474 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



[Friend G., perhaps I should defend the Sim- 

 pjicity hive, as it is a child of mine, and has 

 been many years in use among the people. I 

 know there is trouble with jjropolis when the 

 hives are tiered up. and I \\()ndered that you 

 said nothing of theVemedy that is quite exten- 

 sively in use — rubbing tallow on every part of 

 the hive where you do not want the bees to put 

 wax and propolis. It is very quickly done; and 

 when the wood becomes soaked -full of tallow, 

 as it does in warm weather, the bees " can not 

 make their putty stick,'" even if they try ever so 

 hard. I know it is often neglected, even when 

 the owner has discovered that it answers the 

 purpose fully. — 1 became satisfied, a good many 

 years ago, that the metal-cornei'od frames did 

 hot work nearly as well with strong colonies 

 devoted to the producticm of comb h(mey.] 



A. I. R. 

 ^ ^ 



A LETTER FROM NORWAY. 



A SUOGESTION IN RECiABl) TO FIXED FRAMES 

 AND MOVABI.E BOTTOMS. 



I have read Gleanings with great interest 

 for some time, and I am glad when it comes. 

 As " fixed frames " is becoming a burning ques- 

 tion, I thought you might pei'haps like to see a 

 device which some here in Norway are using. 



BOTTOM BOARD 



You will observe that you, in your factory, 

 with your perforated-zinc machine, have thou- 

 sands and thousands of these pieces of zinc, 

 which can easily be utilized as distance-keep- 

 ers. They are to be nailed, eight to each frame, 

 as in the figure. Reversible liottom-boards 

 would be a desideratum for wintering in chaff 

 hives, whei'e the Dovetailed hive and another 

 case are used. But 1 should like to give my 

 learned friend Dr. Miller a little device where- 

 by he could leave out his screws. It is certain- 

 ly true, as Ernest suggests, that there would 

 be a big hole wh(>re the screw comes in. My 

 device is shown in the figure. The wooden 

 nails (or pegs, rathei') are of hard wood. Fas- 

 tening bottom-hoards can be accomplished by 

 the use of iron wire and a nail, or two screws or 

 nails. If you use screws, then only a ring of 

 wire is necessary. I think you can fasten it 

 very closely by twisting the wire at A. When 

 once in place, only take out and put in the 

 screw. The nails C will prevent sliding. 



Engvai.d Hansen. 

 Aamlid, pr. Tvedestrand, Norway. Jan. 14. 



[Distance spacers, or keepers, can be used as 

 you suggest. The objection to all such metal 

 spacers, however, is. that they interfere with 

 the uncapping-knife. Just how far this is true, 

 we are unable to tell from experience, although 

 we suspect that it exists more in imagination 

 than in reality. While nail spacers would be 

 positively bad. any thing with a beveled sur- 

 face like your spacers might not be objectiona- 



ble at all. This thing is certain, however, that 

 wooden projections, as in the Hoffman frame, 

 can not dull a keen uncapping-knife. Hive- 

 bottoms can be fastened on as you suggest; but 

 a couple of wire nails are as good as any thing 

 that can be had. and they do not make large 

 holes either. All that is necessary when it is 

 desired to remove the bottom is to insert a 

 strong screw-driver or other implement into 

 the enti'ance and pry the body off from the 

 bottom-board. If the nails are not too long, 

 this can be done very easily. The most that is 

 desired is to keep the bottom -board on when 

 carrying to an out-apiary on a wagon, etc. 

 Your plan, however, with wooden nails and 

 twisted wire loops, might do very nicely.] 



E. R. 

 ^ I ^ 



SUCCESSFUL HATCHING OF CHICKENS OVER 

 A GOOD COLONY OF BEES. 



HOW TAVAS DONE, AND THE VAT.UE OF THE 

 EXPERIMENT. 



For the information of your correspondent, 

 page 329, allow me to say I liave hatched 

 chickens in the manner he suggests. About ten 

 years ago it occurred to me that the warmth 

 of a strong colony of bees might be utilized 

 for this purpose, and I constructed a frame 

 wide enough to hold a dozen eggs on three 

 shelves. The entire frame was covered with 

 wire cloth, and filled and placed in the cen- 

 ter of the hive, in the midst of the brood. 

 With fresh eggs none were hatched; but tak- 

 ing eggs from a hen that had set on ihem a 

 week, a very fair hatch was obtained. My ex- 

 periment convinced me that, while it would 

 not be practicable to make a perfect incubator 

 of a hiv<' of bees, they might be made to so far 

 supplement the efforts of the "old hen " that 

 one hen and four hives might hatch four broods 

 of chicks. This is a point of some vahie, as 

 bees become strong with us early in the spring, 

 at a time when we want to raise early chickens, 

 and the hens are not very prone to sit. 



FRAMES SPACED WITH TACKS IN SUCCESSFUI- 



USE FOR 15 years: not PRACTICAL 



FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 



As to fixed distances, for 15 years I have 

 used a frame spaced with large tacks on edges, 

 sides, bottom, and top. driven in far enough to 

 allow a bee-space all around. The frames rest 

 on the tacks, and are invertible; and while not 

 handy foi' the extractoi', they work very well 

 for comb honey; and as I move my bees a good 

 deal, I could not use a loose frame. 



Wildwood, Fla., May 4. A. A. James. 



[Friend J., chickens have been hatched en- 

 tirely by the heat of a cluster of bees. An ac- 

 count of it was given in oui' former volumes, 

 some years ago. It was. however, decided at 

 the time, that a sitting hen could furnish the 

 heat cheaper than a colony of bees, and I think 

 experimenters will find such to be the case at 

 pj'esent.l 



^ I ^ 



ARE QUEEN-EXCLUDERS NECESSARY FOR 

 COMB HONEY 1 



AN UNUSUAI. EXPERIENCE. 



On page 380, May 1, you state that queen - 

 excluding honey - boards are entirely un- 

 necessary in the production of comb honey. I 

 have just gone over 50 hives from which 1 left 

 the queen-excluding zinc. On the 50 stands I 

 secured 3 good sections. All of the others had 

 more or less brood. I cut out the brood, return- 

 ed the supers, and the bees have since cleared 

 out all of the remaining honey in the sections; 



