550 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



til the white arsenic has dried ou the blos- 

 soms? This is the center of ihe Wellhouse 

 apple district, and everybody sprays his 

 trees. Arthur E. Moorhead. 



Leavenworth, Kan., April 23. 



[We have had uniformly favorable reports 

 of good wintering' in Daczenbaker hives 

 outdoors. We attribute this to the closed- 

 end frames, which are warmer. 



If you have no law in 3'our vicinity against 

 spraying trees while in bloom, it maj' be 

 advisable, possiblj% to close up the en- 

 trances while the trees are being sprayed; 

 but it will not be advisable to keep them 

 closed more than two days, probably. Pos- 

 sibly you can make arrangements with 

 your neighbors to spray all at one time, ou 

 one or two days, if you can not induce them 

 to spray before and after blooming. I send 

 you literature which will give you some 

 solid facts against spraying while in 

 bloom; and if your neighbors, the fruit- 

 growers, are reasonable and fair men they 

 would be willing to give these statements 

 ])roper consideration. We shall be glad to 

 furnish any of our readers facts about 

 spraying. — Ed.] 



VIRGINS HATCHING IN WIRE CAGES; HOW TO 

 KKEP THEM FROM STARVING. 



Will you please tell me how you manage 

 to have your virgins hatch in the wire cages 

 used by you, and have the bees feed them 

 until you use them, and not kill them? I 

 have tried several lots this year, and invari- 

 ably the bees have let the virgins die after 

 they hatched. I have tried both queenless 

 colonies and upper stories above the exclu- 

 der. Piease advise me. H. H. Hvde. 



FloresviUe, Tex. 



[This was referred to our apiarist, who is 

 at present attending college. He replies:] 



Perhaps if I thoroughly understood the 

 conditions under which Mr. Hyde is work- 

 ing, I should be sooner able to ascertain the 

 cause of his failure along the line he indi- 

 cates. The statement of a few fundamental 

 details, however, may reveal the cause of 

 his trouble, and be helpful to o'lhers as well. 



Whether the colonies used for incubating 

 the cells are queen-right or queenless, they 

 must be strong, and the cells should be 

 placed in a populous part of these. As ex- 

 plained in " Modern Queen-rearing, " where 

 virgins are to be he:d over for a longer pe- 

 riod, queenless colonies give better results. 

 However, I have been completely success- 

 ful by leaving them in the middle of any 

 normal colony. 



On page 27 of "Modern Oueen-rearing" 

 an important point is mentioned; viz., that 

 of keeping the cages supplied with fresh 

 candy. There are times when, for some 

 reason or other, even queenless bees do not 

 feed the caged virgins sufficiently. Well, 

 in these circumstances a large percentage 

 die. Now, when ripe cells are to be caged, 

 the bee keeper should ovei haul the nursery- 

 cages and see that they are supplied with 



good soft candy. (The peculiar couatruc- 

 tion of the Titoff cage renders this very 

 easy.) Old hard candy is little better than 

 none at all. I should not be surprised if 

 Mr. Hyde's trouble is in this direction. 



Again, queen-cells should be removed soon 

 after the virgins hatch. They have an un- 

 pleasant habit of crawling again into them 

 and endeavoring to eat their way out at the 

 base of the cell — a rather difficult job, by 

 the wa}-, when the cell is farmed in a hard 

 wood block Often I have examined cells 

 which I thought were defective, only to find 

 the wrong end of a virgin queen turned in 

 the direction of the open apex, and the top 

 end nearly tunneled out. Let me say here 

 that this is a comparatively rare occurrence 

 in the Titofif cage. Still it may happen 

 even in this, and the best way is to rtmove 

 the cells. 



Another point that might be mentioned, 

 though indeed one that ought to be so obvi- 

 ous as hardly to need mentioning, is that 

 the tin slide must cover the candy-hole when 

 the cages are used as nurseries. Neglect 

 this and is it not plain that the bees will 

 soon eat away the candy, and be in posses- 

 sion of them? And then the virgins or cells 

 — where will they be? 



Geo. W. Phillips. 



Denison University, O. 



A HANDY device FOR NAILING UP HIVES, 

 SUPERS. ETC. 



Having seme 70 chaff hives and as many 

 single wall hive-bodies, as well as 7.^ comb- 

 honey supers to nail up this winter, and as 

 they must all be square, I did not like the 

 idea of using a common square to gauge all 

 this work. I made a combined square and 

 work-table (see cu) which I believe has 

 saved me several days' time this winter al- 

 readj'. I find it almost impossible to nail 

 the hand-holds firmly on to the chaff hives 



after the hives are nailed up, on account of 

 the lumber being so ihin, so I nail the cleats 

 on the end boards, first placing a piece of 

 thin lumber about 2 by 5 or 6 inches on the 

 under side. These strips can be made of 

 crating material. I then drive three \%- 

 inch and two 1'4-inch nails through the 

 hand hole into this strip of wood. The ob- 

 ject of this strip of wood is to stiffen the 

 hold. The square referred to above is 

 made of a two-inch plank with an inch 



