830 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



farmer bee-keeper a strong colony in a box 

 hive for one dollar. Transfer this by the Hed- 

 don short method in April, as soon as dande- 

 lion bloom is on, into your movable-frame 

 hive, driving out about two-thirds of the bees. 

 Place an entrance-guard over the entrance of 

 the new hive; catch the queen; clip her wings, 

 and return her to the old hive. Set the' new 

 hive in place of the old one, giving some lar- 

 vae of proper age for queen -rearing. Repeat 

 the operation, except clipping, every four 

 weeks, into the months of September or Oc- 

 tober, if the weather is warm. The colonies 

 transferred in April, May, and June will give 

 you some surplus in July and August ; in a 

 good season will keep themselves; September 

 also, in some localities; October will need help. 



A STRAY STRAW. 



Dr. Miller says, p. 601, that I am "away 

 off " when I attribute the dark color to the 

 habits of us bee-keepers. The doctor puts 

 the following questions: "Isn't everything 

 just as black in a nest in a bee-tree where no 

 bee-keeper has interfered ? If you should 

 clean the bottom-board every day would you 

 prevent the darkening of the brood-combs? " 



I give it up, doctor. I've never tried clean- 

 ing the bottom-board of a bee-tree. The arti- 

 cle, p. 574, had reference to the cappings of 

 section honey — not brood-combs. The latter 

 owe their dark color mainly to other causes — 

 I think such as cocoons, excrement, dead bees, 

 etc. The dirt and litter of the bottom-board 

 I believe to be mainly responsible for the dis- 

 coloration of the cappings of section honey. 



HOW TO START BEES IN SECTIONS. 



The Barber method, p. 309, and referred to 

 elsewhere in Gleanings, is all right for those 

 who are working for both comb and extracted 

 honey; but as some may not wish to go into 

 the extracting business I give a method which 

 succeeds well with me. 



When you are ready for section work, cage 

 the queen, giving enough " Good " candy to 

 last two or three days. Put on your super of 

 sections with bait, if convenient. On top of 

 this super place an empty one, in which put 

 the caged queen. The bees will begin work 

 in the sections at once, and will keep at it as 

 long as there is nectar coming in. The empty 

 super and cage should, of course, be removed 

 as soon as the queen is liberated. 



Bradford, N. Y. 



[Your queen will well be worth $200 pro- 

 viding she was either pure Italian or pure 

 C-irniolan or something. If she is a cross be- 

 tween Italian and black, her daughters will 

 be likely to sport to either one or the other 

 ancestors. Take my advice, and do not sub- 

 ject her to the arduous duties devolving on 

 the mother of a large and populous colony. 

 Prolong her life by restricting her egg-laying, 

 and convert as many of her eggs as possible 

 into queens, and then sell them for five or ten 

 dollars — the best of them. If you can get any 

 daughters that come anywhere near duplicat- 

 ing their mother, reserve them out and let 

 The A. I. Root Co. make a bid on them. It 

 is just such queens as these that we want. 



Be sure that her colony winters well, and if 

 she comes through we should like to know 

 what offer will tempt you to part with her 

 next spring. You have given our readers a 

 number of valuable hints, and I hope they 

 will give your whole article a careful reading. 

 —Ed.] 



BEST HIVE FOR EXTRACTING. 



Ten-frame L. Hive for California and the Ten-frame 



Draper Barn for Illinois ; Why Locality should 



Decide the Size of Hive. 



BY HON. J. M. HAMBAUGH. 



I am not sure but the ground relative to 

 the most desirable hive for extracting has 

 been pretty well thrashed over; but with your 

 consent I desire to answer some of the para- 

 graphs in Mr. Draper's interesting article on 

 page 610, Aug. 15. I do not for a moment 

 dispute Mr. Draper's experience relative to 

 the combs becoming more or less pollenized, 

 and his confining the queen exclusively to the 

 lower combs will not obviate this difficulty. 

 I will also state that, when combs become 

 thoroughly filled with pollen accumulations, 

 they are unfit to use as brood-combs ; and ihe 

 best use to make of them is to consign them 

 to the solar wax-extractor. 



Mr. Draper says that, when "the honey- 

 yielding plants fail to secrete much nectar 

 during the hot weather, so that the whole 

 force of the colony is turned to bringing in 

 pollen, and as the brood is scattered through 

 the hive, so is the empty room for pollen, and 

 it is not long until every available cell is filled 

 with it." To be sure, Mr. Draper ; and the 

 more the pollen is concentrated in the brood- 

 chamber the sooner you will have the queen 

 hampered for laying room, and the sooner old 

 pollenized brood-combs will have to be re- 

 placed with new ones, or frames filled with 

 full sheets of foundation. 



I will admit that pollen in the surplus 

 apartment is not desirable, and yet we can 

 tolerate some without any apparent detriment 

 to the quality of the honey. I have been ex- 

 tracting honey for 15 years, and in all my ex- 

 perience I could never see that brood and 

 pollen in the combs, when carefully extracted 

 and strained, made a particle of difference in 

 the grade and quality. Of course, it is in the 

 way of the extracting-knife, and requires cau- 

 tion and some extra work; but the advantages 

 of but one size of frame throughout the yard, 

 it has always seemed to me, offset these diffi- 

 culties. 



Under many conditions the ten -frame Sim- 

 plicity hive is sufficiently large for a brood- 

 chamber, and her majesty will not seek pas- 

 tures new. This I believe to be especially 

 true here in California, where we have such 

 long drouths, and no wintering problem to 

 solve. We are also confronted with quite a 

 difference in the cost of the material entering 

 into the two different styles of hives, to say 

 nothing of the extra amount it will take. 

 The broad boards necessary to cut the bodies 

 of the Draper hive will cost from three to six 



