1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



31* 



believe it results, in general, in less breaking 

 than where the grooves are dampened just 

 before the folding. — Ed.] 



HOW TO PREVENT SWARMING. 



As soon as your bees get strong enough to 

 show signs of swarming, get some combs and 

 put an upper story on your hives (if not al- 

 ready on). Place a queen-excluder between 

 the upper and lower story. Now put queen- 

 cells in the upper story, with some two or 

 three frames of brood up there, with an en- 

 trance at the rear end of the upper story. As 

 soon as your queen has begun to lay, lift your 

 upper story off; raise your excluder, and 

 catch the old queen, and kill or do something 

 with her ; then put your upper story back 

 without the excluder, and the work is done, 

 and your hive has not been without a laying 

 queen at any time ; and my experience is, the 

 young queen will not swarm, no matter how 

 many bees you add to her hive. I think this 

 the cheapest way to manage them. 



Elmont, Tex., Feb. 7. J. F. Teel. 



[This is an excellent way to requeen with 

 young blood ; and while a colony with a 

 young queen is not as liable to swarm, per- 

 haps, it would hardly be safe to assume that 

 such colonies would not swarm. If you try 

 the plan on a larger scale I think you will 

 agree with me. — Ed.] 



OLD - STYLE WIDE FRAMES ', DOUBLE - TIER 

 EIGHT SECTIONS. 



I noticed an article in my last Gleanings, 

 Feb. 1, written by Alfred Atherton, of Oramel, 

 N. Y., referring to the old-style wide frames, 

 and also noted the editor's objections to the 

 same. I, like Atherton, prefer them to any 

 other device for procuring comb honey. I 

 have never found the objections referred to by 

 the editor. I never use dummies to fill with — 

 I always put on full top (48 sections). You 

 speak of their being hard to get out of a hive. 

 Perhaps you don't go at them right. Let me 

 refer you back to Gleanings. June 1, 1898, 

 p. 438, you will notice that the correspondent 

 took 6000 lbs from 60 colonies, spring count, 

 and asks if you would like to know how he 

 did it. I will tell you the secret for him (I 

 don't mind telling you). He used old-style 

 wide frames, and says they are good enough 

 for him. My wide frames are the same width 

 as my sections (l l / 2 in. ), and I use plain sec- 

 tions and the fence separator, double tier. 



Noble, 111., Feb. 3. E. E. McCoy. 



my memory, and a somewhat similar experi- 

 ence has left tender spots on my fingers and 

 ribs, so it is natural to write it to you in order 

 that you may relax your regular " editor Root " 

 dignity of countenance and smile with me. 



Since Morton's death I have been working 

 in the shop with the machinery, and finding 

 out how easily a stick will come back at your 

 ribs from the saw ; and although I haven't 

 caught one yet on the nose, like that chap 

 who saved 90 cts. by building bee-hives (or 

 came out just even if putty isn't cheap in the 

 spring), 1 did worse; for, in forgetting the old 

 saw, "don't monkey with the buzz-saw," I 

 learned that stopping a buzz-saw with my fin- 

 gers isn't a success. It slashed into two fin- 

 gers of my left hand — not so badly as it might 

 have done, as it left bones intact, but bad 

 enough to inspire a very wholesome respect 

 for that same " hollow-ground cut-off." 



Auburn, N. Y., Dec. 17. S. A. NiVER. 



WIDE ENTRANCES FOR HOT CLIMATES ; 

 SWARMING DIMINISHED. 



I have been troubled very much every year 

 from my combs melting. I used only a y 2 - 

 inch entrance, whole width of hive, and my 

 foundation and new combs would all melt 

 down till this year when I blocked all my 

 hives up on J/s-inch blocks, and never lost a 

 comb, and my bees seemed more at ease. 

 There was not such a roar from them in fan- 

 ning, but my bees are right out in the sun, 

 and it would make quite a difference if they 

 were under a shade. But I find the bees win- 

 ter much better out in the open, and com- 

 mence rearing brood earlier. 



There was not a general good honey harvest 

 here this year, although I made a rousing big 

 crop of combs, nearly 150 lbs. per colony. 



I forgot to mention my good "luck," if I 

 should so term it. I had only two swarms to 

 issue the whole season, from my home apiary 

 of 125 colonies that I set up on the 4 J/s-inch 

 blocks. Swarming has been our greatest 

 trouble in past years, some days having as 

 many as 60 swarms. J K. HiLL. 



Uvalde, Tex., Dec. 7, 1898. 



THE TALL SECTIONS. 



I see on page 127, Feb. 15, friend Aikin tells 

 why sections with a long entrance are better. 

 That is the kind I have been using for years, 

 and you have been making them for me. Try 

 them. Henry Wilson. 



Clinton, 111. 



[Every one to his likes and dislikes.— Ed.] foui< brood in cuba . WHE nce came it? 



niver's experience with a buzz saw. 



Dear Friend Root : — As our friends the 

 Quakers say, "the spirit moves " me to have 

 a little chat with you this morning, as I am 

 off duty, and away on a visit to a friend here 

 in this city of prisons. Gleanings for Dec. 

 15th had not shown up when I left Groton 

 yesterday; but the Dec. 1st number had an 

 experience in it, page 880, on making hives by 

 hand, that seemed to touch a tender spot in 



Mr. W. W. Somerford said, page 82, that 

 foul brood was introduced by D. A. Jones 

 sending queens to Cuba. It is very probable 

 that Mr. Pedro Casanova was mistaken in this 

 respect, and that this assertion is unjust to 

 Mr. Jones, because foul brood was spread all 

 over Cuba long before this. Dr. Dzierzon, in 

 Germany, infected his apiary by feeding 

 Cuban honey in the year 1848, and lost nearly 

 all his colonies. So it is very probable that, 

 unknown to Mr. Casanova, foul brood was 



