1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



281 



cutting out queen-cells and a lot of other 

 fussing that the busy honey-producer can 

 not afford. I am pleased to note that Mr. 

 C. speaks a good word for the part of the 

 system that he has tried, and I feel confi- 

 dent that he will be equally pleased with 

 the working of the switching equipment 

 after giving it a trial. 



Birmingham, O., April 4. 



[If our correspondent will turn to page 

 207, and read over the second paragraph of 

 Mr. Crane's article again, we believe he will 

 see he has misread Mr. Crane. While he 

 did use the phrase "early in the season," it 

 is evident he had in mind the very practice 

 Mr. Hand was advocating, for observe Mr. 

 Crane says, "To secure this, he tells us that 

 all colonies not strong enter the supers at 

 the beginning of the harvest"" — italicized 

 words ours. From this it is plain that both 

 men are talking about and advocating the 

 same thing. In this connection it is per- 

 fectly true that there is such a thing as get- 

 ting colonies too strong too early in the sea- 

 son. While this is not usually possible in 

 most northern localities, Mr. Crane is too 

 good a bee-keeper, if we may judge by his 

 crops, to make this mistake. — Ed.] 



A GOOD OUTFIT FOR A BEGINNER. 



BY B. D. TOWNSEND. 



I don't care to extract any honey this year. I 

 want my surplus put iu sections. I would like to 

 have you tell me what size hives to buy, also the 

 kind, and what other supplies I am likely to need. 



Ft. Dodge, Iowa. E. E. Townsend. 



I would recommend the ten-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive, with Hoffman frames. Assum- 

 ing that the five hives your bees are in are 

 good enough for use, so you would not have 

 to replace them, I would buy ten new hives. 

 At first thought this would seem rather too 

 many hives — that there would not be nat- 

 ural swarms enough to fill them the first 

 season. But you must take into considera- 

 tion that you are a beginner, and, as such, 

 you will have a larger per cent of swarming, 

 the first few years, than you will later, when 

 you acquire the "knack" of getting honey 

 instead of swarms. Then, if you have the 

 " stuff " in you that is necessary to make a 

 bee-keeper and that enthusiasm so apparent 

 in a beginner, you will care more about get- 

 ting swarms than honey, for a few years 

 at least. We buy all of our hives in the 

 flat to save freight and expense. The hives 

 and supers are packed five in a crate; and 

 to buy them otherwise, entails additional 

 charges, etc. It is evident that five hives 

 would not be enough to buy for an ordinary 

 season's increase, so the advice to buy ten 

 hives the first season, in your case. 



Were I starting anew, as you are, I would 

 adopt the new deep super, holding a plain 

 section \]iy.m, and I would buy the \y%- 

 inch-wide size, so that an extracting-frame 

 will interchange with any row of sections, 

 as "baits" to entice the bees into the sec- 

 tions. On account of brood and pollen be- 



ing stored above if the extracting-combs are 

 placed in the center of the super, and since 

 we want the bees to begin work in the most 

 neglected portion of the super first, to get 

 best results in fancy-comb-honey produc- 

 tion, I would recommend that an extract- 

 ing-comb be placed at each outside of the 

 super. 



Then you will need sections and founda- 

 tion. Be sure, in ordering your hives, to 

 mention that the brood-frames should be 

 pierced and wire included. We use and rec- 

 ommend, for brood-frames, full sheets of rne- 

 dium-brood foundation. It will take 14 lbs. 

 of brood foundation for your ten hives. 



You will also need 500 plain sections, 

 4XX4M'X1^, and I would buy the better 

 grade known as the " A " or No. 1, We use 

 full sheets of extra-thin foundation in our 

 sections, and it will take 5 lbs. to fill your 

 500 sections. 



Remus, Mich. 



GARDEN BEE-KEEPING IN ENGLAND. 



BY A. H. BOWEN. 



These lines are written from the garden 

 town of England, nestling under the well- 

 known Cotswold Hills, Jinown by reputa- 

 tion to some of your readers, and visited, 

 perhaps, by others. The past two summers 

 have been very disappointing to bee-keep- 

 ers, as the weather has been cold and 

 stormy, with high winds, during the bloom- 

 ing of the principal flowers; and the result- 

 ing crops, though of good quality, have 

 been very small. A good deal of feeding 

 was necessary in the autumn; but I am 

 pleased to say the majority of colonies have 

 come through the winter in fine condition, 

 and, with a favorable season, should give a 

 good account of themselves. 



Bee-keeping is carried on extensively in 

 this district, there being several hundred 

 colonies located at different places on the 

 hills, amid acres of sainfoin and white clo- 

 ver; and with a sybtem of swarm control 

 adapted to the district we get practically no 

 swarming — a decided advantage when api- 

 aries are situated six to ten miles from 

 home. 



When working among bees I find the car- 

 bolic cloth a great help, and superior to 

 smoke in many respects; for as my bees 

 are of the native black race they are easier 

 to control, and less irritated, than when 

 smoke is used. 



It would be interesting, if it were possi- 

 ble, for some of your thousand-colony bee- 

 men to come with me into one of the quaint 

 old-fashioned Cotswold villages and see for 

 themselves the half-dozen skeps of bees 

 standing in the cottage garden, and have a 

 chat with the old skeppist, a picturesque 

 figure who is hard to convince that the 

 modern hive will ever form such an ideal 

 home as his own stout domes of twisted 

 straw. 



Cheltenham, England. 



