54 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUIvTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



THE DIVISION-BOARD FEEDER. 



On page 895 you describe the Doolittle divi- 

 sion-board feeder. I would kindly ask you to 

 answer the following questions : 



1. Does not a large quantity of syrup get 

 lost by soaking into the wood the feeder is 

 made of ? 



2. Do not a lot of bees get drowned ? I sup- 

 pose the bees have direct access to the syrup 

 through the opening left under the top-bar ; 

 but is there no need of an arrangement to pre- 

 vent the bees from getting drowned? If so, 

 what kind of arrangement do you use ? I am 

 sure if I would use this feeder as mentioned in 

 your paper it would soon be filled with dead 

 bees. L. Marno. 



Escondido, Cal., Dec. 7. 



[1. Syrup does not soak into the wood of the 

 feeder, for the reason that, after the feeder is 

 finished, it is coated on the inside with paraf- 

 fine. 



2. We have had no trouble on that score so 

 far. The sides of the feeder inside are only 1 % 

 inches apart ; and if a bee gets down into the 

 syrup it has no difficulty in reaching either 

 one side or the other in crawling out ; and the 

 minute it is out of the syrup other bees will 

 proceed to lick it off as they did that Dutch- 

 man's wife, referred to on another page. 



Just try the feeder and be convinced your- 

 self. But suppose bees did get drowned ; it 

 would be possible to put in a small float. A 

 strip of wood % inch thick and % wide and 6 

 or 7 long could be used on each side of the cen- 

 tral partition. — Ed.] 



ARE BEES influenced BY HABIT? 



Are bees influenced by habit in regard to 

 their habitations? I find that swarms from 

 bee-gums do not seem to take kindly to im- 

 proved hives, and have had a case of a trans- 

 ferred colony with brood and honey to swarm 

 two days in succession at mid-day, going back 

 of their own accord at about 3 o'clock. I hive 

 new swarms on full sheets of foundation, and 

 have to confine them 48 hours, but still have 

 had them depart for the woods. 



ROBT. L. LUACES. 



Puerto Principe, Cuba. 



[It is possible that bees do object a little to 

 the smell of fresh pine and paint of a new hive; 

 but really I believe that the hive has nothing 

 to do with their determination to swarm. A 

 swarm once in a while gets crazy. I have 

 hived such two or three times the same day. 

 The only thing to do is to catch the queen and 

 cage her. The bees may come out but will 

 come back in a short time if they do not hap- 

 pen to unite with some other swarm in the air. 

 It is not good policy, ordinarily, to hive a 

 swarm in an empty hive on emptv frames. 

 For the first 24 hours the bees should have not 

 only foundation but a frame of old comb or 

 unsealed larvce with honey in it ; then, if they 

 act "cantankerous," shut them in the hive 

 over night until they get over their frenzy or 

 misbehavior. 



Referring more directly to your question, I 

 believe such crazy swarms would behave about 



as badly with an old straw skep as they would 

 with a newly painted hive. Their insane de- 

 sire to swarm out would probably be satisfied 

 for the time being only by a good long flight 

 to the woods ; but by shutting such bees up in 

 a hive as you explain, being sure they have 

 plenty of ventilation, they will begin to quiet 

 down ; but when a swarm comes out for the 

 second time, I spray them with a spray-pump, 

 either in the air or after they have clustered. 

 A good artificial rain among the bees will in- 

 duce them to cluster ; and, when once cluster- 

 ed, fasten them in the hive and wet them 

 down. — Ed.] 



THE dovetailed hive. 



3fr. Editor : — The Dovetailed hive has now 

 become the standard of excellence and the 

 pride of many or nearly all bee-keepers — I 

 mean the AD5 or hive-body from super down ; 

 but when the super is put on, that pride is 

 wounded by a small defect that gives much 

 trouble. That little flat tin that supports the 

 section -holders is too frail. It gives down, 

 and the section-holders get stuck fast to top- 

 bars of the brood-frames ; and when the super 

 is pried up, and the brood-frames with it, the 

 bees get mad, and possibly the bee-keeper and 

 the A. I. R. Co. get a blessing. We are now 

 putting lugs on the end blocks of all our sec- 

 tion-holders at top, and hang them in the rab- 

 bet, and discard the tin ; the thick end-blocks 

 are best, as they fill the super, and nail up 

 stronger. The top-bar of the shallow extract- 

 ing-frame is also too frail, as it sags down and 

 gets .stuck fast ; and the comb gets broken, 

 and honey runs when the super is pried up. 

 Now these are z'ery small defects ; but when 

 remedied the hive will be o-';- pride with the 

 super also on. \V B. Ranson. 



New River, Va., Dec. 18. 



[The same complaint has been entered be- 

 fore ; and in view of that we have made the 

 strips of tin heavier, so that we do not believe 

 there will be any trouble in the future. — Ed.] 



THE division-board feeder. 



How and where do the bees take the foun- 

 dation from the Doolittle division feeder? It 

 is not plain to my mind. If the bees go in at 

 the top, it seems to me the feeder would soon 

 bef ull of dead bees. Beginner. 



Lincoln, 111., Dec. 12. 



[The bees get the feed by crawling in at the 

 space between the top-bar and the top edge of 

 the sides of the feeder. No danger about dead 

 bees. — Ed ] 



PAINTING HIVES WHILE BEES ARE IN THEM. 



Will it injure or kill bees to paint the hives 

 after the bees are in them ? What kind of paint 

 is best to use? L. O. Bullock. 



San Antonio, Tex., Dec. 11. 



[We make it a regular practice to paint our 

 hives once every two years when the bees are 

 in them, and we never noticed any bad results 

 — how could there be? When the alighting- 

 board is painted it may be necessary to protect 

 it from the bees until it dries, by means of 

 another thin board laid over it. — Ed.] 



