142 



GLEANIN'GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



very rapidly and that is the reason why old 

 square kerosene cans or old bad-smelling bar- 

 rels should not be used for storing it in. — Ed.] 



J. C. T., Pa. — I do not know what a fair 

 rental for bees should be. They are some- 

 times kept on shares, if that is what you mean. 

 One part}' furnishes all the bees and hives for 

 the start, and the other all the labor. At the 

 end of the year the net proceeds are divided 

 equally, each sharing equally in the cost of 

 shipping-cases, packages, and hives, frames, 

 etc., for increase. 



J. /,., Cal. — Your method of providing ven- 

 tilation to the hive, and thus preventing clus- 

 tering out, by means of raising the cover, is 

 quite old. It works satisfactorily, however, 

 in a good many cases ; btit it is far better to 

 keep the super as warm as possible, and secure 

 the necessary ventilation from the bottom, 

 either through a large entrance or by raising 

 the hive up on four blocks off from the bot- 

 tom-board. 



L. A. S., Quebec. — Yes, you can use large 

 dry goods-boxes as winter-cases over single - 

 walled hives ; but the space between the box 

 and the hive should be packed with some 

 loose material such as straw, leaves, or shav- 

 ings ; and then it is essential that it be kept 

 dry. Some use large boxes, and set the hives 

 down in the box, and, after making a passage- 

 wav from the entrance of the hive to the out- 

 side of the box, packing-material is poured 

 around and on top of the hive ; the box-cover 

 is set in place, and on the cover is tacked a 

 large sheet of building-paper. 



W. H. A'., Cal. — The idea of using the or- 

 dinary butter-bowl on the plan of a Hill de- 

 vice is quite old. We have used the ordinary 

 butter-dishes in which grocers put up butter, 

 a good many times. As the dishes are all of a 

 limited size, we have sometimes used two and 

 three of them above the brood-frames. In 

 some instances they have been half filled with 

 hard candy, and inverted right over the brood- 

 frames. As the candy is eaten out it makes a 

 nice clustering-room for the bees. The in- 

 verted wooden butter-dish in lieu of the Hill 

 device is certainly a good thing ; and if they 

 could be had of a larger size we would discard 

 the Hill device entirely. 



L. K., III. — You fear that we are not mak- 

 ing the cleats to our fences thick enough — 

 that they are too thin to allow the bees to pass 

 from section to section ; that, moreover, you 

 could not easily push a dead bee through the 

 space allowed by the thickness of the cleats. 

 I was a little d'isturbed at first, fearing our 

 wood-workers had been a little careless and 

 made the thickness of the cleats less than j-j 

 of an inch. I went through all the depart- 

 ments, measuring the cleats myself, and found 

 in every instance that 12 would make exactly 



2 inches. The foreman of one of our depart- 

 ments has been very particular to have these 

 exactly right. 



It is possible that the cleats in the hives sent 

 you were not fj inch, but I hardly think so ; 

 ^2 measures in hundredths lfi-'3. From 16)^ 

 to 17 one-hundredths is the width of ordinary 

 perforated zinc. When we made up the zinc 

 we endeavored to make it exactly 1(5 12 hun- 

 dredths, and that has been the size of our zinc 

 for 3'ears. The Tinker zinc measures about 

 ^'i^, and, if any thing, is a little larger. 



Years ago, when I was testing perforated 

 zinc, I found that, though the zinc was perfo- 

 rated as narrow as J^';^, the bees would go 

 through very nicely, but when filled with 

 honey it impeded them a trifle. Now, when 

 you bear in mind that the thickness of our 

 cleats is full}' as wide as the perforations in the 

 zinc, you will readily see that a bee can go 

 through the space. Bear in mind that j-^ of 

 an inch measures 16^3 hundredths, and bees 

 can squeeze through yVik- 



I have not a bit of doubt that it would be 

 difficult for you to push a dead bee through a 

 12 -inch space, but that would hardly prove 

 that a live bee could not go through that 

 space. A live cat, for instance, to use a home- 

 ly illustration, can go through a hole that 

 neither you nor I could shove the same animal 

 through when dead. Furthermore, the slats 

 on the fences now drop down a trifle from the 

 top of the section, and this will also have a 

 tendency to widen the space. 



With regard to the thickness of the section- 

 holders, it is true the old section-holder will 

 not fit in the new super ; but the advantage of 

 the new holder is such that, when we were 

 making such a radical change, we thought we 

 might just as well make it right. The new 

 one is easily removed from the super, and 

 leaves a dead-air space between the super end 

 and the section-holder end. 



Thousands of our customers are buying the 

 new supers as their first surplus arrangement, 

 and the}' get it as the very best. Now, to ac- 

 commodate those of our old customers who 

 have old-style supers we make and advocate 

 what we call our "S " style of fence. This 

 obviates all the trouble you refer to, and is the 

 style of fence, in my judgment, you had bet- 

 ter have, unless, perchance, you were expect- 

 ing to buy a large lot of new supers, which 

 possibly is not the case. The " vS '' style of 

 fence is shown on page 1.3 of the catalog we 

 are sending you, and a little larger view in the 

 January 1.5th issue of CtI.E.\nixgs. 



With regard to the shipping-cases, I would 

 state that we are making these for both plain 

 sections and the old-style sections — see p. 2?> 

 of catalog for prices on these, and also partic- 

 ulars regarding the new shipping-cases and 

 the number they will hold. 



With regard to the looks of the plain sec- 

 tion, I would refer you to what L. A. Aspin- 

 wall writes in the Reviezu, and also what W. 

 D. Soper writes regarding the Aspinwall sec- 

 tions, in Feb. 1st Gleanings. I think we 

 shall find no trouble but that they will hold 

 their own in any market against old-style 

 sections. 



