July, 1907. 



American Hee Journal 



first, and then should shrink to 4^i, there 

 would be trouble. 



The follower is I7j4x4'4x5-i6, of 

 course with places cut for the T-tins. 



The super springs can be bought of 

 any dealer in bee-supplies, costing a 

 cent apiece, or about 75 cents a hundred. 

 At first we used 2 to each super ; but 

 now use only one, and it works all 

 right. The spring is used loose, thrust 

 down somewhat diagonally, between the 

 side of the super and the follower, at 

 the middle. 



Yes, the T-tins are 12 inches long. 



The following description of the su- 

 per-filler is taken from Dr. Miller's 

 "Forty Years among the Bees," page 

 148: 



Super-Filler. 



I'll tell you how to make a super- 

 filler. Take a board as large as the out- 

 side dimensions of your super or larger. 

 (The one in Fig. I is a board hive- 

 cover.) Nail a cleat on one end of the 

 board, and another cleat on one side, 

 as in the picture. These cleats may be 

 J/^ by J4 inch, but the dimensions are not 

 important. Now put a super on the 

 board, shoving one corner snug up in the 

 corner made by the cleats. With a lead- 

 pencil, mark on the board, on the in- 

 side of the super, where the sides of 

 the super come. Put eight sections in 

 the super, four on each side, with the 

 three T-tins in their proper places. With 

 a pencil rule across the board each side 

 of each T-tin, so as to show where the 

 T-tins come. Now take off the super 

 and its contents, and get six strips, each 



11^ inches long and 



inch square. 



Nail these on as shown in the picture, 

 so as to keep at equal distances from 

 the pencil-mark of the super at each 

 side, and about a fourth of an inch 



FK;. 2. -PUTTING FOUNDATION IN 

 SECTIONS. 



distant from the marks made for the T- 

 tins. The super-filler is now com- 

 plete. 



It stands at a convenient height at the 

 right-hand side of the one who operates 

 the Darsy fastener, with the side-cleat 

 at the farther side (See Fig. 2). A su- 

 per is placed on it with one corner of 

 the super tight against the angle made 

 by the cleats; but no T-tin is yet put 

 in the super. As the sections come from 

 the fastener they are placed in the su- 

 per at the end toward the back of the 

 operator. When the first row of six is 

 completed, the T-tin is slipped under 

 these sections into its proper place. 

 In like manner a second row of 

 sections and a T - tin ; then a third 

 row and a T-tin, and lastly the fourth 

 row. Then without rising, the operator 

 lifts this filled super to one side and gets 

 an emtpy one. 



Bees Capture a New Home 



"Long Be.\ch, C.^lif., April 25. — Sev- 

 eral weeks ago Mr. and Mrs. Clarence 

 Carney furnished a new home they had 

 built in Belmont Heights, but, having 

 paid the rent on another house, re- 

 mained in tlie latter until today, when 

 they delivered up the keys and started 



off with visions of a happy time in their 

 own home. 



"When they unlocked the front door 

 they were startled by thousands of busy 

 honey-bees, swarming in every nook and 

 corner of the house, which were so an- 

 gry at the intrusion that they literally 

 drove Mr. and Mrs. Carney from the 

 house by a combined assault. 



"Mrs. Carney sat on the doorstep and 

 laughed, while her husband made a 

 trip to town for brimstone, which he 

 threw, burning, into the house, but with 

 little effect, and Mr. and J^Irs. Carney 

 will sleep downtown tonight and seek 

 to allay numerous severe stings received 

 ir» the day's encounter." 



Isn't it a pity that all reporters are not 

 obliged to take a preparatory course in 

 bee-keeping to fit them to give correct 

 reports in regard to bee-items? The 

 above item may have occurred exactly 

 as reported, and it may not. In any 

 case, it shows the superiority of the 

 feminine mind, as Mrs. Carney was 

 able to sit on the step and laugh, while 

 her liege lord threw burning brimstone 

 into the house. We are not told how 

 long it took the house to burn down, 

 nor the amount of insurance. 



dr. /lasg^^ 



$]M 



The "Old Reliable " as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



'LvM.\N Method of Swarm Control. 



We should await with interest the re- 

 ports on the Lyman method of swarm 

 ' control. It may be characterized as a 

 self-acting artificial swarmer which 

 operates gradually instead of suddenly. 

 My impression is that the out-and-out 

 shaken swarm (in some of its forms) 

 will eventually give more general sat- 

 isfaction. Placing a great lot of young 

 brood where man}- bees go out and few 

 or none come in doesn't look to be the 

 proper thing. The method evidently has 

 this in its favor, however, that it ob- 

 viates the desertions which some "shook" 

 swarmers have run against so badly. If 

 we try to save time to the utmost, and 

 judge from outside appearances, we may 

 shake a swarm which had no intention 

 of swarming at all — and so do lots of 

 needless mischief. Same of the Lyman 

 method. In both there would be a 

 queen to be reared from the start under 

 improper and bad conditions. Which 

 would be the worse I hardly know. On 

 the whole, I think I'd sooner trust the 

 queen from a hive with a natural en- 

 trance, even if the bees were too few 

 and nearly all young. Page 411. 



Detecting a Honey-Flow — Putting on 

 E.XTRA Supers. 

 Doolittle's way of seeing if a honey- 

 flow is on is fresh enough to speak 



about. With the sun low, as it is at 4 

 o'clock, get your head near the ground 

 and protected from direct rays, view the 

 incoming bees thus, looking nearly to- 

 ward the sun, but not quite, and those 

 carrying loads of honey will have a 

 translucent look, while the others look 

 opaque. I'll own up that I never tried 

 this, but I have no doubt that it would 

 work. Very skittish new beginners 

 might dislike to e.xpose unprotected 

 heads so near to a stream of bees. 



That's an honest confession Mr. D. 

 makes also. While he practiced the or- 

 thodox way of lifting a super to put 

 an empty super under he regularly had 

 from one-third to one-half of his sec- 

 tions unfinished. The unfinished ones 

 are from 4 to 8 out of 100 now that he 

 always puts the empty super above. This 

 list is not far from my own results, 

 using the double-deck wide-frame and 

 no tiering up at all. Page 431. 



"Wheelbarrowing" Colonies. 



Nothing succeeds like success. F. L. 

 Day succeeds at trotting his hives 25 

 rods on a common wheelbarrow, and 

 gets them on the summer stands all 

 right, and before they wake up. 'Spects 

 if they were roaring and already waked 

 up. and more than waked up, when he 

 started with them the outcome might 

 be different. Page 432. 



