Nov. 15. 1911 



699 



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A Device for Accurately Spacing Loose Hanging 

 Frames. 



The drawing shows a spacer which I invented, 

 and have used for twelve years. It works like a 

 charm for me, and can be made to space any dis- 

 tance. The upper end of the tooth is of a thickness 

 to make the space between the frames, and be- 

 tween the teeth it is of a width to fit over the ex- 

 tracting-frames. The teeth are made wedge fash- 

 ion, so as to have the gather, and the rake-head is 

 made long enough to extend one inch or more 

 over the edge of the super at each end, and you 

 must have two for each workman. Then place 

 your extracting-frames in the body as nearly right 



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as you can guess; then take one of the spacers and 

 insert it in the frames by wiggling it sidewise, and 

 soon it will drop into place, which spaces the 

 frames at that end of the super. Then take the oth- 

 er spacer, and it will drop into the spaces— the first 

 one made. Then hold the second spacer down, and 

 draw or shove it to the other end of the super, and 

 then the ten frames will be spaced exactly right, 

 with no metal spacers to take the edge ofl your 

 knives; and while it takes me a good while to tell 

 it, I assure you it is a speedy way to insert frames 

 in a super. 1 have only one hand, and the device 

 is a great help to me in handling the spacing busi- 

 ness. 



Kearney, Neb. A. J. Snowden. 



[This plan is quite old. It has never proved to be 

 very popular. — Ed.] 



Why were there No Swarms ? Trouble with Moths. 



I have thirty colonies of bees: and, so far as I 

 know, not a swarm issued from a hive during the 

 past summer; and I have heard several .people, 

 who keep a few colonies of bees, say that they had 

 no new swarms. Do you think it was due to the 

 dry weather ? 



The moths were very troublesome the past sea- 

 son. They destroyed two of my colonies. "What is 

 the best way to fight them ? 



What is the best method for preparing to winter 

 bees outdoors? Last winter I put on an empty su- 

 per, and placed oat straw in coffee-sacks, sufflcient 

 to fill the super, and in this way made a cushion. 

 The bees wintered well, although some of the cush- 

 ions collected dampness. The mice got into a few 

 hives and made nests in the straw. 



Tuscola, 111., Oct. 17. J. M. Goodspeed. 



[We presume that the reason your bees have not 

 swarmed is that last season was such a poor one for 

 honey. Swarms issue when colonies are prosper- 

 ous: and since this last season was such a poor 

 one, individual colonies in many instances found 

 it hard to get built up strong. A weak colony very 

 rarely casts a normal swarm. It may be possible 

 in your case that your queens were not prolific, 

 and did not start brood-rearing early enough in the 

 season, or else went at it in a half-hearted way that 

 did not result in booming colonies. 



If you keep Italian bees, and are careful to see 

 that all colonies are strong, the trouble with the 

 moth-worms, wax-moths, etc., will disappear en- 

 tirely. The Italians protect themselves most vig- 

 orously against all such forms of enemies. 



It is better to prevent moths than to destroy 

 them after they get into the hives; but in case 



some of your honey contains moths you had better 

 treat it to the fumes of carbon bisulphide. If you 

 place a little of the bisulphide in a shallow dish it 

 will evaporate; and, the fumes being heavier than 

 air, they will go down. You should, therefore, put 

 your honey in a tight box, or in some place where 

 you can keep the air out, and then put the carbon 

 bisulphide at the top. If your sections are in ship- 

 ping-cases you should remove the follower and sep- 

 arate the rows of sections as much as possible, so 

 that gas will have a chance to penetrate to every 

 part. By piling up the cases criss-cross you can 

 treat or fumigate quite a number at a time. It is 

 better to do the work in a large box in this way in- 

 stead of in a room ; for there is so much space in a 

 I'oom that, unless it should be an extrenaely small 

 one. the gas would not be dense enough to kill 

 all the moths, moth-worms, and eggs, unless you 

 had quite a ciuantity of the liquid around in sever- 

 al shallow dishes. 



Your plan of preparing colonies for winter is all 

 right, and we do not know that it can be improved 

 upon, although you might find it to your advan- 

 tage to put a super-cover underneath that chaff 

 cushion that you prepare. The bees seal this down 

 and then have a passageway across the tops of the 

 frames. The water condenses on this cover and 

 on the walls, runs toward the front and out of the 

 entrance, and the cushion or other packing mate- 

 rial does not get wet.— Ed.] 



The Value of a Drawn Comb. 



Please tell me what value to give a drawn comb. 

 At the beginning of the year I want to give them a 

 value in my inventory. They are worth more than 

 a frame of plain foundation. 



Palo Alto, Cal., Oct. 19. H. J. Stillson. 



[The relatively small amount of wax that these 

 combs contain does not amount to very much, be- 

 ing only from four to five ounces apiece. Their 

 value then as raw material is not very much, for it 

 is seldom, perhaps, that they contain over ten 

 cents' worth of wax. and it would cost something 

 to render such wax. But, of course, the chief value 

 of drawn combs lies in the fact that their use per- 

 mits a much greater amount of honey to be stored. 

 There are certain times of the year when straight 

 drawn combs might be said to be worth almost 

 their weight in gold: but at the same time it would 

 hardly be fair In an inventory to put them down as 

 worth more than 25 cents apiece, probably. 



This is a hard matter to get at. If any of our 

 readers have reason to differ with us on this point 

 we should be glad to hear from them. — Ed.] 



A Metal-roofed Air-spaced Cover. 



I am sending a sketch of a hive-cover that I have 

 been making and using, and I like it well. The 

 end cleats are 2K in. wide in the center, and bevel- 

 ed to 2 inches at the ends, and rabbeted out ^a inch 

 deep to receive the half-inch bottom or super cov- 

 er. The roof is of galvanized iron, with the side 

 edges rolled over A inch around a steel rod that is 

 pulled out after the roll is made, like an eave- 

 trough. This roll makes the edge of the sides rig- 

 id, and will not bend. The roll extends out just 



over the end of the cleat, giving a one-inch air- 

 space at the edges, and larger in the center. This 

 cover is cheap, and can be used open in summer ; 

 and by inserting a couple of inch strips at the sides 

 they can be packed with cut straw, and packed for 

 fall, winter, or spring use. 

 Stanwood, la,, March 30. L. G. Woolison. 



