82 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



mum of convenience to the operator and 

 minimum of disturbance to the rest of the 

 colony in the other supers; and in the total 

 absence of necessity for heavy lifting. 



(2) "Your hive-stands would cost con- 

 siderably more. In northern climates the 

 stakes after they have been used will be 

 moved around in all directions by the frosts 

 or the freezing of the ground. The hives 

 would have a tendency to pull apart." 



Stakes were not used with the hive-stand ; 

 but provision had been made for legs for 

 it, attached to its frame in such a manner 

 that they would fold up against the latter, 

 permitting of sliipment of the light strong 

 hive-stands in the flat in bales at small cost. 

 When the legs of these hive-stands are set 

 on bricks, the hives will not get out of 

 alignment nor pull apart. 



(3) "I doubt very much whether you 

 would be able to get a queen which would 

 be prolific enough to fill not only the four 

 side supers but the brood-nest as well with 

 bees. It is very seldom that we have a 

 colony strong enough for anything of this 

 kind (filling four extra supers with honey). 

 I am afraid you would have all kinds of 

 trouble with it in the North. You are con- 

 templating four extra supers." 



Replying to the last part of this first, if 

 I get a good long season and a black-man- 

 grove flow, I can fill a two-story brood-nest 

 and ten supers placed against its six out- 

 side surfaces; altho I presume that gener- 

 erally the bees will be mostly clustered in 

 the brood-nest and at the points of unfin- 

 ished work. I anticipate no more trouble 

 with the improved hive in the North than in 

 the South. If supers are not lacking, the 

 weather warm, and the colony strong, sim- 

 ply furnish the latter with brood-nest and 

 four supers, and, when these are filled, pro- 

 vide more supers, as described elsewhere. 



If the colony is not strong, nor the 

 weather sufficiently warm, I would place 

 close-fitting division-boa "ds in the supers, 



just outside the combs in which the bees 

 were working, and thus provide them an 

 ideal workshop in and around the brood- 

 nest. If I were short of supers I would 

 tack covers over the sides and ends of the 

 brood-nest and start the colony in that 

 alone. When more room is needed, one side 

 or end could be uncovered, a super placed 

 against it and the two held together on the 

 hive-stand by means of a few nails driven 

 into the latter at edges of the supers, and 

 this plan followed until the five supers were 

 there to be locked together by each other. 



As I have not had experience in the pro- 

 duction of comb honey, I suspect some of 

 the methods would have to be considerably 

 modified for that work. 



Estero, Fla. 



Bees removing dead stag beetle which they have 

 dropped to the hive-stand in front of the bottom- 

 board. Workers can be seen fanning, and drones 

 sunning themselves. Photographed by Frank C. 

 Pellett, Atlantic, Iowa. 



WINTERING BEES IN VIRGINIA 



BY FRANCES W. GRAVELY 



After reading what Dr. Phillips has to 

 say about the wintering of bees, and from 

 the experience I have had along that line, 

 I am under the impression that it will pay 

 the beekeepers of Virginia to experiment to 

 see whether it will pay them to continue to 

 winter their bees in the old way — that is, 

 just leave them to winter if they can. I 

 know bees can lie wintered in Virginia 

 without being protected; but I believe it 



would more than pay the beekeepers to give 

 their bees proper protection in winter. I 

 ally the bees will be mostly clustered in 

 other outdoor protection is the best for this 

 locality; and I am expecting to give the 

 Holtermann case a thoro test next winter. 

 In the fall of 1913 all of my bees were 

 weak from making a heavy increase, and I 

 wintered them in ten-frame hives on six 

 combs with division-boards on each side. 



