1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



237 



all day. Now, if he will wrap up the super in 

 such a way that a uniform even temperature is 

 maintained at SO or 10.5°, all right; he will Snd 

 the side* and corner sections filled too. and 

 nearly all at the same time. _ The super will 

 nofj get loo warm, if shaded from the sun. with 

 %-inch air-space under the frames. I have 

 used IM inches, and it is far better than 3^ inch 

 to get the bees in the super. When crowded 

 they will cluster on the outside for air. If they 

 were set up on four bricks it would make the 

 super the warmest part of the hive, and then 

 the honey would go there sure. Of two ex- 

 tremes, no bottom at all is better than the reg- 

 ular ^g" inch and deep frames for comb honey. 

 My new hive embraces these features with 

 others. 

 Washington, D. C. 



[Here is another article that emphasizes the 

 same point. — Ed. J 



^ I ^ 



KEEPING SUPERS WARM. 



THE USE OF PACKING. 

 By Adrian Qetaz. 



In reading over my last contribution to 

 Gleanings I find that two points need further 

 explanation. The first one is concerning the 

 necessity of having the first supers given in the 

 spring warm enough to permit the bees to work 

 therein freely, not only during the day but also 

 during the night. It is, perhaps, not generally 

 understood that during the day most of the 

 bees are in the field gathering honey. This is 

 deposited in the nearest cells, and only a part 

 of it carried to the supers. During the night a 

 great part of the field-bees (if not all of them) 

 helpbaild the comb and transfer the honey 

 from the brood-nest "up stairs," evaporating 

 it to some extent at the same time. 



It is evident that, if the supers are not warm 

 enough, the night work will be curtailed, and 

 the honey will remain in the brood nest instead 

 of being stored up in the surplus apartments. 

 This is why our leading bee-keepers insist that 

 the supers should not be given too soon, and 

 not more at a time than the bee? can well fill. 

 DMuch has been said upon the necessity of 

 keeping the brood-nest warm in the spring, but 

 not much about keeping the supers warm 

 enough, at least during the fore part of the 

 honey-flow. Here in East Tennessee, on ac- 

 count of our elevation above the level of the 

 sea, the nights are cool through most of the 

 summer, and the above consideration is very 

 important. I suppose the same is true of all 

 elevated countries, the wholeof the Alleghenies, 

 part of California, and some of the Western 

 States. 



As to the best way, " I don't know." 1 use to 

 a great extent double-walled chaff supers and 

 covers (the brood-nests are also double-walled). 



The objections to them are the cost and the 

 weight. Outer cases can be used advantageous- 

 ly with temporary packing. For that kind of 

 packing I prefer rags to any thing else, as they 

 can be put in and taken out easily without 

 making a muss like chaff or shavings. 



With sufficient protection, so as to retain the 

 heat of the colony fully, more room can be 

 given in the supers; and this will in a measure 

 take the place of drawn comb, for it i?i evident 

 that, when only foundation is given, what little 

 honey can be put in each cell will make a con- 

 siderable amount if enough cells are there. 

 And if the warmth is there, but little time will 

 be required to draw the foundation out. It has 

 often been stated that the bees failed to draw 

 thick foundation out sufficiently. I suspect 

 that the lack of sufficient warmth has very 

 often, if not always, been the cause of it. 



excess of nurse bees and LARVAr, FOOD THE 



CAUSE OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF 



QUEEN CELLS. 



I said in my last contribution that an excess 

 of larval food was the cause of construction of 

 queen cells. It may be remarked here that the 

 queen-cells (barring the case of loss of the 

 queen) are constructed only when three condi- 

 tions are prfsent. 



1. Nectar and pollen coming from the field. 



2. Numerous young bees, or, what is the same, 

 nurse-bees, producing larval food. 



3. An insufficient quantity of brood to feed, 

 due either to lack of comb for the queen to lay 

 in or to a failure in her laying powers, or, I 

 think very often, both together. 



If either of these conditions is lacking, no 

 queen-cell will be constructed; and even those 

 started may be destroyed when one of these 

 conditions happens :o disappear completely. T 

 will give a few exainples. 



If you destroy the queen-cells of a colony 

 ready to swarm, and divide that colony in two, 

 completing both hives with empty combs, the 

 probability is that both will construct queen- 

 cells again, and, of course, swarm. In fact, it 

 will happen in the majority of cases. Now, if 

 it was merely a question of space, why should 

 they do so? But the fact is, the discrepancy 

 between the number of nurses and the amount 

 of brood to feed still exists in both hives, hence 

 the construction of quee^-cells. 



But if in a few days you cut out these cells, a 

 second set will never be started (unless one of 

 the queens happens to fail and is about to be 

 superseded). Why? Because by that time 

 there is the brood of two queens to be fed, while 

 only the young bees of one are there to do the 

 work. 



Very often people have tried to prevent 

 swarming by taking away a comb of brood 

 occasionally. The process has been sometimes 

 successful, and often unsuccessful. If the comb 

 subtracted was of eggs and young brood, the 

 remedy was worse than the disease; for it left 



