400 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



ed themselves in some special line of bee- 

 keeping, I do not seek to bolster lip their van- 

 ity, if they have any, but to give our subscrib- 

 ers something of real merit in their special 

 work. 



A HANDY TOOL FOR THE APIARY. 



For a year or so back I have felt that we 

 ought to list some sort of tool especially adapt- 

 ed for prying supers apart, for separating 

 Hoffman or other fixed frames, and for scrap- 

 ing propolis or wax off from the top-bars. 

 While I was at the Buffalo convention, Mr. 

 George Conrad, of Lynn, Pa., showed me a 

 tool from which he had derived a great deal 

 of satisfaction. The illustration below will 

 make its manner of usage apparent at a glance. 



I have for several years used a large screw- 

 driver; but one objection to it is that the 

 blade is too narrow, and too thick and blunt. 

 I have seen the time when I have had, by 

 main strength, to force the point of the screw- 

 driver between two supers to separate them; 

 and even then I have had to exert a consider- 

 able pry to bring them actually apart. The 

 operation of separating the supers was not so 

 bad as the mutilation of the edges of the super 

 or hive. Quite a numVjer of hives at our out- 

 yard show screwdriver marks; and I imagine 

 that, in time, these marks would become deep 

 enough to let in robbers, especially if the su- 

 per and hive did not fit squarely together. 

 Our apiarist uses a strong putty-knife, the 

 blade of which has been cut down to half its 

 length to get strength for prying. This has 

 the advantage of a broad thin blade that will 

 not mar hive edges. But my objection is that 

 such a blade is not stiff enough to stand a 

 good pry. 



Mr. Conrad has got the right idea of a pry. 

 It is made of tool steel forged out by hand. 

 The upper end, or that edge, rather, that rep- 

 resents what may be called the ax or hatchet 

 end, is thinned down to a broad knife edge. 

 This edge is crowded between the supers as 

 shown in the cut, and a slight twist breaks 

 the connection. The other end may be used 

 for scraping or prying, as the case may be. 



I am not sure that Mr. Conrad has the best 

 form of implement. In my mind's eye I see 

 what to my notion would be an improvement. 

 In fact, it is the identical tool that neighbor 



Shane used years ago, and which I have tried 

 and found to be very handy and serviceable. 

 I'll have a pictiure made of it shortly. 



I know this seems like a small matter; but a 

 really good, handy serviceable tool would be 

 worth bushels of putty-knives, screwdrivers, 

 jack-knives, and, in fact, any other form of tool 

 made for another purpose. It should be made 

 of the finest grade of steel — something that 

 will permit of a thin broad edge for prying, 

 and yet that will not bend or snap. If we can 

 only get hold of the right form of tool we will 

 see that the right kind of steel is secured. 



" SUCCESSFUL METHODS FOR REARING QUEEN- 

 BEES " 



is the title of a new pamphlet just gotten out 

 by Henry Alley, of Wenham, Mass. While 

 it contains only 20 pages of reading-matter, it 

 is the boiled-down experience of a veteran 

 queen-breeder covering a period of thirty 

 years. Some of the methods are the same as 

 those given in his former works, particularly 

 that wherein he destroys every other egg and 

 forces the bees to build cells over the remain- 

 ing eggs. But the part that seems to be par- 

 ticularly new is where he says that, with 

 an ordinary colony, he can raise cells, even 

 with the queen present. In a nutshell the 

 scheme is this: 



Cut out the bottom half of the comb of a standard 

 frame, and insert a bar 4j inch thick, bj' % inch wide. 

 This is nailed in a frame directly under the comb. 

 On one side of the frame there is nailed a piece of 

 perforated metal large enough to cover the space 

 where the comb was cut out. The metal is nailed 

 firmly to the middle and bottom bars of the frame. 

 On the other side the metal is arranged to serve as a 

 door so that the room under the middle bar can be 

 utilized for fastening the little strips of comb con- 

 taining the eggs for cell-cups. The metal door is put 

 in place to keep the queen from the ctU-cups. If the 

 queen has access to them she most likely would de- 

 stroy them, and no queens would be reared. 



A little further on he speaks about giving 

 cell-cups. It would appear to me the bees 

 would not build cells off from comb treated as 

 given in the extract above, although they 

 might finish cell-cups inclo.sed in perforated 

 metal such as Mr. Alley describes; so I take 

 it that cell-cups is what he refers to. The 

 price of the book is 23 cents, and can be ob- 

 tained of the publisher as above. 



TWO-STORY LANGSTROTH COLONIES FOR COMB 



HONEY ; SEASONABLE AND IMPORTANT 



SUGGESTIONS. 



There has been nmch inquiry of late re- 

 garding the double-brood chamber method of 

 preventing swarming when working for comb 

 honey. Although I have covered the ground 

 pretty well it now occurs to me that I have 

 left out one or two important points, and per- 

 haps others should be emphasized. 



The two-brood-chamber plan will not work 

 unless the colony is strong enough to fill both 

 bodies/^// of bees. This part is very impor- 

 tant. Putting on an extra chamber during the 

 time honey comes in will only result in all the 

 honey going into the upper story. This, of 

 course, will have to be filled before the bees 

 will store in a comb-honey super. The time 

 to double up the colonies is noiv. Get them 



