4fi8 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



can't you sliow them their use in a few 

 minutes, so they will all slip out clean and 

 whole, without any cutting or mashing? 

 Then they could put the brood-combs back 

 again, thus avoiding the destruction of the 

 immature bees.— In regard to the matter of 

 robbing, if the colonies were all populous — 

 that is, if the size of the hive were propor- 

 tionate to the size of the colony, I am not 

 sure but that the bees would defend them- 

 selves fiom robbers, may be as well as with 

 small entrances. I remember eating honey 

 when I was a child, that I was told came 

 from Cuba ; and it seems to me I should 

 like some more of that same kind of honey 

 now. It gave one a hint of pine-apples and 

 bananas, or a flavor that one might readily 

 imagine belonged to tropical regions and 

 tropical flowers. 



THE OPEN-SIDE SECTION. 



STKONG TESTIMONY IN THEIR FAVOR. 



■ E. KOOT:— You may put me down as decid- 

 edly in favor of the open-side sections. 

 Nearly all the honey I g-ot last year was in 

 that style of section, and it was certainly 

 as nice as any tjing I ever saw in sections. 

 I believe the passageway at the sides secures a bet- 

 ter filled and more firmly fastened comb than we 

 shall ever have in the old style of section. My sec- 

 tions were filled full at the sides; and to break a 

 comb out you would have to break it all to pieces. 

 This would certainly be a great advantage in ship- 

 ping—enough advantage to far outweigh the fan- 

 cied difficulties to be met in using such sections. 

 The Mr. Robertson mentioned in the Review must 

 have used a thin section without separators. If 

 the slots in such sections are cut deep enough to 

 make a half-inch opening at the sides, I can readily 

 understand his difficulty. Afs-inch section with 

 side slots J4 inch deep, used with separators, has 

 given me the most beautiful comb honey I have 

 ever seen, and not a single section was built over 

 at the sides. But 1 do not think this is the section 

 for your T super. There will be too much propolis 

 crowded into the crack between the sides of the 

 sections, made by the folded T tin between. If the 

 fold in the tin is made perfectly flat it may do rea- 

 sonably well; but there will be more propolis than 

 is desirable, even then. The wide frame holding 

 one tier of sections, with a wood separator as wide 

 at the ends as the outside depth of the frames, and 

 414 inches wide the remainder of its length, with 

 vertical slots as you recently illustrated in Glean- 

 ings, page 267, is a perfect arrangement for the 

 open-side section. Clamp these together in any 

 manner you like best, and the new style of section 

 is no more trouble than any other style. The one 

 idea I wish to keep to the front is, that this section 

 is more apt to be filled full and fastened ail around. 

 Perhaps the season favored me last year; but I 

 shall know more about it next September. 

 Audubon, Iowa, May 31, 1888. Z. T. Hawk. 



Friend II., you have given us just the 

 kind of information we want. Telling us 

 what you have succeeded in doing is worth 

 ever so much more than theories or sugges- 

 tions. 



SWARMING AND ITS ATTENDANT 

 CLUSTERING. 



VARIOUS DEVICES FOR SECURING AND HIVING 

 SWARMS. 



Wp LMOST every bee-keeper has some ar- 

 ^Ib) rangement which he uses for secur- 

 jRi? ing swarms, and which he likes best. 

 -^^ A few are content to make use of any 

 common implement, such as can be 

 found " around home ;"to wit, a large milk- 

 pan, a clothes-basket, a dry-goods box, a 

 large cloth, etc. The majority, of a more 

 inventive turn of mind, prefer something of 

 their own " get up.'' Some of these devices 

 are very ingenious, and eminently success- 

 ful in the hands of the originators, and prob- 

 ably will be no less successful in the hands 

 of others. In continuation of last issue we 

 illustrate two or three more. 

 The accompanying engraving represents 

 an arrangement devised by 

 Mr. S. W, Morrison, of Ox- 

 ford, Pa. lie describes it in 

 liis own language as follows : 



It is made of tvvo pieces of pine, 

 16 ft. long, 3X31/^ inches. One side 

 of each is made flat, and a groove 

 for a rope is made in the center of 

 each, from top to bottom. The oth- 

 er side of each pole is rounded. At 

 3 is a pulley ; set in at 1 is a narrow 

 band of iron encircling the other 

 pole; at 3 is another; at 4 is a ring 

 staple on which a peach-basket is 

 tied. The rope is fastened at 1, and 

 runs over pulley at 3. You see the 

 rest. A swarm 35 feet above the 

 ground can be reached by it, and a 

 little jar under the cluster secures 

 the bees in the basket. It is very 

 easily made, inexpensive, and I am 

 sure there can be none better. I 

 have used it two seasons very many 

 times. S. vv. Morrison, M. D. 

 Oxford, Pa. 



There is considerable ma- 

 chinery about this device ; but 

 in some localities, in the hands 

 of certain bee-keepers it will 

 no doubt prove quite an assis- 

 tant. Observe that Mr. Mor- 

 rison says a swarm can be 

 reached 80 feet from the 

 ground. No other device with 

 which we are acquainted will 

 secure a swarm that distance, 

 without climbing. With this 

 the apiarist is supposed to 

 stand directly beneath the 

 swarm. By drawing on the rope, 

 at o, the peach-basket can be 

 elevated to the desired height. 

 Where the swarm is so situated as to per- 

 mit jarring it right in the mouth of the bas- 

 ket, perhaps the position of the basket is 

 about right. Sometimes a swarm will refuse 

 to enter the open mouth of a basket ; but if 

 the same be inverted the bees will crawl 

 through the splints. During swarmmg 

 times, bees seem to be partial to cavities 

 perforated by holes. This is one of the pe- 

 culiar features of the Shepard swarming- 



