1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



443 



not as apt to dwindle in the spring. In your 

 case I should see that the bees have sufficient 

 food. I should also contract the brood-nest 

 and take out the frames, they can not 

 conveniently cover, and give them a good 

 chaif packing around and above the brood- 

 nest. If the clusters are very small I would 

 unite them with the other stronger colony. 



MAKING A DOUBLE WALLED HIVE OUT OF A SINGLE- 

 WALLED HIVE. 



There is no doubt, 1 suppose, that bees winter 

 much better in a double-walled hive than in a single 

 hive. The difference, it seems to me, is about as a 

 family living in a house that is not plastered or 

 ceiled. I am using the 10-frame Gallup hive. By 

 usiug 9 frames made with 1 '^i end-bars I can hang my 

 frames in, close them up together, put a division- 

 board at each end, and wedge them up on the 

 frames, and I have a complete double wall, and my 

 frames all straight and equally divided. Please 

 give your opinion of this idea. W. H. Kitter. 



Springfield, Mo., April 16, 1888. 



The plan you speak of, of taking out one 

 or more frames and putting on each side of 

 the brood-nest a chaff division-board, has 

 been practiced a good many years past ; and 

 while the chaff on each side of the brood- 

 nest is better than the single-walled hive 

 alone, it by no means is as good as the regu- 

 lar chaff-hive ; but in your locality I should 

 think it would do about as well. See " Divi- 

 sion-boards," also '• Wintering," in AB C. 



WHAT CONSTITUTES A "STANDARD" FRAME? 



I shall be obliged if you will answer the follow- 

 ing: One is often advised, in bee-publications, to 

 adopt some one of the " standard " frames. 1. 

 Which are the standard frames? 3. What has made 

 them such? L. O. Quiglev. 



Goshen, N. Y., Jan. 9, 1888. 



Friend Q., we do not quite see why you 

 ask the questions in the way you do. Our 

 price list gives diagrams and dimensions of 

 the frames mostly in use. Almost every 

 neighborhood furnishes more or less people 

 who have been thoughtless enough to start 

 bee-keeping with a frame of their own- 

 perhaps different in size from that which 

 anybody else has ever used. When they be- 

 gin to buy or sell bees or hives, then trouble 

 comes. One of our neighbors did this very 

 thing ; but when he had an order for a large 

 lot of bees, which he could not fill unless 

 they were transferred into standard frames, 

 it cost him more than one hundred dollars 

 to do the transferring ; whereas, had he 

 started in the first place with the standard 

 L. frame that is used. I should say, by more 

 than three-fourths of the bee-keepers of the 

 U. S., he would have saved all this expense. 

 In regard to your second question, the fact 

 I have just given is what made them stan- 

 dard ; that is, because the world is already 

 started with frames of exact dimensions. 



hiving swabms in new hives on old stands 



OR ON empty frames— which ? 



Would it be advisable to hive the new swarm in a 

 Simplicity hive, with seven wired frames of fdn., 

 and one wide frame of sections to fill out the brood- 

 chamber with slatted wood-zinc honey-board, and 

 all the sections taken from the old colony and put 

 on the new swarm, the new hive to be set in place 



of the old colony, all the bees that can be spared 

 from the old colony to be shaken from the combs 

 in front of new swarm, leaving only enough to care 

 for the brood, and setting the old colony aside as of 

 no further use for comb honey that season? Or 

 would it be better to put five or six empty frames 

 with foundation starters in new hive, with one or 

 two frames of brood from the old colony, and wide 

 frame of sections to fill out the brood-chamber? 

 Would I get as much comb honey from the new 

 swarm, treated in this way, as from the old colony 

 and swarm together? Or is there a better way of 

 working for comb honey? John Ma.ior. 



Cokeville, Pa., Mar. 12, 1888. 



Friend M., your question is too complicat- 

 ed to admit of a decided answer one way or 

 the other ; but as nearly as I can get at it, I 

 don"t think there would be very much dif- 

 ference between the methods you give. I 

 think you will get more honey by letting 

 tlie old swarm and the new one both store. 

 But the season must be taken into consider- 

 ation somewhat, I presume. 



HEMP as a honey-plant. 



Friend Rout:— Among all of the bee-literature, I 

 have never noticed any thing about hemp and its 

 bloom. As the planting season is just at hand, I 

 would state that, last season, we had about a score 

 or so of hemp stalks growing close to the house. A 

 number of them grew as high as the porch ceiling, 

 which was twelve feet, with expansive branches. 

 During a number of weeks, early every morning 

 and continuing until the middle of the day, these 

 hemp stalks would resound with the hum of bees. 

 It was like the hum of a flying swarm. Every twig 

 had one bee or more. Whether it was honey or 

 pollen or both, I know not. It lasted for weeks, 

 and the busy bee had a time of it on the hemp. 

 Here I have the bees among half a dozen apple- 

 trees, with half an acre to cultivate. All around 

 next the fence I intend to plant hemp. Anywhere 

 that a seed is dropped and a chance given, it will 

 grow and flourish. J. C.\dwallader. 



North Vernon, Ind., Apr. 7, 1888. 



Friend C, one of our neighbors, years ago, 

 sowed a piece of hemp expressly for his 

 bees ; and although it grew ten or twelve 

 feet high, and was covered with bloom, not 

 a bee deigned to give it even a passing no- 

 tice. He felt a good deal disgusted until 

 one day, after a little shower, imagine his 

 surprise to see that piece of hemp just roar- 

 ing and booming with bees. I believe he 

 thought they gathered pollen only from it ; 

 but perhaps he was mistaken. As hemp 

 has a market value, both in the seeds and 

 in the stalks, we can afford to raise it as a 

 honey-plant— that is, if it yields any honey. 

 Who can tell us more about it V Have we 

 a bee-man located anywhere near large 

 fields of hemp ? There surely must be quite 

 extensive fields of it to supply the seed for 

 commerce and the fiber for rope. 



miller's feeder, and how he likes it after 

 . having tried it. 

 Frifud Enicst:— After making a very thorough 

 trial of the feeder I described in Gleanings (I fed 

 38(10 lbs. of sugar with it), and after making all al- 

 lowance for my prejudice in its favor, I thitik if 

 you try It you will like it better than butter-dishep. 



