1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



235 



means necessary to shake out all of the 

 bees, as, often, the first jolt will bring- the 

 queen. But it is by no means essential to 

 find the queen as often as some apiarists do. 



" Shaking out" bees sounds hard, and is 

 hard; but " jouncing- out " is easy and 

 simple. RamlDler's " jouncer " is excellent, 

 but not a necessity. By holding- a case a 

 foot from the ground, and dropping- one end 

 ag-ainst the turf, and instantlj' lifting- that 

 end and dropping- the other, a greater part 

 of the bees will be dislodged. Of course, 

 this would not do with a case of new combs 

 heavy with honey; but these seldom require 

 jouncing-. I have, however, used the bump- 

 ing process safely with cases of honey in 

 sections. 



Vitally associated with all hives is a fac- 

 tor seldom if ever mentioned, and it is 

 doubly important in using sectional hives. 

 It is the strain or race of bees. Queens of 

 some will pay small heed to frame bars or 

 spaces, while others are stopped by the 

 slightest irregularities. It may be taken 

 as an axiom that a hive is relativelj' large 

 or small, not so much by its cubical dimen- 

 sions as by the character of the colony con- 

 tained therein. 



An apiarist in selecting^ a hive needs also 

 to consider the nature of the nectar resources 

 of his locality; i. e., one flow or several, 

 quick or slow. The size of hive which suits 

 Mr. Morrison does not suit Mr. Greiner. 

 Management suited to Mr. M. 's locality 

 has to be modified to fit Mr. G.'s. 



As to drones, I can not see that the rear- 

 ing- of a few is of any material harm to the 

 colony. To be sure, it costs something- in 

 bee energ-y and food; but who can say how 

 much more is lost by trying- to prevent en- 

 tirely all such production? With sectional 

 hives we can reduce the drone comb to a 

 few square inches in one frame of each 

 chamber, where it will remain almost in- 

 definitely. With the movable- comb systems, 

 we some days find several such combs as- 

 sembled in one hive. 



Queen-excluding honey-boards are by no 

 means necessary, though often very con- 

 venient. 



It is a debatable question whether or not 

 more honey can be secured (under any and 

 all conditions) with a sectional hive than 

 with the single-chamber type; but I believe 

 it is beyond dispute that, in sectional hives 

 at least, equal results can be accomplished 

 with much less labor, and that the bees are 

 more completely under the control of the 

 apiarist. 



Remember " sectional hives," "sectional 

 system," "single chamber hives," "sing-le- 

 chamber s} stem." Don't mix the systems 

 any more than you would the hives. 



Providence, R. I., Jan. 12. 



[When Mr. Heddon first introduced his 

 sectional-brood-chamber hive in 1885 he (or 

 possibly Mr. Hutchinson) drew a sharp 

 distinction between shallow hives and sec- 

 tional brood-chambers; but as there were 

 so many depths, and the methods of man- 



agement for either were more or less di- 

 verse, it became almost impossible to carry 

 out the distinction; and, to avoid confusion, 

 the two terms were allowed to pass for one 

 and the same thing-. While, technically, 

 there is a distinction, the public has not 

 recognized it. — Ed.] 



SOME COMMENTS ON LATE ITEMS. 



Home-made Hives; Frames Supported on Nails; 



Modern Queen-rearing; Drone Comb in 



Sbaken Swarms. 



BY E. F. ATWATER. 



Gleanings for Dec. 15 is at hand; and 

 in reading- it I see several points about 

 which I feel tempted to say a word. 



In reg-ard to Dr. Miller's Straw, p. 1040, 

 in localities where lumber is very high in 

 price, and bee-supply factories near, I sup- 

 pose it is true that it would be a losing- ven- 

 ture to make one's own hives. However, 

 in localities where a g-ood quality of lumber 

 may be bought for $20 per 1000, it may pay 

 to manufacture them at home. One of our 

 local planing^-mills has excellent machinery 

 for the purpose — fine- tooth saws and iron- 

 top tables. They have a larg-e amount of 

 short pieces of various lengths and widths, 

 left from other work, and from these my 

 hives are cut at a very substantial saving. 



Doolittle's "conversation," p. 1042, will 

 surely give the novice, in the g-reat majority 

 of locations, expectations which c^n never 

 be realized. While Mr. D. has secured an 

 average net income of $1045 per annum from 

 an average of 75colonies, springcount, for the 

 past 28 years, yet I am safe in saying that, 

 in very many localities, one would need at 

 least five times that number of colonies to 

 secure such an average income. 



"Frames supported on nails," page 1044. 

 Mr. Geo. E. Dudley, of this State, uses 

 such frames, and credits the idea to the late 

 B. Taylor. They are closed-end frames, 

 17)^ X9}s, with a bee-space around the ends 

 the same as the regular L. I have on hand 

 2000 shallow unspaced frames, hanging on 

 nails, for use next season. 



"Honey- plants of Arizona," p. 1046, "a 

 can of honey (60 lbs.) to the ton of hay." 

 If that could be realized in this locality I 

 might expect as large profits as Mr. Doo- 

 little. 



"Modern Queen- rearing, " p. 1049. When 

 I rear queen cells in a divided brood-cham- 

 ber the bees often start to supersede their 

 queen, seeming to think that she is respon- 

 sible for the restricted egg-laying, which 

 results from confining her to two or three 

 frames. Instead of changing the queen 

 from one compartment to another I keep her 

 on one side, and supply frames of hatching 

 brood from other colonies, to the side where 

 the cells are being built. By this plan there 

 are never very many unsealed larvse in the 

 hive at any time, and always an immense 

 force of nurses, eager to build queen-cells 

 and feed larva;. By keeping a best breeder 



