288 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



up into the supers. Queen-excluders are 

 not generally used in the production of 

 comb honey, as their use is not found neces- 

 sary, except in some localities with some 

 bees; but they are almost indispensable in 

 the production of extracted honey. While 

 some bee-keepers get along without them, 

 the great majority find them a great con- 

 venience in that the honey is confined to 

 the supers, and the brood to the lower part 

 of the hive. — Ed.] 



A HANDY HIVE-CARRIER. 



I am sending you a hive-carrier. I used 

 it in putting in my own bees, and find it 

 much easier work with the carrier, as I 

 can carry them into the cellar and pile them 

 up without setting them down. It does 

 away with a lot of heavy lifting. With it I 

 can tier up the hives in double rows with 

 backs six to eight inches apart, and four 

 inches apart in the rows. The carrier sent 

 is made for ten-frame bottom-boards, 22 in. 



long, but will pick up boards up to 23'-^ in. 

 just as well. It is the only one I have made, 

 and can be improved; but you will be able 

 to tell whether or not anj- thing as good or 

 better has been gotten up before now. The 

 material cost about SO cts. 

 Oshkosh, Wis. H. E. Greenwood. 



[We have tried this carrier, and find that 

 it bites on to the bottom-board very nicely. 

 The mere act of lifting up on the handles 

 or levers produces a powerful pressure 

 through the toggle joint and second lever 

 on the front of the board. As soon as the 

 handles are let go of, the lifting-device in- 

 stantly releases itself. This tool would be 

 handy in piling hives up in tiers. — Ed.] 



CUTTING BEE-TRERS — A CAUTION. 



A subscriber sends us the following clip- 

 ping from the Tioga, N. Y., Herald: 



when this country was new, a man who found a 

 bee-tree in the woods was allowed to claim it, cut the 

 tree, and take the honey, and bee -trees are generally 

 regarded in that light as free plunder. However, re- 

 cently in a neighboring countv two men who cut a 

 bee-tree and secured 125 lbs. of' honey were arrested 

 by the owner of the property. The case was tried in 

 court. The men were compelled to pay $10 i each for 

 trespass, |5 for cutting the tiee, and $20 for the honey. 



No one should think of cutting a bee-tree, 

 nor any other kind of tree, without first 

 getting the full consent of the owner. Tim- 

 ber and timber land are of far greater 

 value at the present time than when the 

 country was new. — Ed. 



THE FEASIBILITY OF PUTTING A COMB- 

 HONEY SUPER BETWEEN THE BROOD- 

 SECTIONS OF A SECTIONAL BEE- 

 HIVE. 



If I hive a swarm in a brood-chamber 

 composed of two shallow extracting-supers 

 filled with shallow extracting-frames (and 

 starters) and, in three to five days, when 

 some comb is built for the queen to lay in, 

 I lift up the upper one and place a super oi 

 sections on, and put theliftedup part back 

 on this super of sections, thus putting sec- 

 tions in between the two divisions, what 

 will be the result as to obtaining comb hon- 

 ey? 



I do not remember reading of any such 

 experiment. R. A. Whitfield. 



Weathersby, Miss. 



[We have tried the plan described, but 

 have not found it to be very satisfactory. 

 One objection is that pollen and brood are 

 liable to be crowded into the sections; and 

 another one seems to be that the bees do not 

 like to have the brood-apartment separated 

 by a mass of h ney. We tried it on a num- 

 ber of colonies some years ago, but the re- 

 sults were very disappointing in more ways 

 than one. — Ed.] 



WINTERING A LA BARBER WITHOUT VENTI- 

 LATION IN A CELLAR. 



I notice an article by Mr. Ira Barber, on 

 cellar wintering without ventilation I 

 have wintered my bees in the same way 

 Mr. Barber speaks of, for ten years, and 

 have had very good luck. I partitioned ofF 

 a space with paper sheeting to keep out the 

 light. The spring of 1903 1 had 27 colonies 

 in the cellar, and lost two; one was queen- 

 less, and one died by starvation last spring, 

 I put into the cellar 52, and lost one that 

 was (jueenless. Now, if you make Mr. 

 Barber a visit I should like to have you look 

 into my cellar, as I live about four miles 

 from his old yard. J. S. Dean. 



Rensselaer P^alls, N. Y. 



[I shall be glad to call upon you if I can 

 get away. — Ed.] 



BLEACHING HONEY, ETC. 



I should like to inquire if there is any 

 known method of bleaching highly colored 

 honey so that it can be made to look white 

 or nearly so. I should also like to know if 

 one-gallon friction top tin cans are not just 

 as good for extracted honey in the market 

 as 60 lb. cans providing the cost is no more. 



Dexter, Me. A. R. Bodge. 



[Comb honey can be bleached to a consid- 

 erable extent by exposure to sunlight, sub- 

 dued by some white screen in hot weather. 

 If you refer to extracted, I know of no meth- 

 od by which it can be bleached except to 

 mix it with some white honey, and, as a 

 rule, this would be poor business policy. 

 The two honeys sold separately for what 

 they would bring will net the seller more 

 money than the mixed product. Some un- 



