330 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



without danger of the young queen becoming 

 too old to be fertilized ? To know this, we need 

 an answer to the question I have already men- 

 tioned, as to the length of time after the hatch- 

 ing of the first young queen before the workers 

 give up the idea of swarming and allow all the 

 extra queens to be killed. I wonder if it might 

 not be safe to say that all would be killed with- 

 in a week after the first young queen hatches. 

 If so, then all we need to do is to look through 

 the hive a week later if there is a plurality of 

 young queens in the hive. 



So on the basis that our suppositions are cor- 

 rect, we might agree to put excluders under, 

 only to be removed when all young queens but 

 one were destroyed, making an examination, 

 once in two weeks so long as we found eggs in 

 the hive, and once a week if eggs were lacking. 

 But I am not very sanguine about all this. In 

 the first place, our suppositions may not be cor- 

 rect; it may tuin out that some young queens 

 become too old to be fertilized before they are 

 16 or 17 days old: and it may be that a plurality 

 of young queens may be tolerated in a hive 

 longer than a week. If so, then the time of 

 looking through the hive would hav(^ lo be 

 modified, and it is possible that so great a mod- 

 ification would be necessary that too much la- 

 bor would be involved to leave any value in the 

 plan. Besides, there are so many ways in which 

 disappointment may come unexpectedly that 

 only repeated actual trials with the bees can 

 determine the matter. 



After reading over to my assistant what I had 

 written, she said, " But there is one difficulty 

 that you haven't mentioned, and it's perhaps 

 the most serious one. Will your excluders al- 

 ways exclude '?" I very meekly replied, *' I don't 

 know." C. C. MiLLEK. 



Marengo, 111., April 13. 



[You have figured out, doctor, just about 

 what a bee-keeper will find in practice with an 

 excluding board between the brood-nest and the 

 bottom-board. We have ti'ied just that very 

 thing: and the result was, that it would be cov- 

 ered with dead drones to such an extent in a 

 week or ten days in the swarming season as al- 

 most to prevent the bees from passing in and 

 out. You can prevent swarms from abscond- 

 ing; but that prevention means the killing of 

 the old queen and the non-fertilization of the 

 virgin queers following. While it does pre- 

 vent the bees from running away, it does not 

 check that longinrj desire to swarm; and when 

 bees wani, to swarm, and can't, they will waste 

 valuable time during the height of the honey 

 season doing next to nothing. Perhaps some of 

 our readers will remember some of our experi- 

 ments along this line, as described in Glean- 

 ings two or three years ago, at our basswood 

 out apiary.] 



BEE-KEEPERS' PHOTOS. 



HIVE-CAKTS AND OUT-APIAKIES. 



While perusing some numbers of Gleanings 

 last fall, and admiiing your supplement con- 

 taining cuts of so many prominent bee-keeper>, 

 my son suggested that it would be a good plan 

 to cut out and paste on a card each face, and 

 then ins(>rt them in an album for convenience, 

 preservation, etc. I found, however, this was 

 not practicable, as it would result in the muti- 

 lation of some of them, and ;ilso their biograph- 

 ical sketches, etc. I then and there resolved to 

 ask you to present your readers with the faces 

 of all now in your possession on a sheet of pa- 

 per printed on one side only, with a short 

 sketch of each below, so that we could carry 



out our proposed plan; or, if you choose, to 

 print them on a separate card would be still bet- 

 ter, and a small charge made for those desiring 

 them. 



Well, now, you see what delay means; for 

 has not Mr. Hutchinson gone and done it. only 

 in a trifle different manner, and now furnishes, 

 as far as possible, a picture of his correspond- 

 ents with each article contributed? It is scarce- 

 ly necessary to add, almost every one thinks 

 this a step in the right direction, including, of 

 course, youiself among the rest. 



BOA15DMAN HIVE-CARTS. 



Carts a la Bo<irdiimn are a good thing. Yes, 

 I am sure of it, at least for me. I now have 

 one; and I like bee-escapes, honey-boards, 

 properly spaced frames, etc. It is going to save 

 time and backaches in this era of poor seasons 

 and improved migratory bee keeping. Each 

 one will have to vaiy the construction of such 

 a cart to suit himself, and this I have done 

 without materially altering its appearance. I 

 have some reasons for preferring it wide enough 

 to lift a Langstroth hive by its ends instead of 

 its side>; among others, my preference being in 

 favor of placing the hive on the cart the same 

 as on the wagon. Again, there is sufficient 

 room for lifting two hives instead of one or two 

 top stories or even a brood-chamber and a top 

 story as the case may be, and carting both 

 away at the same operation. The arrange- 

 ments attached to the lifting-arms are not 

 exactly alike for lifting off a top story and 

 carrying a brood-chamber; but liolh are very 

 simple, the only addition to any hive in use 

 being the nailing on of a wooden cleat ]4 inch 

 square by 8 long, either to the sides or ends, as 

 one chooses. 



This cart is expected to assist me greatly in 

 moving hives to and from the wagon, while 

 moving the bees to the out-apiary: yes, I mean 

 to take it right along with the team, by simply 

 fastening it behind the wagon, so that it can 

 be utilized, both loading at home and unload- 

 ing in the orchard at the point of destination. 

 I can also run around and pick off top stories 

 when once cleared of the bees, by the escape 

 system, and have lots of fun too. 



MOVING TO OUT-APIARIES. 



This brings me to the last part of my article; 

 viz., moving to out-apiaries. Many have been 

 the methods devised and illustrated in Glean- 

 ings for moving hives containing loose hang- 

 ing frames: but the simplest and most expedi- 

 tious way for any one not having very rough 

 roads nor long journeys is to use a frame cov- 

 ered with wire cloth, the ends of said frame 

 having a wire nail driven through from the 

 top sufficiently far to penetrate each frame in 

 the. hive (say '% of an inch), so that, after ad- 

 justing the screens, a little pressure will soon 

 secure all the frames at once. I have moved 

 bees many times without a single mishap to 

 any of the hives themselves, except that I once 

 smothered eight colonies on a warm day in 

 June, notwithstanding the whole top of the 

 hive was covered with a >s rim as described, 

 so that now I am a little skeptical in regard to 

 so little ventilation being given as advocated 

 by some, even in cool weather, unless a large 

 space is also given for the bees clustering in. 



The tying method given by you in Glean- 

 ings some time since is the only other thing 

 necessary for expeditious work with such a 

 hive, having tested and used it successfully not 

 only with a single-story hive having a loose 

 bottom-board, but with a two-story hive as 

 well: consequently 1 use it with as much as- 

 surance now as any other thing or system I 

 know of practical value in the apiary. 



F. A. Gemmell. 



