1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



171 



hives is f4 inch by the width of the hive in 

 length. 



R. — If you could change your entrances to 

 wider, would you do so? 



C. — I am not sure. They answer well, ex- 

 cepting a very few days in extremely hot 

 weather, with hives that are exposed to the 

 sun. 



R. — And that reminds me. Do you prefer 

 shade of some sort for your hives ? 



C. — A little, but not too much. 



R. — A shade of what sort ? 



C. — Trees. By the way, in speaking of pro- 

 tection from wind, one thing must be guarded 

 against; and that is, that bees should not be 

 too much protected from the wind. A screen 

 of some sort of evergreens, or a picket-fence 

 that will allow a moderate wind to pass 

 through, is to be preferred to one where the 

 wind is entirely broken off, as, during the ear- 

 ly spring, when there is sunshine, the atmos- 

 phere will warm up inside of such an inclos- 

 ure so as to entice the bees out, when they will 

 fly above and outside of the protected loca- 

 tion, and be lost. I knew one man who lost 

 nearly all of his bees just from this cause. 

 He had a very tight yard. 



R. — Mr. Crane, what size of hive do you 

 use? 



C. — The brood-chamber is an eleven-frame 

 Langstroth hive ; but I have found myself 

 slowly reducing that until I believe at the 

 present time I have only one hive that has 

 eleven combs in — mostly eight combs. 



R. — Do you find the eight-frame size large 

 enough for the breeding capacity of good 

 queens? 



C. — I find that, where bees are properly pro- 

 tected, and they secure early forage, they be- 

 gin swarming as soon as clover begins to bloom 

 — in fact, more frequently before clover opens, 

 while as yet there is no honey in sections and 

 but little in the brood-chamber. 



R. — Did you ever try running colonies in 

 two stories? 



C. — I have. 



R. — What were the results? 



C. — I have never used them except for ex- 

 tracting purposes and tiering up sections. I 

 sometimes have as many as three supers, one 

 above the other, on a hive. 



R. — Did you ever try working for both comb 

 and extracted in the same colony ? 



C. — Not at the same time. Sometimes I put 

 on an extra story, and allow the bees to fill it; 

 and then I remove it and put on sections. 



R. — I have often done that ; in fact, for our 

 locality I believe I can get more actual honey, 

 both comb and extracted, by such procedure; 

 and, at the same time, while not actually pre- 

 venting entirely, to a great extent it discour- 

 ages swarming. I avoid the hunting-up of 

 queens to cage or remove them, and the 

 subsequent hunting for queen-cells. I wish 

 you would try a few colonies in one of your 

 yards, and see how it works. 



C. — Swarming is the most difficult thing we 

 have to contend with. Mr. Root, how soon 

 do you think you can get a strain of bees that 

 will not be inclined to swarm any more than 

 Leghorn hens are to sit ? 



R. — In the millennium of apiculture. I do 

 believe, however, that something may be done 

 in that line by careful selection in breeding. 

 But somehow bees do not yield so readily 'o 

 man's whims as poultry and other live sto. k. 



C. — I doubt that statement. 



R. — I hope you are right. 



C— - The fact that one of the strongest qual- 

 ities, or one of the qualities most called for 

 (color), has been produced already, would 

 indicate that it is only the demand for a varie- 

 ty that will not swarm, and queen-breeders 

 would presently give us what we ask for. 



R. — But don't you think that color yields 

 more readily than any other natural character- 

 istic in insect life? 



C. — No, I don't. Like produces like the 

 world over. The law holds good in all vege- 

 table and animal life. 



R. — Well, I hope you are right. 



C. — Other qualities are produced in other 

 animal life; whatever man desires, by careful 

 selection he has so far been able to secure. If 

 he wants a good cow r for butter, he breeds for 

 that purpose. Within the present generation 

 the capacity of the dairy cow has been increas- 

 ed nearly or quite three times above what it 

 was fifty years ago. The same has been true 

 of the production of cattle for beef, and the 

 same is true in the production of sheep for 

 wool. The Spanish merino, introduced into 

 this country perhaps fifty years ago, now pro- 

 duces three times the wool from the same 

 amount of carcass. Of course I refer to best 

 bred animals. 



R. — Mr. Crane, whenever I am worsted in 

 argument I always like to change the subject. 

 What do you know about the Crane smoker ? 



C. — I know that I used one that you sent 

 me three years ago, for three seasons, on 400 

 colonies of bees, or nearly that, and it was 

 nearly or quite as good at the end of that time 

 as at the beginning. I know no more than 

 that, except that the jacket was broken away 

 from the rivets, and some of the nuts on the 

 bolts lost, but I used it just the same. 



R. — Do you have any trouble with the valves 

 sticking? 



C. — Very rarely, except in damp days in 

 midsummer, when it is run constantly' from 

 morning till night, and the most sticky fuel 

 possible used — cloths coated with propolis. 

 Probably it has not bothered half a dozen days 

 in three years' usage. I think that, to produce 

 the best results, however, they should be oc- 

 casionally taken apart and cleaned. 



R. — I find there has been a little complaint 

 of their clogging; but a little intelligent care 

 will keep them working free and easy. 



C. — I have sometimes wished the bellows 

 was a little larger. 



R. — But, Mr. Crane, the peculiar feature of 

 the Crane smoker is its strength of blast. 



C. — By the way, I had one last season that 

 held fire all night, and we found it in good 

 running order in the morning, ready for work. 

 This was probably the result of using such 

 carbonaceous fuel as cloths coated with pro- 

 polis. 



R. — You spoke a moment ago about propo- 

 lized cloths. Don't they daub your smoker 



