1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



983 



They would feed granulated-sugar syrup, 

 which would give a white honey rather than 

 an amber. There is a great deal of poor 

 comb honey on the market — that is, amber 

 and dark; and some of it, we are sorry to 

 say, is sold for white clover. This is one of 

 the things that help to keep these canards 

 going. — Ed.] 



A CHAFF-HIVE APIARY. 



Broadway apiary is owned by me, and is 

 run for extracted honey by my wife and my- 

 self. It consists of 2oU hives, mostly two- 

 story Langstroth frames, using excluder and 

 a set of honey-comb kept for the honey every 

 season exclusively. I never keep queens over 

 two years old. They are all clipped, and a 

 record kept. We control increase by putting 

 back as far as possible. My wife was in- 

 duced to come out and help me in the api- 

 ary, partly for want of health and partly for 

 her help; and the outdoor exercise has built 

 her up so that she outweighs her husband at 

 present. We have mastered the winter 

 problem, and I may some time give our ex- 

 perience along this line. 



C. W. Barnum. 



Kincardine, Ont., Aug. 27. 



PLURALITY OF LAYING OR FERTILE WORK- 

 ERS IN A HIVE AT A TIME. 



In Gleanings of January 1, 1904, I came 

 across the following: "If anyone else has 

 seen a plurality of fertile workers in the 

 act of laying, I wish he would hold up his 

 hand." Well, right here I stop and hold 

 up both. I had two hives that went wrong; 

 and on looking for the cause I found traces 

 of laying workers; after a while I caught 

 them in the act, killing as many as 20 at a 

 search, and on examination I found in every 

 case an egg ready for laying. In one hive 

 I took as many as 27 eggs from one cell, and 

 in the other hive as many as 34; what comb 

 they did have was covered with cells full of 

 eggs, many of them having eggs stuck on 

 the sides and top, and, what is more, I have 

 taken as many as 5 larv£e out of one cell. 

 Some of the eggs hatched out into fine 

 drones. I have fixed one hive all right, hav- 

 ing got a new queen reared, but am having a 

 job with the other, which has reared an un- 

 fertile queen out of 13 fine queen-cells. 

 What remedy is there? Geordy. 



Shanghai, China, June 24. 



hiving a swarm on THE OLD STAND; WAS 

 IT A FAILURE? 



I made an error at swarming-time this 

 year which will probably result in the loss 

 of a fine colony; and, while it is likely that 

 many have had the same experience, there 

 may be some whom my mistake would bene- 

 fit. 



The most up-to-date bee-keepers here hive 

 their swarms on foundation on the old stand, 

 and set the unfinished super or supers on the 

 new swarm at once. This I have done for 

 two years, and it has always worked nicely, 

 as the bees would finish the sections quickly. 



go to work in the brood-nest, and, if the 

 flow continued, become a fine colony in a 

 few weeks. This year I hived a swarm as 

 above, and set over two half-filled supers. 

 The queen went "up-stairs" immediately 

 and began to lay, and I soon had 56 sections 

 containing a mixture of honey, brood, and 

 pollen. The queen is still in the sections, 

 and there is not a drawn cell on the founda- 

 tion starters below. I will see that they 

 have plenty to winter on, put them in the 

 cellar, and, if they live, will shake them out 

 in the spring and build them up. I see 

 plainly now that the plan of setting the su- 

 pers on the new swarm is all right, only it 

 should not be done until the brood-nest is es- 

 tablished. C. G. Francis. 

 Marion, Ohio, Sept. 20. 



[One swallow doesn't make a summer, 

 neither does one failure show that the plan 

 was necessarily wrong. While, perhaps, it 

 is safer to use full sheets of foundation in 

 the brood-nest instead of starters, yet in the 

 great majority of cases hiving on starters 

 and putting supers on immediately does not 

 force the queen into the sections. As a 

 rule, queens don't like to lay in small shut- 

 up compartments like sections. —Ed.] 



THE 20-LB. stone A NECESSITY TO HOLD 

 DOWN THE COVER. 



That 20-lb. stone is necessary, for we must 

 have something to hold the covers on until 

 the bees get them stuck fast. There may 

 come up a strong wind right after you have 

 had a hive open, and off goes the cover. I 

 have tried it, and I have no cloths under the 

 covers. I use bricks, which are as handy as 

 stones to have on the covers. I can turn 

 them in so many ways to indicate the condi- 

 tion in the hive that I don't know how I 

 could get along without it. It is right be- 

 fore you all the time, and beats the book. 

 When I get to the beeyard all I do is to 

 look at the bricks, and I know then what to 

 do. Daniel Danielsen. 



Brush, Colo. 



[A brick is all right to hold covers on 

 where there are liable to be strong gusts of 

 wind. If it is heavy enough, why have a 20- 

 lb. stone? It is the big back-breaking stones 

 that, it seems to me, must increase the labor 

 of a bee-keeper in the height of the season 

 enormously. — Ed. ] 



DEATH OF ONE OF THE OLD PIONEERS IN 

 BEE-KEEPING. 



1 have learned with deep regret of the fall 

 of another of God's noblemen. Our friend 

 and brother in apiculture, J. A. Golden, of 

 Reinersville, Ohio, died Lord's day, Sept. 

 11, leaving a wife surviving, deserving of 

 and to whom our sympathy is extended. 



Addison, Pa. J. G. Hartzell. 



[Mr. Golden will be remembered as the in- 

 ventor of a section-cleaner, illustrated on p. 

 386, 1898. At this time, much attention was 

 paid to that matter, and J. A. Green refers 



