1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



25 



Heads of Grain 



front Different Fields 



What Makes the Hives so Damp Inside? the Rel- 

 ative Values of the Different Packings. 



I have eight colonies of bees, all in good condition 

 — plenty of bees and good clear honey. They are in 

 eight and ten frame hives. I have had only two 

 years' experience in the business, and am troubled 

 about their sweating so much, especially the single- 

 walled eight-frame hives. The two chaff hives do 

 not sweat much. They all face southeast: are In a 

 bee-shed open in front with the back to the north- 

 west, and straw between the hives, and the top or 

 super packed with straw. Early last fall I cut lino- 

 leum the size of the top of the brood-chamber, and 

 under this I used strips to provide a bee-space on 

 top of the frames. Kight under this linoleum is 

 where the sweat starts, and runs down and out at 

 the entrance. Of course the bees get damp, and 

 freeze. The opening to the entrance is ^s x 9 for the 

 eight-fnime, >'8xll for the ten-frame, and ?8x8for 

 the chaflf hives, which are also ten-frame. Would 

 you advise cutting a small hole in the top of the 

 linoleum, or take out the block in front and give 

 them the full j8-inch entrance? 



Last winter I lost an Italian queen from the A. I. 

 Root Co. because the hive was so damp. It was so 

 wet it burst, and the paint came of! the sides. 



"Washington, Pa., Xov. 29. J. C. McXeely. 



[Common straw, unless a great deal of it is used, 

 is hardly dense enough for packing. You had bet- 

 ter use planer-shavings, leaves well packed, or 

 wheat chaflf if you can get it— a packing that is bet- 

 ter than all of them. The trouble is, the sides and 

 tops of your hives are too cold froni insufficient 

 packing. Then, moreover, linoleum is not as good 

 as a plain board laid on top. The surface of the lin- 

 oleum is too cold. On a cold morning, with your 

 bare feet step on a piece of linoleum and then on a 

 thin board and note the difference. Wood is a 

 much better non-conductor of heat and cold. 



Your entrances appear to be large enough in size, 

 but possibly for your locality it might be wise to 

 make them larger. Before we would do that, how- 

 ever, we would try the absorbing-cushion plan, be- 

 cause there is a possibility, and even probability, 

 that your locality is so damp that absorbents pro- 

 viding for upward ventilation would be better than 

 a tight sealed cover; but if you use absorbents you 

 will need to have a good deal more packing materi- 

 al than you have provided. It should be of a loose 

 porous nature, preferably chaff: but if this material 

 can not be secured a large quantity of dry forest 

 leaves may be substituted. Planer-shavings do very 

 well, but are not quite the equal of chaff. W hen you 

 use absorbing cushions you will need to have them 

 not le.ss than eight inches thick. Then be sure to 

 provide an air-space over the packing and under the 

 cover, so that the moisture as it passes through the 

 cushion can escape. 



Now, we wish to suggest this: That you try a part 

 of the bees with sealed cover and eisht inches of 

 packing material on top. and the other part with 

 absorbing cushions. \\'hen you use the latter you 

 will need to put a Hill device or some sort of stay to 

 hold the cushion up off the frames. 



The very fact that your chaff hives are drier goes 

 to show that the single-walled hives are not suffi- 

 ciently protected. Uy increasing the amount of 

 protection for all the hives you will reduce mate- 

 rially the amount of condensation; but in any case 

 remove the linoleum, using boards instead. We 

 shall be pleased to have you report the result of 

 your experiments next spring.— Ed.] 



Lack of Ventilation; Another Instance of the Fol- 

 ly of Shutting the Bees in the Hive with 

 Wire Cloth when Placed in the Cellar. 



I am In trouble, and do not know how I am going 

 to get out of it. My bees are kept In an outyard, 

 and In moving them to the cellar I was obliged to 

 screen them in. I am now going to tell you how I 

 proceeded with the screening and moving. I put 

 the hives on a bottom-board 2 in. deep, setting them 



even with the front end of the bottom-board, and 

 over this open space of 2 x 14K in. I nailed No. 12 

 wire cloth. The space at the back end of the bot- 

 tom-board I closed except a space of about an inch 

 wide and five inches long, over which I also nailed 

 wire cloth. They were then placed in the cellar 

 and left as I have described. The colonies are 

 strong in bees, and have an abundance of clean 

 sealed stores. When first put In they settled down, 

 and I thought they would be all right; but at this 

 writing. Nov. 28, they are perfectly crazy. I should 

 have said I left the cover on. Is it possible to make 

 any change that will quiet them? The cellar Is 

 clean and the air is pure, with temperature at 45. 



El Roy, Wis. Chas. Sheldon. 



[We would advise you by all means to remove 

 the wire-cloth screens; at any rate, fix It so that the 

 bees can get out of the hives. They might boil out 

 over the fronts of the hives, but they would soon go 

 back. In spite of what you say, we think there is a 

 lack of ventilation. Before you remove the wire 

 screens open the cellar door wide at night, allowing 

 the cellar to become cold. This will force the bees 

 back in the hives; then quietly remove the screens. 

 If you will give the bees Infusions of fresh air con- 

 stantly, from some sort of ventilator, they will be- 

 come more quiet. The best thing you can do now, 

 probably. Is to open the cellar-door at night and 

 close It by day: but do not open the cellar if the 

 bees are quiet. During severely cold weather It 

 will probably not be necessary to open the cellar. 



If you provide ventilation we think you will find 

 that your troubles will disappear. When bees are 

 shut in with wire cloth It is apt to make them very 

 uneasy. In their efforts to escane they stir up the 

 whole colony. Under such conditions the only 

 thing to do is to reduce the temperature of the cel- 

 lar nearly to freezing, and then quietly remove the 

 screens as before explained. — Ed.] 



Grafting and Cell-building; Staple-spaced v. Met- 

 al-spaced Hoffman Frames. 



I am anxious to raise queens for my own use, and 

 did so the past season, requeening 75 colonies, some 

 of which were black stock, all with pure Italians of 

 Jones' stock. This, of course, was accomplished by 

 removing the queens and causing the bees to build 

 cells which were weeded out when near hatching, 

 leaving the best one for the hive, provided it were 

 Italian. The blacks had all cells removed: and 

 when they well realized their plight a nice plump 

 Italian cell was grafted to the comb, and may be 

 they did not look after it, regardless of the fact that 

 their color was to go on for ever. 1 am desirous of 

 rearing queens next season in nuclei by the use of 

 queen-cups so as to hJive the queens mated and 

 laying before introducing to the colonies made 

 queenless; and any informtion as to the grafting of 

 eggs or larva' into these cups would be gladly re- 

 ceived. I presume one strong colony will nourish 

 the whole set of cells up to within a few days of 

 hatching, when they have to be separated and giv- 

 en to each nucleus. 



Do the good qualities of the staple-spaced frames 

 overcome the bad ones — that is, in the way of 

 swinging in the hive, etc.? 



ir. Harley .Selwyn, 

 Director of Experimental Farms, Ottawa, Can. 



[For Information on grafting cells you are refer- 

 red to our ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture under 

 the head of "Queen-rearing."' One strong colony 

 will furnish you all the ceils you require if you do 

 not expect more than 10 or 12 cells for every 10 days. 

 While It Is possible to get as many as 55 or 60 cells 

 from a single colony during that same period, you 

 will get stronger and more vigorous stock by giving 

 the bees only about a dozen cups to feed and take 

 care of. In your case, at least, we would advise you 

 to make the colony queenles.s, and then feed a little 

 every day If no honey is coming in, say from a half 

 to a full pint of syrup. You can not get good re- 

 sults unless the colony is put in a highly prosper- 

 ous condition. Until you have had more experi- 

 ence we would not advise you to adopt the twin or 

 baby nuclei. Better use nothing smaller than the 

 two-frame Langstroth nucleus. After you have had 

 a little more experience you can get down to the 

 smaller boxes. 



The staple-spaced frames are not nearly so satis- 

 factory as the Hoffman metal-spaced frames. The 

 staples space only the top-bars and not the end- 

 bars, while the Hoffman metal spacers hold the 

 frames square and true.— Ed.] 



