600 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



INGS, setting forth the advantag-es of " seal- 

 ed covers," " wide frame tops, " and advo- 

 cating the adoption of what 1 there called a 

 "perforated separator;" but the article, 

 like some others, was never published. In 

 that article I predicted that the 4'4 square 

 section and the solid separators would not 

 hold out to be "standard" always; that 

 they both had to go. The great demand 

 that has sprung up for the 4X5 section and 

 fence separator has verified that prediction. 

 I again predict that, ere long, the 4V X5X/S 

 section will come into general use. I wish 

 that such was the case now, as I wish to 

 use it in my hive. 



In the article above referred to I describ- 

 ed how I thought the separator could be 

 made, which was of tin, perforated like 

 queen excluding zinc, but have the perfora- 

 tions somewhat larger than those for 

 drones, ends cleated where tiie sections 

 came in contact with the separator, and use 

 plain no-beeway sections. I saw that a 

 vast amount of lumber was yearly wasted 

 in the beeways cut into the sections every 

 year, and insisted that the cleats on the 

 separators should be made to carry per- 

 manently the beeways each and every year, 

 save the great loss of good lumber, and rid 

 ourselves of those objectionable corners. 

 This f alure is now carried out in the fence 

 separators. I have never seen a Hyde- 

 Scholl separator; but from the description 

 given of it, it seems to embody the identical 

 principles of the one I user, the adoption of 

 which I advocated in the aiticle above re- 

 ferred to. The fence separator carries out 

 some of those features. I am now figuring on 

 a separator by which I hope touse 36 sections 

 in my super. During the fifteen years my 

 hive was undergoing experiment I tried 

 nearly every theor}' and device I ever saw 

 suggested. 



I made a device for raising several queens 

 in one hive, and, notwithstanding the fact 

 that I gave up the use cf the Simplicity 

 hive some ten years ago, I still have parts 

 of all these " inventions " scattered around 

 yet, which I can produce to prove, if nec- 

 essary, that I have not been behind the pro- 

 cession in testing the various styles of 

 hives, frames, etc., and in bringing to the 

 front new invettions. 



In Majs 1891, I commenced a series of ar- 

 ticles in a new publication. The Bee World, 

 in which I referred indirectly to a few 

 writers in hopes of drawing them into an 

 argument in favor their pet "standard" 

 theories; but in this I again failed. It 

 seemed to me that some of our bee-keepers 

 were so deep-seated in their prejudices, and 

 so shortsighted, that they thought a new 

 hive or other appliance, even though better 

 than what we were then using, could never 

 become standard. 



Tophet, W. v., Feb. 20. 



[So, friend Massie, you find that sepa- 

 rators with free communications back and 

 forth give better results than those that are 

 solid, confining the bees to small compart- 



ments in their comb-building. Your expe- 

 rience has been that of hundreds of others 

 who have used fences in comparison with 

 solid separators. 



The 4 J4^ X 5 section is another change in 

 size, and it would, perhaps, be very diffi- 

 cult to get it introduced. It was hard 

 enough to start the 4x5; and the general 

 public wants something that can be sold at 

 retail for 15 cents rather than 20. 



We did not know that we had rejected 

 any of the communications referred to. If 

 we did th y probably came at a time when 

 we were overcrowded with copy. At such 

 times, unfortunately, we are not able al- 

 ways to use the best or most important that 

 comes to us. Why this should be so, no 

 one, perhaps, but a publisher can fully ap- 

 preciate. — Ed.] 



FIRST SWARMS. 



How to Hive Them in the Parent Hive and Make 

 Them Stay; When to Practice Shook Swarm- 

 ing; Some Seasonable Kinks. 



BY J. E. HAND. 



Ever}' honey- producer knows how annoy- 

 ing it is to have a swarm issue and lea.ve a 

 lot of parti}' filled sections on the parent 

 hive, and near the close of the honey har- 

 vest. Perhaps the supers from the old hive 

 would not fit the new hive. I well remem- 

 ber, about fifteen years ago, this was ex- 

 actly the fix I was in, and I knew that, if I 

 could hive back those swarms and make 

 them stay a week, those sections would be 

 filled, and it would then be so near the 

 cose of the harvest that the bees would 

 ha\c no further desire to swarm; but how 

 to m. l^e them stay, that was the rub. 

 Right at this time 1 ran across an article 

 in one of the old bee- journals which I was 

 reading, as I was Ij'iug under the shade of 

 the trees one hot day in July, watching for 

 these same swarms. I believe it was from 

 the pen of the venerable Chas. Dadant. It 

 ran thus: To hive back swarms and make 

 them stay for a week to ten days, and do 

 work equal to any new swarm without cut- 

 ting out any queen-cells, simply hive the 

 new swarm beside the parent hive, and, 

 after 48 hours, shake all the bees of the 

 new swarm out of their hive in front of the 

 parent hive, and let them run in. The de- 

 sire for swarming is now satisfied, and the 

 queen-cells will be destroyed. I then tried 

 this plan on all swarms that came out after 

 that during the rest of that season, and ev- 

 ery swarm so treated worked with a vim 

 equaled by only a new swarm, and none of 

 them swarmed out again. This is one of 

 the old kinks that is worth keeping in 

 sight. I shall try it again the coming sea- 

 son. 



I notice on page 119 Mr. Doolittle advises 

 making "shook" swarms a week or ten 

 pays before the honey harvest. Now, I 

 know from sad experience that this is very 

 dangerous advice; and as swarming time 



