good deal faster to take off the whole super, 

 and after piling up 10 or 12 supers allow the 

 bees to get out of their own accord. 



I don't know whether there may beany- 

 thing in your circumstances to oblige you to 

 clean sections while the glue is soft, but I 

 feel pretty sure you would get along twice as 

 fast if you would do the work when the glue 

 is brittle. The soft glue falling on the face 

 of a section and sticking there is a thing that 

 never occurs here, and it's ever so much easier 

 to scrape off dry, brittle glue than the sticky 

 stuff. 



Now after all I've said in favor of the T- 

 super, I advise you to go slow and try it on a 

 small scale before you think of investing 

 much in that direction 





t^i':^&<lf-iS^-»"' 



^is^ 



Good PFOspeets for Honey 



My bees have wintered very well and are at 

 present very busy gathering pollen and maple 

 sap, but no flowers are yet to be seen. The 

 thermometer was up to SO degrees above zero 

 in the shade for nearly 4 days in March, when 

 a sudden change came and the thermometer 

 went down to nearly zero. April started in 

 pretty cool, but it is getting warmer every 

 day, with a little rain. Everything is getting 

 green up here, and prospects are for a good 

 honey-year. B. F. Schmidt. 



North Buena Vista, Iowa, April 4. 



Unfavorable Weather 



I took my bees out of the cellar April 3. af- 

 ter a confinement of 4 months. I found 3 col- 

 onies dead out ol 55. The weather since then 

 has been quite cold, cloudy and windy. To- 

 day it is freezing, with a high northwest 

 wind, and "spitting" some snow. It is rather 

 unfavorable weather for bees or farm work. 



Kiceville, Iowa, April 8. A. F. Foote. 



Ventilation in Wintering Bees 



My bees swarmed very little last year, and 

 gave me very little surplus. As it was cold 

 and wet the bees did not build up in time for 

 the clover. They used most of the honey for 

 brood-rearing, but they went into winter- 

 quarters in good condition. I dug them out 

 of 4 feet of snow on March 13, and they had a 

 good flight, so I think they will come out all 

 right. 



I read a good deal in the American Bee 

 Journal about ventilation in out-door winter- 

 ing. In moving my bees into the winter 

 boxes, I close the entrance with a piece of tin 



with 5 small holes, so small that a bee can not 

 get its head through. In putting the bees 

 into winter quarters a couple of years ago, I 

 missed taking one of the tins out, and they 

 were closed up 5 months. When 1 came to 

 take them out I found the tin there. I 

 thought surely they would be dead, but when 

 I opened them I found they had wintered the 

 best of any in the yard. So much for ventila- 

 tion. I may say that they had a little upward 

 ventilation, as had all the rest. 

 Clarksburg, Oat. Edward Knoll. 



FiFst Spring Pollen Record 



The weather is warm. I have some losses 

 of bees, but not heavy except in 2 groups 

 numbering 14 colonies, which I let go into the 

 winter in a quite unusual way. 



The first pollen was brought in yesterday. 

 The following is the first pollen-gathering- 

 record for 28 springs; 



1880... 

 1881... 

 188'3... 

 1883... 

 1884... 

 1885... 

 1886... 

 1887... 

 1888... 

 1889... 

 1S90... 

 1891... 

 1892... 

 1893... 



March 30 

 April 14 

 March 2 

 April 10 

 March "27 

 April '20 

 April 12 

 April 9 

 April 5 

 March 22 

 April 8 

 .April 2 

 Aprils 

 .March 31 



1894. 

 1895. 

 1896. 

 1897. 

 1898. 

 1899. 

 1900. 

 1901. 

 1902. 

 1903. 

 1904. 

 1905. 

 1906. 

 1907. 



..March 17 

 ..April 

 ..April 11 

 ..April 18 

 ..March 21 

 ..April 12 

 . .April? 

 .. (?) 

 ..March 23 

 . . March 17 

 .. (?) 

 . . March 26 



.. (?) 

 ..March 26 



Of the first 13 there were only 4 in March ; 

 the last 13 have 7 in March. So the notion 

 that the springs are Uter now don't amount 

 to much. E, E. Hasty. 



Toledo, Ohio, March 27. 



Rearing and Mating Queens 



Last season with one colony I reared 47 

 queens in 90 days. This colony builtallthe 

 cells, nurstd all the cells till the queens were 

 hatched, and nursed all the young queens till 

 they were mated with the drones. I tested a 

 good many queens and 1 made an increase of 

 3 colonies from this colony, and this spring 

 the colony is one of my best. I am getting 

 this colony ready now to rear queens this 

 season. 



If 1 would have the time in August and 

 September to rear queens, I could rear 100 

 queens with a single colony in only one 

 season, and the colony would do all the 

 work. With my method 1 need not make nu- 

 cleus colonies, nor break up a colony. With 

 this method of rearing queens you can find 

 out how many queens will meet more than 

 one drone. The last lot of queens I reared 

 last season I watched closely to see how many 

 queens would meet more than one drone, and 

 out of 11 queens 6 queens met 2 drones each. 

 I had one queen that met 3 drones. 



The 3 queens I received as premiums last 

 July are flue queens, and are better than I ex- 

 pected to get. The 3 queens breed nice bees. 

 I am so well pleased with one of the queens 

 that I will use her as a breeder this season. 

 She is leather-colored, and her bees are the 

 same, and are uniform in bands. 



Jacob F. Hershet. 



Lancaster Co., Fa., April 8. 



Alsike for Bee-Pasturage 



I wish to answer a question asked last 

 spring about this lime in Gleanings. The 

 questioner lived in Iowa, and asked the ques- 

 tion: •' What shall we plant or sow for bee- 

 pasturage?" The same answer that would 

 be true then is true now. There is nothing 

 better than alsike or S wedish clover. It makes 

 as fine honey as white clover or as sweet 

 clover. And no other clover makes as fine 

 hay for any kind of stock as alsike. All kinds 

 of stock like it, and will eat all of the stems 

 up. Then the second crop comes in good 

 play for fall honey. 



We sow nothing in the clover family but 



