1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



703 



20 feet from the hive, and settled on an old 

 burnt stump. Now, you may laugh as 

 much as I did. I commenced to gather 

 them in handfuls. and put them on the 

 hive, and most of them would fly right 

 back. Oh, no! swarming bees don't sting. 

 They sailed into me wherever my pants 

 were tight — on my shoulders, face, wrists — 

 and I fled to the house for coat, veil, and 

 smoker. Stings don't bother me two min- 

 utes. Back I went, rigged the hive against 

 the stump, and packed them in by hand- 

 fuls. The seat of my pants was tight, and 

 I felt as if I were sitting on a cactus-bed. 

 All at once they started on a dog trot into 

 the hive, and I left them there till night, 

 and to-daj^ they are fine, and I don't know 

 where they stung me. They have all stay- 

 ed put. 



7. I would cut the queen's wings, but I 

 am waiting for some old bee-man to come 

 along and show me how to find her. My 

 old eyes are not ver3' good without a veil, 

 and it bothers me to find the queens. 



8. What do you think of " buftalo chips " 

 for a smoker? I find them as good for bees 

 as for mosquitoes. James Fullerton. 



Red Lodge, Mont., June 18. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



1. No longer than to give it time to settle 

 in a somewhat compact cluster. Otherwise 

 there is danger that scouts may entice it to 

 some selected place. Many times, however, 

 a swarm will hang for hours. 



2. Take a hive containing, if possible, 

 some drawn-out combs, and, if convenient, 

 a frame of brood of all stages, with cover 

 only partly on, and without bottom- board; 

 set or hold it close over the bees, and let 

 them run up into the hive. Or, set the hive, 

 with bottom board on the ground close to 

 the cluster, letting the bees run in at tl e 

 entrance, encouraging this by lifting a few 

 of the bees and p acingthem directly at the 

 entrance. Cut off the small limbs, and 

 place them (bees and all) at the entrance. 



3. Set the hive with its entrance touching 

 the cluster, if necessary putting under the 

 hive something to make it high enough; 

 then keep dipping a few of the bees from 

 the cluster with a dipper or a big spoon, or 

 even a bit of board, and place them at the 

 entrance until the bees set up a line of 

 march for the hive, and then the bees will 

 do the rest. 



4. Bees, especially weak colonies, have 

 the bad habit of sometimes deserting their 

 hives in spring and entering others, and I 

 don't know either the cause or the cure. 



5. Very likely I should have hived them 

 much as you did, as indicated in answer 2. 

 The bees that deserted may have gone 

 back to the mother colony; or they may 

 have swarmed out and gone oft" with the 

 queen, the field bees that were out at the 

 time returning and remaining. 



6. However sweet-tempered swarming bees 

 may be, one feels better to be protected. 

 With veil pinned tight down, close wrist- 

 bands, and trousers in stccking-legs, one is 



safe ag-ainst stings except on the hands, 

 and I'd rather take the few stings I get on 

 the hands than to be bothered with gloves. 



7. Now look here; don't you wait for any 

 "old bee-man," but go right to work look- 

 ing for queens, and you'll find it easier 

 than you think. Put on your specs; and 

 with a black veil, and so seated that the 

 veil in front of your eyes is in shadow, j'ou 

 will not have the least trouble in seeing 

 well enough to find a queen. 



8. There are other things you might like 

 better than "buftalo chips," but smoker 

 fuel is largely a matter of convenience; and 

 the thing that's most plentiful, and easiest 

 to get, is generally the one to prefer. Just 

 now a chip- yard is the handiest for me. 



Maiengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



THE THICK TOPS OF HOFFMAN FRAMES IN 

 CUBA; A REPLY TO DR. MILLER. 



In Straws, June 1, Dr. Miller disagrees 

 with me on one point about the Hoffman 

 frame. That is, he states that they do not 

 place too much wood between the brood and 

 the sections, and gives as proof in his disa- 

 greement that " Bits of dark wax are taken 

 from the brood nest to assist in capping the 

 section" — a valuable observation that 

 would outweigh some of the objections to 

 the Hoffman frame in a locality where the 

 honey- flow comes during warm weather. 



But for Cuba with our honej'-flow in cool 

 or cold weather, those broad thick top- 

 boards of the Hoftman seem to suggest to the 

 bees the idea of a poorly made cover, and 

 they in many cases the past winter, which 

 was a very severe one, proceeded to seal up 

 solid between the thick top bars, entirely 

 isolating themselves from the supers con- 

 taining bait-sections and full sheets of foun- 

 dation, while colonies of apparently the 

 same strength in the same yard, which 

 were on Simplicity frames, Itfcthe top-bars 

 comparatively free of wax, and proceeded 

 to enter sections. 



In the spring, however, after the weather 

 became warm I occasionally found a sec- 

 tion or two of drone brood in supers above 

 Simplicity frames where starters were 

 used, and all combs belosv containing drone 

 comb were removed to hives worked for ex- 

 tracted, with excluding zinc between to keep 

 queens down, and straight all- worker 

 combs put in their places, this being done 

 to discourage swarming. These occasional 

 sections of clean white drone brood are of 

 no apparent disadvantage, for the bees fill 

 and cap the sections of honey quicker in 

 such supers above Simplicity frames. The 

 drone comb is cut from such sections, and 

 starters are again put in, which is done ^s 

 soon as the super is filled and removed; f . r 

 leaving supers of honey on the hives iu 

 spring is not advisable, as it encourages 

 swarming, and the honey becomes travel- 

 stained. A super of foundation is prefer .- 

 ble if placed on top of the super which was 

 put on a few days previous to removing- tie 

 full one. 



