1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



263 



No. 4. brick on front, at 4.5°. " Quocn aceopt- 

 «'d.'" or "CpII liatcli(>d." 



No. ."). parallel on front. "Swarmed." 



No. <i. parallel on edge or front. "•Queen- 

 cells." 



No. 7, brick on end. " Immediate attention: 

 needs feed: take honey: fertile workers." 



No. 8. edge across rear of hive. "" Neither (pieen 

 nor brood." 



Besides this, on one corner of the lid. in small 

 letters. I keep such a record as this: •"Tested 

 queen. June. 181)0." ••Swarmed June 1, 'iKJ."" 

 ••Removed queen May 10. '[M." " Larva given. 

 May 28. "90." " Give i (it. syrup." Each season 

 these lids are freshly painted, and a new record 

 begun: but the age of the queen is always pre- 

 served. 



It is scarcely necessary to give any system of 

 using the brick as a sign, only to illustrate the 

 method: for if any one will only begin by using 

 a brick in one position to indicate one thing, all 

 the system needs to indicate every thing the 

 bee-ke(^per desires will follow in tuiii. 



CARNIOI,.\XS. 



I am not now and do not e.xpect again to be 

 in the queen-rearing business. Hnving also 

 sold my entire apiary of Carniolans at Oxford. 

 Pa.. I can now give my opinion of Carniolans 

 as a disinterested person: The only fault that 

 has been urged against them with any show of 

 reason at all is. that they swarm too much. 

 Well, the same has been ciiai'ged to every other 

 race with j\ist as good reason, as 1 well know 

 from experience. I am very sure it is a more 

 prolific race, and they are better honey-gath- 

 erers. Give a colony twenty, or. better, thirty 

 brood-combs in a Simplicity hive alxiut the 

 middle of Api'il. and on th(> lii"st of July extract 

 all. and compai'e with any otiiei' race as to hon- 

 ey gathered: and if the start was fair, the jji'od- 

 uct of the Carniolans will be ahead. 



S. W. MoKKisox. 



Coloi'ado Springs, Col.. Feb. (>. 



DAYTON'S ftUEEN-RESTEICTOR, AGAIN. 



DAYTOX S KEPLY. 



If I remember correctly. I sent to yon two ar- 

 ticles — one upon the queen-restrictor, and the 

 other upon contraction alone. You inibli-^hed 

 my article on conti'action. gave the illustration 

 K)f tlip restrictoi". and. in the foot-notes, wi'ote 

 in reference to the I'estrictor fi'om a contraction 

 view, and not from a restrictor view, as you 

 may see from my references. What my articl(> 

 •said about contraction doesn't do justice to the 

 restrictor. 



You say (in foot-notes, p. H)8), '"It is consid- 

 erable of an art to manage so as to make con- 

 traction a real benetit." which I agree to: but I 

 think that, what is art or science now, will, iiy 

 use and i)ractice, become oi"dinary, and not be 

 ■deemed as extraordinary. The (^arlier the study 

 is begun, the sooner learned. 



You say. ""An unlimited capacity is (piite apt 

 to discotuagp. if not prevent, all swarming." 



You dill not notice that the restrictor is pi'o- 

 vided with a revei"sing device wherewith the 

 ■queen-cells may be inverted to pi"event swarm- 

 ing by their being destroyed ht'foi'e they are 

 mature. My restrictor is leversed th(> same as 

 your single combs are reversed — the live combs 

 being handled (and even may be considered) as 

 ■one comb. Forty colonies may be thus manip- 

 ulated in the space of one hour. If the frames 

 were inverted singly it would require four hours 

 for forty hives. 



You ask whether my restrictor 'Ms not a good 

 deal of work." You have the (lueen-cells, 



queen, etc.. all in a shape so as to reverse with 

 the same labor that is required to reverse one 

 single reversible frame. 



Reversion causes- as much brood to be reared 

 i\pon my live frames as is usually contained on 

 seven or eight: and this brood is mostly includ- 

 ed in the restrictor. 



You appear to think that my zincs between 

 the top. bottom, and end bars are numerous, 

 and require taking off often. AVhen the frames 

 and zinc strips ar(^ once put on they are (tlmost 

 never removed: but the sk7e .s7iccf.s- are easy of 

 manipulation, and require adjustment once 

 each year — just before and after the harvest. 

 A bee-keeper visited me a short time ago, to ex- 

 amine my restrictoi". and said: 



"AVliy. Mr. Dayton, it would be a great deal 

 of work to take oft' and put on these hoop-like 

 sti"ips of zinc often." 



I asked. ""Why would you take them off?" 



He answered. ""To find the queen." 



""What would you want the queen for".'" 



"• To clijj her wings." 



" Why clip wings'?" 



""To prevcMit her going off to the woods." 



■' How could she get out of the cage to go to 

 the woods'.' and how could bees swarm when 

 the reversion of the combs destrovs the queen- 

 cells'?" 



"I did not think to study that out. Why. 

 you would never have a swarm in the world, 

 with such an arrangement." 



Let the queen remain undipped. The re- 

 strictor will reveise (piicker than you could clip 

 a quei'u's wing, even if you have her already 

 caught. 



In the notes, the Dadants and Mr. France are 

 quoted as using unlimited space. But you for- 

 get that they are jirincipally producers of ex- 

 tracted honey — when reversion, contraction, 

 and exclusion, are more applicable in the pro- 

 duction of comb honey. Mr. O. O. Poppleton 

 was the most successful honey-producer in my 

 locality— using a 21) or .10 frame hive for extract- 

 ed honey: but when he changed to the produc- 

 tion of comb honey there was a very great 

 change in the size of his hives, to a small size. 



1 find no reason for handling brood-nests 

 frame by frame, but all tog(>ther — several frames 

 at once." This handling the frames severally, 

 by learners, is more curiosity than necessity. 



"As to Heddon hives being" less labor, it is as 

 easy to attach my sheets of zinc as it is to put 

 on the honey-boards you speak of: and my plan 

 enables me "to retain the old su*pend(>d frame 

 as ]Mr. ijangstroth gave it to its. which is the 

 fram<' in size or form that will outwear and out- 

 weigh anv other frame that will ever be invent- 

 ed. C. W. Dayton. 



Clinton, Wis., March 20. 



[The first paragraph calls for explanation. 

 By an oversight, the engraving appeared with 

 tlie conti"action article lather than witli the 

 one on queen-restrictors. As the latter did not 

 appear, and as the former involved the subject 

 of restrictors. I concluded that the cut belonged 

 to it. 



I am vei'y glad to give place to Mr. Dayton's 

 article, as altove. As it covers most of the 

 l)oints brought out in the other article, it will 

 be sulticient. I thoroughly indorse the idea 

 that he emphasizes in tlie next to the last para- 

 graph: namely, that there is "no reason for 

 handling the brood-nest frame by frame." and 

 that they sliould be handled "all togethei — 

 seveial frames at once." Mr. Heddon deserves 

 credit for emphasizing a similar plan. In a 

 majority of cases, with the Hoffman frame, and 

 also the closed-end (^)uinby. I am satisfied that 

 a satisfactory knowledge of the interior of a 

 hive may be obtained by handling three or foui" 



