4C)6 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



super I had filled in three apiaries was by a 

 two-story colony. [It is posbiMe that locality 

 has something to do with this whole quesiion; 

 but I would explain that it is not our practice 

 to leave the second story on a comb-hone}' 

 hive the whole season. After the colony that 

 has two stories gets to be rousting strong, the 

 extra story may be taken awa}' and given to a 

 colony run for extracted honey, and its place 

 is supplied with two comb-hone}- supers con- 

 taining full sheets of foundation. — Ed] 



Mention has been made of plain sections 

 used without .separators, simply placed at the 

 right distance apart. Now the question is, 

 what gauges them at the right distance, and 

 what holds them there? [No definiie device, 

 T super, or section-holder has been arranged 

 as yet to hold plain sections without fences; 

 but stops can be put on the section-holder 

 bottoms at certain positions in such a way as 

 to separate and hold at equal distances the 

 plain sections. Stops might be arranged in 

 the T super, but not so easily. If plain sec- 

 tions are used in v^ide frames, then all that is 

 necessary would be to space them so that the 

 sections would be at the required distances 

 apart. — Ed.] 



Mr. Editor, I see you think of raising 

 at four corners, and at bottom of p. 431 you 

 speak of " (iO inches square of space." Don't 

 you think that would be overdoing it just a 

 little? Let's see ; that would be 25 square 

 feet, hoisting the hive in the air about 5 feet ! 

 Rather topply. Better give GO square inches 

 a fair trial first. [Ah ! I see my mental gear- 

 wheels must have slipped a cog. When I 

 used the words "GO inches square" I meant 

 GO square inches. Doctor, you might have 

 saved me all this humiliation by taking me for 

 what I meant and not what I said. To get 

 even with you I am going to say you did the 

 same thing once, you remember, by speaking 

 of so many "decimeters square" instead of 

 "square decimeters." — Ed.] 



Hadn't the colony got into the craze for 

 swarming before they had the extra room ? is 

 asked, p. 422. I'm sorry to say no. Empty 

 story was under before they dreamed of 

 swarming. Possibly they swarmed rather 

 than cross the space between the two stories. 

 Right in this connection you speak of scat- 

 tering brood in two stories, but I can't make 

 out whether you gave the second story at the 

 time of thus scattering brood, or whether it 

 was already there. Please tell us how that 

 was. [I believe that your suggestion, that the 

 bees swarmed rather than cross the space 

 between the two stories, is a reasonable ex- 

 planation. In speaking of scattering or 

 spreading the brood in two stories, if I did not 

 say so I meant that I did so at the time of 

 giving the bees extra room. — Ed.] 



L.VST YEAR the first swarm I had (June 3) 

 was from a powerful colony that had stood all 

 winter in two stories. The only entrance was 

 at the bottom. When each story had an 

 entrance, I think I never knew a colony to 

 swarm after getting fairly to work in more 

 than one story. [The plan of having multiple 

 entrances has been rather ridiculed by the 



bee-keeping fraternity ; but I am not so sure 

 that the principle is su utterly wrong in theory 

 or practice. Giving more than one entrance 

 at two different points of the hive, perhaps 

 amounts to the same thing as to give one large 

 entrance at the bottom of the hive. Julius 

 Hoffman, the Hoffman-frame man, who oper- 

 ates hundreds of colonies and makes money 

 off his bees, uses an entrance to each story of 

 his hives. One thing I feel quite thoroughly 

 convinced of; and that is, that the fraternity 

 will in time recognize the value either of a 

 large entrance or one or more small ones. 

 This clustering out can and must be avoided. 

 —Ed.] 



' ' Is NOT VENTILATION preferable to dead 

 hot air " in a hive-cover ? — footnote, p^ge 422. 

 Probably yes, in hot weather ; but it's quite 

 important to have a warm cover in cold 

 weather. The dead air is almost as good as a 

 ventilated cover in hot weather, and away 

 ahead in cold. A good cover ready made 

 should be put on the market for those who 

 feel they must have it and are willing to pay 

 for it. Lately it leaks out that Doolittle has 

 tin covers, and I'm afraid you can't have a 

 good cover without tin. [At one of our ware- 

 house buildings the top floor is a large room. 

 When the windows are shut down, and all the 

 openings closed, and the temperature outside 

 SO to 100 in the shade it is unbearable in the 

 said room; but when the windows are raised, 

 and a breeze circulates through, it is very com- 

 fortable. But perhaps you may argue that a 

 breeze does not change actual temperature. I 

 think it does in this ca.se, because the outside 

 moving air is cooler than the air confined next 

 to the roof above. Take another illustration : 

 You are probably familiar with the ventilating- 

 thimbles that go around the stovepipe when 

 the same passes from a lower to an upper 

 room. You will remember that the flanges 

 separating the outer and inner walls of the 

 thimble are perforated with holes. The object 

 of this is to let the heated air escape so that 

 the cooler air from the room can take its place. 

 I think the same principle holds good in hive- 

 covers. — Ed.] 



PREVENTION OF SWARMING. 



A Scheme for Curtailing the Breeding Capacity of 

 the Queen bv means of Perforated Zinc. 



BY B. F. AVERILL. 



A great desideratum of the modern bee- 

 keeper is, especially with those largely inter- 

 ested in this pursuit, a way to control the 

 swarming impulse without detriment to the 

 'Systematic industrial energies of his bees. To 

 cope successfully with the problem would en- 

 able the apiarist to extend largely his opera- 

 tions, and increase the number of out-apiaries 



