GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



be the best way to handle them? I am 

 afraid I don't know enough about them to 

 make an artificial swarm as I never handled 

 bees before. 



3. I have a hive full of crooked combs that 

 were built in Hoffman frames without start- 

 ers. They are now full of brood, and I want 

 to take them out and get straight combs 

 with full sheets of foundation. How can I 

 manipulate them so as to let the brood all 

 hatch? What is the best way to get the hon- 

 ey out of them? I have no extractor. 



4. When is the earliest time I can start 

 nuclei in this locality? I have one colony 

 now which has capped drone-cells. 



5. Which do you advise — one or two frame 

 nuclei? 



6. If I start a nucleus with one or two 

 frames of bees and brood about the middle 

 of May, is there any possibility of surplus 

 from that colony if it can be helped with 

 brood from another colony? How much help 

 would it need? There is much more I should 

 like to ask, but will try to understand the 

 ABO and X Y Z, and Fifty Years Among 

 the Bees for the rest. I have gotten lots of 

 valuable information from both of those 

 books. Bert T. Wiemeller. 



Indianapolis, Ind. 



Dr. Miller replies: 



1. You will gain decidedly if, with a 

 strong colony, you allow the queen two sto- 

 ries up to the time of putting on supers, and 

 then reduce to one story. I never experi- 

 mented much in letting the two stories con- 

 tinue when supers were given; but from the 

 little I did at it I thought I lost rather than 

 gained. 



2. Yes, you can do as you propose; but if 

 you can get your wife to aid and abet you, 

 or even some child, you can do a better way. 

 When the swarm issues, catch the clipped 

 queen and cage her; thrust the cage into the 

 entrance of the hive, or else close beside it 

 where it will be in the shade, then in the 

 evening or next morning you can operate to 

 your satisfaction without having to hunt for 

 the queen. 



3. Set over the hive an empty hive-body 

 containing a straight comb of brood that 

 you will get from some other colony. Any 

 time after three days, if you find eggs in 

 the upper story you will know that the queen 

 is up, or at least has been up. If jou find 

 the queen on one of the frames, set that 

 frame to one side; lift off the upper story; 

 put a queen-excluder on the hive, return the 

 upper story, and then put back the comb 

 with the queen. If you don 't find the queen 

 up you must continue looking for her other 

 days until you do find her. Three weeks 

 after putting the queen over the excluder, 

 all the worker-brood in the old hive will be 

 hatched out, when you can set the upper 

 hive down on the bottom-board and take 

 away the old hive. You may drum the bees 

 out of the old hive; or if you are careful you 

 can cut out the combs, bees and all, and 

 brush the bees off the combs at the entrance 



of the new hive. It is just possible that the 

 combs are so thoroly built crosswise that 

 you cannot get out any frame. In that case 

 take a hand-saw and cut away any attach- 

 ments of comb to the sides of the hive. Turn 

 the hive upside down and lift it off j;he 

 combs, when you will have the latter at 

 your mercy. Some of the combs of honey 

 may be fit for the table. Melt up the rest; 

 and, when cold, lift off the cake of wax. 



4. You can do so while dandelion is in full 

 play; but unless you have some special rea- 

 son for doing so at so early a date, better 

 wait till white clover begins. 



5. In general the two-frame, and some- 

 times the three-frame, are better. 



6. Yes, not only a possibility, but a good 

 probability, if you give it a frame of brood 

 by May 25, and then two more brood after- 

 ward, giving each of them after an interval 

 of ten days. 



Fooling the Bobbers. 



Last season I discovered a sure cure for 

 robbing; at least the plan did not fail me 

 once during the season. I take two boards 

 four or five feet long, and lay on top of the 

 hive lengthwise, the outer edge of the boards 

 even with the outside edge of the hive. 

 These extend about two feet over the front 

 of the hive. Then I take a piece of old car- 

 pet or anything that will reach around the 

 boards, hive and all. With a short board 



I press the carpet tight against the sides of 

 the hive and put something under the hive 

 if there is any light showing. This forms a 

 dark passageway of about two feet into the 

 entrance of the hive. The robbers won't 

 enter unless they can see light or some way 

 to dodge out. The bees which belong to the 

 hive will pass thru and into the hive. 

 Kansas City, Mo. J. H. Morris. 



Extract Those Partly Filled Sections. 



I know not whether any one else has tried 

 it, but I had my blacksmith make me four 

 clamps in order that I might extract from 

 imperfect sections. I tried to get a clamp 

 suitable for the purpose, but without suc- 

 cess, so I had a blacksmith make me four — 

 one for each basket in the extractor. They 

 are just long enough to slip over the ends of 

 section-holders with four sections in; and 

 when the thumbscrew was turned down there 

 was no trouble in the extractor, except I had 

 to put a screw-end down in the extractor. 



